Anyone else glad we didn't piss hugely inflated fees away on Johnny Foreigner mercenaries?

[spence]

With all the scatter shot bids we "appeared" to make to a load of players with some pretty pish poor scoring stats in foreign leagues - I am perversely pleased we didn't land any of them!!

The fees are ridiculous for mediocrity.

Prefer the Albion when we're backs against the wall anyway....

JCLs can whine away.

Our record signing is around 13 million. Nothing inflated for the Premier league. That's the going prices these days. Most of our paid signings were done on the cheap.

No matter how you dress it up it's been a poor window for us and looking very costly despite a massive head start.

 

[neilbard]

That's natural when new players come in, afew goals, a bit of fight, a bit of badge thumping, you'll see that change.

Please not the badge thingy.

 

[BUTTERBALL]

With all the scatter shot bids we "appeared" to make to a load of players with some pretty pish poor scoring stats in foreign leagues - I am perversely pleased we didn't land any of them!!

The fees are ridiculous for mediocrity.

Prefer the Albion when we're backs against the wall anyway....

JCLs can whine away.

Yes, 100% this. As Alan Sugar once said, we don't want to sign any old Carlos Kickaball.

 

[colinz]

With all the scatter shot bids we "appeared" to make to a load of players with some pretty pish poor scoring stats in foreign leagues - I am perversely pleased we didn't land any of them!!

The fees are ridiculous for mediocrity.

Prefer the Albion when we're backs against the wall anyway....

JCLs can whine away.

This

The financial problems the club endured during the 90s was the debt, which had mounted up since the club were last in the top flight.

 

[Baldseagull]

yep. people wanting to not spend seem to forget the substantial income we now have. and top players dont usually want to hang around after relegation (and parachute payments should cover anyway, thats rather the whole point of them).

People who want to spend Tonys money seem to forget that teams that are established in the Prem have more funds, and are a better bet for a top player, who does not want to move every season, than a relegation favourite.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Johnny Foreigner, or Johnny Englander - it matters not - but it would have been better to sign a striker.

 

[goldstone]

One thing i was concerned with, and still am to a degree, is that I don't currently feel like I "know" our team.

I'd find it difficult to define what "know" means in this context, but it sort of encompasses familiarity and a cosiness of feeling that I understood the personalities of most of our players. Now the likes of Ryan, Suttner, Gross, Propper, Izquierdo and Schelotto feel like complete strangers to me.

As a result, I'm currently struggling to feel much warmth towards our team. They don't feel like MY team. I hope that changes. Maybe it won't change, and it's just an aspect of Premier League life and I'll just get used to it.

Agree with you 100% on this. Comes with the territory in the Premier League I guess, but I can see the reasons to support a lower league team where there's more "togetherness". Not sure how much "together" we can expect to see at the Albion this season.

 

[goldstone]

I'm intrigued as to whom the naysayers would have signed. So, who would you have signed, when, and for how much? And no being wise after the event and saying Chris Woods, just before Burnley, and £15m. General consensus was that he had no P/L experience no pace and we could do better.

I'd have gone for Ulloa. He knows the club, has scored goals in the Prem, and the fans love him. All positives in my opinion which would have made it worth a punt when all other options had disappeared.

 

[dingodan]

Please not the badge thingy.

You'd better believe it.

 

[Lush]

Agree with OP to an extent. What if we'd bought a very expensive Elvis Manu?

 

[5ways]

Aren't all new signings mercenaries?

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Janssen would have left in Summer 2018 if we were relegated. So his £2.5m+ per annum payroll cost would have left the books.

I'm not saying he was the answer to all our striking prayers.

Just saying that with £130m annual income, whilst in the PL, the club could afford such figures.

You can't be sure of that, not for a moment. We could have ended up being lumbered with him. What if he picked up a nasty injury?

You can spend the club's money as much as you want. The truth is that you and I do not know the full details, so neither of us should speak with so much confidence.

