Snog, Marry, Avoid: Summer 2023 Transfer Window

[Prufrock]

Norburn gone to Blackpool.

[BWFC_Insane]

So story out of Australia is that Baccus turned us down over wages and the fact the Aussie national team told him he’d possibly miss out on call ups from league one.

Which to be honest sounds more likely than what we’ve been told thus far.

I guess though it’s pretty amateurish to have got as far as through a medical without having some basic terms thrashed out with the agent already.

I read it as an agent planting a story to cover up a medical issue, personally; but you could be right.

Could be that. Wouldn’t shock me. At all.

Also wouldn’t surprise me if we played the game of ‘yeah yeah we can do that’ get player in the room then lowball it. Gartside style.

[GhostoftheBok]

Could be that. Wouldn’t shock me. At all.

Also wouldn’t surprise me if we played the game of ‘yeah yeah we can do that’ get player in the room then lowball it. Gartside style.

Ah, the old Juan Pablo Sorin two step.

I would hope we've moved past that.

[knobpolisher]

Norburn gone to Blackpool.

Apparently its somewhere he's always wanted to be.
I wouldn't go to Blackpool for a day out never mind a two year contract.

[BWFC_Insane]

Could be that. Wouldn’t shock me. At all.

Also wouldn’t surprise me if we played the game of ‘yeah yeah we can do that’ get player in the room then lowball it. Gartside style.

Ah, the old Juan Pablo Sorin two step.

I would hope we've moved past that.

Maybe Sharon’s been chasing Keanu round Ireland?

[GhostoftheBok]

Josh Ginnelly has finally left Hearts. There's no chance of that happening, but whilst it's even theoretically possible I'm going will it into being - Ian Evatt style.

Still has his old house near the M65. Plus we already poached one off Haifa and it'd be hilarious to see their fans melt down again.

[GhostoftheBok]

Apparently its somewhere he's always wanted to be.
I wouldn't go to Blackpool for a day out never mind a two year contract.

My wife was born in a mining town in Soviet Ukraine. She used to sometimes cycle past dead bodies as a child, due to the locals drinking rubbing alcohol mixed with water or getting murdered by the mafia.

She called Blackpool "The worst place I've ever seen."

That was before she went to Blackburn, of course. We went there to go to a shop and she wouldn't even park.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Apparently its somewhere he's always wanted to be.
I wouldn't go to Blackpool for a day out never mind a two year contract.

My wife was born in a mining town in Soviet Ukraine. She used to sometimes cycle past dead bodies as a child, due to the locals drinking rubbing alcohol mixed with water or getting murdered by the mafia.

She called Blackpool "The worst place I've ever seen."

That was before she went to Blackburn, of course. We went there to go to a shop and she wouldn't even park.

[The_Gun]

Iles claimed on his latest podcast that the fee we paid for Nlundulu was similar to what we stumped up for Charles (£320k). Sounds steep to me if accurate.

[BWFC_Insane]

Iles claimed on his latest podcast that the fee we paid for Nlundulu was similar to what we stumped up for Charles (£320k). Sounds steep to me if accurate.

Wow. I thought he was on a free - pick up his contract and you can have him....that's absolutely mad if true.

[GhostoftheBok]

Iles claimed on his latest podcast that the fee we paid for Nlundulu was similar to what we stumped up for Charles (£320k). Sounds steep to me if accurate.

Very cheap, if you think about it.

We paid that for Charles with 6 months left on his deal, not a year. Accy wanted 1m for him that summer. That kind of money is buttons for a lad who was getting minutes in the Premier League two years ago - especially as his loan at Cheltenham was seen as having gone very well. If anything the hamstring injury probably saved us a couple of hundred thousand. Saints wanted 750k+ for him when Portsmouth asked last summer.

[BWFC_Insane]

Iles claimed on his latest podcast that the fee we paid for Nlundulu was similar to what we stumped up for Charles (£320k). Sounds steep to me if accurate.

Very cheap, if you think about it.

