Agree with NLA - keep posting DOUCHER. Must be tricky posting snippets without betraying the trust of your source - which at worst could cause a signing to collapse! Gallen has set up some brilliant signings for us in the last year or so but replacing KAG in this January window may be his hardest task as decent strikers are like gold dust. We will all be a bit wiser in the next day or so.
Interesting they haven’t said anything about Fosu and Reeves. Perhaps LB feels they haven’t done enough. I would like young Albie Morgan to get a long term deal.
I think we'd be crazy not to re-sign Fosu. He definitely has sell-on value, even if he has been hit and miss this season. You saw some of it in his cameo on Saturday. He's a very gifted player. To lose him on a free would be silly.
I would personally also offer Reeves an extension. I think he's a player of quality, who I think is smarter and does more than he gets credit for at times. But I appreciate this is probably a tougher choice.
Lastly, I would definitely offer Sarr a new deal. He's shown the quality he has. Wouldn't match the terms he's on now (even if I suspect they're often overstated on here). But he's a player you could build a defense around.
Sarr’s already contracted until 2020. Even if extending that was a priority it would complicated to do with a wage cut, I imagine.
Ah cheers AB, I thought he was out of contract in the summer. Yeah, not a priority for now.
Phew, I feel better about the future now. All we need to do is clone him 9 times. We can still get in another goalkeeper on loan so that the loanee and Phillips can fight for the #1 shirt for eternity.
Atdhe Nihiu from Sheff Wed would be a massive signing, he's 6' 6".
Whenever I've seen him down the years he either looks unplayable, or like he's never seen a football before in his life. More the latter than the former. But beggars can't be choosers.
It's short termism, but I would rather we get someone with higher quality on loan than less reliable quality permanently. We need to get out of this division, so yes we will have an even more depleted squad in the summer and will have to rebuild, but I'd rather increase the chances of rebuilding from the Championship than having one less spot to fill in League One.
Also, I don't really know what type of forward we would be able to actually buy at this stage of the window anyway. Prices will be massively inflated because the other team most likely won't have time to replace him--and that's assuming a player is even for sale. So you might end up spending all of the Karlan money just to get a decent League One level striker in, which to me is bad business. Better we loan someone from the Championship who is of high end League One/Championship quality.
Lastly, for all of his faults, I don't think Roland can be blamed too much for selling a player for a seven figure sum when we're in League One. Ditto, to *some* extent, if we don't buy a new striker. But moreso to the first point, the mistake was made in the summer not tying Karlan down to a new deal. Same went through the fall. If he'd signed a new deal, he might still leave, but we would have a much better bargaining position.
This is always the problem with selling players and expecting to replace them in January.
Sure we are probably getting a better fee selling Karlan now than we'd get in the summer, but to replace him we are shopping in an inflated market and will have to pay over the odds, at the very least reducing any financial benefit to the club or owner. Or we will have to sign a loan and, with the best will in the world, getting a player in on, loan at this stage of the season who will come in, hit the ground running, link up as well as Karlan does with Taylor, and get into double figures goals wise by the end of the season... well it strikes me as a long shot. Or we just don't sign anyone, and don't rule that one out yet by the way.
The deals that are done in January, especially towards the end of the window, tend to be clubs desperate to strengthen picking up players who are on the scrap heap at another club - and signings like that always carry significant risk in one form or another, or are big clubs making smaller clubs offers they can't refuse.
Signing good players to replace good players in January is very hard to do. Its doubly hard with strikers, because good ones just don't come on the market often. We've got ourselves caught in this catch 22 situation so many times now, but it seems to just keep on coming around every year.
Bowyer talks a lot about only signing the right players in terms of quality and personality and within budget. He's dead right to do so, and he shouldn't lower his standards, but I wonder if it those standards that will stop us bringing in more than one player on loan - I just doubt that a quality striker, whose, a great lad, and is cheap will be available to sign permanently in January.
But it's not just down to what the selling club wants
If a player insists on leaving by refusing to play or being disruptive, then the club is in a really hard position. If you keep the player, you may end up with a moody disinterested player for the rest of the season, who's a shadow of the player before the bid arrived.
Van Dijk for example was forced to stay at Soton despite handing in a transfer request in the summer of 2017, but was a a shadow of his normal self until he left in January, whereupon he suddenly became world class again.
But is that the kind of player Bowyer will want to sign and are we remotely a big enough draw to get player to do that? Bowyer has spoken a lot about getting the right characters in because the group as it is has "something special" and he doesn't want to disrupt that.
I was thinking more about the issues we have with keeping players when bids come in (e.g. Karlan). If we told Karlan he couldn't leave, would he be the same player for the rest of the season?
At this stage, it will be difficult to buy anyone from a "smaller" club (e.g. an Eaves) unless the player helps force the move as nobody will want to sell their best player now. Obviously it's a lot different with unwanted players from bigger clubs.
