You're the Director of Football

DubPerryman

Ok, so we've all read the articles saying AVB will have a 'war chest' of £50m, £70m and £100m. Though let's be realistic, at present (and I'm guessing) we have a budget of £30m - following on from a few quiet transfer windows.

So, with £30m in the bank, who would you buy (try to be realistic) and who would you sell in order to raise funds? Once again, try to be realistic, we won't get £15m for David Bentley.... Levy might though.

Here's my picks.

In

Craig Gordon - Free - Only 29, so 'young' in some respects. Could learn a lot from Brad and Cudicini.
Boswinga - Free - Badly required cover at full-back along with Naughton.
Vertongen - £10m
Gylfi - £8m
Adam Johnson - £15m - Not necessarily cover at that price, but great to have on rotation with Lennon and Bale.
Adebayor - £15m
Ba - £7m

£55m


Out

Modric - £30m - knowing Levy wants so sell abroad will weaken our negotiating power, we won't be offered £40m+ like last season.
Corluka - £5m
Gio - £3m
Kranjacar - £3m
Gomes - £5m
Bentley - £5m (optimistic)

£51m


Net Spend - £4m




£26m left over for the Christmas window, in case we need Moutinho to come in.

2nd Row Donkey

Good idea for a new thread.


I agree we probably have around £30m to spend but Kranjaer and Corluka are gone already (aren't they?) so lets say we have £40m to spend.

Vertongen - £10m
Gylfi - £8m
Adebayor - £15m
Ba - £7m

thats the £40 gone already so it looks like selling Modric is a neccesity if we want to improve other parts of the team - i.e. CB cover, FB cover, a new GK

Hatch99

In
Verthongen 10m
Lloris 10m
Gylfi done
Adebayor 8m
Damiano Leandro 17m

Out
Gomes 2m
Gallas free
Bentley (let him go for free and get the fcuker off the wages)
Charlie gone,approx 5m
Niko gone, approx 5m
Gio, 6m
Jenas 3m

p.s. Ye never know, Modric might sign a new contract

DubPerryman

Hatch99 wrote: »

Niko gone, approx 5m

Wikipedia is saying the deal for Kranjcar was £7m! :eek:

Great piece of business.......... if true.

Hatch99

DubPerryman wrote: »

Wikipedia is saying the deal for Kranjcar was £7m! :eek:

Great piece of business.......... if true.

Bloody sure, Levy laughing all the way to the bank if so.

2nd Row Donkey

Hatch99 wrote: »

In

Out
Gomes (let him go for free and get the fcuker off the wages)
Gallas free
Bentley (let him go for free and get the fcuker off the wages)
Charlie gone,approx 5m
Niko gone, approx 5m
Gio, 6m
Jenas (let him go for free and get the fcuker off the wages)

.

Hatch99

2nd Row Donkey wrote: »

.

:D:D

DubPerryman

DubPerryman wrote: »

Here's my picks.

In

Craig Gordon - Free - Only 29, so 'young' in some respects. Could learn a lot from Brad and Cudicini.
Boswinga - Free - Badly required cover at full-back along with Naughton.
Vertongen - £10m
Gylfi - £8m
Adam Johnson - £15m - Not necessarily cover at that price, but great to have on rotation with Lennon and Bale.
Adebayor - £15m
Ba - £7m

£55m

It looks like Fryers is confirmed. So Boswinga won't be required.

DubPerryman

So here's my team. Will it in win the league? Will I keep my job as DOF? Should I email it to Tim Sherwood?!

---

Friedel/Gordon/Cudicini

---

---

Walker/Naughton

---

Caulker/Kaboul

---

Dawson/Vertongen

---

BAE/Fryers

---

Parker/Thudd

---

Sandro/Livermore

---

---

Lennon/Johnson

---

VDV/Gylfi

---

Bale/Townsend

---

Adebayor/Ba/Defoe

---

That's a fairly strong squad for Premier League and Europa Cup games. I think AVB may put more emphasis on the Europa Cup than Harry.

We also have a few more sellable squad players;

Jenas
Piennaar
Rose
Bassong


On top of that first-team squad, we also have a decent bit of youth to come in and help out.

Tom Carroll
Adam Smith
Harry Kane
Yago Falque
Soulimane Coubilay

Hatch99

DubPerryman wrote: »

So here's my team. Will it in win the league? Will I keep my job as DOF? Should I email it to Tim Sherwood?!