We paid that for Charles with 6 months left on his deal, not a year. Accy wanted 1m for him that summer. That kind of money is buttons for a lad who was getting minutes in the Premier League two years ago - especially as his loan at Cheltenham was seen as having gone very well. If anything the hamstring injury probably saved us a couple of hundred thousand. Saints wanted 750k+ for him when Portsmouth asked last summer.

For that sort of outlay, a 3 year contract on decent wages - it will only be justified if Nlundulu is one of the better strikers in the league next season. Scoring lots of goals and being a real handful for defenders.

All his stats have to improve markedly from his career thus far.

[Mar]

Iles claimed on his latest podcast that the fee we paid for Nlundulu was similar to what we stumped up for Charles (£320k). Sounds steep to me if accurate.

Very cheap, if you think about it.

We paid that for Charles with 6 months left on his deal, not a year. Accy wanted 1m for him that summer. That kind of money is buttons for a lad who was getting minutes in the Premier League two years ago - especially as his loan at Cheltenham was seen as having gone very well. If anything the hamstring injury probably saved us a couple of hundred thousand. Saints wanted 750k+ for him when Portsmouth asked last summer.

For that sort of outlay, a 3 year contract on decent wages - it will only be justified if Nlundulu is one of the better strikers in the league next season. Scoring lots of goals and being a real handful for defenders.

All his stats have to improve markedly from his career thus far.

I think i'd agree if the metrics were just assists and goals. I suspect that Evatt and the backroom staff are working on different stats though, such as ball progression up the pitch, dribble success rates and general impact on attacking the opposition. I think N'lundulu's impact was generally underwhelming in terms of end product, but in terms of potential he does seem to have the ability to run quickly, take the ball past people, etc.

[GhostoftheBok]

For that sort of outlay, a 3 year contract on decent wages - it will only be justified if Nlundulu is one of the better strikers in the league next season. Scoring lots of goals and being a real handful for defenders.

All his stats have to improve markedly from his career thus far.

For 250k plus add-ons? We were paying that for a wingback and ball winner. The idea that spending £250k should guarantee you one of the division's top strikers is a bit much. Charles was £300k with 6 months left. Bishop was half a million with a massive sell on clause whacked on and his signing on fee was close to Dan's transfer fee. Posh want over £1m for JCH. Vic cost us £600k and that was only because he had a release.

[Prufrock]

It's suck it and see right? It makes me nervous a while I think there's a player in there there's a lot to do. Let's hope it works!

[BWFC_Insane]

For that sort of outlay, a 3 year contract on decent wages - it will only be justified if Nlundulu is one of the better strikers in the league next season. Scoring lots of goals and being a real handful for defenders.

All his stats have to improve markedly from his career thus far.

For 250k plus add-ons? We were paying that for a wingback and ball winner. The idea that spending £250k should guarantee you one of the division's top strikers is a bit much. Charles was £300k with 6 months left. Bishop was half a million with a massive sell on clause whacked on and his signing on fee was close to Dan's transfer fee. Posh want over £1m for JCH. Vic cost us £600k and that was only because he had a release.

It’s a lot of money for us in totality. For a 24 year old with little real football, and what he has played shows he’s miles off as it stands.

But let’s judge on how good he is next season. I have doubts but Evatt will live or die by that judgement.

[BWFC_Insane]

Iles claimed on his latest podcast that the fee we paid for Nlundulu was similar to what we stumped up for Charles (£320k). Sounds steep to me if accurate.

Very cheap, if you think about it.

We paid that for Charles with 6 months left on his deal, not a year. Accy wanted 1m for him that summer. That kind of money is buttons for a lad who was getting minutes in the Premier League two years ago - especially as his loan at Cheltenham was seen as having gone very well. If anything the hamstring injury probably saved us a couple of hundred thousand. Saints wanted 750k+ for him when Portsmouth asked last summer.

For that sort of outlay, a 3 year contract on decent wages - it will only be justified if Nlundulu is one of the better strikers in the league next season. Scoring lots of goals and being a real handful for defenders.

All his stats have to improve markedly from his career thus far.

