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Compilation of my threads on Holmesdale
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 mattteo  14 Jan 20 1.24pm |
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Compilation of my threads on holmesdale I did this cause some people asked me to do it cause my threads were separated and apart and because many people have often asked "well, you talked about many players, so how did things turn out for them?". I also do a "January 2020 transfers" thread and I want to show how much I was right or wrong in my previous threads and how much this new thread should matter. I don't want to brag or appear like an ass, but it's just how it was and it's an objective review of what I said and how things turned out. I tried to find them all, maybe the dates are a bit mixed. This was the first one I could find (apparently there was a previous one about Dwight Gayle, but I can't find it anymore):
It was a critique of Alan Pardew playing Martin Kelly as right back and Joel Ward as left back in a period when Palace wasn't doing very well. Some replies from my "friends" are really juicy: Y DRaig Gooch (making fun): You have a point to be fair why play Ward and Kelly? Speroni one cap short of the record and Campbell never gets 90 minutes both would be better than those two.
Result: Palace went on to lose a lot of matches, Pardew was fired, hasn't been good as manager anywhere else, Ward has never played as a left back again and Kelly (all respect) still covers at right back, but has never been good on that position. I was further mocked for defending Townsend (who many called a s*** player when he came) and for saying Benteke does not deserve 30 million in the transfer window of 2017, but let's just focus on the threads I made.
DEPAY AVAILABLE FOR ABOUT 10-15 MILLION EUROS Extract: me:I mean WTF!!! Why aren't clubs buying? Everton hasn't made a bid, Nice pulled out cause they don't have money to buy from the Premier League. He'd be a bargain for even 20 million. Easily one of the best right footed attacking players I've seen. Will develop incredibly in the next years. It's just baffling to me how the people at United can't see this. Depay was just so good in the Netherlands that no other player had ever had his goals and assists per minutes played percentage. And he was just 18-19 when he established himself at PSV. And his first games at United were very good. Could reach a deal for £12-15m straight away, no loan. IS WORTH IT! bexleydave: There's no quotes or source in the French article and just sounds like wishful thinking to me. cpfc1976: Am sure Depay is massive talent and has massive potential but above all else we want players right now that are well up for a relegation scrap. A very expensive gamble. Loz83: Even 20mil is a snip, he'll be worth more than double that in 2 years! (a great comment!) DutchEagleJohan: I have seen the guy coming up here in Holland and dare say you massively overrate him! me: You're not Dutch and if you are you're talking nonsense. Must be an Ajax fan, because Depay did at PSV something bloody impossible for a 19 year old: 39 goals and 18 assists (57 in total) in 5.800 minutes. Result: On January 20 he left Man Utd for Lyon for 15 million!!! Salary of 68.000. Lyon wasn't even a Champions League club that year, finishing 4th in Ligue 1, so don't tell me he wouldn't have stayed in the top competition of the world- the Premier League if a club had offered him 80 or 90.000 a year, much more than Lyon did. In the same window, we bought Jeffrey Schlupp for 14 million and on a salary of 60.000. Ok, I see Schlupp as a competent left back and it wouldn't be the same position as Depay, but at Palace he was mostly used as a left winger. And let me just tell you there's a ....sliiiiiiight difference between Depay and Schlupp. Benteke is on 120.000. Sakho is on 110.000. Depay has gotten his career back on track and is now worth 60 million, with a lot of big teams after him who were willing to pay his amount last summer, only that Lyon didn't want to let him go. KHOUMA BABACAR(FIORENTINA)- REAL PALACE INTEREST April 28 2017) Not exactly my first choice player, but it was an informative thread for the readers here about what I had read in Italy that Palace wanted him. I do mention that he's not my best choice, but that he's a better goalscorer than Benteke. Time proved this.
