Ruben Loftus-Cheek......

[Flying Farrier]

Yes: what the **** are you worrying about?
It's the same recruitment team that scouted and purchased 75% of the squad that saw us finish third and then second in the Championship.
How about giving them a little respect and trust over the summer?.

Yes your probably right.....finding Championship standard players is no different from finding Premier league players is it?......no of course not.....our world renowned scouting system will find a handful of gems that nobody else knows anything about...pay them 5k a week and we'll sail safely towards mid table without breaking sweat.

Meanwhile back on planet earth Bournemouth are signing the likes of Defoe and Begovic while we've signed some geezer called Grob!!!....

 

[Icy Gull]

Yes your probably right.....finding Championship standard players is no different from finding Premier league players is it?......no of course not.....our world renowned scouting system will find a handful of gems that nobody else knows anything about...pay them 5k a week and we'll sail safely towards mid table without breaking sweat.

Meanwhile back on planet earth Bournemouth are signing the likes of Defoe and Begovic while we've signed some geezer called Grob!!!....

Are you a re-incarnation of Mutts Nuts?

 

[whitelion]

£35K a week is chicken feed in the PL - even for a 21 year old.

I know - and what is fundamentally the problem in football.

 

[WonderingSoton]

£35K a week is chicken feed in the PL - even for a 21 year old.

Indeed, inflated income means inflated wages. It;'s the going rate for PL standard players and Brighton will need to be prepared to pay it same as anyone else wishing to compete. At some point the bubble might burst causing an deflation of wages, but that doesn't appear to be on the horizon any time soon.

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

Indeed, inflated income means inflated wages. It;'s the going rate for PL standard players and Brighton will need to be prepared to pay it same as anyone else wishing to compete. At some point the bubble might burst causing an deflation of wages, but that doesn't appear to be on the horizon any time soon.

Sunderland finished bottom of the table and got more money for coming last than Leicester did for winning the PL the previous season - Chelsea got a 50% bounce on the money Leicester got - that's inflation - and that is why £350K a week will become the norm in the PL - and why the likes of Wayne Rooney will head off to China instead of taking a wage of £100K a week to play for Everton.

 

[Springal]

Why on earth would you think we are a bigger catch than Bournemouth ?

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

The way Hughton gets players in is by getting them to buy into a long-term vision of what he wants to build - the problem is that most players will only buy into that if they get a long-term contract on big money.

It is going to be a struggle to bring players in who will improve the team - good enough to keep the team in the PL.

Instead you end up seeing a litany of players who bounce around from team to team and always seem to get relegated every year (the likes of David Nugent comes to mind). You need to look for players that have become squad players at a higher-ranking team or were the backbone of a team that went down (or some of the better teams on the continent - e.g. in Belgium or Holland or Portugal). That gives you the experience you need and you are getting players capable of doing a job. Hughton needs two strikers and that is why I suggested Shane Long - a proven goalscorer, experienced and a team player who will give 100% every game - at £10million he would be a steal in the PL.

Hughton needs four of five players like this to have a chance of keeping Brighton up (as well as some younger players who you hope develop).

He tried it at Norwich - in his first season he brought in -
Stephen Whittaker
Jacob Butterfield
Robert Snodgrass
Michael Turner
Sebastian Bassong
Alexander Tettey
Mark Bunn
Lee Camp
Luciano Becchio

and on loan
Javier Garrido
Harry Kane (who played a couple of games)
Kei Kamara

In 2013-2014 Hughton signed
Rickey Van Wolfswinkel (inspired signing that one - £8.5million)
Garrido permanently
Nathan Redmond
Martin Olsson
Carlo Nash
Leroy Fer
Gary Hooper
Jonas Gutteriez
Joseph Yobo
and Johan Elmander on loan

Hughton had actually started to built a half decent squad (and I think would have kept Norwich up if they hadn't sacked him) - but had a massive problem trying to find someone who can score goals - he tried but ended up with a bunch of donkeys. And that is the problem - there is so much competition for strikers that you have to reach, overpay and hope for the best. If you happen to find one that can score goals in the PL them you hang on for dear life and hope he keeps producing - and you will have to splash the cash in the hope you hit on the right one.

 

[Surf's Up]

Bournemouth are spunking money like its going out of fashion but they must have pretty low operating costs by Premiershit standards and their annual premiershit jackpot is supplemented by russian money so arguably they've got the dosh - but you do just wonder what would happen if someone pulled the plug.

 

[Flying Farrier]

Why on earth would you think we are a bigger catch than Bournemouth ?

I don't really Springal.....just wishful thinking i suppose.....wishing that we would show the same ambition as them even if it meant heaven forbid paying over the odds for a quality player.....wishing we wouldn't be balking at the idea of paying a young player 35k a week.....wishing that we weren't just pitifully hoping that we stumble across a few bargains.

 

[Springal]

I don't really Springal.....just wishful thinking i suppose.....wishing that we would show the same ambition as them even if it meant heaven forbid paying over the odds for a quality player.....wishing we wouldn't be balking at the idea of paying a young player 35k a week.....wishing that we weren't just pitifully hoping that we stumble across a few bargains.

There is showing ambition and then trying to compete with a club that has benefited from 3 seasons in the Premiership unfortunately... stepping stone approach is needed. But you seem very negative already especially as the transfer window hasn't even opened yet?

