On the first day of January...............

[shminkyred]

Are we getting anyone in then? lololol This is probably the shortest transfer thread EVER

[shminkyred]

I haven't been following this January transfer nonsense, never do.
But has anyone apart from Villa signed anyone worth mentioning?

You still popped in for a quick look though ...lol

[Insidious]

Are we getting anyone in then? lololol This is probably the shortest transfer thread EVER

All signs always pointed to "no".

We can debate the pros/cons of how we are run, but irrespective of how we feel about the set-up, the club have a particular way of doing things.

We're not going to buy lads out of contract to free up spaces in the foreign quota of the squad - and we are full in that department.

We're not going to spend a premium on Homegrown players during January when we can acquire them slightly cheaper in the Summer. Paying £65m or whatever to land Bowen would be madness.

We will aim to free up spaces via sales, but aren't going to compromise much (if at all) on transfer fees as it weakens us in future negotiations and we can't force other clubs to come in with bids for lads we clearly are open to shifting.

I suspect we will sell Phillips on the last day (possibly loan with obligation to buy) of the transfer window IF we attract a reasonable bid. We allegedly want £15m - I could see us selling for £12m but not less.

We'll possibly pre-agree a contract with Carvalho from Fulham for the Summer as we continue to try and get young Homegrown talent in with a view to bringing a crop of youth lads through to supplement what we have and help our Homegrown Quota in future.

We'll be open to a (genuine) bid for Origi that won't come in, or will come in too late to do anything about.

We'll spend about £20m-£30m net in transfer fees (in Summer) in more windows than not, topped up by sales. Every 3-4 years we'll perhaps have a "big" window when deemed really necessary.

We'll hear the same debates with folks articulating that FSG are either terrible owners or largely-good-but-at-times-flawed owners.

We'll chew our fingernails over Salah's contract.

Salah's contract (if he gets it, I think we will but we'll see) probably gets announced after a Champion's League knockout win to boost the feel-good factor, or after we're knocked out to soften the blow. Apply same principle to a win (or loss) against Man City in April.

Life will go on despite all of the above.

Can't see too much of that being wildly out.

[shminkyred]

All signs always pointed to "no".

We can debate the pros/cons of how we are run, but irrespective of how we feel about the set-up, the club have a particular way of doing things.

We're not going to buy lads out of contract to free up spaces in the foreign quota of the squad - and we are full in that department.

We're not going to spend a premium on Homegrown players during January when we can acquire them slightly cheaper in the Summer. Paying £65m or whatever to land Bowen would be madness.

We will aim to free up spaces via sales, but aren't going to compromise much (if at all) on transfer fees as it weakens us in future negotiations and we can't force other clubs to come in with bids for lads we clearly are open to shifting.

I suspect we will sell Phillips on the last day (possibly loan with obligation to buy) of the transfer window IF we attract a reasonable bid. We allegedly want £15m - I could see us selling for £12m but not less.

We'll possibly pre-agree a contract with Carvalho from Fulham for the Summer as we continue to try and get young Homegrown talent in with a view to bringing a crop of youth lads through to supplement what we have and help our Homegrown Quota in future.

We'll be open to a (genuine) bid for Origi that won't come in, or will come in too late to do anything about.

We'll spend about £20m-£30m net in transfer fees (in Summer) in more windows than not, topped up by sales. Every 3-4 years we'll perhaps have a "big" window when deemed really necessary.

We'll hear the same debates with folks articulating that FSG are either terrible owners or largely-good-but-at-times-flawed owners.

We'll chew our fingernails over Salah's contract.

Salah's contract (if he gets it, I think we will but we'll see) probably gets announced after a Champion's League knockout win to boost the feel-good factor, or after we're knocked out to soften the blow. Apply same principle to a win (or loss) against Man City in April.

Life will go on despite all of the above.

Can't see too much of that being wildly out.

A simple no would have sufficed but thankyou for the summary..lol

[Steveo]

Pretty well reasoned points though it must be said.

[TheDOC1979]

Lucas Diaz is said to prefer a move to Liverpool over Spurs. Understandable…don’t think we’d get him in January or anyone else.

Traore also prefers Barcelona over spurs. Poor spuds

[Insidious]

A simple no would have sufficed but thankyou for the summary..lol

Wasn't meant to bore mate, sorry

I'm someone who likes learning/understanding/explanations so I'm inclined to project that. If you present a picture of a Bullfinch and ask if it's male or female, I won't simply say "male" - I'll elaborate as to the why/differences between the 2 etc.

We'll likely see business in the Summer. We don't have a lot of Homegrown players, so we will want to address that. At least one foreign player will leave (Karius) probably two or more (Origi likely) which will free up at least 1-2 foreign player space in terms of squad composition. We'll likely aim to address midfield first, forward second if Minamino or Origi depart.

What we will likely complain about collectively, come the end of the Summer, will be -

- Can't believe player X is still with us/nobody bought player X from us.
- Why did we spend a paltry whatever-million on this 18-24 year old up-and-comer when player-every-top-club-wants-that-can-command-ridiculous-wages is available?
- "Club run by Oil or Spanish Government bought Haaland/Mbappe, we're all Doomed."
- "None of these young lads will go on to be good enough for us"

I'd be surprised if much of that is way out of sync, simply because I think most of it is painfully obvious.

[teesred]

Barca been feeling down the back of the sofa again.

[jozza800]

We'll likely see business in the Summer. We don't have a lot of Homegrown players, so we will want to address that. At least one foreign player will leave (Karius) probably two or more (Origi likely) which will free up at least 1-2 foreign player space in terms of squad composition. We'll likely aim to address midfield first, forward second if Minamino or Origi depart.

This is the bit that I dont fully agree with. Just because we own/employ, say Karius we are under no obligation to regsiter him. Obviously we still have to pay his wages but he doesnt havr to count as foreign player in our squad. And if he is then whoever put together the PL/CL squad wants shooting. Why on earth would you choose to have 4 keepers in a 25 man squad.

If we wanted to offload say Origi and he wasnt willing to move on, we could simply not register him. He'd soon get the message. I'm not saying this is what we should do, but we dont technically need to have them around.

[Insidious]

This is the bit that I dont fully agree with. Just because we own/employ, say Karius we are under no obligation to regsiter him. Obviously we still have to pay his wages but he doesnt havr to count as foreign player in our squad. And if he is then whoever put together the PL/CL squad wants shooting. Why on earth would you choose to have 4 keepers in a 25 man squad.

If we wanted to offload say Origi and he wasnt willing to move on, we could simply not register him. He'd soon get the message. I'm not saying this is what we should do, but we dont technically need to have them around.

I understand what you're saying, I do - has crossed my mind a number of times.

But besides the overall philosophy of aiming (if not always succeeding) to find good value in players (which paying wages for zero minutes played wouldn't be) we're working within a context where -

- we're post-Brexit
- fans are still feeling the effect of the Pandemic
- fans are still unhappy about the furlough situation in recent past
- we have a fanbase with a lot of working class/socialist values

From a Public Relations perspective, whilst simply not registering players IS technically possible, I don't think the owners would permit it, particularly at a time where a lot of the fanbase aren't convinced of their methods - and I can understand it.