Spiderman: none in the Premiership. Well, his comment didn't really hold up... YOUNG RIGHT BACKS WITH POTENTIAL (December 17 2017 ) In this thread, though not my own, I make the following recommendations for right backs: Mitchell Weiser from Hertha (23 yo), Felix Passlack from Hoffenheim, but belonging to Bor Dortmund (19 yo), Silvan Widmer from Udinese (24), DeAndre Yedlin from Newcastle (24), Trent Alexander Arnold from Liverpool (19), Dominic Iorfa from Ipswich (20). Oh yeah, there's also Almamy Toure from Monaco (21 yo)
In the same thread I commented: Well, if you're going to get someone with higher quality in, why keep Ward around as backup? Why not give that squad spot to Wan Bissaka? He's at that age when you need to let hm into the squad or let him go. 1. Ward has been average. You can pretty much think Wan Bissaka can be at least at the same level of average after his performance against Tottenham. Strong player (stronger than Ward), keeps the line well, can't really pass him. 2. You never know how well he might develop, he may have a wonderful season and you get a 20 year old player with a 20-30 million value. Which, in Ward's case, at his age, cannot happen. 3. His salary is lower that Ward's, that's an economy right there. 2-3 million which don't seem much but may be used to get a player in somewhere else. Casual: You are looking to gamble a lot on 75 minutes of ok football that you saw against spurs, as the first 15 minutes Wan Bissaka was poor. Goldfiinger: Why not keep ward for a season whilst both AWB and another replacement bed in. me: Because AWB deserves playing time and he wouldn't play if we had 3 in the same position. WHICH STRIKERS ARE REALLY CONSIDERED BY THE CLUB? (December 30 2017 ) Informative post, trying to piece together what we knew. Not my personal preferences, but those in the media. I do end it with my personal thoughts that it is Florin Andone who I would have taken or maybe Richmond Boakye from Red Star Belgrade, just cause he was so cheap. Andone eventually came to the PL at Brighton for 6 million and is on loan to Champions League club Galatasaray this season, while Boakye is with Champions League club Red Star Belgrade still. LUCIANO NARSINGH-JUST A SUGGESTION (January 12 201 As the title says, just a suggestion. Unfortunately for his career, Narsingh preferred to stay with Swansea in the Championship just to get his paycheck and did not move somewhere else to improve his career. He just left this season to Eredivisie 3rd place Feyenoord Rotterdam and is playing quite a lot, but I can't really say that he turned out very well. It was still just a suggestion. QUINCY PROMES TO REPLACE ZAHA SUGGESTION (January 27 201 Although I speak of about 10 players in the thread, I say that "I can think of only Quincy Promes of Spartak Moscow who is a certainty of success from the players the club could attract." And I was proven right. Quincy cost Sevilla 18 million that year and it would have been a good investment (even though expensive) for a player who is 90% like Zaha (no other player in the world comes that close). Even if we hadn't gotten him at 18, last season Sevilla (where he was played out of position as wingback in a 3-4-3 system; still scored 3 and assisted 9) let him go for just 14 million and a salary of just 26.000. Now he is one of the most sought after players by big clubs, with Liverpool really, really weighting an offer. Cost of possible transfer: over 40 million after a rampant 14 goals for Ajax (4 in the Champions League) and starting in the national team in 4-2 win with Germany and 3-1 win with England in the last 5 months. HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE A COHERENT TRANSFER WINDOW (January 11 2018 ) This was in a time when rumors of Diafra Sakho and Arfield wee abundant and people here were actually speaking in good terms of them (Diafra and Arfield really became world class payers, didn't they?) You see that from the squad which was already at Palace I would have added right back Danny da Costa of Eintracht Frankfurt, in a time when Eintracht was a low-table team and he would not have cost more than 5 million. He's not looked at as one of the best right back in Germany and worth like 30 million. I wouldn't have paid 20 million for a center back or a defensive midfielder (as the club paid for Sakho or Milivojevic), but I listed the squad with them included, as these transfers were already done and I couldn't change them. They are decent to good players, I have nothing against them, I just think they cost too much. I admit I wasn't following the Palace U21 matches back then and I did not know much of AWB, but I would have promoted players from the youth department- had already talked about AWB before in another thread- and he surely would have been on the 22 players from the squad diagrame in the thread cause I'd have sold Ward (for around 10 million) to keep Danny da Costa and AWB as first 2 choices, young players who ensure a much larger income later on. I added a left footed winger next to Townsend and you see my final choices were either Hernani from Porto or Jony from from Spain's Malaga. Now in this period Jony was NOBODY! NOBODY! He wasn't even played that much in Malaga, they wanted to let him go and had no idea what a jewel they had (proof that they allowed him to leave FOR FREE). Jony went on to assist 11 and score 4 for Deportivo Alaves in the Spanish first league, being third in the assists ranking, only behind a certain Lionel Messi (!) and a Pablo Sarabia (who was playing for Sevilla, not lowly Alaves, and made a move to PSG this summer for 20 million). The other option, Hernani, had been great up to that point on loan from FC Porto at Olympiakos of Greece and in the Portuguese league. In the meantime, he has gotten