I think i'd agree if the metrics were just assists and goals. I suspect that Evatt and the backroom staff are working on different stats though, such as ball progression up the pitch, dribble success rates and general impact on attacking the opposition. I think N'lundulu's impact was generally underwhelming in terms of end product, but in terms of potential he does seem to have the ability to run quickly, take the ball past people, etc.

I think we can take a rounded view but as a striker what will matter is end product. Like it or not. You can’t carry someone who occasionally makes a good run if they aren’t scoring goals or at the very least an integral part of creating them.

To this point in his career Nlundulu hasn’t been.

[GhostoftheBok]

It’s a lot of money for us in totality. For a 24 year old with little real football, and what he has played shows he’s miles off as it stands.

But let’s judge on how good he is next season. I have doubts but Evatt will live or die by that judgement.

Sure, it's certainly a risk. Evatt has picked up a player he believes has the talent and physical attributes to play Premier League football. He's given him a 3 year deal to give him time to develop and still have him retain value.

Dan's game is about more than goals, but he will have to put up goal contribution numbers next season to justify his spot. We let Kacha go because he didn't score and assist enough, despite Evatt loving everything else he offered.

I'm not really worried about Dan's attacking work. I'm worried about his technical (in terms of system) understanding and his hamstrings. His touch is good, he can shift with the ball at feet and he can strike a football. He needs to play matches and work with his coaches, but it'll come. He won't even get on the pitch if he can't play Evatt's style and stay fit doing it, though.

[Mar]

Iles claimed on his latest podcast that the fee we paid for Nlundulu was similar to what we stumped up for Charles (£320k). Sounds steep to me if accurate.

Very cheap, if you think about it.

We paid that for Charles with 6 months left on his deal, not a year. Accy wanted 1m for him that summer. That kind of money is buttons for a lad who was getting minutes in the Premier League two years ago - especially as his loan at Cheltenham was seen as having gone very well. If anything the hamstring injury probably saved us a couple of hundred thousand. Saints wanted 750k+ for him when Portsmouth asked last summer.

For that sort of outlay, a 3 year contract on decent wages - it will only be justified if Nlundulu is one of the better strikers in the league next season. Scoring lots of goals and being a real handful for defenders.

All his stats have to improve markedly from his career thus far.

I think i'd agree if the metrics were just assists and goals. I suspect that Evatt and the backroom staff are working on different stats though, such as ball progression up the pitch, dribble success rates and general impact on attacking the opposition. I think N'lundulu's impact was generally underwhelming in terms of end product, but in terms of potential he does seem to have the ability to run quickly, take the ball past people, etc.

I think we can take a rounded view but as a striker what will matter is end product. Like it or not. You can’t carry someone who occasionally makes a good run if they aren’t scoring goals or at the very least an integral part of creating them.

To this point in his career Nlundulu hasn’t been.

I'm sure Evatt can picture N'lundulu being an integral part of creating them. I can see how it could come about and the frustrating thing was from last season that he missed out on a pass and tried one dribble too many. Sort those issues out and link up better and we should be good I would imagine.

[GhostoftheBok]

I think we can take a rounded view but as a striker what will matter is end product. Like it or not. You can’t carry someone who occasionally makes a good run if they aren’t scoring goals or at the very least an integral part of creating them.

To this point in his career Nlundulu hasn’t been.

That's not true though, is it?

Dan started 26 games last season and created or scored 7 goals (5 goals and 2 assists). So that's a goal or an assist every 3.7 starts. Not inspiring, but Charles' record is every 3.3 starts when you take out pens. So it's not like Dan is miles off the level even just on basic "Is he any good, lads?" numbers. I think he has a huge amount of stuff he needs to improve, but the exciting part is he looks capable of doing so.

The other side is that he did more defensive and pressing work at Cheltenham than Charles did for us, despite Charles being famous for his work rate. He's also a better technical player in terms of touch, dribbling and passing.

He's learning his trade and is still contributing well. I fail to see the issue. As he exists right this second he's already a decent League One player.

We can let him take the penalties if it'll make everyone feel better about how he's doing.

So what we've got is a young, hard working, technical, physical and pacy forward who manages to put the ball in the net sometimes but not often enough yet. I'm fine with that for the price we paid.