11 minutes ago, Sheva said:

I like Rogers but that's silly money, I would have said 80m is expensive but maybe it's just me stuck in my old ways of transfer fees. I don't think most of the players going for that much warrant the fees that are going round. If he's that expensive I would have been content just getting another upcoming kid like a Nusa and then spend that sort of money on experience in the middle and centre back.

I agree 100% the fees going around now are ridiculous and not a true reflection of a players ability anymore, what would Super Frank have been worth in today’s market!

The easiest way to view it though is how it ‘amortises’. He’s a 24M signing every summer for the next 5 years, and at that, he’s a bargain.

Issue with signing a Nusa or similar just because they’re cheaper now remains they don’t instantly improve us like Rogers does, for every Estevao we hit gold on there’s a Washington, a DD Fofana, a Paez, a Gittens and an Angelo to go with.

I think Alonso is football smart enough to adjust his formations and lineups accordingly, he’ll know the games we can have all our best attackers on the pitch at once, JP CP Rogers & Stevie and he’ll know the games we have to sacrifice one to shore up the Defence/Midfield.

This is a good signing, young, English, PL Proven and weakens a Top 5 rival whilst strengthening ourselves.

I know we’ve all been beaten down by BlueCo over the years but take this for what it is. A good footballing move.

22 hours ago, 2211 said:

This is the one!

If you remember when PSG came sniffing around Neymar Barcelona put some random arbitrary figure of £200m believing no team would ever pay that.

Then when PSG said 'Ok, £200m, we'll pay that' then Barcelona tried to go to court to get the transfer cancelled.

If Barcelona had said 'He's not for sale for any price' then it mighted of slowed down the transfer market price hikes.

Anyway, it is what it is, so any fan waiting for transfer prices to go 'back to normal' is in for a very long frustrating wait.

We could go on and on about every single transfer and argue if a club has overpaid, the bottom line is transfer fees get mentioned less the better the player performs at thier new club.

I'm prepared to see how he performs before making any judgement that we have been robbed by Villa.

Sorry it wasn’t quite like that with Neymar.

In Spain, along with Portugal clubs are obliged to have a buy out clause in their contracts. Yes Neymars was said to be €200m but once a club lodged that sum with the Spanish FA then Barcelona basically couldn’t do anything, but they tried and as was to be expected failed.

Barca couldn’t say he isn’t for sale at any price because in Spain every player has a price as it were.

As for the market going mad well I recall when Trevor Francis went to Forest as the first £1m player. At that time that was in excess of Forests annual income.

Rogers , Anderson etc costs are mad but they don’t exceed PL clubs annual incime

21 minutes ago, The Boehly Babes said:

I agree 100% the fees going around now are ridiculous and not a true reflection of a players ability anymore, what would Super Frank have been worth in today’s market!

The easiest way to view it though is how it ‘amortises’. He’s a 24M signing every summer for the next 5 years, and at that, he’s a bargain.

Issue with signing a Nusa or similar just because they’re cheaper now remains they don’t instantly improve us like Rogers does, for every Estevao we hit gold on there’s a Washington, a DD Fofana, a Paez, a Gittens and an Angelo to go with.

I think Alonso is football smart enough to adjust his formations and lineups accordingly, he’ll know the games we can have all our best attackers on the pitch at once, JP CP Rogers & Stevie and he’ll know the games we have to sacrifice one to shore up the Defence/Midfield.

This is a good signing, young, English, PL Proven and weakens a Top 5 rival whilst strengthening ourselves.

I know we’ve all been beaten down by BlueCo over the years but take this for what it is. A good footballing move.

Made a profit on Angelo tbf

When did fans suddenly have to justify the price of player transfers. I remember Man Utd breaking the British transfer record virtually every season even on defenders and teenagers, there was never any outrage or justification despite no other club able to get close. All of a sudden we have fans embarrassed by the fees and opposition fans guilt tripping you over the cost. I've given over caring, the prices have been ridiculous since the 90s. I remember Liverpool fans moaning about the money spent the season we bought both Lavia and Caicedo then blow £250 million and Isak and Wirtz a couple of years later. All of a sudden Man Utd fans up in arms about Rogers and Anderson fees they can all f**k off too. Name me a club thats not overspent on players and I'll show you a team thats won nowt.

You can bore off with amortisation and balancing the books. Buy me some exciting players and Im happy as long as we don't go bankrupt.

Good luck to Rogers, hopefully he can live up to expectations. At least he's guaranteed to be better than the Garnacho and Gittens 'deals' we've been trapped in and we won't instantly be looking for a replacement in a years time.