to Levante of Spain's first league, where he has scored 3 goals this season (that's still more than most Palace wingers). I can't say that he is a flop, I can't say that he has been amazing at Porto either, as he has won titles, but was mostly a fringe player. He needed more playing time, hopefully for him he will show what he can do at Levante. In the thread I also speak about potential left footed wingers like Alessandrini or Cheryshev, who have also been great in recent years (Alessandrini top MLS assists provider, Cheryshev scored 3-4 stunners at the World Cup alone), but I'll just say I focused on Jony/Hernani at the end choices, as seen in the squad's outline of 22 players. IF I had already brought in Depay as I suggested in the 1 year ago thread, then Zaha would have been playing through the middle, so I would have only bought Andone as a backup for him. Andone was let go by Deportivo la Coruna for 6 million (not 13 as I had actually written in the thread) and scored 6 in 1250 minutes in England after scoring and assisting 24 in 4600 minutes in Spain (so roughly every 200 minutes)+ a lot of pressing. A decent player, though maybe not starter material. Nils Petersen, the center forward who was available for around 6-7 million, went on to score since that moment 26 goals for Freiburg (that's more than Benteke, Wickham, Sorloth and Jordan Ayew combined) for a low-table German team and even be 1 step away from being selected by the German national team manager for the World Cup. By now he has gotten old at 31, but that would have been a good period in his career. The other center forward possibilities would not have been brought in the end because: 1. Emenike would have failed the medical because of chronic condition which pretty much prevented him from finding another contract and 2. Obafemi Martins broke his leg before the shut of the transfer window which pretty much ended his career. Ola John would have been a low investment as a backup sub and would probably not have made it, but would not have been a loss either (he has since been plagued with injuries and played little in Portugal, though contributed when he played- 1 goal and 7 assists in 1350 minutes). But yeah, I'll accept him as a flop. A 2 million flop. BENTEKE FOR BATSHUAYI? (January 22 2018 )- that same transfer window This wasn't just a rumour, Antonio Conte has his fixated ideas. The man wanted Benteke!! He actually wanted him before, in 2017: "Antonio Conte is keen to replace Michy Batshuayi in January with Christian Benteke.": Comments in that thread: thai-eagle: Batshuayi looks like Zaha's twin brother, but nowhere near skillwise. me: Think again. Spiderman: 1 back flick doesn't prove much. CB is having an awful season but watch the build up to Luca's goal against Southampton. CB started the move on the halfway line with excellent skill. Icepick Tony: Beneteke is having a bad season, everyone knows that. He is, however, a proven Premier league striker more than capable of scoring double figures Nobbybm: Yet more pointless stats that prove absolutely nothing. If Benteke was at Chelsea & Batshuayi at Palace from the start of the season those numbers would be completely different.FWIW the Chelski ST holders I know think Batshuayi lacks positional sense, can’t seem to hold the ball up & his decision making is suspect. Ginger Public Wig: Swap with 10m to us (FFS sake, he was talking about a younger player and look how much Batshuayi is worth today and how much Benteke is worth!!!!) me: 10 m to us? More like 20 million to them. Benteke's value is around 20 million at this point. Batshuayi's is at more than 30, probably 40. But even Chelsea had in mind a straight swap, just cause Conte fancied Benteke!! I would have made it possible if I had been in the Palace board. Even if I would have given Chelsea 5-10 million on top of Benteke, I would have made it possible. I would have driven him there myself before they would have had the chance to look at Andy Carroll or whoever else Conte was thinking about. If there would have been serious management at Palace, it would have made this in that transfer window. silvertop: Batshuayi would not have been in the right position to fluff the chances. That's the difference. Benteke can come good; Batshuayi can't. coulsdoneagle: If he is crap at Chelsea he is hardly going to be a success here. People have short memories about Christian. He is out of form, but we have a striker that’s hit 17 goals a season while in the PL Spiderman: Totally agree Coulsdon, this poster is seriously getting on my t*** with his nonsense stats. me: You're getting agitated for no reason. It was a stupid thing to say that Bats has been crap for Chelski. Nobbybm: Seriously? Chelsea fans who go week in week out think he's been awful, commentators & pundits think he's been awful & his manager thinks he often doesn't warrant a start even when he has no other striker to play. me: Show me a Chelsea fan or a pundit who has said this. I think you're mixing up players or don't know who Batsuahyi is. No Chelsea fan would say that about the man who has bailed them out in the 90th minute against Atletico Madrid just a few months ago. It's an unanimous consensus that he hardly plays and Conte has something against him. Most Chelsea fans agree that he deserves more playing time. Nobbybm: Meh. I know at least 6 Chelsea ST holders who go home & away, week in, week out & they are all of the same opinion - he just isn't good enough. EverybodyDannsNow: Pretty conclusive. To add even further, one quick look on the Chelsea forum would show that they think very little of him; spartakev2: I'm sorry but matteo knows every player in world football and his is the only opinion that matters.. me: People at Chelsea are comparing their strikers to