Summer 2015 transfer window thread

[Machiavelli]

I am astounded that the club has been so professional in every department except in player recruitment over last two seasons. TB is an intelligent business man who has shelled out more money that most of us would struggle to earn in a couple of lifetimes, surely he is not going to make the same mistake again?

Waiting until two weeks into the season to try and pick up some left over bargains is such a flawed policy, I am astounded TB even went there once tbh.

While remaining more optimistic than you, I'm still wavering as to whether we've had four successive poor transfer windows, or just three. The key one is the last one, where we signed one quality player. We obviously needed quality at that point, but more than one. My conundrum will only be answered by what happens this transfer window. If we continue to sign quality players and relatively early, then we're back on the right track, even if our squad ends up a bit thin and occasionally reliant on the DS; if we sign a good number to repair our squad, and the vast majority of this is done late, and of dubious quality, then the last transfer window won't constitute a shift from the previous three poor ones.

 

[Icy Gull]

While remaining more optimistic than you, I'm still wavering as to whether we've had four successive poor transfer windows, or just three. The key one is the last one, where we signed one quality player. We obviously needed quality at that point, but more than one. My conundrum will only be answered by what happens this transfer window. If we continue to sign quality players and relatively early, then we're back on the right track, even if our squad ends up a bit thin and occasionally reliant on the DS; if we sign a good number to repair our squad, and the vast majority of this is done late, and of dubious quality, then the last transfer window won't constitute a shift from the previous three poor ones.

I agree, this is a massive transfer window for TB, we WILL have a good idea of the club's ambition by the end of it I feel

@Chailey Jem....DON'T

 

[The Brighton Buzz]

While remaining more optimistic than you, I'm still wavering as to whether we've had four successive poor transfer windows, or just three. The key one is the last one, where we signed one quality player. We obviously needed quality at that point, but more than one. My conundrum will only be answered by what happens this transfer window. If we continue to sign quality players and relatively early, then we're back on the right track, even if our squad ends up a bit thin and occasionally reliant on the DS; if we sign a good number to repair our squad, and the vast majority of this is done late, and of dubious quality, then the last transfer window won't constitute a shift from the previous three poor ones.

My concern was the quality of our loans last season. Loan Players should be better than what we have got or why sign them. I would rather have seen some DS players in the squad than the likes of Leon Best and Gardner. In fact I would rather have seen a DS player starting instead of Best.

 

[Icy Gull]

And so it begins. Expect a lot of this in the next few months. There will be a lot of players mentioned when they are released by their clubs. The Argus will say they are about to sign and then the following day they sign for someone else. That's the way it was last year and I don't expect that to change. Hope I am wrong and we don't get the "scraps" again.

Not forgetting that "the scraps" made up the most expensive Albion side EVER.

Did we get seen off or can we not afford to stay in this division??

 

[Machiavelli]

My concern was the quality of our loans last season. Loan Players should be better than what we have got or why sign them. I would rather have seen some DS players in the squad than the likes of Leon Best and Gardner. In fact I would rather have seen a DS player starting instead of Best.

Season-long loans have been more successful for us (Bennett and Tex last season, for instance), short-term ones less so. If we had the chance of a young striker from a decent PL club (Akpom, Wilson, Gallagher, for instance), I'd jump at the chance.
Best has created problems for himself, but CH felt he could coax something out of him (which he failed to do). I don't think Gardner was quite as bad for us as the vast majority think, and he did pretty well at Forest. What was more problematic was that his presence hindered our players from playing and developing (Holla and especially Ince).

 

[Machiavelli]

Not forgetting that "the scraps" made up the most expensive Albion side EVER.

Did we get seen off or can we not afford to stay in this division??

You keep making this point, and there is no valid response to it. It baffles me that last season's wages was more than when we had TK, Upson, Bridge, Vicente, Ulloa, Orlandi, Lopez, et al

 

[Zebedee]

And so it begins. Expect a lot of this in the next few months. There will be a lot of players mentioned when they are released by their clubs. The Argus will say they are about to sign and then the following day they sign for someone else. That's the way it was last year and I don't expect that to change. Hope I am wrong and we don't get the "scraps" again.

We will. Never fear. We are unlikely to sign anyone unless other teams don't want them. We don't seem to be able (or willing) to compete financially so will inevitably miss out on all the better players.

