Confirmed Transfer Ritchie de Laet and Matthew James

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londonfox said:
I think Sven gets unfairly labelled with the "throwing money at it" tag. Yes, we spent, relatively speaking, a large amount of money but considering the number of players we got for that money I don't think he was "throwing it around". Arguably two of his better signings, Danns and Nugent, were free transfers and only Beckford and Mills cost significant money.
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£14m+ in the Championship is definitely throwing money at it. Especially when it led to such abject performances.

How people still defend Sven's transfer policy is beyond me. Complete scatter-gun approach.
 
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FryattFox said:
£14m+ in the Championship is definitely throwing money at it. Especially when it led to such abject performances.

How people still defend Sven's transfer policy is beyond me. Complete scatter-gun approach.
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Where is that figure from?
 
Feriol said:
Where is that figure from?
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I was just thinking the same, surely £10 million tops. We only spent too much on one player, in Mills.

I don't think Beckford has been a waste of cash. Bamba for £250k was a shrewd purchase. Nugent and Danns on frees were very good signings. Konchesky for just over a million was not a bad buy, Peltier wasn't mega bucks and Schmeichel was a great buy.

Sven paid over the odds for Mills. However, his biggest shortfall was perhaps the wages associated with these transfers. No one knows how much each of our players are on but it is widely accepted that our wage budget is out of control for this division. Giving senior players like Howard and co extended contracts was another shortfall. His transfers in general were not bad.
 
Feriol said:
Where is that figure from?
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Are we really playing this game again?

Beckford £3m
Konchesky £2m
Schmeichel £1m
St Ledger £1m
Peltier £0.75m
Mills £5m (inc add-ons)
Bamba £0.4m

That's over £13m before you include all of the loan fees paid to get Yakubu, Naughton, Johnson, Fernandes, etc.

Or the player signing on fees to all of the above, plus Nugent, Pantsil, Fernandes, Johnson and Danns.

Or the contracts for all of the above players.

All in all our player costs were probably £15m-£18m higher last season than they were pre-Sven, and all the evidence points to this not turning out to be the most considered set of purchases.

But no, he didn't 'throw money at it'...
 
FryattFox said:
Are we really playing this game again?

Beckford £3m
Konchesky £2m
Schmeichel £1m
St Ledger £1m
Peltier £0.75m
Mills £5m (inc add-ons)
Bamba £0.4m

That's over £13m
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Where did you get those figures from?

Even if they're correct as the maximum that could be due, the actual amount paid (so far) will be nowhere near that much. It's not just the Mills fee that included add-ons, and I would doubt that many (if any) of the add-on clauses have been triggered so far.
 
The disappointing thing about signing a load of premiership academy cast offs is that we are supposed to be developing players in our own academy, how does it look to the lads who have been with our academy for years to see their chances of a move up reduced by these signings? It shows, that however good we think our academy is, it just isn't producing enough players that our managers feel able to put into a first team.
 
Biffa Bacon said:
The disappointing thing about signing a load of premiership academy cast offs is that we are supposed to be developing players in our own academy, how does it look to the lads who have been with our academy for years to see their chances of a move up reduced by these signings? It shows, that however good we think our academy is, it just isn't producing enough players that our managers feel able to put into a first team.
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But academy players from one of the biggest clubs in England are bound to be better than our academy players - Man United have the facilities, staff, scouting network, reputation to make sure they get hold of the best youngsters out there. At this level, we just feed off the scraps that the top clubs didn't want, or occasionally find one that they missed.

I'm not saying all Man Utd academy players are better than most Championship teams academy players, but I would say as a general rule, they're bound to be better.
 
Biffa Bacon said:
The disappointing thing about signing a load of premiership academy cast offs is that we are supposed to be developing players in our own academy, how does it look to the lads who have been with our academy for years to see their chances of a move up reduced by these signings? It shows, that however good we think our academy is, it just isn't producing enough players that our managers feel able to put into a first team.
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Looking at recent history, even the last 15 years, how many kids have come through our academy to do well here or elsewhere?
 
Biffa Bacon said:
The disappointing thing about signing a load of premiership academy cast offs is that we are supposed to be developing players in our own academy, how does it look to the lads who have been with our academy for years to see their chances of a move up reduced by these signings? It shows, that however good we think our academy is, it just isn't producing enough players that our managers feel able to put into a first team.
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To my mind, the arrival of academy players from a better outfit should be a benchmark for your own youngsters to work to and exceed. If they get dis-heartened that easily, perhaps it's better you find out sooner rather than later.
 
My Man U supporting mate said:

Yeah. De Laet will be really good in the champ I reckon - really good every season in the reserves just couldn't step up to regular 1st team action. He's really quick and get played up front for the reserves when we need a goal. Matty James had really high hopes for being a 1st teamer but injuries ****ed it. Really neat on the ball but he may need other good ball players to be effective. Couple of million for the pair is a decent bit of business I reckon.
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Jeff said:
Where did you get those figures from?

Even if they're correct as the maximum that could be due, the actual amount paid (so far) will be nowhere near that much. It's not just the Mills fee that included add-ons, and I would doubt that many (if any) of the add-on clauses have been triggered so far.
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Yes, they are the maximum amounts payable, but I believe them to be fairly accurate.

There's probably a maximum of £3-4m of add-ons in there, but they don't include the FA levy of 4% or agent's fees also.

How close it is to £12-14m is almost irrelevant; Sven bought expensive players in every manner of the word, and for all intense and purposes threw money at the problem.
 
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A Man Utd supporting friend, who also writes for a football magazine so watches a lot of football, gave his opinions as (I paraphrase) :
Matty James had a big future but had injuries and has not developed - a gamble
and
Ritchie De Laet is Championship level, committed and a good pro. Hopefully, he'll get chance to establish himself and I'll put it this way, I think he's a lot better than Lee Peltier.
 
Siouxsie said:
A Man Utd supporting friend, who also writes for a football magazine so watches a lot of football, gave his opinions as (I paraphrase) :
Matty James had a big future but had injuries and has not developed - a gamble
and
Ritchie De Laet is Championship level, committed and a good pro. Hopefully, he'll get chance to establish himself and I'll put it this way, I think he's a lot better than Lee Peltier.
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Pretty much what my red scum supporting friends have said - although De Laet was labelled 'Championship level at best'

James has supposedly had great potential for a while, but has been completely stuffed by injuries

All a big gamble for two million quid, if you ask me - but nobody does, so onwards and upwards...
 
how on earth do Man U fans know what Championship level is? :)
 
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