[CONFIRMED] Juraj Kucka

Yeah was tongue in cheek. I'm annoyed at the wasted money on Gray, Pussetto etc. I think we probably stack up pretty well against other clubs when it comes to wasted money on big signings though

 

Surely it’s all relative though? The smaller your ground the less match day revenue you have and the smaller a percentage it actually is of your PL revenue? Clubs with twice our capacity would’ve lost a higher percentage of their revenue, for us as a premier league club it was a relatively small percentage. Covid wasn’t extra bad for us compared to any other club, other than being relegated at the same time, simply being relegated and losing half our PL income at a stroke was the issue, not Covid. It also helped us massively by making it as easy as it possibly could be to get promoted again.

 

Palace?

Villa?

 

....in return for the free gifts of Abdi, Vydra, Ighalo, Sierralta (not sure if there was a fee?), TE.....some you win, some you lose.

 

Said it on the Observer article mate

 

False equivalence. We gave them our two biggest assets apart from Sarr. They gave us fringe players and loanees that weren't anywhere near their team.

I had no issue with Zeegelaar and Sema going that way. Surprised even that sema came back, but funneling them the fees for the likes of Success, Peneranda and Pussetto is simply them using us as a cash cow, when we simply cannot afford to be one.

 

I'm starting to wonder by how much Udinese 'bankrolled' us to get into the EPL & survive the first season. A lot of the subsequent 'transaction history' smells more than a little of paying back debts.

 

Villa are in a different stratosphere to us. Their two owners are probably only trumped by Chelsea and Man City's in wealth and the American is a major player in the NBA, i think his team just one the NBA title. The Eygptian in worth 10 Billion and owns 6% of Adidas. Bit different to Gino and his Old Man. Regardless of the Grealish money they are on a massive upward curve.

 

We paid handsomely for all the first wave of Udinese loanees upon promotion. That was the deal.

 

I would imagine most of our bankrolling came from our vast amount of external debt. I agree though it would be interesting to see if Udinese have such significant debt or if the debt is all loaded onto us. That would give an indication of if it is a fair trade.

 

Also, people like to casually sidestep the point that Udinese have rarely, if ever, given us anyone who was a regular for them (I accept WTE could be an exception). I’m pretty sure they’ve been happy to shed players and wages that’s they wanted rid of.

 

Shame we can't do the same with about five of our squad.

 

I liked the look of him. Despite his age, if he can score 5 goals + then its money well spent.

Fark going in to a 50/50 with him, not many times you'd say that in the past 5 years with our midfielders

 

Yeah, I mean as good as the likes of Abdi etc were, can you imagine at any point in our five premier league seasons being able to shed 6/7 important players from our squad without putting us in very serious danger of relegation. The point being these were very good reserve players, but not top quality first team players and hence Udinese could afford to, and probably benefited from them joining us. Pozzo stockpiles players, it’s what he does, so these players needed a home and it wasn’t in the starting line up of a serie A side.

 

From Udinese point of view they went from a squad playing in Champions/Europa League to perennial strugglers so don't seem on the face of it to have benefited from their connection with us

 

Why would they? We've never sent them a regular starter either, apart from players refusing to play in the Championship. If Udinese got relegated I'd bet we'd get a few coming over, to keep them in the circle

 

They did but more likely reversion to mean. After all they didn’t give us any players they actively used and our transfers were funded by TV revenue and vast external debt.

 

But we signed Abdi, Forestieri, Pudil, Ekstrand, Angella, Anya, Faraoni, Battocchio, Cassetti permanently before the 13/14 season? Tranfermarkt doesn't mention any transfer fees but I can't imagine it was market value. That's arguably £20-30m worth of players, plus the other less impressive signings like Ranegie, Merkel, Iriney, Acuna.

Unless you mean there were significant add ons like a promotion clause?

 

Its not like we are depriving them or wonderful players when both squads are full of dross.

I think that is in no small part because the Pozzos are no longer the masters of scouting / transfers that they once were. It is presumably far harder for them to identify hidden gems overperforming in less valued leagues, when the world and their mum has access to data driven scouting.

There is also more money that ever in football and some bonkers investment now in mid table sides like Villa, Everton, Arsenal, Brighton. The Pozzos were also never the wealthiest club owners and I suspect the combination of that extra investment and their already limited funds being spread across both clubs mean they just can't compete.

 

If Udinese got relegated, chances are we'd be horrified at the prospect of even some of their first-teamers coming our way!

 

Weeeeeyyyyyyyyyy

 

This used to be a joke, but I am not even sure it is anymore tbf.

 

No, indeed, one more season (as in this upcoming one) and it would be genuinely confirmed, for sure, much as one of my best mates likes to protest...

 

Sure.

But that wasn't the question if I recall correctly.

 

Told you all.

 

Class act. Imagine being scary as fark while being a magician on the ball

Bet he can't wait for it to get cold and rainy

 

Man City will be in for him before the end of the window.

 

Looks like he can play a little bit, doesn't he?

 

Cult hero candidate right here

 

How many sending offs this season?

2 straight reds I reckon.

Legend.

 

I’ll take that, as long as they are 83rd minute red cards rather than 13th minute red cards. He can have as many yellows and subsequent bans as he likes. He’s 34 and will need regular recovery breaks.