Deal or no deal? - Summer 2022 Transfer gossip!

[The_Gun]

I'm not sure there's much reliable data when it comes to actual player salaries, and obviously there will be significant discrepancies between clubs. However, what we do know is that there is a big gap between the tv/solidarity payments clubs in the Championship (£7-8m) and League One (around £1.5m) receive per season.

I would dispute the fact that we need two Championship level defenders to be promotion contenders. If by 'Championship level' people mean players who are already proven in that division, then it's highly unlikely we'll be able to make that work financially anyway.

Our recruitment strategy is clearly geared at finding players who have the ability to play at higher levels, but who haven't been given the opportunity to do so previously, and thus don't command crazy wages. This makes sense and shouldn't be a barrier to us succeeding in my opinion.

I certainly don't buy into this notion that there's a 'one size fits all' blueprint for gaining promotion and we must emulate what Wigan and Rotherham did in order to be successful.

[Worthy4England]

Reliable data probably not, but from various reports, there's little reason to disbelieve that the gap between average salaries might be in the order of a 5 or 6 to 1 ratio

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm not sure there's much reliable data when it comes to actual player salaries, and obviously there will be significant discrepancies between clubs. However, what we do know is that there is a big gap between the tv/solidarity payments clubs in the Championship (£7-8m) and League One (around £1.5m) receive per season.

I would dispute the fact that we need two Championship level defenders to be promotion contenders. If by 'Championship level' people mean players who are already proven in that division, then it's highly unlikely we'll be able to make that work financially anyway.

Our recruitment strategy is clearly geared at finding players who have the ability to play at higher levels, but who haven't been given the opportunity to do so previously, and thus don't command crazy wages. This makes sense and shouldn't be a barrier to us succeeding in my opinion.

I certainly don't buy into this notion that there's a 'one size fits all' blueprint for gaining promotion and we must emulate what Wigan and Rotherham did in order to be successful.

It’s a mix I’d say, we’ve signed Lee, Bodvarrson, Doyle, Delfouneso etc from levels higher than we were at.

I think Toal is a good example. He might be absolutely brilliant. And we just wait and see. But if you want to give yourself a really good chance you bank on someone already proven in league one with experience. And if you can someone from the level above who isn’t maybe quite getting the games up there.

But with Toal if he comes in and is good enough then happy days, but if not then it’s the same old problems at the back. I’m not even against signing him he looks a good propsect. I just feel we are two more experienced proven players short of being able to say we are in with a real shout and feels like that sentiment is shared by a few others too.

[bw@bw]

Reliable data probably not, but from various reports, there's little reason to disbelieve that the gap between average salaries might be in the order of a 5 or 6 to 1 ratio

If that is right then any Championship player worth having will hang on there until the end of his contract.
The sacrifice in dropping down a league is just too much.
Even then, they will be looking for another Championship club rather than take the reduction in order to get more game time

Maybe we were just lucky with Bod that he was desperate to get away from Millwall, and we have good Icelandic connections

Maybe we should treat these ex Champ players as a bonus if and when they happen.
Until then I expect the focus (as The Gun says) to be on finding players who COULD play at a higher level, but have not been given the chance to do so.
That supposes that our coaching staff have the ability to help these players reach their potential.

[Mar]

I think our style of play and tactics are working wonders in terms of players reaching their potential. It's rare that we've signed proven commodities and got what we expected, Gilks and Lee perhaps. The rest of the players seem to be ones who are on paper doing OK but put in a system that maximises their output then turns them into much better outputs.

Baka and Bod seem to be examples of this where their goal output has notably improved.

I think it's only Delf who is an contrasting outlier

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

5:1 or 6:1 wage bill ratio sounds feasible to me over the divisions as a whole, but then as well as comparing Bolton with Rotherham you're comparing Norwich with Accy. Champo sides also tend to have larger squads which may drive up the salary without

What is clear is that the base wage, if you want to call it that, is a multiple higher. Let's pick a few clubs who finished in the bottom half last year – Preston, Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol City, Birmingham.

Say for argument's sake the median, bog-standard wage of a typical player there - not their marquee signings, not their kids - is "only" 2x or 3x the level of ours or indeed Oxford's, Pompey's, Plymouth's, MK Dons' - I'm excluding 'contenders' who have been in higher divisions because they may have bloated their budget (although to be fair, Wycombe and Rotherham appear to be sensible in that manner).