 

[Icy Gull]

You keep making this point, and there is no valid response to it. It baffles me that last season's wages was more than when we had TK, Upson, Bridge, Vicente, Ulloa, Orlandi, Lopez, et al

I keep mentioning it because I find it very hard to believe as well but it is apparently a fact backed up by the hierarchy at the club. I'll let it go now though.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I think this is right. Bloom knows he's under pressure to deliver and we trust he'll have learnt the lessons from last summer's shambles. There have been encouraging noises from the club about "doing business early" so it'd be a major surprise if there weren't some signings announced by the end of June/early July. This is a critical close season. Everyone makes mistakes but this time, there can be no excuses. The club cannot afford to get it wrong again.

I love the assumption that it was completely down to the Albion as to why we didn't sign players earlier than we did last summer. I love how these posters assume it was a deliberate act by the club to leave it as late as possible and handicap ourself in the process.

The player doesn't have to rush to sign for us just because we want them to, and will take as long as they need before making their mind up (especially if they are a player being chased by several clubs, as they could end up with a better deal if they delay)

We were after players that were also attracting interest from other clubs, so what were we supposed to do? Say that if you don't sign for us straight away, we will sign someone else and only because they will sign for us now?

What happens when we have been pursuing our first choice transfer targets and they decide to go elsewhere? Stop being ambitious in our choices and only go for players that a) no one else is interested in, or b) only much lower division teams will want to sign, whilst offering them over the odds in wages and signing on fees to pick us and quickly?

There are 2 sides to transfer deals, and the blame seems to be directly only in one direction, like it was an error by the club for not even considering trying to sign any players earlier.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

No one is looking at the positive. Sign players late and we save on wages. We only need 14 players to start the season with really. Then the players that are left will be desperate to sign as no one else wants them and we can then play hard ball on their wage demands.

Sounds like Blackpool's transfer policy last summer.

That worked well.

 

[Cloughie]

I love the assumption that it was completely down to the Albion as to why we didn't sign players earlier than we did last summer. I love how these posters assume it was a deliberate act by the club to leave it as late as possible and handicap ourself in the process.

The player doesn't have to rush to sign for us just because we want them to, and will take as long as they need before making their mind up (especially if they are a player being chased by several clubs, as they could end up with a better deal if they delay)

We were after players that were also attracting interest from other clubs, so what were we supposed to do? Say that if you don't sign for us straight away, we will sign someone else and only because they will sign for us now?

What happens when we have been pursuing our first choice transfer targets and they decide to go elsewhere? Stop being ambitious in our choices and only go for players that a) no one else is interested in, or b) only much lower division teams will want to sign, whilst offering them over the odds in wages and signing on fees to pick us and quickly?

There are 2 sides to transfer deals, and the blame seems to be directly only in one direction, like it was an error by the club for not even considering trying to sign any players earlier.

But they did dither - partly because there was no manager in place.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

But they did dither - partly because there was no manager in place.

Indeed they did.

Spectacular dithering over the Stephen Ward deal which really should have been closed.

Was BERK on a bonus to save as many pence on the deal as possible ?

 

[Stat Brother]

I keep mentioning it because I find it very hard to believe as well but it is apparently a fact backed up by the hierarchy at the club. I'll let it go now though.

Shirley the outlay only has to be £1 more to be the most in club history.

I wouldn't be surprised if that pound could be easily found by matching up players.

Stockdale isn't earning less than TK.
I'd imagine the same could be said for Ulloa and (bought in England) Baldock.
O'Grady v Barnes.
I'd imagine Bennett is a cheaper replacement for Ward.
But Kayal has come into a midfield that hasn't changed much, while carrying Kemy & Croft's wage.

The only obvious saving this year, on last, is bonuses.


Just because we were shitehouse this year it doesn't necessarily follow that we were cheaper shitehouse.

 

[perseus]

Don't expect us to sign anyone in May or June.

Outside chance we may get someone in in July, but most will be last week of August, after already dropping points in the league.

Transfer window opens on 1st July 2015.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Transfer window opens on 1st July 2015.

Yes, it does. This means that player registration transfer begins on this date.

However, deals can be legally signed and binding before this date.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

I love the assumption that it was completely down to the Albion as to why we didn't sign players earlier than we did last summer. I love how these posters assume it was a deliberate act by the club to leave it as late as possible and handicap ourself in the process.

The player doesn't have to rush to sign for us just because we want them to, and will take as long as they need before making their mind up (especially if they are a player being chased by several clubs, as they could end up with a better deal if they delay)

We were after players that were also attracting interest from other clubs, so what were we supposed to do? Say that if you don't sign for us straight away, we will sign someone else and only because they will sign for us now?

