Players out of contract

[HughieG]

Thank you for a smashing game yesterday - I would have loved to have taken at least two points from Liverpool, which we deserved to do, but the referee decided to help them out.

And now for something completely different. For the summer window, I suppose a lot of our activity depends on who will be the manager and whether Mike decides to spend or not (I guess not). A good bet would be that we are looking at players who are available on a "free" - I know; sign-on fees, agent fees, etc. makes it not free, but it does eliminate the transfer fee.

I saw the Danny Welbeck will be leaving the Gunners at the end of this season, and I thought he could be an interesting ingredient to our squad. He's 28 though and has a bad injury record. He might also be too expensive in wages.

Yacine Brahimi is a player that I do not know well, but he's been very successful at Porto and are being linked with West Ham, Wolves and the likes. He's an attacking midfielder / winger, so I would be excited if we signed him. At 29 he might also be too old though. Hector Herrera is the captain at Porto, and his contract is also expiring soon. He's also 29. I'd take both even though I do not know them particularly well.

Have you kept an eye on any players that you'd like us to sign (somewhat realistically)?

[Jammy89]

I saw about Welbeck but he's a no for me.

His wages will be through the roof, if he comes here he'll be thinking he's doing us a favour - it'll be similar to Owen situation and finally his injury record isn't good. We can't go through a season relying on a player who gets injured and out for reasonable while.

Herrera i rate though and think he'd do well here. I also think we have very limited chance to get him.

[HughieG]

You could be right about Welbeck, Jammy. I don't know him too well as a person, and if he's an arrogant bastard, then we definitely don't want that as our squad is in a good place at the moment. It seems that way from the outside at least.

He does have some qualities that I don't think we have at the moment though, which still makes him interesting to me.

[ghostrider]

Once you sign players with a name and especially a part timer because of injury past, you're a cash cow for them all. They don't give a flying fluke about our club, only their ongoing growth of bank balance, generally.

You only have to take a look at Q.P.R to see what happens when you take so called star players that are at the wrong end of their career.
It becomes past the sell by date eye candy paraded in front of you and then a massive realisation that they were a mistake...in short order.

Let's make our own stars and let's buy affordable potential to fit and to gain, like we're doing, even though it's slow and cumbersome at times.

We'd all like the immediate class buys, but you only have to take a look at Man Utd to see how bad that can go, if everything isn't to their liking.

As for players I've seen that would be ideal for us. That's a difficult one as of yet.

[Curian]

Too many questions still unanswered for me before I would make any suggestions. A little bit off topic but:

Rafa - will have a list but he needs to sign a contract so that is not yet certain;
Rafa's list and MA - will MA change his mind on age recruitment? Again not certain and a crucial factor;
Signing -cost factor always going to be an issue, and no bad thing. We need no cash cows e.g. Wellbeck (mainly a failure and injury prone); and
Unknowns - I like the idea of signing off the radar talent - we have done well in that area. Early Wolves/Watford spring to mind and we build around a solid team not a couple of individuals.

Difficult until we get certainty.

[Zippity]

Aye...like the other lads, Hughie...I wouldn't want Welbeck here. Aside from any of the other concerns, I don't think he's particularly good.

Ghost makes a good point about 'name' players whose career is on the slide-they only care about themselves. I like Ian's thinking about Watford and Wolves.

[HughieG]

Just saw Wellbeck's record at Arsenal, and it's not really that good. I guess you've all got a point, maybe he's best left alone.

Regarding the Wolves transfer-style, I think this will be extremely hard to emulate. They have been able to buy quality, but it has required a will to invest (MA don't seem to have that) and more importantly the right manager in Nuno - without him, they wouldn't have been able to sign these players IMO.

[Sclox]

"Let's make our own stars and let's buy affordable potential to fit and to gain, like we're doing, even though it's slow and cumbersome at times" - author: the bin lid

Ashley wont buy ready made talent, he wont invest in facilities or acadamies to develop our own. What he is doing is relying on short term loans and being lucky with under priced talent that comes our way and then comes good which in turn is sold on at a profit when the first bid comes in. This profit does not get reinvested in facilities, the squad, debt or acadamies. Its a cycle.

Ashley's strategy going forward is in essence to gamble on purchases and rely on the goodwill of other clubs for scraps off their table.

Not very sustainable, is it?

The cnt does get a lot of shiit shops as a consequence though.

[Jammy89]

They've also that the Portuguese super agent (Mendes i think?) who helps them a lot.

[Zippity]

"

Ashley wont buy ready made talent, he wont invest in facilities or acadamies to develop our own. What he is doing is relying on short term loans and being lucky with under priced talent that comes our way and then comes good which in turn is sold on at a profit when the first bid comes in. This profit does not get reinvested in facilities, the squad, debt or acadamies. Its a cycle.

Ashley's strategy going forward is in essence to gamble on purchases and rely on the goodwill of other clubs for scraps off their table.

.

One of the best summing-ups of fatso's strategy I've seen.

He does a nice little side-line in pissing off the fans deliberately as part of his policy, too.