Well then we’d make profit which still makes the value for money comparison with Fabianski redundant. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It is very simple yes. We're Watford and don't have an endless supply of money. Fabianski is a better keeper than Butland, will cost less overall when you include transfer fee and wages and we would still get at least 3 years out of him if needed. The thinking of some fans to spend nearly £30m on Butland rather than £4m on Fabianski is baffling.
My opinion is Butland is the better keeper, younger as well, but Fabianski is still decent enough. It just comes down to money. Fabianski will cost £4m and Butland would be at least £25m I would guess. I would love Butland at Watford, as he's a very good character, but anything over £2om is out of Watford's budget. If we signed Fabianski for £4m, Wilmot for £1.5m and Deulofeu for around £10m + add ons, then that would have to be very good business, well within budget and would have improved the first team. There would be a lot more left in the bank for a striker too. It's early days yet though, but no left backs linked is a concern for me.
Is over £20 million out of our budget? We signed Andre Gray for nearly that amount last summer, he's been terrible and has barely played in the second half of the season, but we'll just sell him this summer and probably get back what we paid for him or close enough because that's how football is now. We're going into our fourth consecutive season in the Premier League and the financial rewards for being in this division are only increasing. If we can spend £20 million on a player who has made little to no contribution to our season without it significantly harming us financially or on the pitch then we can certainly afford to spend £25 million on a young goalkeeper who will either be our number 1 for the next 10 years or be sold to a bigger club for a lot more than we paid for him.
I don't mean we're not up for spending £20m on a player, but not on a goalkeeper or defender. I don't think Gino sees a reason to spend big on this area of the side. It's strikers and creative players he would spend £20m on. This has historically been the case, at least that's how I'm reading it.
What’s the most we’ve ever spent on a keeper since the takeover? By memory Gomes and Almunia were both out of contract when they joined us I think? We paid money for Pantilimon but I don’t think the amount was ever made public.
Looking at our past history of goalkeepers signed under the Pozzo's, I find it hard to believe that they'd deviate from how they've gone about doing business regarding this position before: Almunia - free transfer Gomes - free transfer Pantilimon - 500k Bachman - free transfer Dahlberg - £3.5m Karnezis - loan To suddenly splash out somewhere between £20-30m on a position where past evidence shows they believe value for money can be had for relative peanuts in today's crazy transfer fees seems too far a leap. The Fabianski rumour seems far more likely when looking at the money paid for the others - and even then, the quoted price would still be as much as the rest combined. Rightly or wrongly - it doesn't (or is yet to) look like a position that Gino is prepared to wipe out the majority of his transfer budget on. I'd far rather see top dollar spent on a left back and/or striker plus a GK brought in for somewhere around the Fabianski quote, than see it all go on an over-priced English GK to the detriment of other key positions. Edit - just read your post, Malt - according to The Mirror, it was 500k
Almoo & Gomie have been two of the very best performers in the Pozzo years. Good business & good strategy re gk’s.
Several clubs are looking at him. If they are serious about recruiting him then we have no chance of signing him given the transfer fee and wages they could offer him. The only possibility is he is one of the footballers that seem to be an ever decreasing group that are genuinely interested in furthering their career by actually playing first team football. Which we could offer him. However we would only sign him if the fee was not ridiculous and Stoke will be looking for a large sum. And given we have also signed another stellar talent in Dahlberg (shades of de Gea) and still have Bachmann, Fabianski looks the better option.
After last nights events, you suspect Liverpool would be another club who could do worse than look at Butland. It’s hard to remember a season like it when all three sides got relegated with such a high calibre of keeper, all of who seemed to be absolved of much, if any, blame and all seem likely to move back to the PL.
Yes I saw those reports too. I guess it depends on how representative those tweets they quoted actually are. They may quite fairly sum up most fans thoughts, or equally be highly selective and chosen to suit the journalists’ agendas.
If I were Butland I would avoid Liverpool,given the way players,fans and staff treated Karius last night and this morning.
How will Wilmot improve 1st team. Maybe in few years but he is unlikely to be near 1st team for few years
2nd round isn't it? More generally with regard to Wilmot, I'm not so sure I agree with the posters that say he definitely won't be involved in the first team. Sometimes the only way to find out if a player is good enough/ready is to give them a chance. If he impresses Javi in pre-season, who knows? If he isn't going to feature, it's imperative we get the right loan club for him, as one of our worst habits in recent years has been signing young players that were playing regularly and then just keeping them in our squad but never using them. Young players need to play.
Against Stevenage with the sound of their chairman's laughter echoing across the four empty stands at the Vic'.
Pure speculation but I suspect Almoo was a strong & experienced figure during that time of great upheaval. A bit like a primary school teacher in charge of Year 3 on a day out.
Are you smoking crack? Fabianski is bang average. “Fraction of the cost” you don’t even know what price Stoke will let him go for.
I said these players would improve the first team, but in his case, not immediately. It's a big ask to ask someone to step up from League Two to play in the Premier League, but eventually absolutely, or why else buy him.
Based on what? He has rightfully kept out Heaton. Also, I hope he's our WC one - he's in by far the best form of England's keepers - but unfortunately Southgate may be too stubborn.
Agree re WC. When both players have been fit, Dyche has picked Heaton 90% of the time. Good problem for Clarets to have but you would think one of them would/should leave this summer.
We were about to sign Heaton when the Pozzos took over and killed the deal in favour of Almunia. Heaton would be a great signing but history might prevent it.
Pope was only signed by them in July 2016, with the original intention of being second choice and playing some cup games. Heaton played 100% of their PL games until he got injured in September of this season. Since then, after having eventually gotten the chance to prove himself, Pope has demonstrated that he is a very good keeper, meaning that in the 7 games Heaton has been back fit since returning from injury in April he has had to stay on the bench in every one. Were Heaton really the better keeper then it might have been expected that Dyche would have replaced Pope with him once he was fit again, especially given that Burnley still had a lot to play for with the potential for reaching Europe still on the cards. I'd wager that following his impressive performances Pope will start next season as Burnley's number one next season as well, and that if one of the two leaves the club in the summer it will be Heaton.
The thinking that fans care how much we spend is baffling. It's. Not. Your. Money. As a Watford fan, who would I rather see in goal for us next season? Jack Butland. I know The Pozzo's aren't stupid enough to cripple us financially over a goalkeeper so I'm not interested in that.