What happens when we have been pursuing our first choice transfer targets and they decide to go elsewhere? Stop being ambitious in our choices and only go for players that a) no one else is interested in, or b) only much lower division teams will want to sign, whilst offering them over the odds in wages and signing on fees to pick us and quickly?

There are 2 sides to transfer deals, and the blame seems to be directly only in one direction, like it was an error by the club for not even considering trying to sign any players earlier.

Of course there were cases where a player decides to go elsewhere, we all know that. Stephen Ward is a case in point. On the one hand you can’t blame the club for a player deciding to take a more lucrative offer up at the last minute. You could also take the view that we should have done a deal with Wolves much earlier, yes that would have meant paying more than we would have ideally liked to secure our first permanent left-back for 4 seasons but to do otherwise in my view has been a false economy. To date, we remain in the market for a left-back.

But what are you really saying? That the club’s recruitment last summer was a success? That it got unlucky with the majority of its transfers? Come off it.

The facts are that we sold our best players and didn’t replace them. We were then laughably told by the club that it expected another top six finish. Even then, some of us (or “some posters” as you refer to me) were sceptical about the signings but kept quiet, to give the club, and the new signings, the benefit of the doubt. When others went public with their concerns (perfectly legitimate in my view on a fan’s forum) the Chief Executive publicly asked fans to “judge us” at the end of the transfer window. Hmmm.

Even then, many people who loyally support the club and have done for years and years, myself included, (40 plus) didn’t take to this board or twitter to say a SINGLE critical word about the club.

But since then, Tony Bloom himself has admitted the club did not carry out its usual rigorous due diligence properly, “things were bit rushed.” And that’s perfectly understandable given Oscar Garcia has just resigned because, it is alleged, of the club’s recruitment policy. The warnings were there when we failed to sign the then Bournemouth striker, Lewis Grabban.

I stand by what I say. Last summer the club got it badly wrong in its recruitment. Add in the inexplicable decision to appoint Hyypia and we very nearly were relegated. Survival was only secured due to other teams being even worse.
But credit is due to the club for making changes to the player recruitment team and if Kayal is a benchmark of the calibre of player to arrive then we’re all in for an exciting summer. Let’s see what happens.

 

[GT49er]

Sounds like Blackpool's transfer policy last summer.

That worked well.

Presumably when Oyston looks at his bank balance it will appear that it did indeed go well.

 

[martin tyler]

No one is looking at the positive. Sign players late and we save on wages. We only need 14 players to start the season with really. Then the players that are left will be desperate to sign as no one else wants them and we can then play hard ball on their wage demands.

Sarcasm is lost on this board it really is

 

[Machiavelli]

Of course there were cases where a player decides to go elsewhere, we all know that. Stephen Ward is a case in point. On the one hand you can’t blame the club for a player deciding to take a more lucrative offer up at the last minute. You could also take the view that we should have done a deal with Wolves much earlier, yes that would have meant paying more than we would have ideally liked to secure our first permanent left-back for 4 seasons but to do otherwise in my view has been a false economy. To date, we remain in the market for a left-back.

But what are you really saying? That the club’s recruitment last summer was a success? That it got unlucky with the majority of its transfers? Come off it.

The facts are that we sold our best players and didn’t replace them. We were then laughably told by the club that it expected another top six finish. Even then, some of us (or “some posters” as you refer to me) were sceptical about the signings but kept quiet, to give the club, and the new signings, the benefit of the doubt. When others went public with their concerns (perfectly legitimate in my view on a fan’s forum) the Chief Executive publicly asked fans to “judge us” at the end of the transfer window. Hmmm.

Even then, many people who loyally support the club and have done for years and years, myself included, (40 plus) didn’t take to this board or twitter to say a SINGLE critical word about the club.

But since then, Tony Bloom himself has admitted the club did not carry out its usual rigorous due diligence properly, “things were bit rushed.” And that’s perfectly understandable given Oscar Garcia has just resigned because, it is alleged, of the club’s recruitment policy. The warnings were there when we failed to sign the then Bournemouth striker, Lewis Grabban.

I stand by what I say. Last summer the club got it badly wrong in its recruitment. Add in the inexplicable decision to appoint Hyypia and we very nearly were relegated. Survival was only secured due to other teams being even worse.
But credit is due to the club for making changes to the player recruitment team and if Kayal is a benchmark of the calibre of player to arrive then we’re all in for an exciting summer. Let’s see what happens.

Can't disagree with any of this. Can [MENTION=8619]Guy Fawkes[/MENTION]?

 

[Miximate]

Does the premiership survival of Sunderland provide more coffers for the transfer market?