Deadline Day - Don't go to bed

Fortuneseeker

thorn, can't wait to see which striker we get in the summer if £30 million wasn't going to attract a decent one in the current market. Best sit back now & watch the season stall. Groundhog Day yet again. Roll on 2023. Look forward to the spin we will get today.

OldCastleSwift

IronHerb said:

Maybe, just maybe, he didn't want to come to West Ham.

Maybe.

But playing second-fiddle to Antonio probably means more game time than playing second-fiddle to DCL.

And given we were told that there would be no business done yesterday, I highly doubt he was even given the option.

MrsGrey

I can see several reasons why he'd prefer to go to Everton. Even if we offered his club a better deal that Everton did.

OldCastleSwift

Fortuneseeker said:

thorn, can't wait to see which striker we get in the summer if £30 million wasn't going to attract a decent one in the current market. Best sit back now & watch the season stall. Groundhog Day yet again. Roll on 2023. Look forward to the spin we will get today.

And of course, if our season falls away, which is likely if we lose Antonio, Rice or Soucek for any length of time, you'd imagine that our chances of recruiting one of these top targets is somewhat reduced.

I can't believe that with our injury history, we're pinning our hopes of a successful season on keeping key players fit and in form. We needed cover/competition at CM and ST. We got neither.

alderz

I reckon we’ll sign Costa on a free til the end of the season, tbh

OldCastleSwift

MrsGrey said:

I can see several reasons why he'd prefer to go to Everton. Even if we offered his club a better deal that Everton did.

Again, maybe that's what happened. And there's every chance that Sullivan will be on the blower to Talksport later to claim just that.

But personally I have little doubt that there was never any intention of bringing in another striker. They had three weeks between selling Haller and the window closing. Deals can be done in a day; we saw that with Liverpool and Ben Davies.

We got Soucek and Bowen done quickly last January when it suited the boards needs. This time round, with next season's PL TV money already in the bag, we've actually reduced the squad.

As I and many have said previously, it's not necessarily what's happening with the squad; it's that everything that's happened in the last four years could have been happening at Upton Park.

I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but I just cannot stand how this club is being run.

Fortuneseeker

alderz said:

I reckon we’ll sign Costa on a free til the end of the season, tbh

If Antonio breaks down this week we may have no other alternative bar playing a false number 9 which some think we are already doing anyway.

OldCastleSwift

And on Everton, look at what they did. Sold a striker the manager didn't rate on deadline day, and bought a replacement in on the same day. It can be done. Ok, King probably wasn't their number one choice, but he'll do a better job than literally no-one, and if he's good they have the option of extending; if he's terrible he's out of the door.

And they're getting a new purpose-built football stadium.

Man, I'm in a bad mood today.

baracks_a_hammer

Problem is in all of this is we don’t know and will likely never know who Moyes actually wanted by way of a striker. There were plenty of noises saying money was there for Moyes and a striker. Let’s not forget that in spite of finding Coufal Soucek etc, his recent record of buying strikers actually stinks.

I don’t trust Sully one bit, however I’d still be very surprised if even he would have wilfully allowed us to be in this position.

But the real culpable party is Lukerz - he assured us of 1 to 2 incomings yesterday 😂

baracks_a_hammer

I think we know how it will play out in the summer

The weeks will tick by through June and July and nothing will happen. Some will be impatient. Others will say what’s the rush, plenty of time, let’s judge at the end of the window.

Then on deadline day a mad scramble in desperate hope

Pearces_Left_Foot

I would n't get too despondant we have a team that is in the upper reaches of the league we are nearly safe . I think European football next season would be too soon for us and could see us do a Wolves . I think we have overachived so far and will finish just outside the euopean places and then build in the summer to the team Moyes wants . Overall this season the team has been much better to watch, results have massively improved , yes i would of liked another striker but I trust Moyes to see us through the rest of the season and carry on improving us.

baracks_a_hammer

Bit controversial, I’m not convinced Moyes is entirely blameless in all of this. He has had a full year to identify the type of forward he wants. And his only answer has been lingard.