I'm sure Karlan wants this move, but the way he played on Saturday did not suggest to me he has been agitating for it or has made himself difficult to manage - Bowyer said he had been excellent in training the previous week and said he felt Karlan gave him everything during the game. I think this is more we've been made an offer the club or owner feels they can't turn down.
I think there's more than just money in this for Karlan too - Terriers fans seem to be expecting him to play. Most if us are skeptical he'll be able to step up to the Premier League immediately, but he gets 3 months to see if he can. If Hudds go down but he scores goals he could be back in The Premier League by August with another new club, or he worst case he's in The Championship at a well run club, with parachute payments and likely ambitions to get promoted again. All while earning a much better wedge. He's being portrayed as just greedy by some, but there is sense for his career in this move too.
Saturday was easy for him, as he could play the match (in his mind) as a farewell match, in the expectation that the move would go ahead a few days later. If we stopped the move this week, I doubt he'd be a happy bunny then though
Those Terriers fans expecting him to play, I doubt they've even seen him! Go back 15 years to when we were in the PL, can you imagine Curbs buying a 3rd division striker?
We signed Mark McCammon from Cambridge United who were a League Two club in 1998/99 Blackburn signed Jon Stead from Huddersfield who were in League Two at the time in 2003/04
They're the only two that I can remember / find moving from this low to the Premier League
Didn't vardy go from banging them in non league straight to the prem?
Paul Williams back in the Wilderness years did very well in the top tier for two seasons after coming from non League until his 1 million pound move to Katrien Meire's middle of the week side.
Vardy went to Leicester when they were in the Championship as I remember we beat them at the Valley in one of his early games for the foxes. Like Grant because of his pace on the night he had about four chances and from memories missed all of them.
In a career that lasts 25 years at the very most, and could end any minute, you would take x4 the amount of your weekly wage if you could
25 years?
I doubt if the average Football League player's career with a good wage lasts much more than eight years. Most start earning decent money around 22 and are finished at 30. Of course, many go on well into their thirties, but just as many lose form or fitness and are finished at Football League level by their mid- or late-twenties.
I wonder how many of those who are criticising Grant for taking his chance are youngsters living off their parents, grants or the dole. Most people who have had to work hard for their money, maybe with the constant threat of redundancy or of an inhibiting illness or injury, would know exactly why he would be a fool not to grab the chance.
Finished at 30? Most are finished at maybe 32 would be more accurate.
A career isn't just your peak it's the build up and the winding down.
I thought Aethelstan was talking about wages.
Normally a player's earnings have peaked by the age of 30, and for many as they drop down a division, it's successively reduced contracts from there on until they retire.
In any case, many players hit the scrap heap even before the age of 30.
Think the reason its gone quiet on the Grant front is because Charlton do not want details released until they have a replacement lined up as any player evaluations will increase in proportion to Grants fee.
Think the reason its gone quiet on the Grant front is because Charlton do not want details released until they have a replacement lined up as any player evaluations will increase in proportion to Grants fee.
The fee for our new striker will go up by an undisclosed amount?
And there will be no sale of any major players in this window and i understand a bid of £2m has been turned down for one already - probably best i don't name him - just passing on what i know - as always.
And there will be no sale of any major players in this window and i understand a bid of £2m has been turned down for one already - probably best i don't name him - just passing on what i know - as always.
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Gallen has set up some brilliant signings for us in the last year or so but replacing KAG in this January window may be his hardest task as decent strikers are like gold dust. We will all be a bit wiser in the next day or so.
Phew, I feel better about the future now. All we need to do is clone him 9 times. We can still get in another goalkeeper on loan so that the loanee and Phillips can fight for the #1 shirt for eternity.
I am only half joking.
Vardy went to Leicester when they were in the Championship as I remember we beat them at the Valley in one of his early games for the foxes. Like Grant because of his pace on the night he had about four chances and from memories missed all of them.
I assume it was the (tongue in cheek) braggadocio that winds some up?
First time use of the word on CL ...deserves a promote ...although didn't he play for Lazio in the 80s
Normally a player's earnings have peaked by the age of 30, and for many as they drop down a division, it's successively reduced contracts from there on until they retire.
In any case, many players hit the scrap heap even before the age of 30.
Wonder if Huddersfield's hierarchy have ordered stringent medical tests on Karlan's sponge foot following that penalty on Saturday.
I'm hearing it's definitely done and it is just a case of waiting for the blood test result. Lets all B Positive.
Read more: http://downatthemac.proboards.com/thread/111523/karlan-grant-striker-incoming?page=12#ixzz5e06QosV6
Town close in on Grant deal
Huddersfield Town
Talksport have reported that Huddersfield are close to signing Charlton striker Karlan Grant.
The 21-year-old has scored 14 goals in 29 appearances for the League One club this season.