It does seem a tad bizarre because we could easily have been spending £20M on Zaza or was it always our intention, regardless of his form, to not play him enough to trigger the clause. Maybe if we had had to buy Zaza we would have needed to sell Payet to pay for him.
;hmm It does make you wonder. I mean, if the Lacazatte bids were true, then we had £40m to spend. We spent £20m of that on Ayew and presumably the other £20m was being reserved for Zaza (had it worked out). So the fact that we didn't sign Zaza means we could afford Fonte and Snodgrass from that money, which in turn means the £25m from Payet is new money? ;hmm
OCS Depends on how the various deals were structured. ;hmm
As I said somewhere else, not buying Zaza doesn't necessarily mean Sully actually has a spare £20m in used notes stuffed under his mattress.
It might have been one of those deals structured so that relatively little is paid up front, with the bulk of the money coming from future years' budgets. Plus some of these numbers being bandied about can be 'rising to' figures and might never be reached if certain conditions aren't met.
Trevor Sinclair Ex-Man City & West Ham winger I feel like we need a right-back and Ashley Young would be ideal. He’s been playing there for them, and could do a great job for West Ham.
Hang on, so on the one hand we have Bilic saying we have really good strikers at the club so don’t need Hogan, and on the other Sully saying that we were looking to bring in Demba Ba ;hmm
Is it just me or is that completely contradictory? Either we need/want a striker or we don’t.
“We’re not looking for [any late deals]. We got Fonte who we really wanted, we got Snodgrass who we really wanted from day one, and we were maybe looking for a right-back. We couldn’t find someone who would improve our squad or first eleven and that’s why we didn’t get one. I’m very happy with the squad now.
“For example Demba Ba; He’s a player who has proved himself in the Premier League and he’s a player who I managed at Besiktas.
“I spoke to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago and the problem was that he got very badly injured and he told me he would be fit in March. That’s too late for us.
"He’s definitely a good player, he’s young and scoring goals in the Championship but it’s not a question of 'Is he good enough?'; it’s a question of what we have.
We have Andy Carroll, Michail Antonio, Ashley Fletcher and Jonathan Calleri and plus players who can play second striker like Andre Ayew and Robert Snodgrass. We have to stay fit but that’s the reason behind my decision.”
Don't agree Greys. The above suggests to me that he thinks we have enough with the players he's listed.
The fact that we would have taken Ba doesn't really back that up, IMO
I think the daves and Slav want as good as a guarantee that any striker they sign would get goals in the Prem. That's why I guess they wouldn't have been interested in gabbiadini. To me the only options would have been
Defoe (whose price, even if Sunderland relented would have put them off as he'd have no resale value)
Ba (injured till march - yet still besiktas signed him on loan ;hmm )
Sturridge (who Liverpool may only let go at the end of the season not now)
Ba = worth getting in considering what we already have Hogan = not worth getting in considering what we already have
I have read the whole article Grey, and if the above was true then maybe he shouldn't have said, "it’s not a question of 'Is he good enough?'; it’s a question of what we have."
Maybe I'm the only one that see's that as a contradiction ;ok
Tbh, I take Slav saying "it's not about if he's good enough" to be a polite way of saying that he doesn't think he's good enough. It doesn't really help anyone if Slav comes out and says "we looked at Hogan but I think he's rubbish".
That article that (I think) Grey posted earlier claimed there were no official bids for Hogan, and neither club have said that there was either (as far as I have seen).
We had all summer to get a good quality RB and Striker there was talk about Hogan all of January on sky , I didn't expect us to sign a top striker in January because they are just not out there or available its a bad time to try and sign a player .
But fully expect Sullivan to come up trumps in this next window and please learn from the past mistakes .
Comments
But it does seem rather to be ignoring the fact that we are 6th highest net spenders on transfers.
Depends on how the various deals were structured. ;hmm
As I said somewhere else, not buying Zaza doesn't necessarily mean Sully actually has a spare £20m in used notes stuffed under his mattress.
It might have been one of those deals structured so that relatively little is paid up front, with the bulk of the money coming from future years' budgets. Plus some of these numbers being bandied about can be 'rising to' figures and might never be reached if certain conditions aren't met.
Apparently talksport pundit Micky Quinn reckons the Dave's are trying to do a deal for him today
PL DEAL SHEET EXPLAINED
As in the previous window, Premier League clubs can complete deals by 1am, thanks to the Deal Sheet.
Clubs and players must do the following to get any last-minute deals over the line...
•Form must be submitted to Premier League 9pm – 11pm;
•It must be submitted by the clubs involved and signed by the player;
•Info required includes total fee, add-ons and player signature confirming they have agreed personal terms
•If Premier League receive Deal Sheet by 11pm, clubs have until 1am (midnight for international deals) to legally complete
Aston Villa have agreed a fee in the region of £15m for Brentford striker Scott Hogan, according to Sky sources
Oh good.
If Slav is saying what the board want him to, and it isn't true, he is lying.
Simple.
I don't think he is lying.
I think he is the one who had the doubts about Hogan.
I'm basing this on what he said, and on what Diddy Dee said.
To suggest that Slav would go along with what he is told to keep his job safe is, imo, to suggest he has no backbone.
I believe, and certainly hope, that if the DD's told him to do or say something he wasn't happy with, he would refuse, and walk if necessary.
Trevor Sinclair
Ex-Man City & West Ham winger
I feel like we need a right-back and Ashley Young would be ideal. He’s been playing there for them, and could do a great job for West Ham.
;ccole
Is it just me or is that completely contradictory? Either we need/want a striker or we don’t.
I think the message has always been 'we want players who can improve the 1st XI'.
Slav said: Read more at http://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2017/january/31-january/bilic-im-happy-my-squad#m24ukPSXgqDiEdmv.99
Which I take to mean, he thought if we got Ba that would be an improvement, and if we got Hogan, it wouldn't.
So, we were on the lookout for a striker if we could find one Slav was happy would improve us.
We have Andy Carroll, Michail Antonio, Ashley Fletcher and Jonathan Calleri and plus players who can play second striker like Andre Ayew and Robert Snodgrass. We have to stay fit but that’s the reason behind my decision.”
Don't agree Greys. The above suggests to me that he thinks we have enough with the players he's listed.
The fact that we would have taken Ba doesn't really back that up, IMO
Only, imo, because you are not reading the whole article.
I would say, from Slav's point of view
Ba = worth getting in considering what we already have
Hogan = not worth getting in considering what we already have
I don't see how they are contradictory.
Defoe (whose price, even if Sunderland relented would have put them off as he'd have no resale value)
Ba (injured till march - yet still besiktas signed him on loan ;hmm )
Sturridge (who Liverpool may only let go at the end of the season not now)
Maybe I'm the only one that see's that as a contradiction ;ok
Well, that's pretty much what Slav said.
Tbh, I take Slav saying "it's not about if he's good enough" to be a polite way of saying that he doesn't think he's good enough. It doesn't really help anyone if Slav comes out and says "we looked at Hogan but I think he's rubbish".
So if he was already satisfied with what he had where Hogan was concerned what would have been the point of wasting Brentford fc's time?
Hogan all of January on sky , I didn't expect us to sign a top striker in January because they are just not out there or available its a bad time to try and sign a player .
But fully expect Sullivan to come up trumps in this next window and please learn from the past mistakes .