Summer 2018 - The Rebuild and The Recovery

SuzanneClaret

Yes to Jack Butland and Joe Allen.

IronHerb

Shaqiri please.

ASLEFshrugged

Leander was an ancient Greek who swam across the Hellespont every night to be with his lover Hero, she lived in a tower and would hang a light in the window to guide him. One stormy night the lamp blew out, Leander got lost and drowned. When Hero saw his body washed up on the shore she threw herself from the top of the tower onto the rocks below,

Gosh those ancient Greeks had some jolly stories....

I suppose Mr and Mrs Dendoncker thought it sounded like a nice name.

Hopefully he prefers to be called "Lea".

Cuz1

Evans would do for me

Expat_Hammer

Evans Dendoncker ;puzzled

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Shaqiri is a great talent but he threw in the towel for Stoke, and publically slammed his team-mates (I mean, fair enough, Stoke players are mostly terrible, but not the attitude you need when things aren't going well...), so I'm a bit ;hmm about him.

ASLEFshrugged

Last month Ben Foster told the local paper he would stay at West Brom

I’ll be here. I’ve got no interest in trying to move clubs. I’m very settled and I’m sure there are quite a few others who would love to stay and help us get back to the Premier League.

If the worst comes to the worst and we end up in the Championship next season we’ve got to bounce back up, it’s as simple as that. I’d like to keep a core of the players that really want to dig in and work hard and be in a tough fight to get out of the Championship because it is a tough fight as well

It’s a really different league to the Premier League and we need to go about it to get back first time - we need to really bounce back strongly and get back to where we should be

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/west-bromwich-albion/2018/04/08/ben-foster-promises-to-stay-at-west-brom-next-season/#f5BU8zys3C8eDQHH.99

Lukerz

Wouldn’t be getting into the habit of cherry picking relegation players as I feel the losing mentality is ingrained in them. We need to start creating a positive team spirit and mentality. Maybe Evans but that would be it. Butland and Shaqiri massively over-rated IMO.

jay_in_cpt

Craig Dawson out of that lot for me.

grey_til_I_dye

Stoke won't want to let Butland go, so would probably only accept a ridiculously high offer.

Would people think he was worth say £35m?

MrsGrey

Younger rather than older, for me. Don't want players who might only have a year or two in their legs.

OldCastleSwift

Everton set the precedent last summer with Pickford. Stoke will want a suitor to at least match the £30m he went for.

If Pickford is worth £30m (he isn't) then Butland, as a better 'keeper IMO, is worth £35m (but only in todays ridiculous market value of English 'keepers).

We won't spend that on a new No1 though, so I'm not even entertaining the notion. Heaton is still on my list, though. At 32 he's got a good few years left but won't command such a large fee.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Lots of reports saying Shaquiri has a £12mil relegation clause

Surely thats worth a punt

OldCastleSwift

Him and Arnie worked well together at Stoke. He's a decent age. He's done it at PL level for a few years. We have big concerns over Antonio's long-term fitness.

I'd take Shaq at £12m.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Joe Allen Craig Dawson maybe Rondon

Pearces_Left_Foot

http://www.claretandhugh.info/hammers-set-for-quick-decision-on-manager/

Sounds like they are going for a head of recruitment rather than a DoF

Pearces_Left_Foot

Mangala is available on a free this summer might be worth a look

MrsGrey

Pearces_Left_Foot said:

Joe Allen Craig Dawson maybe Rondon

No. Not Rondon. Rondon would be no use to us.

Pearces_Left_Foot

I was thinking if he was cheap a different kind of striker to what we have but not overly fussed more of a squad player

OldCastleSwift

MrsGrey said:

Pearces_Left_Foot said:

Joe Allen Craig Dawson maybe Rondon

No. Not Rondon. Rondon would be no use to us.

Someone needs to be Jordan Hugill when Jordan Hugill is sold back to Preston...

SuzanneClaret

I’d buy Buckland for £35mil.

grey_til_I_dye

Suze

OK, but postage is extra. ;wink

MrsGrey

OldCastleSwift said:

MrsGrey said:

Pearces_Left_Foot said:

Joe Allen Craig Dawson maybe Rondon

No. Not Rondon. Rondon would be no use to us.

Someone needs to be Jordan Hugill when Jordan Hugill is sold back to Preston...

But we haven't really needed Jordan Hughill, so I'm not convinced we need someone to be someone we haven't needed.

;puzzled

MunichHammer

I'm not sure whether we really need to spend big bucks on a keeper.
Adrian is a decent keeper and how about Trott as backup?
I think we could have had de Gea, Neuer, and Kahn in goal and we would have still shipped lots of goals because we had a leaky team. Those are the positions we need to address.

OldCastleSwift

Every club needs a Jordan Hugill.

I'm honestly starting to think that maybe he just won a competition or something.

Yeoldhammer

Carroll for Shelvey anyone ?

OldCastleSwift

I think I know Suze's answer...

Yeoldhammer

Going by the PL Fantasy football on Total points

the 4 best defenders outside the top 6. (currently)

Maguire / Hegazi / Mawson / Cresswell

the 4 best midfielders

Mahrez / GroB / Shaqiri / Milivojevic

the 2 best strikers

Vardy / Rooney

PrestonHammer

I think it starts with N and ends in Oooooo.

baracks_a_hammer

Whether we need a “hugill” type striker within our squad can be debated at great length

What (to me) is a lot clearer is that if a club like ours has an alleged transfer budget of £30m you cannot spend £9m of it on a player who basically doesn’t play.