Fulham Transfer window - Ins & Outs

I lost track of our transfer window so I thought I would summarize it in a thread, in case anyone else had the same problem. Please let me know if I've missed something

In
Stekelenburg
Reither
Amorebieta
Boateng
Plumain
Taarabt, loan
Karagounis ?

Out
Schwarzer
A. Smith
Dan Burn, loan
Ryan Williams, loan

Released
Baird, Davies, Diarra, Karagounis, Petric, Somogyi

Rumors
Interested in Bent, Granero (MF), Faurling (MF),
Frei to Galatasaray

 

I hope you are right about Diarra. Liked him a lot when he was healthy.

 

Still an eternity left in the window, but with the season at hand I'm starting to get a little concerned. Exactly who is going to play LB??? If Riise does go (which looks to be a certainty) that leaves Richardson who will be lucky to get thru 3 games without getting hurt, and Briggs who is said to going out on loan.

I understand our new chairman is keeping the status quo, and he doesn't need to break the bank, but this ain't the NFL where you can go 3-13 and get a great draft pick. You finish poorly and you get to host Huddersfield in front of 15K at the Cottage.

 

From what i understand Diarra is being a chance to develop his fitness. Much like the situation for Grygera.

 

Wish I could say I'm surprised that we haven't addressed the key needs from last year, but I'm not. It's just another typical Mackintosh and co transfer window. Poor dear needs 3-4 of them to fill a present need most of the time and it looks like, despite a massive increase in tv revenue, that's going to continue to be the case. Oh well, window's not closed yet, so there's still a chance to get someone in, but we kick off in less than a week. And I see we've brought the Greek Tragedy back. :angry-banghead:

Oh well, there's always hope Marty will change the strategy/style of play to fit the players he's got. But from the preseason, sounds like that's not happening either.

 

Can not tell a lie, I watched it more than once.

Add Bent and this summer has seen a big upgrade in talent (will it translate on the pitch?). Add a LB and this will a very positive window..and not waiting until the final 48 hours to do all the work is a welcome change.

 

Still need a cm, imo. If Jol uses the same shape and tactics from last year, we'll likely still have problems getting the ball to Bent and Berbatov in scoring positions.

Agree that it's a nice change to get as much done as they have at this stage in the window. I think the jury's out on whether we've upgraded until we see them. I can't say I've seen much (if any) of Amorebieta or Boateng...and not a whole lot more of Stekelenburg. Bent should be a definite upgrade. I don't count Riether as he was brought in last year with an option, so that's last year's business (and not an upgrade over last year's team since he was a part of it). Karagounis is a downgrade and a blight on the club. Hopefully he spends the season collecting splinters on his posterior.

 

I cannot put in words how much I would like to see a good CM come in to put the cherry on the transfer window.

 

So our first team ins are really Stekelenberg, Boateng, Amorebieta, Taarabt, Bent, Parker and Zverotic. We held onto Riether and Karagounis in my mind. Did we do enough? Time will tell.

 

What about the players that were released at the end of the season. Are we now free to sign them back if they did not go anywhere? Do we want any of them back? Just curious on how it all works.

 

My understanding is a player who is without a contract can be siigned at any time. Karagounis last season would be an example. My understanding of course is subject to review.

 

You can sign a player out of contract at any time. Much like we did with the Greek last year.

I'm not a big fan of the additions from a business sense. We're cash strapped and these signings offer little to change that going forward. Imo, we're too focused on the bottom line and short term in our strategy. We do have the academy and that is a long term solution, but it's also a very low percentage one. When we have invested in 22-26 year old players lately, we've been very reluctant to play and develop them, opting for veterans instead. If these veterans gave us a significantly better chance to win, I'd feel better about it, but that hasn't proven to be the case.

Of the signings, Stekelenberg likely has sell on value. Given their ages, there's a limited shelf life on the rest and likely no resale value (especially when you consider our penchant for short term contracts). Bent is a one year rental with no option. Taarabt has an option, but w/o knowing what it is, there's no way of knowing if it's something the club will be willing or able to pay. 3M was too expensive for us (according to reports) to pay for Enoh. That sounds like a likely fee (and probably low) to exercise an option on Taarabt. We're dealing with Harry and QPR, so it's more likely the fee is higher rather than lower. Point is, while there's a chance he could turn out to be good business, he's probably just a one year rental as well.

On paper the signings help the club and we should be capable of a top 12 finish or better. But y'all know my thoughts on this. With this window, we've just dropped a group of prisoners into a supermax and there's not a jailbreaker among them. While signing Frank Morris or Andy Dufresne would have been helpful, it ignores the fact that the problem isn't the prisoners, it's the warden. Maybe Jol will go the way of Warden Norton at the end, figuratively of course. Or he'll change his ways. I'd take either one, but expect neither.

 

Not so sure about that Heather. While making my previous post I came up with the idea to do a write up looking at the financial side of the club and our transfer activity but need more research. My belief is that we lack balance. We've actually spent quite a bit on wages the last 4 years (avg'd 9th in the Prem from 2009-2012 and were 11th last year despite a 4M increase), however we're among the bottom in transfer spending over that period. We're spending money, just not in the most effective manner, imo.

We had an opportunity starting last summer to do a sizable overhaul of the club owing to all of the older players and players out of contract. However, we took a short term approach and maintained the wage bill by adding more older players we could get on the cheap (transfer fee wise) or for free and players on loan. Aston Villa was faced with the same thing recently. They'd built up the 7th highest wage bill for most of that period mentioned above. However, they took a more proactive approach while we have settled for kicking the can down the road. In fairness, their decision darn near got them relegated, but they've established a sustainable foundation that is poised for growth and they're now building on it.

Now maybe we punted until we resolve if Jol is the guy the club want to go forward with. Maybe we were waiting to complete the transfer of ownership. That's my hope, because I don't think continuing to load up with a bunch of wage heavy/fee light veterans is sustainable financially in the long term nor do I think it's a recipe for success on the pitch. At some point that shaky foundation gives way and the building falls.