 

[Rod Marsh]

I really wanted us to get Florin Andone over the line and would have been happy that we spent 20m ish on him. The more I looked at his record, the way he plays and goals he has scored the more I thought he would be a perfect fit. I'm still moody about it. Him, knockers, jose, Brown, March, Gross etc around him would have been something to watch every week.

 

[SockMonster]

I'm over it now! Looking forward to a season long battle to survive which would have been case with or without a new striker imho. Going to be up to a lot of the old guard to secure our safety and we saw last season how far team spirit and determination can get you. A big name striker may have helped or it may have tipped that team spirit. Who knows! A lot of the negativity on here stems from our start to the season but who honestly thought we would get something from Man City at home and Leicester away?! Watford away I think it would be reasonable to hope for a result and we got one. It is the next 6-8 games when we really find out our place in the pecking order i think.

 

[SeagullDubai]

Think we were right to be cautious.....some fingers burnt with Chuba Akpom and James Wilson...imagine if we had bought those two...

 

[The_Viper]

No.

Supported the club since 1976.

Strikers would give the club a chance of staying up, meaning not least that TB would have a chance of starting to get his loan back. Championship football with our huge cost base, even with a couple of years of parachute money, won't allow that.

Sorry, years served mean nothing, that attitude isn't one we like around here. Pick up your JCL card.

 

[GT49er]

Janssen would have left in Summer 2018 if we were relegated. So his £2.5m+ per annum payroll cost would have left the books.

He might be quite happy to stay and count his millions! And if we try to sell, buying clubs will know we're desperate to get his wages off the books, so we'd only get a fraction of our transfer fee back. 'Over a barrel' wouldn't even begin to cut it.

 

[GT49er]

One thing i was concerned with, and still am to a degree, is that I don't currently feel like I "know" our team.

I'd find it difficult to define what "know" means in this context, but it sort of encompasses familiarity and a cosiness of feeling that I understood the personalities of most of our players. Now the likes of Ryan, Suttner, Gross, Propper, Izquierdo and Schelotto feel like complete strangers to me.

As a result, I'm currently struggling to feel much warmth towards our team. They don't feel like MY team. I hope that changes. Maybe it won't change, and it's just an aspect of Premier League life and I'll just get used to it.

Wise words. I had similar feelings months ago when the pundits on here were listing their requirements......you know, like, "Two strikers, a number 10, a better Baldock, an attacking CM (my, oh my - that space behind the striker is looking crowded!), one CM, two wingers, two left backs, etc, etc."
I said at the time I didn't want to replace the whole team - yes three or four new players in to strengthen, but I still wanted to recognise it as my team. That didn't go down at all well with the FIFA Football Manager contingent!

 

[Weststander]

You can't be sure of that, not for a moment. We could have ended up being lumbered with him. What if he picked up a nasty injury?

You can spend the club's money as much as you want. The truth is that you and I do not know the full details, so neither of us should speak with so much confidence.

We do know the details, Janssen turning us down was the sole reason it didn't go ahead:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11741/11015206/tottenhams-vincent-janssen-rejects-move-to-brighton
http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/albion/15508395.Deadline_Day__Albion_miss_out_on_Andone_and_Janssen/

Naylor called it a record shattering deal. So TB did think the frightful risk was worth it.

You or I "spending the club's money" on Janssen, is a pointless comment. We didn't say they should buy Janssen, they chose to.

 

[sir albion]

I made that point this morning as well, signing just anyone for a massive fee, plus massive wages, just wouldn't sit very well with me. Obviously we're going to spend more at this level and players earn more at this level, but the hyper-inflation of this summer's market is like a whole other world to reality. It's ridiculous the amounts of money which have been spent on ordinary players. £35million for Oxlade-Chamberlain? With 12 months left on his contract? Seriously?

Janssen would have cost us something like £20million plus £50-60k per week in wages. That's a crazy financial outlay on a 4 year contract. We would have been committed to paying him over £10.4million over the course of that contract. For a player who has failed in the Premier League so far. This is the type of money you have to payout, we all get that, but if it's not the right deal for the club then we can't be critical that they didn't sign it, and to hell with the consequences.

To be fair the club was always going to bid big but surely knew it was never goner happen so late on...