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Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:23 am
by ty cobb
So that was the most interesting transfer window I can remember. £4.6 million coming in (albeit a big chunk going to WBA) and coming up to a million spent on players. When you bring in more than you spend you will expect to be weaker, however, after spending more than most in the division I would hope, provided the money has been spent wisely, to have a squad which should be pushing for play offs.

Hemmings has demonstrated that looking good in Scottish football will not necessarily make you stand out straight away in league 1 and it will be very interesting/exciting/disappointing to find out whether Marvellous Marv can bring us the much needed spark and pace missing since Roofe and COD left. On the face of it half a million (or thereabouts) for a player who scored 6 goals in one season in Scotland, 10 goals in the conference the season before that and 2 in the conference the season before that is far too much money for a club with very large debts and limited income streams.

On the defender front, I thought it was odd we didn't bring in a left back, especially with Skarz injured and no cover (a make shift central midfielder doesn't count) and another centre back confirms getting rid of Wright and Mullins was a huge mistake - I have seen nothing from either of the new guys to suggest they are an upgrade, if anything they are worse.

I worry that we are overstocked with young unproven players, are missing a bit of experience and look all over the place at the back. However, going forward we now have a number of different options and it will be very interesting to see how all these attacking players are going to slot in, especially when Hall comes back.

It's nice to see us spending proper money (provided you ignore how we can afford it) it creates a buzz around the place (I wasn't the only one frantically refreshing twitter when the Oxford site gave a 5 minute warning) so lets hope the performances pick up and make this another season to remember.

Re: Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 1:06 pm
by Old Abingdonian
I imagine the 'whether we can afford it' equation is complex. We can't afford to be relegated, we would do better still financially if we were promoted to the Championship. Thee is also the difference in marketing revenues, and whatever business opportunities may open up if the club is higher profile.

I think you are harsh on Nelson - looked good playing for PAFC, and looked good against Leicester in the friendly.

I have no idea how good Johnson will prove to be, but at least MApp has addressed the issue we have all identified - and was obvious - pace out wide.

Re: Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 1:43 pm
by Kairdiff Exile
ty cobb wrote:It's nice to see us spending proper money (provided you ignore how we can afford it)
I think we've got the balance about right. Plenty of muppets were demanding we spent every penny of what we made from Kemar and Callum's departures, totally oblivious to the investment that had been made already to develop them into players who commanded those sorts of fees. On the other side of the coin though, recruiting adequate replacements doesn't come cheap (especially when you leave it so late in the window!). Reinvesting 20-25% of the transfer 'gain' seems about right, and is probably the only way our financial model of buying/recruiting young players and developing their skills over time can really work.

I fully agree with you when you say that Division 3 is a tougher league than the Scottish Premiership. Celtic might be hard opponents, but for the majority of games against McGinty Rovers and Tartan Athletic, Johnson and Hemmings really won't have been tested as well as they will be this season. FWIW, I actually think they'll be a good combo, and we'll now see Hemmings get the service he needs to bang in some goals. Like Ty though, I'd still be asking some serious questions about our (lack of) strength in depth in defence. I'd like to think we'll win every game from now until May 4-3, but I somehow can't see it happening so we need to stop conceding with such alarming regularity.

Re: Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:13 pm
by recordmeister
In what world is it okay to use phrases for a foreign league like "McGinty Rovers and Tartan Athletic"? You wouldn't say that playing in India is easy "against the likes of Turban Athletic or Bindie Rovers"- that would be just down right racist. Ergo, your comments about McGinty Rovers and Tartan Athletic are also racist and offensive. If I had any time, I'd ask the opinion of my good Scottish friends, family and colleagues. But they're too busy chomping on deep fried Mars bars to care...

Re: Astute business/panic buys

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 6:16 pm
by OUFC4eva
In my humble opinion United currently have
assembled its best squad in circa 25 years.

It looks very exciting but it may take a bit of time to reach
it's full potential. Eastwood, Edwards, Dunkley, Nelson, Skarz,
Ledson, Lundstram, Sercombe, Maguire, Hall, Johnson, Taylor,
Hemmings and Crowley is a squad rich in
talent and promise.Some of that talent is latent but
credit to Eales and Appleton and the recruitment
guys for the work they have done.They have got the balance
about right with the spending.

Eales is ambitious and wants Championship
football but is also possessing and developing tradeable assets
which is sensible. The club needs to further strengthen
and develop its commercial and sponsorship
shortcomings which to be fair is now addressing.

The only fly in the room is Firoka - a dangerously
big and gruesome bluebottle fly.

Re: Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:27 pm
by Kairdiff Exile
Fair point, Recordmeister. I'll apologise for that element of the post, which was a cheap shot. I stand by the wider point though, that outside of Celtic (and to a lesser extent Rangers at the moment), the Scottish premier is really not up to much.

Re: Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:43 am
by SWA
Disagree. Aberdeen and Hearts are playing good stuff. Do you watch any Scottish fitba?

Re: Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 1:09 pm
by Dr Bob
But there is another aspect to this debate. A certain third division side in England (albeit a progressive one) has just signed the second top scorer from the SPL from last year, and a highly rated winger. On the other hand Motherwell, in addition to signing a West Ham winger on loan, have signed a striker from Gateshead. A few years ago Simon King, having been released by Gillingham, was signed by Inverness CT.

These are the examples that, for obvious reasons, jumped into my head, but outside the Old Firm and, to a lesser extent, Aberdeen and possibly Hearts, the traffic in players is rather often between SPL and lower division English clubs. Of course, given the lack of significant TV money in Scotland, this may reflect wages and transfer fees compared with the top two English divisions, but I would guess that this is only a part of the story.

Re: Astute business/panic buy

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 3:18 pm
by Werthers Original
It's probably relevant to say that last year Dundee's average attendance was 6,000 while Motherwell's was 4,900. So the moves are to a slightly better but comparable club.