Have you ever known a club...

[qprmarc]

To be as poor as ours in the transfer market. I don't think I'm being biased in saying I honestly think out of all the clubs in the football league we clearly top the worst in the transfer market without a shadow of a doubt. You see other clubs such as Brentford buy players from lower leagues, turn them into a good player and make a decent profit on them, how a club of that stature should be properly run. I just question if they and many other clubs who have less potential and a worse infrastructure than ours can conduct good business and progress , why on Earth can't we ?
For a person who is supposedly a top businessman in Tony Fernandes, he has no clue about football in the slightest and the quicker him and his crew pack their bags and leave , then this club can progress. Many people slated briatorie etc in their tenure here, but at least they didn't take crap off anyone, purchased bargain players such as taarabt, hill, Derry etc and actually achieved targets they set by getting us into the premiership with a decent sustainable squad.

[Chopper]

Kinda have to agree.

[Alanwycombe]

To be as poor as ours in the transfer market. I don't think I'm being biased in saying I honestly think out of all the clubs in the football league we clearly top the worst in the transfer market without a shadow of a doubt. You see other clubs such as Brentford buy players from lower leagues, turn them into a good player and make a decent profit on them, how a club of that stature should be properly run. I just question if they and many other clubs who have less potential and a worse infrastructure than ours can conduct good business and progress , why on Earth can't we ?
For a person who is supposedly a top businessman in Tony Fernandes, he has no clue about football in the slightest and the quicker him and his crew pack their bags and leave , then this club can progress. Many people slated briatorie etc in their tenure here, but at least they didn't take crap off anyone, purchased bargain players such as taarabt, hill, Derry etc and actually achieved targets they set by getting us into the premiership with a decent sustainable squad.

I think this is a bit of a rose-tinted view of things before Warnock was appointed. He made the difference. Credit to the directors for bringing him in but they were going nowhere before he changed the team.

[qprmarc]

I think this is a bit of a rose-tinted view of things before Warnock was appointed. He made the difference. Credit to the directors for bringing him in but they were going nowhere before he changed the team.

Kind of agree with that , Warnock was the main catalyst for our promotion which is why I don't understand why we got rid of him when he returned on a temporary basis and we only conceded 2 in 5 games prior to about 14 in 4 games . But I think the board were very astute then , paying next to nothing for players with good championship experience and purchasing players who entertained the crowd, i can safely say there is no player of any real quality in our current squad minus maybe smithies and Freeman and quite frankly many league 1 players would do the same job or better than our current squad, which shows the level we are at really

[Alanwycombe]

Kind of agree with that , Warnock was the main catalyst for our promotion which is why I don't understand why we got rid of him when he returned on a temporary basis and we only conceded 2 in 5 games prior to about 14 in 4 games . But I think the board were very astute then , paying next to nothing for players with good championship experience and purchasing players who entertained the crowd, i can safely say there is no player of any real quality in our current squad minus maybe smithies and Freeman and quite frankly many league 1 players would do the same job or better than our current squad, which shows the level we are at really

Yeah, we should probably have done a Dyche with Warnock. That's paid off handsomely for Burnley.

[qprmarc]

Yeah, we should probably have done a Dyche with Warnock. That's paid off handsomely for Burnley.

Agree, another example of a club with similar stature running a club how it should be run, and to think we have the advantage of attracting players with us being based in London

[shaggy24]

Yeah, we should probably have done a Dyche with Warnock. That's paid off handsomely for Burnley.

Were run in a shambolic manner by TF he wanted to make his mark bought in Mark hughes and has managed to f uck things up ever since.

[CroydonCaptainJack]

Yes. Freeman, Smithies, Scowens
I can see what you mean

[brightonr]

Christ. Plenty of clubs have poor transfer windows, particularly in January.

Seems OK to me, this one. Got rid of plenty that haven't made the step up and are not likely to. And absolutely no point in buying unsuitable or overpriced players in order to satisfy the demands of an over excitable fanbase.

Not a Holloway fan at all, but won't blame him for things he isn't responsible for. Both him and the club are clearly having to show restraint in terms of spending.

[shaggy24]

Christ. Plenty of clubs have poor transfer windows, particularly in January.

Seems OK to me, this one. Got rid of plenty that haven't made the step up and are not likely to. And absolutely no point in buying unsuitable or overpriced players in order to satisfy the demands of an over excitable fanbase.

Not a Holloway fan at all, but won't blame him for things he isn't responsible for. Both him and the club are clearly having to show restraint in terms of spending.

All for a clear out and curb spending what we can afford rather than aspire to buy, my only criticism is we clearly need a cf sylla out smyth injured he’s a kid lose Washington all be it he’s hardly prolific and we’re in a mess.

[qprmarc]

Christ. Plenty of clubs have poor transfer windows, particularly in January.

Seems OK to me, this one. Got rid of plenty that haven't made the step up and are not likely to. And absolutely no point in buying unsuitable or overpriced players in order to satisfy the demands of an over excitable fanbase.

Not a Holloway fan at all, but won't blame him for things he isn't responsible for. Both him and the club are clearly having to show restraint in terms of spending.

You say no point in buying unsuitable or overpriced players, which we normally do anyway, the whole kind of point of this thread was me suggesting not doing just that and actually making some astute signings like I see the majority of other clubs in the league doing.....

[brightonr]

You say no point in buying unsuitable or overpriced players, which we normally do anyway, the whole kind of point of this thread was me suggesting not doing just that and actually making some astute signings like I see the majority of other clubs in the league doing.....

Maybe there were no "astute signings" available Marc. Looking at some of the prices being mentioned for bang average players, it wouldn't surprise me.

Managers are there to improve players and get them playing well together, not simply go on shopping sprees. I'm sure if we had a proper one, things would be looking very different indeed.

[Shepherds Mush]

Would have to say that Sunderland have been terrible in almost everything they have done transfer-wise over the last few years bar possibly Jermain Defoe.

[Bigdave]

Yes. Freeman, Smithies, Scowens
I can see what you mean

Yeah what’s your point?

[Qprtanpa1]

I may be in the minority, but I'm okay with no major signings. We've cleared out a lot of deadwood, and we're setting up to give younger players a shot to shine. My issue is that we now seem to have a club where players get worse not better. All signs point to coaching. Let's face it, one thing is indisputable: we are playing worse ball now than we did at the start. No team flow, no pattern to our play, and players who clearly have not inherited Ollie's "blood and guts" mantra. Until we sort this out no quality transfers IMHO are going to make a significant enough difference.