Football transfers - how to NOT do

Transfers in football are rather simple, really. You sign players who are so good that they make the first XI better. Dan Shittu comes to mind - brilliant signing. He didn't cost all that much (although I think his price could rise to £3M, but much of that was hopefully based on survival in the Prem), and he was a clear improvement of our defensive line from the moment he arrived. Tommy Smith was another good signing - our best right winger without question, and cheap at £500k.

Another way of signing players are young players with obvious talent. I can't remember any recent Boothroyd signings that fall under this category, but Priskin could have been a good signing, and I still think he has lots and lots of talent waiting to unfold.

Then there's of course the more low-profile signings when there's desperate need for someone in a position, say, if you only have one left back and he's playing horribly. Then it would be okay to sign someone cheap who can just do the job, or more preferrably get someone on loan.


And what's _bad_ transferring? The opposite. What we do, or at least what have been doing for the last 12 months.


Selling the best players: I know this is inevitable for a club our size, and to be honest I don't think we could have done anything to keep Marlon King, Bouazza or Young. So that's three quality players gone and the need for at least three quality players in.

Quality players in? The only 'attempt' at such has been Ellington, but when you spend lots of money on a 'quality' signing, for God's sake do you research right and make sure he _is_ a quality player and not just a man with a funny beard who looks like he belongs in non-League football. Apart from that, we haven't signed a single quality player who massively strengthens the first XI. Jobi McAnuff is the closes, but when Adam Johnson came on loan you saw what a _really_ good player does when he comes into the team.

The worst, though, is constantly signing mediocre players who do nothing but fill up the squad. Whenever a manager buys a player and says "he'll give us more depth" I think "gaawd, when will they learn". You have youth players for depth! More about that later.

Steven Kabba, 500k. Utter crap and a meaningless panic buy. I don't see why Aidy would panic so much at the time, it's not like we had six strikers out with broken legs. Steven Kabba is someone you buy when you're left with Francino Francis as your only striker.

Will Hoskins, 650k. He's fairly young but hardly a teenager. I don't see any massive potential in him. He looks like the kind of player who scores a fair bit in the Football league, just because he's eager, fairly quick and has a decent shot - which is enough in leagues where defenders make Bozo-the-clown errors all the time.

Lee Williamson, 250k. He's an okay player, but what's the point? We had just sold Springy for the same price and Williamson is no improvement at all. What do we need such utterly mediocre players for? We have youth players who can fill in for crying out loud. John-Joe O'Toole is a brilliant example. Here we go out spending money on players like Rinaldi and signing fatties like Cavalli, and lo-and-behold we have youth players who can do a better job.

Johann Cavalli, free. Okay, he was free, but why sign a small fat Fresh guy with fairly good technique? Shouldn't the fact that he had just been rejected by a French tier 2 side ring the warning bells?

Douglas Rinaldi, 250k. Again, how would he strengthen our first XI ? These kind of players grow on trees in Brazil, and they play 3rd division football there, like Rinaldi did. That should maybe have been a slight warning, no?

Cedric Avinel, free. Again, it's not a big deal since he's free, but when you're signing a 21-year-old defender he should at least be good enough to push for a place in the team. Otherwise he's probably never going to be good enough, which he probably isn't.

Moses Ashikodi, free-ish. I guess it's okay to have a go at a 19-year-old striker, but he hadn't started a single first team match in his whole career before he got here, covering three different clubs. I don't see the next top scorer in the Championship in him to be honest.

Mart Poom. I guess an okay signing, as we needed another keeper. Would have liked someone clearly better than Lee, though.

Matt Jackson. Why sign him? And why give him a two-year-deal worth £7,500 a week. Why !? He's worse than what we've got, he's stone old and the extra experience is something we already very much have in Malky. Completely idiotic.


So there you go then. It's no wonder we're in lower spirits than we have been for the last two years or so. Ironically, Collins John is the first 'quality' signing we've made for a long time. He'll clearly go straight into the team and I hope he succeeds. Then I hope we have already agreed on a fee for him.

 

I thought when we started signing payers for £3.5M/£4.5M we was a club that could also afford to keep our players.

 

Good post hartvix.

I would like to see Hoskins given a chance in the first team, just to see if he has anything to offer. If not (and if Boothroyd doesn't believe he can progress any further) then we should sell him to a team where he can make a difference.

 

i agree but i have just wasted half an hour of my life reading something i already knew, hope-ing (i realy cannot spell) for a controversial talking point....