[Archived] Transfer Talk Part 4

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Naismith would be a great loan signing - no chance of a permanent move.

[Swanson]

Would be a hell of a statement of intent, but can't see him choosing us over either Boro or Norwich. Also, three club rule.

Yes, but still it is refreshing to be linked to players like Naismith and not the usual dross we have been used to the last year.

[Neal]

No chance Naismith will come here. Could easily find a prem club.

[Amo]

Alan Nixon on Lambert's transfer budget

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Naismith would be a great loan signing - no chance of a permanent move.

No chance I'd pay £ 7 mill for Naismith even if we had it. Walk away.

[Ribble Rover]

Yes, but still it is refreshing to be linked to players like Naismith and not the usual dross we have been used to the last year.

We're very lucky in my opinion to have 2 managers at the helm really. PL and Irvine must have tonnes of high end contacts and with a proper injection of funds we could easily move up the league quickly. Bowyer was no more than a youth team coach that got lucky.

[Pedro]

Alan Nixon on Lambert's transfer budget

Are you not due an Avatar change? 😉

[patrickvalery]

Are you not due an Avatar change?

Paul Lambert in a thong bouncing on a space hopper?

[Mani]

We're very lucky in my opinion to have 2 managers at the helm really. PL and Irvine must have tonnes of high end contacts and with a proper injection of funds we could easily move up the league quickly. Bowyer was no more than a youth team coach that got lucky.

Honestly that is one of THE most ridiculous things Iv ever heard!! Bowyer did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong but the one thing he cannot be accused of is being poor in the transfer market.

Overall, under the restrictions he was under throughout his tenure his buys were exceptional for me. Rudy, Conway, Evans, Marshall, Duffy, Steele, Cairney for under £3m in fees whilst reducing the wage bill and getting HUGE fees for players (£9m on Rudy and Cairney alone). Sure there were poor buys but not at any significant cost to us. Overall he made a profit!!

I for one do not believe there's any manager in that league who could have done a better job in player recruitment under the circs than Bowyer. Including Paul Lsmbert.

[SoldierMo]

So why then do we have a really weak squad should have kept players like Rochina

[AllRoverAsia]

Honestly that is one of THE most ridiculous things Iv ever heard!! Bowyer did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong but the one thing he cannot be accused of is being poor in the transfer market.

Overall, under the restrictions he was under throughout his tenure his buys were exceptional for me. Rudy, Conway, Evans, Marshall, Duffy, Steele, Cairney for under £3m in fees whilst reducing the wage bill and getting HUGE fees for players (£9m on Rudy and Cairney alone). Sure there were poor buys but not at any significant cost to us. Overall he made a profit!!

I for one do not believe there's any manager in that league who could have done a better job in player recruitment under the circs than Bowyer. Including Paul Lsmbert.

Unfortunately he appeared to me to think that was his sole function. No real interest in a promotion bid as he could never have coped in the PL imo.

I for one disagree with that. Bowyer did get lucky with Gestede who could turn out to be a 1.5 Season wonder. Hes a bench warmer at a crap Villa.

[Ribble Rover]

I for one do not believe there's any manager in that league who could have done a better job in player recruitment under the circs than Bowyer. Including Paul Lsmbert.

we'll see. GB held us back and now we have proper staff in place

[Pedro]

Paul Lambert in a thong bouncing on a space hopper?

Haha, only if he has more than a handful of moob!

[Pedro]

Honestly that is one of THE most ridiculous things Iv ever heard!! Bowyer did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong but the one thing he cannot be accused of is being poor in the transfer market.

Overall, under the restrictions he was under throughout his tenure his buys were exceptional for me. Rudy, Conway, Evans, Marshall, Duffy, Steele, Cairney for under £3m in fees whilst reducing the wage bill and getting HUGE fees for players (£9m on Rudy and Cairney alone). Sure there were poor buys but not at any significant cost to us. Overall he made a profit!!

I for one do not believe there's any manager in that league who could have done a better job in player recruitment under the circs than Bowyer. Including Paul Lsmbert.

He initially bought a lot of crap in a rush but he certainly bought some real quality players too (for this level). Players who became our favourites and increased in value. I have been his harshest critic at times but if he left 12months before he did, I would have only had praise for him. The likes of Marshall have tailed off - frighteningly so, but that's a trait of a player at this level. The fact that we say a better manager would get more out of these players, his players, is testament to the fact he bought well. If only we still had Cairney and Judge (I'll class King as a Berg signing), we'd be much better moving forwards.

[Stuart]

No chance Naismith will come here. Could easily find a prem club.

This is where we find out about Lambert's pulling power.

[Mani]

we'll see. GB held us back and now we have proper staff in place

I'm not saying that he didn't. I would agree with you in fact for the last 12 months he definitely did hold us back.

But one thing is for sure. We will struggle to compare him to Lambert because they have started their tenures in very very different circumstances. GB had a squad full of underperforming, overpaid, egotistical man who didn't remotely care about the club. He was tasked with reducing the budget by 50% and maintain our status in the league with a view to stabilising and then pushing for promotion.

Lambert has a strong, honest base of players, a steady ship and a Growing budget. There aren't any bad eggs in there anymore.

I rate Lambert. I think he's a far better motivator and tactician than GB already...but I can't accept the criticism of GB under the circs in the transfer market.

Unfortunately he appeared to me to think that was his sole function. No real interest in a promotion bid as he could never have coped in the PL imo.

I for one disagree with that. Bowyer did get lucky with Gestede who could turn out to be a 1.5 Season wonder. Hes a bench warmer at a crap Villa.