5 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

When did fans suddenly have to justify the price of player transfers. I remember Man Utd breaking the British transfer record virtually every season even on defenders and teenagers, there was never any outrage or justification despite no other club able to get close. All of a sudden we have fans embarrassed by the fees and opposition fans guilt tripping you over the cost. I've given over caring, the prices have been ridiculous since the 90s. I remember Liverpool fans moaning about the money spent the season we bought both Lavia and Caicedo then blow £250 million and Isak and Wirtz a couple of years later. All of a sudden Man Utd fans up in arms about Rogers and Anderson fees they can all f**k off too. Name me a club thats not overspent on players and I'll show you a team thats won nowt.

You can bore off with amortisation and balancing the books. Buy me some exciting players and Im happy as long as we don't go bankrupt.

Good luck to Rogers, hopefully he can live up to expectations. At least he's guaranteed to be better than the Garnacho and Gittens 'deals' we've been trapped in and we won't instantly be looking for a replacement in a years time.

Happy to spend the money, I just don't think the player we bought warrants the money.

That's all, it's not that deep.

13 minutes ago, Sheva said:

Happy to spend the money, I just don't think the player we bought warrants the money.

That's all, it's not that deep.

The way I see it is we got a player who we believe the manager wanted and for me there isnt many if any player we could realistically acquire that is better in his position so for me the price is inconsequential. Everyone's forgot about the price we paid for Torres and this will be forgot when mid table teams will be buying players for a bargain £100 million in the future. If we suddenly cant afford a centre back then fair enough but I don't see that happening.

1 minute ago, DarkMata said:

The way I see it is we got a player who we believe the manager wanted and for me there isnt many if any player we could realistically acquire that is better in his position so for me the price is inconsequential. Everyone's forgot about the price we paid for Torres and this will be forgot when mid table teams will be buying players for a bargain £100 million in the future. If we suddenly cant afford a centre back then fair enough but I don't see that happening.

Yup and like I said I hope he proves me wrong. I’m of the opinion we have some quality up top anyway in Estevao, Cole and Joao and what worries me is defence and midfield. If it was me that sort of money would be used there.

Just my opinion.

36 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

When did fans suddenly have to justify the price of player transfers. I remember Man Utd breaking the British transfer record virtually every season even on defenders and teenagers, there was never any outrage or justification despite no other club able to get close. All of a sudden we have fans embarrassed by the fees and opposition fans guilt tripping you over the cost. I've given over caring, the prices have been ridiculous since the 90s. I remember Liverpool fans moaning about the money spent the season we bought both Lavia and Caicedo then blow £250 million and Isak and Wirtz a couple of years later. All of a sudden Man Utd fans up in arms about Rogers and Anderson fees they can all f**k off too. Name me a club thats not overspent on players and I'll show you a team thats won nowt.

You can bore off with amortisation and balancing the books. Buy me some exciting players and Im happy as long as we don't go bankrupt.

Good luck to Rogers, hopefully he can live up to expectations. At least he's guaranteed to be better than the Garnacho and Gittens 'deals' we've been trapped in and we won't instantly be looking for a replacement in a years time.

When the said fees can bankrupt the club, stop them trading in future, cause points deductions and or having former trophies/ titles taken... I think fans have every right to be critical and vocal. 120 million invested into a youth team set up will over ten years produce more talent than a club could afford to buy. 120 million would also probably allow you and you entire family to live mortgage free, feed and house our homelss population in certain cities, reduce pollution in rivers, pay for essential medical services etc...

Now, when players like Wirtz turn out to be tosh.. 100+ million, Our own dirty racist Enzo cost 100 million and turned out to be tosh, took a couple of seasons for Caicedo to turn it around for us, he cost 100 million... So forgive me for having an opinion aout a average premiership player costing us 118 million pounds and hoping it works out over the next 6 +1 seasons he here. Becuase if he flops, us fans are the ones bailing out the club, it wont be the directors who put the club into the financial black hole we are in, and becasue I dont want our club to asset strip any more to line the pockets of our scummy yanktard owners.

26 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

When the said fees can bankrupt the club, stop them trading in future, cause points deductions and or having former trophies/ titles taken... I think fans have every right to be critical and vocal. 120 million invested into a youth team set up will over ten years produce more talent than a club could afford to buy. 120 million would also probably allow you and you entire family to live mortgage free, feed and house our homelss population in certain cities, reduce pollution in rivers, pay for essential medical services etc...

Now, when players like Wirtz turn out to be tosh.. 100+ million, Our own dirty racist Enzo cost 100 million and turned out to be tosh, took a couple of seasons for Caicedo to turn it around for us, he cost 100 million... So forgive me for having an opinion aout a average premiership player costing us 118 million pounds and hoping it works out over the next 6 +1 seasons he here. Becuase if he flops, us fans are the ones bailing out the club, it wont be the directors who put the club into the financial black hole we are in, and becasue I dont want our club to asset strip any more to line the pockets of our scummy yanktard owners.