---

Friedel/Gordon/Cudicini

---

---

Walker/Naughton

---

Caulker/Kaboul

---

Dawson/Vertongen

---

BAE/Fryers

---

Parker/Thudd

---

Sandro/Livermore

---

---

Lennon/Johnson

---

VDV/Gylfi

---

Bale/Townsend

---

Adebayor/Ba/Defoe

---

That's a fairly strong squad for Premier League and Europa Cup games. I think AVB may put more emphasis on the Europa Cup than Harry.

We also have a few more sellable squad players;

Jenas
Piennaar
Rose
Bassong


On top of that first-team squad, we also have a decent bit of youth to come in and help out.

Tom Carroll
Adam Smith
Harry Kane
Yago Falque
Soulimane Coubilay

OK I'll be honest
A)That squad is defo not good enough to win the league.
B)It lacks 2 top players for me, 1 top top central player and also a top top striker. If modric goes, we need a good replacement, same type of player and I don't think Gylfi is that type of player, I could be wrong (not saying gylfi is not good, just a different type of player)! Also, we need to sign a 25 goals a season man, Ba of the 3 you named is the most likely, but I want someone with the x-factor not sure who it is though.

C)I'd love to see us sign the Lyon keeper. If we don't sign a keeper now, we will have to sign one next summer anyway so lets try get him while he's available. Don't get me wrong, Brad has been excellent. Brad to play european and league cup games and Lloris to be the best keeper in the league in 12 months.

DubPerryman

Hatch99 wrote: »

OK I'll be honest
A)That squad is defo not good enough to win the league.
B)It lacks 2 top players for me, 1 top top central player and also a top top striker. If modric goes, we need a good replacement, same type of player and I don't think Gylfi is that type of player, I could be wrong (not saying gylfi is not good, just a different type of player)! Also, we need to sign a 25 goals a season man, Ba of the 3 you named is the most likely, but I want someone with the x-factor not sure who it is though.

C)I'd love to see us sign the Lyon keeper. If we don't sign a keeper now, we will have to sign one next summer anyway so lets try get him while he's available. Don't get me wrong, Brad has been excellent. Brad to play european and league cup games and Lloris to be the best keeper in the league in 12 months.

I completely agree with you. We need that striker and a creative/'link' midfielder, but we've got to be realistic - we're not in the Champions League.

Lloris is attainable and I'd be very happy if we got him. Though, by all reports, Leandro Damiao and Oscar have no intention of leaving Internacional.

A 25 goal a season striker and a ready-made Modric-esque midfielder will cost the guts of £50m. Do we have that kind of cash, really? It's a big gamble even if we do buy them. With the new stadium and a very competitive Premier League season ahead we can't afford to take such gambles.... imo.

Saying that though, if the Qatari investment is really coming in, then everything I said above will be blown out of the water.

flyswatter

I'd love to sign Roque santa cruz, good player.

Hatch99

flyswatter wrote: »

I'd love to sign Roque santa cruz, good player.

You serious dude..

Hatch99

DubPerryman wrote: »

I completely agree with you. We need that striker and a creative/'link' midfielder, but we've got to be realistic - we're not in the Champions League.

Lloris is attainable and I'd be very happy if we got him. Though, by all reports, Leandro Damiao and Oscar have no intention of leaving Internacional.

A 25 goal a season striker and a ready-made Modric-esque midfielder will cost the guts of £50m. Do we have that kind of cash, really? It's a big gamble even if we do buy them. With the new stadium and a very competitive Premier League season ahead we can't afford to take such gambles.... imo.

Saying that though, if the Qatari investment is really coming in, then everything I said above will be blown out of the water.

Well if Modric goes for say 30m, I'd like to think we also have 30m to start with...so yes we should have that sort of money this summer. Who knows, maybe the Modric money if sold won't be re-invested..

everdead.ie

In

LLoris - 16m
Fryers - 2m
Vertongen - £8.6m
Gylfi - £8m
Adebayor - £5m
Damiao/Lewandanski/Sturridge £12-20m
Osacr/Ganso 15m
£69.6-77.6m


Out

Modric - £30m
Corluka - £5m
Gio - £5m
Kranjacar - £7m
Gomes - £5m
Bentley - £5m
Jenas - £3m

£60m

flyswatter

Hatch99 wrote: »

flyswatter wrote: »

I'd love to sign Roque santa cruz, good player.

You serious dude..

Yeah, why not?