Let us further say that Johnny Shoes, a talented but underused player with tier-two experience but now wasting away at Ashton Gate or wherever, is technically available for transfer – but he's on twice the wage of a Dempsey or a Baka or a Dapo who've never earned at that level.

What do you do with your budget?

This, I suspect, is the main quandary facing Evatt/Markham and probably why he says they have a value for players and they won't overstep it. That could mean transfer fees but it could also mean wages. I don't think it's any coincidence at all that we have usually signed *contracted* players with higher-division experience – Bod, Sads, Demps, DJ, and also when we were in D4 players like MJ from the division above - in January, when clubs and players are likely to swallow a bigger hit to their contractual expectations - than in summer.

Meanwhile, if our hypothetical "tier-two" player is currently unattached, he's unlikely to jump at the first t3 offer he gets, unless perhaps it's being paid at t2 wage level by a club speculatively gambling on promotion. I think we can all imagine who they might be. I'm glad we're not one of them.

[Worthy4England]

Reliable data probably not, but from various reports, there's little reason to disbelieve that the gap between average salaries might be in the order of a 5 or 6 to 1 ratio

If that is right then any Championship player worth having will hang on there until the end of his contract.
The sacrifice in dropping down a league is just too much.
Even then, they will be looking for another Championship club rather than take the reduction in order to get more game time

Maybe we were just lucky with Bod that he was desperate to get away from Millwall, and we have good Icelandic connections

Maybe we should treat these ex Champ players as a bonus if and when they happen.
Until then I expect the focus (as The Gun says) to be on finding players who COULD play at a higher level, but have not been given the chance to do so.
That supposes that our coaching staff have the ability to help these players reach their potential.

Averages can be pretty confusing. Were Bod, Declan John, etc. all still packing average Champo wages? Clearly they thought our offer was decent enough...

[bw@bw]

5:1 or 6:1 wage bill ratio sounds feasible to me over the divisions as a whole, but then as well as comparing Bolton with Rotherham you're comparing Norwich with Accy. Champo sides also tend to have larger squads which may drive up the salary without

What is clear is that the base wage, if you want to call it that, is a multiple higher. Let's pick a few clubs who finished in the bottom half last year – Preston, Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol City, Birmingham.

Say for argument's sake the median, bog-standard wage of a typical player there - not their marquee signings, not their kids - is "only" 2x or 3x the level of ours or indeed Oxford's, Pompey's, Plymouth's, MK Dons' - I'm excluding 'contenders' who have been in higher divisions because they may have bloated their budget (although to be fair, Wycombe and Rotherham appear to be sensible in that manner).

Let us further say that Johnny Shoes, a talented but underused player with tier-two experience but now wasting away at Ashton Gate or wherever, is technically available for transfer – but he's on twice the wage of a Dempsey or a Baka or a Dapo who've never earned at that level.

What do you do with your budget?

This, I suspect, is the main quandary facing Evatt/Markham and probably why he says they have a value for players and they won't overstep it. That could mean transfer fees but it could also mean wages. I don't think it's any coincidence at all that we have usually signed *contracted* players with higher-division experience – Bod, Sads, Demps, DJ, and also when we were in D4 players like MJ from the division above - in January, when clubs and players are likely to swallow a bigger hit to their contractual expectations - than in summer.

Meanwhile, if our hypothetical "tier-two" player is currently unattached, he's unlikely to jump at the first t3 offer he gets, unless perhaps it's being paid at t2 wage level by a club speculatively gambling on promotion. I think we can all imagine who they might be. I'm glad we're not one of them.

My thoughts entirely. I could not have put it better
Maybe that's because you are an Author and I was an accountant

But it's a long wait from now to January

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

My thoughts entirely. I could not have put it better
Maybe that's because you are an Author and I was an accountant

But it's a long wait from now to January

Very kind My accounts are disastrous...

We don't necessarily have to wait for January, but we may have to wait for late August.

Some players will be keen enough to move, and/or their club willing enough to cut their losses - as Bod proved – but even with him it took a fortnight or so of discussions even in the accelerated timeframe of the January window.

Looked at another way: it reminds me of that old rule regarding cheap, good and quick:
If you want it cheap and good, it won't be quick.
If you want it cheap and quick, it won't be good.
If you want it good and quick, it won't be cheap.

There have been times where we've prioritised quick and got players like Mascoll (I'm told he was an emergency rebound because Phoenix was too cheap with Callum McFadzean). We now don't have the urgency to overhaul, so the speed is deprioritised.