Luck?? The same luck he got with Cairney? And £100k for Conway? £500k for Marshall who we rejected a £3m offer in the summer?

Please! Look around you. Who else does what he did on his budget? No one...

Master tactician? No. Motivational expert? No. Can spot a player on a budget? Hell yeah!

[Stuart]

He initially bought a lot of crap in a rush but he certainly bought some real quality players too (for this level). Players who became our favourites and increased in value. I have been his harshest critic at times but if he left 12months before he did, I would have only had praise for him. The likes of Marshall have tailed off - frighteningly so, but that's a trait of a player at this level. The fact that we say a better manager would get more out of these players, his players, is testament to the fact he bought well. If only we still had Cairney and Judge (I'll class King as a Berg signing), we'd be much better moving forwards.

Judge has to go down as a black mark against Bowyer. Sadly Bowyer's style could not accommodate flair or attacking players, as a result we now have a squad devoid of them, replaced by hard workers - albeit unfit ones. Coveting a draw was one of his biggest problems.

But I honestly struggle with the idea that Bowyer bought well given the state of our squad today. Aside from Conway (a happy accident) due to injury to his other acquisition Marshall, and also Gestede - we really aren't all that great. The squad was seriously weakened by selling Cairney and Gestede and turned a solid top six squad into a top half one (such is the proximity of Championship teams to each other). Lambert has already shown us that even now this squad had more in them than Bowyer was getting.

Here's hoping for some strengthening in January - if not then signing Lambert and getting out of the embargo will have been for nothing. I suspect we will only see loan signings - probably favours from PL clubs - but I'm not expecting any (further!) shocks.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

This is where we find out about Lambert's pulling power.

It's a big ask if Norwich and Boro are in for Naismith. He's 29 too so £7m is a bit expensive, good player though. How would you feel if we sold Rhodes for, say £11m and got Naismith and Libor Kozak for a combined £14m?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

It's a big ask if Norwich and Boro are in for Naismith. He's 29 too so £7m is a bit expensive, good player though. How would you feel if we sold Rhodes for, say £11m and got Naismith and Libor Kozak for a combined £14m?

It's all a bit hypothetical. I'm not sure we'll get that sort of dosh for Rhodes anymore. Anybody scouting him in the last month would have gone home after an hour. I like Naismith as a player and he could be he right sort of signing but that's a lot of dosh to spend on one player at this level.

[Stuart]

It's a big ask if Norwich and Boro are in for Naismith. He's 29 too so £7m is a bit expensive, good player though. How would you feel if we sold Rhodes for, say £11m and got Naismith and Libor Kozak for a combined £14m?

Very nervous.

But I was thinking more generally about the window than just whether we could bag Naismith.

[JHRover]

I'm in no doubt that Lambert will have a substantial amount of money made available to him to strengthen this team. Otherwise there's little/no point in coming out of the embargo in time for January and its highly unlikely Lambert would have come in to the club and accepted promotion as a target THIS SEASON if he doesn't have resources to play with. The bigger question is whether we can get value for that money in January or whether it would be better waiting until the summer when a larger rebuilding job can take place.

The loan market is OK up to a point. There's nothing wrong with going for loans first and foremost in January as permanent signings are generally more difficult and more expensive in the middle of the season than in the summer. But its the wrong strategy to look to build a team around loans who will be of no monetary value to the club in the longer term. The only team who it has worked for has been Watford, and their setup with sister clubs in Italy and Spain made that process much easier.

Lambert is no mug and he will have analysed this squad before accepting the job. He will have assessed what qualities we have and where we need to strengthen and he will have people identified to come into the club in January. One thing is for sure, we aren't going to get promoted relying on the likes of Lee Williamson and Chris Brown to get us back into a game when we are 1-0 down.

If the requirement is promotion then it would be a huge gamble to dispense with someone like Rhodes who has delivered 20+ goals every season for us. We struggle for goals as it is, and he is one of the few assets we have that is coveted by almost all our rivals. The challenge is to get this team working to Rhodes' strengths. Not to offload him as soon as possible because he's not scored for a few weeks.

It will be interesting to see how much time Lambert is given. No matter what, I think he is entitled to a full pre-season and season to see what he can do. However given our new found ruthlessness I do worry that we might be on the verge of a return to a high turnover of managers again if he doesn't get us into contention very quickly.

Hopefully the new advisor has more sense and allows Lambert and Irvine a good crack at it next season and beyond.

[JBiz]

we'll see. GB held us back and now we have proper staff in place

It's never just one man though- isn't TJ still head scout and was during most of GBs tenure?

[SoldierMo]

How much money did we get for josh king???

[ABBEY]

It's never just one man though- isn't TJ still head scout and was during most of GBs tenure?

TJ ? Perish the thought .. He doesn't even go to home games 🎣Haha

[Glosrover]

He initially bought a lot of crap in a rush but he certainly bought some real quality players too (for this level). Players who became our favourites and increased in value. I have been his harshest critic at times but if he left 12months before he did, I would have only had praise for him. The likes of Marshall have tailed off - frighteningly so, but that's a trait of a player at this level. The fact that we say a better manager would get more out of these players, his players, is testament to the fact he bought well. If only we still had Cairney and Judge (I'll class King as a Berg signing), we'd be much better moving forwards.

how quickly we forget the wages he wasted on Morrow, D'arbo, Brown, Delfonso, Judge(sort of), Williamson, Steele( sort of - no better than Eastwood), Barrow, the young (good?) French lad - all seemingly recruited to make sure there were enough shirts to fill the coat hooks at Brockall. A recruitment policy seemingly based on keep polishing turds until one starts to shine.