Haaland and Barratt: Winter Transfer Window

[Foot of Astaire's]

Bizarre rumours in Cardiff that Madine was a problem at the club because (as well as a failure to score a single goal in 28 appearances) he was prone to challenging likely-looking strangers to bare-knuckle fights in the street for money. A particular problem given the number of likely-looking strangers for that pursuit in Cardiff.

It might be nonsense but his multiple ABH convictions and previous jail sentence for GBH make it slightly more believable.

Aye I heard that story too, Blackpool could be the perfect destination for him then! Perhaps a hint at a diseuptive personality might be that Parkinson didnt take him to Sunderland but opted for the shrinking violet that is Kyle Lafferty instead.

[Third rate Leszno]

The only part of that story that I find even vaguely surprising is that he was asking for money to fight - he seemed happy to do it for nowt in his younger days.

[Ray de Galles]

No, the rumour is he was offering money to fight.

[Third rate Leszno]

Ah. Makes more sense, cheers RdG.

[jwdd27]

Sounds like Tom Pett is leaving the club, with Swindon the likely destination. Big fan of Pett, a very classy player and able to dig in and defend as well. Been very unlucky with injuries the last year though, and his last appearance for us was Gillingham away. He's only played twice this season (one start), and it's a shame there is no place in the squad for him. Will do well at Swindon I think.

Tom Pett leaving is a bit of a heartbreaker.

/arf

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It would seem that Ed woodward is making a hames of the signing of bruno fernandes. Now it would seem that they handled the haaland situation pretty well, but this scenario is getting a bit silly. Man utd want to buy this player, players are fucking expensive, Sporting are going to have their price, they've borrowed against this fee already, so they kind of have to sell. Ed wants to pay 43 million in cash, and 17 million in clauses. now Sporting have apparently asked for £68 million. He's 25, this isn't how this kind of transfer works. The thing is that that if he's the right player, and you can use him for five years, it doesn't really matter what the price is, it will look cheap at the end. Also they way that you conduct a transfer with a biggish club, with a slight need to sell, is agree the fee relatively quickly, and then see what they will knock off for payment up front in cash. This is how man utd knocked a whole bunch off the cost of Rio Ferdinand.

There are times to haggle, and this isn't one. If this is the player that they want to sign, pick a decent price and pay it. You could see this rather ill judged approach to transfers when they were trying to sign Harry Maguire in the summer. Leicester didn't need to sell, have loads of money, and had their price for the player. It meant that the whole thing dragged out until the end of the transfer window, he arrived just before the first game, and missed pre-season, and it cost exactly what leicester asked for on the first day.

You can have clauses and haggle when you're buying a young player with potential, this is just a eunuch levy play by ed.

[G-Man]

Ed Woodward is a hack. Six years of getting almost all decisions wrong. He must have interesting photos of his employers stored in a safe place.

[ursus arctos]

Not at all

What he does have are copies of their dividend cheques

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Yeah, but they'd have made a lot more money if say he'd stuck with van gaal and allowed him finish rebuilding the squad. It mightn't necessarily be a title winning squad, but it would have been coherent, with two players for each position and a fairly settled complete way of playing, and avoided starting the process again. and there wouldn't be the mess that solksjaer inherited. the thing is that man utd have wasted a lot of money, wound up with the biggest official wage bill in the league (Which happened maybe once under ferguson) and they have spent a lot of money on transfers.

[ursus arctos]

Mebbe, but these aren't brilliant people we are talking about

They are essentially running the club just as they run the perpetually mediocre to hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, except that Man Utd throw off more cash.

Woodward has convinced them that he will protect their dividend flow and increase the asset value. Sporting results are not particularly relevant to them, in part because they've seen the lack of correlation between sporting and financial results in the NFL

[RobW]

Lincoln are in for Southend striker Tom Hopper. Had one big rebuffed last week, but a fee in region of £150k has now been agreed. Would assume that means Akinde is on his way out (he wasn't in the squad last weekend, and claimed he was injured). I see that he was one of the Leicester 3 that made a sex tape with local prostitutes on a tour of Thailand.

[caja-dglh]

Mebbe, but these aren't brilliant people we are talking about

They are essentially running the club just as they run the perpetually mediocre to hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, except that Man Utd throw off more cash.