[The_Gun]

I think maybe he's been mentioned on this forum previously, but would Bolton lad Dale Stephens fit the bill as a veteran pro with plenty of higher level experience?

33 year old 6'1 central midfielder released by Burnley this summer and reportedly on Derby's raidar.

[boltonboris]

Presume he'll be after dollars as much as playing time at that age, but would definitely be a useful bod

We're not going to be able to compete with Derby on wages, which sounds incredible really considering their predicament

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I think maybe he's been mentioned on this forum previously, but would Bolton lad Dale Stephens fit the bill as a veteran pro with plenty of higher level experience?

33 year old 6'1 central midfielder released by Burnley this summer and reportedly on Derby's raidar.

If Derby want him, I imagine he goes there. Seems the Rams are just offering more money than us. Like Barky, Stephens is a Lancashire lad, but unlike Barky, he spent a decade down south (and he trained with Brighton this summer; presumably he got a lift, as in April he got a year's driving ban for drink-driving).

If they don't offer, maybe he'd be interested, but obvz it depends whether Evatt/Markham want him.

[The_Gun]

The internet seems to think he's been on £30k+ per week at Burnley, so perhaps money won't be the prime motivating factor for him.

Childhood Bolton fan from a family of Bolton fans, so there's that. I would expect he'd want to be pretty much guaranteed a starting spot, however.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Many Brighton fans' chief criticism of him is "slow, sideways passer". That may be unfair – he could also pass forward - but it might ring an alarm bell.

Since the trolley dash of the first Evatt summer, we haven't gone much for older players (29+). Lee in the obvious exception but he trained with us to prove fitness and is definitely still very mobile. Other than him, I think Bod (who turned 30 in summer) might be our oldest acquisition of the last three windows?

That said, we have therefore also lost experience, and life is balance.

[The_Gun]

Slow is clearly not something we're looking for, however, Burnley did pay Brighton over £4m for him a couple of seasons back, so those fan comments may not be entirely accurate.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Slow is clearly not something we're looking for, however, Burnley did pay Brighton over £4m for him a couple of seasons back, so those fan comments may not be entirely accurate.

£1m http://www.wearebrighton.com/newsopinio ... ey-for-1m/

I'm not against him per se, by the way. Some Brighton fans love him. Others saw him as the epitome of Hughton's safety-first attitude - but Evatt is not Hughton and it's possible the player was playing to instructions.

[The_Gun]

Ah, you're correct. I was reading his market value on Transfermarkt

[Mar]

Many Brighton fans' chief criticism of him is "slow, sideways passer". That may be unfair – he could also pass forward - but it might ring an alarm bell.

Always thought Gary Speed was a slow, sideways passer of the ball. Never really saw the hype of him being next level, despite him doing consistently well. Campo's passing prowess I liked, Speed's tackling and work rate I liked.

If he (Stephens) can do a Gary Speed style job that may well be the cover for MJ that a few of us are asking for.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Ah, you're correct. I was reading his market value on Transfermarkt

Transfermarkt is astonishingly good for a lot of uses - many of them hidden and only accessible accidentally via Google search - but its fee histories can't be trusted. I think they may be index-linked or summat similarly weird.

Always thought Gary Speed was a slow, sideways passer of the ball. Never really saw the hype of him being next level, despite him doing consistently well. Campo's passing prowess I liked, Speed's tackling and work rate I liked.

If he (Stephens) can do a Gary Speed style job that may well be the cover for MJ that a few of us are asking for.

Yep, I can see it working, could even be inspired – certainly a wise head in midfield, if and when we play single pivot. I think it would be slightly unusual for Evatt but more importantly I suspect he is hoping for a better offer elsewhere - he hasn't played outside the top two flights since 2012, which is when we left the Premier.

[TonyDomingos]

In actual real transfer news, the BN reports:

Eoin Toal was absent from Derry City’s squad in their 2-1 win against Finn Harps on Sunday.

The23-year-old central defender is on his way to Wanderers for a medical ahead of a move to the University of Bolton Stadium, with manager Ruaidhri Higgins confirming after the game that the deal “looks close”.

“It's not official but obviously he's not here today," said the City boss. "He's a proper man, a really good player and I've got nothing but good things to say about him.

"I think there's been reports over the last 24 hours that it's close and it looks close."

So, safe to say, a deal is close.