Locked: Summer 2007 ins and outs

The fact that thier fans continuously refer to him as "Frankie" was a bit of a tip-off to me that they rate him highly. He may be secret for not much longer. He's paid his dues by now, give the guy a run. Not so sure it should be with Fulham though.

Reading?

 

Why not Fulham?

He could assuredly help the club improve. How is Reading a better suited club for him than Fulham? Reading had a much better season than Fulham and I would rather not have their side improve while Fulham maintains their current form.

 

I know Fulham is deep in that position, but he is capable of playing in a CB position. I believe he has done so for Wednesday.

So, yes I am aware that he is a RB. Volz should rightfully play that as it is his best position, but if Simek is capable of playing CB he is worth a shout.

 

Just checked again and Simek played CB in Arsenal's academy for a frew years and I believe he played CB while on loan at QPR.

 

Team_of_Carraghers, remember this, paying a fee to a club is just half the battle in trying to get players to join Fulham. Not only does Fulham have very little money to spend on transfers, but they also are one of the lower paying clubs in terms of weekly wages. That is often forgot.

People say Portsmouth has done so well in the transfer market the last few seasons getting the likes of Lauren, Sol Campbell and most recently Sylvain Distin on frees. Well, yes, they did get them on free transfers, what has NOT been mentioned is the amount of money each of these players is making on a weekly basis by Pompey. Surely they are paying much more than Fulham would have offered.

As for the matter at hand, I would guess Fulham could have paid four million pounds to Sheffield United for Jagielka, but surely Everton is a more promising destination with weekly wages and a spot in next season's UEFA Cup.

The transfer market is not as easy to be successful in as many people think. Another reason I am NOT all that excited about Lawrie Sanchez's appointment is his lack of experience in dealing with things in the transfewr market. We put up with this same thing in Chris Coleman and I fear outside of his Northern Ireland players, Sanchez knows very little about other potential targets.

 

Coleman didn't do a terrible job with the funds that were available. Much of the stars on the side now were all brought in under his guidance.

The thing that worries me about Sanchez is that he has mainly only presently targeted players he knows from the Northern Ireland team. While it is nice that he knows how they react and their capabilities, I doubt the whole of the NI side will help Fulham maintain or improve in the prem.

I know Fulham isn't a great side in terms of wages and other clubs offer Europe, but if you allow your club to become complacent that is when you will most likely end up in a relegation fight. Simek, Jagielka, Cook, Davies and Healy are all reasonable targets. Some would help the squad more than others. Just hope progress is made on some of the targets.

 

Just got this off the BBC... QPR chairman Gianni Paladini has told Fulham it will take a bid of about £5m to land winger Lee Cook. (Daily Star)

I doubt Fulham will get in a bidding war in the upwards of 5 to 6 million for Cook. He has potential, but that is an awful lot to ask for.

On the Jagielka front, Wigan and Portsmouth I believe are lining up to take the Sheff Utd captain away. Their bids have been in the 4 million range. I can justify paying 4 to 5 million for Jagielka than to pay 5 to 6 for Cook. I know wages come into play later, but neither Jagielka or Cook broke the budged for their respective clubs.

 

I am not saying Coleman did a bad job. With the limited funds made available to him, I think he did okay. I just think he lacked experience in the transfer market. He did not seem to be a manager that lured players in and sold them on the idea of playing for Fulham.

Regardless, the Coleman days are over. I just fear Sanchez might find himself in the same situation as Coleman. Other than his Northern Ireland players, as I have mentioned a number of times, he does NOT have many targets and that will be a problem.

I am not sure who is telling TOC that we want the club to be complacent. That could NOT be further from the truth. I think the majority of us expect the club to make some significant moves this summer to improve upon a team that was not very good last season. If there is complacency, it comes from the suits that run this club, not the supporters.

 

That was the complacency I was talking about. I don't doubt the resolve of any Fulham supporters. All seem to want the best for their club and are hoping for some great transfers.

Don't think Sanchez will have a great transfer period though...Just a bad feeling about it.

 

From TFI:

Fulham tabled a joint bid for two QPR players.

Cook (£1.6M) and Jones £650k)

I know some are wondering why we haven't started on transfers yet but lets keep one thing in mind, that the transfer window doesn't technically open until June 1st.

 

True Mike, but speculation of transfers 9 times out of 10 happens before the June 1st date.

Which Jones are you referring to Ray (striker) or Paul (goalkeeper)?

If Cook is able to be signed for as little as 1.6m that is a fantastic way to start off the transfer period.

 

Ray Jones...

 

Duely noted.

Cheers

 

While the negotiation of a fee is obviously part of the process, that seems like a pretty big gap to me.

 

I hope Mike's source is much more credible than the Daily Star.

 

All signs say Cook won't go for that small a fee, but we will see.

 

there seems to be a lot of movement from South American teams. Speaking to Chicago Tom's editorial, does Fulham have any scouting presence down there? Are there any standouts from the Copa Libertadores FFC could snap up?

 

Let's face it w/QPR being so close I'm assuming there is a rather large rivalry there (shout out to knowledgeable people to elaborate on the rivalry). So I can't imagine them giving up Cook to their neighbor w/out some haggling (gotta think that could be drawn out for a week or two).

 

Scouting and Fulham do NOT seem to go hand-in-hand. I am not sure what the exact set up is at the present time in terms of scouting, but from my recollections, Fulham has very few scouts and those that are scouting are doing it in Europe rather than South America.

I might be wrong on that front, but if memory serves me correctly, we only have one or maybe two paid full-time scouts on staff. That is not cutting it. With a club like Fulham that can't spend much money, it is important to have a number of scouts out there scouring the various leagues looking for bargains. Lawrie needs to revamp the scouting system at Fulham.

Come to think of it......he has quite a task ahead of him with transfers, scouting, and the youth set up.