I suspect not many on HOL had even heard of Amaechi.

I also suspect that had we signed him there would be criticism that we spent a couple of million on some unknown Arsenal player who had never made a first team appearance and development wise was probably behind 2 or 3 other young wingers at the club.

Edited by Willo (28 Jul 2019 12.32pm)

All well and good Willo but if he does turn into the next Jadon Sancho, do we just say, oh well never mind, we had a chance to invite him to the club when we were negotiating with Arsenal. Our track record is appalling. We turned down Van Dijk from Celtic because our scouts said he was too slow for the prem - there is about £70m down the pan in one failed scouting mission.

The reason I mentioned Amaechi is because we are obviously in a dialogue with Arsenal, the kid is highly touted as being the next big thing and he plays as a winger which, if Wilf goes, is the one area we are looking for talent. Why not offer him a chance to come to the PL. Look, I do realise that if he doesn't work out then you could say its a waste of money, however there are an awful lot of decent clubs and scouts that were interested in him. Who's to say he is not already as good as Allen St. Maximin? Just because a player is £25m that is not a guarantee as to his ability, it just means that we think he should be good because he is relatively expensive?

At the end of the day, as Big Toe Punt says, we may have considered him and ruled him out, but I would rather see us take a punt on youth and actually play them rather than buying has beens that have no sell on value after they have finished their career with us.

Not having a go at you Willo, just venting my spleen as I am a little sick and tired of our transfer policy.

Fair enough, but as much as I was missing your point, you were missing mine in that we always seem to go for players with established reputations rather than identifying those youngsters that are just coming through. Meyer was already an established name as was RLC, just that they were not progressing as quickly as they would have liked. We paid heavily (salary wise) for Meyer and I have no idea about RLC but can't imagine he was cheap.

Yes, we did a fantastic job with RLC, but not for our longer term benefit benefit as we have just upped his value for Chelsea. Meyer looks like he is starting to produce some form and I really hope he becomes the player we expected he would be. Him and Bolasie are probably the only two players I can think of that we have bought and sold/could be sold at a substantial profit. Compare that to Southampton!

Somewhat forced by the Directors me thinks in their case but they do have a tremendous record of buying cheap and selling high. Whether they deal with the downside of that policy adequately is their problem.

I certainly do not believe that RH is in the dark as much as he makes out. Unknown to us he has probably been offered players by SP and DF but has refused them as he plays who HE wants to play end of story. IF he had a large squad to choose from each week he would still pick the same old team he likes and not who is best and would STILL not make any substitutions as we all know. He tends to waffle on to the press how hard done by he is and makes some really silly statements too. I have a feeling that SP and DF do not tell RH everything because of his loose tongue. In my opinion I think it is time for RH to retire and put his feet up. He has lost the plot as many of us know already know. He is looking old...very old and just scrapes a result when we are desperately needing one. In my opinion why should SP spend millions on players when RH will not play them but sticks to his own old tired formation. You only have to look at our home games last season.........what a load of tosh. Someone said they could see Dougie taking over and to be honest I think we would see an entirely different football played by our team AND winning at home. I really glad RH only got a years contract but hope it is not our downfall to lower things!

Fair enough, but as much as I was missing your point, you were missing mine in that we always seem to go for players with established reputations rather than identifying those youngsters that are just coming through. Meyer was already an established name as was RLC, just that they were not progressing as quickly as they would have liked. We paid heavily (salary wise) for Meyer and I have no idea about RLC but can't imagine he was cheap.

Yes, we did a fantastic job with RLC, but not for our longer term benefit benefit as we have just upped his value for Chelsea. Meyer looks like he is starting to produce some form and I really hope he becomes the player we expected he would be. Him and Bolasie are probably the only two players I can think of that we have bought and sold/could be sold at a substantial profit. Compare that to Southampton!