 

[Medwayseagull]

Yes your probably right.....finding Championship standard players is no different from finding Premier league players is it?......no of course not.....our world renowned scouting system will find a handful of gems that nobody else knows anything about...pay them 5k a week and we'll sail safely towards mid table without breaking sweat.

Meanwhile back on planet earth Bournemouth are signing the likes of Defoe and Begovic while we've signed some geezer called Grob!!!....

For someone with so few posts you are coming across as a bit of a dick. You do realise that you have a number of long-standing dicks on here to compete with ?

 

[Flying Farrier]

So who are we supposed to compete with?.....i don't think the penny has dropped for some of our fans that we are going to have to do exactly the same as Bournemouth and pay way over the odds for players....relying on our scouting network is is just unrealistic.

 

[whitelion]

It seems that is the reality.

However (in the ideal world) if nobody paid over the odds some sanity would be restored to the transfer market.

I know (it's never going to happen sadly).

 

[Springal]

So who are we supposed to compete with?.....i don't think the penny has dropped for some of our fans that we are going to have to do exactly the same as Bournemouth and pay way over the odds for players....relying on our scouting network is is just unrealistic.

How many signings did Bournemouth make in their first season? And who did they 'pay over the odds' for ?

 

[Billy the Fish]

Seems he's the latest player Bournemouth are in for.....shouldn't we be at least trying to beat them to the punch?.....surely we are a bigger attraction than Bournemouth.....i know they have the Eddie Howe factor and you can see why that would appeal to a young player but our infra-structure is just SO much bigger.....doesn't that mean something to these players?.....if not we're fcked.

No.

They're established now and have way more money than us. We need to walk before we run, no way will we be offering massive contracts to players on our first season in the prem.

 

[Marshy]

How many signings did Bournemouth make in their first season? And who did they 'pay over the odds' for ?

And of those players they did spend a lot of money on, how many are actually still in the side ?....hardly any i would suggest.

 

[stevejoneslegend]

And of those players they did spend a lot of money on, how many are actually still in the side ?....hardly any i would suggest.

Absolutely correct... It has been widely debated on our forum, the number of potentially bad signings Eddie made in our first PL transfer window... Realistically, Only 1 (Josh King) has come good so far, and he cost us just £1 million... Eddie bought several youngsters to build our squad (Lewis Cook, Emerson Hyndman etc.) and they seem to be doing pretty well now, however, for immediate impact, we had very little... Our first PL starting XI was the same as our last Championship XI, except 1 player.

This didn't change much throughout the season and we predominantly fielded 8 or 9 of our Lg1/Champ players each week... You could argue that big money signings like Ibe (£15m), Gradel (£7m) and Mousett (Think he was about €7m) have not really done the business in the last couple of seasons, hence us relying on our 'go to' side...

Eddie seems to have learnt and is now looking at players that can come in and more than challenge for the starting XI, which considering we're now entering our 3rd PL season, you'd hope we are going to do... We spunked £5m on Jack Wilshire for 1 season, which IMO was V good business. He was quality, but even Eddie Howe deemed it best to make him bench warm towards the end of the season... Ironically our best patch was without Jack in the side...

You guys will soon realise that transfer fees and wages are but numbers and in the grand scheme of things they really don't matter... It's a hard transition... seeing your club go from £10-£15k a week wages to £30k.. £40k... etc.

We've just landed Defoe for £65k a week plus £6 mill signing on fee... But no transfer fee... So over 3 years he'll cost us £18M... Peanuts really, and tell me where else you'll get an England striker, that can score 15 goals for a sh*te team each year, for that money... If his 15+ goals keep us in the PL each year then his £6m wages will be more than worth it...

...and to finish... Please don't be fooled that your infrastructure is the bee all and end all of things... Yes, it's impressive, and far outdoes our tinpot 11k Dean Court... But, we're entering out 3rd term in the PL and finished an impressive 9th last year... Yes we've had times where we've flirted with relegation spots, but I would say for 75% of our time in the PL, we've held our own, and done more than that on occasion...

As one of your posters said, learn to walk before you run... Im not being patronising, but I don't think you can compare the 2 of us atm... Stay up again this year and we'll be entering a phase were we are becoming an established PL side, with some big players playing for us, and you guys have just come up and are very much an unknown...

All the best for the coming season... and looking forward to another trip to the AMEX

 

[B.W.]

No guarantees but I expect us to surpass Bournemouth in terms of league position and status in a year or two at most...

 

[Flying Farrier]

Whether or not you believe that Bournemouth have bought well or not is irrelevant tbh....... It's their ambition and attitude that we have to match....for instance in the January transfer window in their first PL season they were in direct competition with Norwich for the signature of Benink Afobe.... While Norwich fretted about the money Bournemouth went in slapped 10mill on the table and gave the player what he wanted... Afobe scored goals to keep Bournemouth up... Norwich sunk without trace.

 

[B.W.]

Whether or not you believe that Bournemouth have bought well or not is irrelevant tbh....... It's their ambition and attitude that we have to match....for instance in the January transfer window in their first PL season they were in direct competition with Norwich for the signature of Benink Afobe.... While Norwich fretted about the money Bournemouth went in slapped 10mill on the table and gave the player what he wanted... Afobe scored goals to keep Bournemouth up... Norwich sunk without trace.

You do know what happened to a much bigger south coast club, Portsmouth?