Mr. Guappa

flyswatter wrote: »

I'd love to sign Roque santa cruz, good player.

Thank you for your interest in this position. We will keep your CV on file.

*Chucks flyswatters credentials in the bin!

flyswatter

Again, no one has offered me any reason on this.

Mr. Guappa

flyswatter wrote: »

Again, no one has offered me any reason on this.

14 league goals in the last 4 seasons. He had one fantastic season at Blackburn but he has done nothing since. He didn't make any impression at City and is 31 next month. I can't see what he would add to our squad.

flyswatter

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

14 league goals in the last 4 seasons. He had one fantastic season at Blackburn but he has done nothing since. He didn't make any impression at City and is 31 next month. I can't see what he would add to our squad.

Probably more out of the fact that Man City have so many good strikers and that he hasn't played too much.

He has the ability. A good manager could get him going again. I'm not saying spend 10 million on him, say 2-3 million.

We only have 1 striker at the moment and we aren't going to be able to finance a couple of 15/20 million pound strikers unless that foreign investment happens.

Hatch99

flyswatter wrote: »

Again, no one has offered me any reason on this.

I just don't think he's good enough mate. We should be setting our sights on better players than him.

Leinstersqspur

Sherwoods Role:

Much has already been written about Tim Sherwood, our Technical Co-ordinator (at the time of writing!), with many anticipating that he will be promoted to a Technical Director/Director of Football style role.

As it stands, though, Sherwood is still very much focused on bridging the gap between our Development Squad (essentially those who have progressed beyond the U18s, either due to age or ability), and the first-team. Part of his remit, as we know, is to manage the loan players - ensuring that they are sent out to an appropriate loan club and properly handled when there.

Previous approach to loans

In a telling interview last week, Sherwood told Alex Aldridge (@accordingtoaldo) from NewsAtDen:

"I will sit down with the new manager and talk in more depth about his philosophy on loaning younger players. But I think there might be a change of tack, because we don't really learn anything from sending players to the Championship for a second time."

It is quite clear, then, that the Manager/Head Coach's view on the loan system is a vital when it comes to decision-making. We know that Redknapp was a big fan of players going out on loan - in this interview with The National, he spoke of the young players he managed at West Ham, saying:

"I have always felt it is far better for talented teenagers to go out on a longish loan spell to a club lower down the leagues where they come up against seasoned pros and have the opportunity to play lots of games rather than sit on the bench or play in games that might come too easy for them."

The problem with the approach taken last year (seemingly based on the above) was that we seemed too quick to get as many players out as possible with, it seemed, little thought as to the selected club. Whilst some players got regular action, others (Carroll, Mason, Khumalo, Bostock, Oyenuga, etc) were struggling to get regular games due to being either unsuited to the loan club's style or indeed to the league that they were sent to play in.

It seems as though lessons have now been learnt, and Sherwood's comment illustrates that we are prepared to lean from experience and change the way that loans are managed.

Harry Kane

The interview was primarily about Harry Kane potentially returning to Millwall for the coming campaign, and Sherwood revealed that this would be unlikely:

"We don't think there's any value in loaning Harry out to the Championship again. He's ticked that box. He may need a few more games if he's not in the frame at Tottenham, but he's going to be given every opportunity to prove himself to the new manager.

If the manager decides he's not ready, that would be the only time we would consider loaning him out. But as we stand, we're not looking to loan him." 

Villas-Boas will want to be able to have a close look at Kane in pre-season and potentially use him in the Europa League prior to making a decision on where he will spend the majority of the season.

Loanee clubs

Interestingly, Sherwood also gave some insight as to how Millwall were chosen as a destination - and it does seem to be a case of "who you know not what you know":

"I know Kenny Jackett because we played together at Watford, so there's a connection there. Millwall is a good move for our young boys because it gives them experience and it's local."

However, he was also quick to point out that even a "tried and tested" loanee club will not suit every player:

"Sometimes it works out, as with Kane, but sometimes it doesn't, as with Mason."

This, in my opinion, is the crux, and the key aspect of Sherwood's job; Ryan Mason, the talented number 10, has not had too much luck out on loan, and it might be that he is a player who will be better off amidst the Development or even first-team squad, learning from Villas-Boas and his team. It's Sherwood who ultimately has to make these decisions - which players are suited to loans (and where), which are better off within the confines of the club - and also to pull players back when things are not going to plan (as happened a couple of times last season).