Woodward has convinced them that he will protect their dividend flow and increase the asset value. Sporting results are not particularly relevant to them, in part because they've seen the lack of correlation between sporting and financial results in the NFL

And when you see lesser prestige clubs indicating a value of ~3 billion for Manchester United, Woodward's strategy for them looks perfectly fine.

[ursus arctos]

Which it is, as long as one is an investor rather than a supporter.

Though I do tend to think that those valuations are somewhat inflated. There is a lottery ticket aspect to the amounts being paid for "lesser" clubs that doesn't scale to a club like United.

[jwdd27]

Lincoln are in for Southend striker Tom Hopper. Had one big rebuffed last week, but a fee in region of £150k has now been agreed. Would assume that means Akinde is on his way out (he wasn't in the squad last weekend, and claimed he was injured). I see that he was one of the Leicester 3 that made a sex tape with local prostitutes on a tour of Thailand.

He did 3 seasons at Scunny. Works hard, but injury prone, inconsistent and doesn't score the amount of goals that he looks capable of on a good day.
But the talent is there, and he could kick on with the right coaching/system and luck with injuries. He's had a marginally better career than his co-stars in the Thai video, who are currently at Macclesfield and Forest Green.

[PDD2]

Lincoln are in for Southend striker Tom Hopper. Had one big rebuffed last week, but a fee in region of £150k has now been agreed. Would assume that means Akinde is on his way out (he wasn't in the squad last weekend, and claimed he was injured). I see that he was one of the Leicester 3 that made a sex tape with local prostitutes on a tour of Thailand.

Seems to be a done deal. We're on our way back to League 2, and apparently he has a Free Transfer Relegation Release clause in his contract, so makes sense to cash in while we can.

He did very well last season (7 in 14 games), until he did his knee in October 2018. Returned from injury in November 2019 and has scored 3 in about 15 games.

Works hard, reasonable in the air, and will be a good foil for any striker he plays with. He's guaranteed a goal on 1st Feb....

[RobW]

Seems to be a done deal. We're on our way back to League 2, and apparently he has a Free Transfer Relegation Release clause in his contract, so makes sense to cash in while we can.

He did very well last season (7 in 14 games), until he did his knee in October 2018. Returned from injury in November 2019 and has scored 3 in about 15 games.

Works hard, reasonable in the air, and will be a good foil for any striker he plays with. He's guaranteed a goal on 1st Feb....

I do hope so, as that's my next game. Likely play as an option from the bench if John-Jules and Walker continue up front, though we don't want to knacker the Arsenal kid out.

[That Night In Barcelona]

Alfie has probably made more money from this than from his entire footballing career. It's an interesting connundrum. you get an offer from one of the biggest clubs in the world, who offer to make you their first choice centre forward for the next decade and promise to build the team of the future around you, it's a manager who has signed you before, and worked with you before, was an international teammate of your father, and with a few lessons would probably be able to communicate with you in your native Leeds. With the passage of time, and renewal of contracts you would earn spiralling amounts of money, far in excess of what is considered a lot today, and you could get on with your career. Sounds good. (Man utd offered him a starting contract of 200k a week)

Just going through the thread from the start and I wanted to check if this post was sarcasm or not.

[Diable Rouge]

Ryan Johansson has signed for Sevilla, but what the Lord giveth with one hand, he taketh away with the other, as the multinational footballer appears set to declare for Sweden.

[Lang Spoon]

No wonder. If you're going to play for functional cloggers at least the Swedes don't have Manager Mick.

[elguapo4]

Manager Mick will be gone by the summer. Kenny is taking over after the Euros

[Lang Spoon]

Please god.

[RobW]

Tom Hopper duly signs today on a 3 and a half year contract. Suspect that Akinde will be leaving shortly, with Gillingham, Orient, Colchester and anyone else south of Cambridge rumoured to be interested.

[Lobachevsky]

Looks like Christian is finally off to Milan.

A poor end to an illustrious spurs career. He was the most successful by miles of the bale money purchases. Instrumental in making us serious challengers for a couple of years.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Lukas Podolski has turned up in Turkey, he's arrived at the retirement home for ageing footballers called Antalyaspor.

Victor Moses had his loan at Fenerbahçe cut short so he could join Inter, how many ex Premier League players has Conte got there now?

[Snake Plissken]

Burnley recall Nakhi Wells from QPR in order to start an auction between them, Forest and Bristol City.