Hamstew

OldCastleSwift said:

And on Everton, look at what they did. Sold a striker the manager didn't rate on deadline day, and bought a replacement in on the same day. It can be done. Ok, King probably wasn't their number one choice, but he'll do a better job than literally no-one, and if he's good they have the option of extending; if he's terrible he's out of the door.

And they're getting a new purpose-built football stadium.

Man, I'm in a bad mood today.

Yeah If you could just ease up on your grip there mate

OldCastleSwift

baracks_a_hammer said:

Problem is in all of this is we don’t know and will likely never know who Moyes actually wanted by way of a striker. There were plenty of noises saying money was there for Moyes and a striker. Let’s not forget that in spite of finding Coufal Soucek etc, his recent record of buying strikers actually stinks.

En-Nasyri was the only player that Moyes admitted that we'd made a bid for, and the talk was that he was his No1 target.

The problem is Seville didn't want to sell and the player didn't want to come. I can't see anything happening between now and June that would change either of those things. If we're to believe that Moyes had £30m to spend in this window, then we may have a summer budget of £50-60m. Seville value En-Nasyri at £40m+, and given that we'll need at least one midfielder and a left-back on top of the new striker, I can't see us blowing two-thirds of our budget on one player.

OldCastleSwift

Last one, I promise.

There's just a history of this board not doing enough. Remember when Bilic wanted a defensive midfielder? We all saw the resulting Carvalho fall-out. And when Pellegrini sold Obiang on the understanding he'd be replaced? We all saw he wasn't. And the top centre-back Moyes wanted in the summer? He had to settle for Dawson (who although has done well clearly wasn't first choice). And now we've gone an entire window and haven't got in a striker that Moyes clearly wanted.

Qualifying for Europe will cost Sullivan in the long run; hiring the stadium for extra games, travel costs (remember him complaining about having to fly the team to Everton for the cup game?), having to fund a bigger squad. I'm more convinced than ever that it's only ever about staying in the league to ensure the TV money carries on. An 8th-17th place finish will do every season.

Fortuneseeker

PLF, I know a Wolves fan & he really enjoyed last season’s Europa League campaign & has put this season’s struggles so far down to the injury to Jiminez & Jota leaving. I don’t expect us to be qualifying for Europe every season but would expect every effort to be made to seize the opportunity when it appears to be there this year which no cover in two key positions and reducing the squad numbers is IMHO doing the opposite. ☹️

baracks_a_hammer

OCS

Why is Moyes asking the board to pursue a player who doesn’t want to come and the club doesn’t want to sell? Seems to be a bit of a strange thing to do and ultimately a waste of time and effort.

OldCastleSwift

baracks_a_hammer said:

OCS

Why is Moyes asking the board to pursue a player who doesn’t want to come and the club doesn’t want to sell? Seems to be a bit of a strange thing to do and ultimately a waste of time and effort.

Presumably he isn't now. I imagine the conversation went something like:

Sullivan: Who do you want to replace Haller, Davey Boy?

Moyes: En-Nesyri. Top player. I'd happily take him.

Sullivan: Leave it to me Dave

(Sullivan phones Will Salthouse): Got anyone called En-Nesyri on your books?

Salthouse: Who?

Sullivan: Nevermind (hangs up, calls Seville). Hello Juan. How's tricks. You spoken to Sporting's chairman recently? No? Good. Listen, your boy En-Nesyri? How much do want for him?

Carmona: £40m

Sullivan: Bit steep fella. How about £25m?

Carmona: Good one. It's £40m.

Sullivan: I'll get back you.

(Sullivan emails Sky, Talksport, C&H: Lads, I've gone in big for a top, top striker, but it's a no-go. Tried really hard, but they won't budge. Remember though, it's all Pellegrini's fault. Just going to give Dave the good news)

Sullivan: Alright Davey Boy. Sorry, it's a no go on your striker. I tried everything I could

Moyes: It's been 10 minutes since we spoke...

Sullivan: Yeah, sorry, got to go, The Rise of the Krays is about to start on Sony Movies. Have a think about who else you want, but probably best to wait 'til the summer, yeah. Cheers Dave.