None of those things are happening are they though, just getting angry over made up scenarios. And yes the £15m we spent on J F Hasslbaink would have sorted me out for life but thats irrelevant.

Great move bringing Rogers in. The fee is just the current market, and Villa were never going to sell one of their best players on the cheap.

Edited yesterday at 13:011 day by Malcolm9

1 hour ago, Sheva said:

Yup and like I said I hope he proves me wrong. I’m of the opinion we have some quality up top anyway in Estevao, Cole and Joao and what worries me is defence and midfield. If it was me that sort of money would be used there.

Just my opinion.

Midfield is what I'm most concerned about.

As it stands, we only have 4 first team midfielders - one of whom does not want to be here and two of whom are sick notes, one in perpetuity.

5 goalkeepers, 12 defenders (9 centre backs), 4 midfielders, 11 forwards

I'm not including Denner and Satpaev in those numbers as they aren't shown on the club website. Ditto Disasi, Paez and Datro Fofana.

Edited 23 hours ago23 hr by Sexyfootball

18 hours ago, Skinn76 said:

Top 5 with the same players that finished 10th last season? Please explain 🤣….

Very simple, no cl, healthy Colwill, healthy Palmer.

20 hours ago, Skinn76 said:

Top 5 with the same players that finished 10th last season? Please explain 🤣….

The last time Chelsea finished 10th, We won the league the following season with arguably the same core. There, history done it for you.

1 hour ago, BolaBall said:

The last time Chelsea finished 10th, We won the league the following season with arguably the same core. There, history done it for you.

+KANTE

18 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Midfield is what I'm most concerned about.

As it stands, we only have 4 first team midfielders - one of whom does not want to be here and two of whom are sick notes, one in perpetuity.

5 goalkeepers, 12 defenders (9 centre backs), 4 midfielders, 11 forwards

I'm not including Denner and Satpaev in those numbers as they aren't shown on the club website. Ditto Disasi, Paez and Datro Fofana.

No Europe, as long as Enzo and Caicedo are healthy, we will be fine and James is probably a midfielder now.

I am honestly not sure what the team need. I am not entirely sure what Rogers is fixing.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Bob stark

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

+KANTE

Could Rosenior to Alonso make a similar difference?

2 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

Could Rosenior to Alonso make a similar difference?

Manager impact is usually not that big unless the previous manager is crazy (Amorim), lose the dressing room (Mou to Ole) or there is is a big shift in philosophy (Lamp to TT, it is hard to do this with this squad).

I have never been a fan of Maresca but he was fine.

20 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Manager impact is usually not that big unless the previous manager is crazy (Amorim), lose the dressing room (Mou to Ole) or there is is a big shift in philosophy (Lamp to TT, it is hard to do this with this squad).

I have never been a fan of Maresca but he was fine.

Let's see how "fine" Man City are next season.

44 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Manager impact is usually not that big unless the previous manager is crazy (Amorim), lose the dressing room (Mou to Ole) or there is is a big shift in philosophy (Lamp to TT, it is hard to do this with this squad).

I'm neither agreeing or disagreeing with your comment, but in another thread it was said that Romero is a better centreback than Lacroix. And I was just thinking that given how highly rated Alonso is, surely judgement like that should be reserved until he has coached a player for a while. But maybe it actually makes no difference and managers/coaches don't actually do much to transform or improve players.

48 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Manager impact is usually not that big unless the previous manager is crazy (Amorim), lose the dressing room (Mou to Ole) or there is is a big shift in philosophy (Lamp to TT, it is hard to do this with this squad).

I have never been a fan of Maresca but he was fine.

We were 5th when Maresca left.

18 minutes ago, Snedger said:

I'm neither agreeing or disagreeing with your comment, but in another thread it was said that Romero is a better centreback than Lacroix. And I was just thinking that given how highly rated Alonso is, surely judgement like that should be reserved until he has coached a player for a while. But maybe it actually makes no difference and managers/coaches don't actually do much to transform or improve players.

Actually manager matter more in term of improving player but it is not what most fans want it to be. Player improvement take months or years and it is not linear.

The key with manager is that the gap between them is not big whereas the gap between player is very big.

You give me pep, my expectation for this team doesn't change, you give me prime Messi, I expect us to contend next season.

That is why I am happy that we get Alonso because his leverkusen was interesting but I don't expect magic.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Bob stark

3 hours ago, DarkMata said:

Could Rosenior to Alonso make a similar difference?

In fairness, Garnacho to the picture here would probably improve mobility in defensive areas.