I suspect Moyes has other strikers in mind. Sima seems like a logical option given our relationship with Slavia Prague, but that would suggest that's more of a Sullivan steer than a Moyes pick. I just hope that we'll spend the next four months or so working on potential deals so they're ready to go as soon as the window opens so we're not looking at another late-window panic.

Hamstew

Brilliant OCS

MrsGrey

Reported by BBC from today's presser

Moyes: "When the club spent £200m, people said it was great and it was a sign of it going places – but it didn’t work out that well.

"I am not going to sign players who have come in just to appease people,"

"We tried for a striker but the players we wanted weren’t available."

OldCastleSwift

MrsGrey said:

Reported by BBC from today's presser

Moyes: "When the club spent £200m, people said it was great and it was a sign of it going places – but it didn’t work out that well.

"I am not going to sign players who have come in just to appease people,"

"We tried for a striker but the players we wanted weren’t available."

Nah, too sensible.

baracks_a_hammer

Bit of a kop out for me. I mean he’s had a year. Bit of a pointless statement. Because if you don’t on the one hand want to bring in players to appease someone you then don’t on the other hand let ones you do have go to be left with nothing.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Fortuneseeker said:

PLF, I know a Wolves fan & he really enjoyed last season’s Europa League campaign & has put this season’s struggles so far down to the injury to Jiminez & Jota leaving. I don’t expect us to be qualifying for Europe every season but would expect every effort to be made to seize the opportunity when it appears to be there this year which no cover in two key positions and reducing the squad numbers is IMHO doing the opposite. ☹️

I can't see us having the squad to cope imo like Wolves we could easily lose a couple of players to injury and transfers (Antonio/injury Rice/transfer) but hey thay could happen anyway . Wolves owners have backed Nuno alot more than ours have backed Moyes

IronHerb

Truth always hurts.

Yeoldhammer

MrsGrey said:

Reported by BBC from today's presser

Moyes: "When the club spent £200m, people said it was great and it was a sign of it going places – but it didn’t work out that well.

"I am not going to sign players who have come in just to appease people,"

"We tried for a striker but the players we wanted weren’t available."

Can get behind his rationale but don't sell your back up striker to leave you with no options other than having to rely on someone "doing a job" in that position till something becomes available because what happens if the right person isn't available in the summer. Poor decision making.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

baracks_a_hammer said:

Bit of a kop out for me. I mean he’s had a year. Bit of a pointless statement. Because if you don’t on the one hand want to bring in players to appease someone you then don’t on the other hand let ones you do have go to be left with nothing.

Football isn't black and white

Just because you target a player doesn't mean he's for sale...or maybe they are available but their price is 50% higher in Jan then it would be in the summer

What moyes said is true, in terms of money spent im sure pretty much any team not I nthe top 7 probably look at us and think why are we complaining, we spend a lot more than other teams do....but the issue is with the players that we have brought in

So Moyes is trying to correct that by not panicking and focusing on the long term not the short term

Glad that the club are finally thinking logically for once

Remember everyone moaning we didn't get Manning...well he has only had 3 stats at Championship Swansea and doesnt appear to have done anything of note, and what about Robinson who moved to Fulham...we got Coufal because we didn't go in for him and I know who got the better deal from that

I was as angry as anyone about Diangana (and still am) but it does appear that swapping him for Benrahma seems to have worked in our favour

jay_in_cpt

Sorry , but I've never heard of Manning.....

baracks_a_hammer

Good points champo 👍

There isn’t an exact science over signing players. And it isn’t the amount or the size of spend either. I actually don’t care if Moyes prefers say the striker from Blackburn over the Seville player

However either by Moyes willingness to take a risk/chance or Sully forcing him to do so, we are left with departures and no more suited replacements in place at all. Literally no options. That is desperately poor.

Fortuneseeker

DM needs to be careful making comments like that as IF he fails to deliver what is expected then he will attract “dogs abuse” as his Glaswegian friend would say on the radio. Who is he managing the team for if not the supporters, oh sorry we are customers according to KB.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

We’re fifth.

Fifth.

I’m pretty happy.