Diego Costa, Lukaku, Luis Suarez, Lewandowski, the best in the world. Comments like "Batshuayi isn't quite up to the Chelsea level we want" or "Batshuayi in not as good as Diego Costa" are not reflective on his value. We're talking here about Batshuayi vs Benteke, not why Bats isn't exactly a Champions League winning player. Not giving Benteke for Batshuayi now, probably the last time in this century that a top 6 team will ask for Benteke, would be madness. Conte is either cocky as hell or mad EverybodyDannsNow: To be fair to Conte, from what he has shown recently you can see why he doesn't want play him. Real shame, as I was hoping he could be the answer, but last night he looked a million miles away from being PL / CL standard (so EDN didn't think Batshuayi was Premier League standard Spiderman: Maybe it is because we WATCH live football rather than play Football Manager and look for nonsense stats that prove nothing. You call Benteke crap but berate another poster for calling Batshuayi crap. me: You seem to have watched Benteke live pointlessly this entire season, cause he's been crap and it hasn't hit you in the head yet
EverybodyDannsNow: Someone throw him a life jacket - he's drowning (in reference to me). Benteke, whilst admittedly having a poor season, is a proven goal scorer for our club and in this league. Result:
CoombsyEagle: He has turned us down once and is not performing for Chelsea - move on. In February after he was allowed by Chelsea to leave on loan in Germany and had scored a lot: "Like we would have ever gotten Bats...." me: Conte was dumb enough to make the switch. All Conte knows is that he wanted a big, target man. He couldn't get the main guy he coached at Juventus- Fernando Llorente, cause Tottenham wouldn't let him go. Jordan555X: From what I have heard Batshuayi's hold up and link up play were dreadful for Chelsea, his only attribute was that he is a good finisher but it stops there, according to Chelsea supporting mate. So he said Bats didn't keep the ball well? He came to Palace eventually and did a good job. Meanwhile, Benteke has the worst pass success percentage in the PL from outfield players (only 3 goalkeepers have worst passing percentage) in the 2019-20 season.
This was in a time when there was Lookman frenzy on this site. Everybody wanted Lookman. I mentioned that we would rather need a left footed winger and gave 4 examples of really good players who would further develop well: Raphinha (who would have been hard to get cause Sporting eventually asked for a lot of money from Rennes to let him go), Bongonda from Belgium (who turned out very good in Belgium and top assist provider in that league and was transferred to champions Genk to play in the CL), Alfonso Pedraza (who is also expensive and more like one sided- kind of like Schlupp, so I would have chose one of the others) and HARRY WILSON, who was a no-name from the Liverpool youth ranks, sent to play on loan at Hull City in the lower zone of the Championship, fighting relegation. Harry Wilson turned out to be one of the best prospects in British football and now is with Bournemouth with a potential move in the summer of +30 million having scored 6 times this PL season as a 22 year old winger. He WOULD have been available right after that loan at Hull. Some think that Liverpool would not have sold for 10 million, but they changed their stance on Harry Wilson after the Derby loan, not AFTER the Hull loan. In that time they were more concerned with Ben Woodburn and I correctly said that Harry Wilson had the same potential as Woodburn, even though at Liverpool they didn't even care about Wilson or take him on tours with the first team. So, eventually, the point is that I would have brought in Harry Wilson/ Bongonda out of those 4 options, with Raphinha being to expensive and Pedraza too one-sided (and expensive), though these last 2 also play very well for Rennes and in Spain for Villarreal. CARLOS IBARGUEN, 22 YO FREE COLOMBIAN STRIKER SUG. (February 26 2018 ) Now you have to understand, some of these threads came after the transfer window had ended and Palace still hadn't brought in the center forwards who would have lifted the club. There was still the possibility to add another player or 2 to the squad. I was searching through out of contract players and I suggested whoever was still available, not that I ever thought Carlos Ibarguen was the best solution for Palace I make it clear in the thread that if I would have been able to select from the start of the transfer period, I would have chosen others. This guy got some contracts in Mexico and played in the Copa Libertadores, but I wouldn't say he's world class. But in that time the club only had Benteke and Sorloth (with Wickham injured) and I didn't trust in Benteke.
Informative thread, not necessarily saying that we should buy all of them. Most of these are young (20-24 yo) players, who are still developing. It's worth to keep an eye on them. And also would have been a info thread to search for some really good deals, like bringing some young players in for just 1-2 million if they are out of contract and loaning them out to further develop (in order for them to come back to Palace). Most are still developing in good leagues: Saymak is in the Eredivisie where he scored like 6 goals this season, Ayoub Yassin is still with Feyenoord, Kristoffer Peterson was bought by Swansea (I missed a 0 there in his presentation, but it is pretty obvious), Simon Gustafson is considered one of the best young central midfielders, Santiago Arias, the Colombian right back, went to Atletico Madrid, Angelino went back to Man City after PSV, Zeneli went to Reims for just 4 million and he was great in France, but the poor guy broke his leg, Rafael is still with Olympique Lyon, Gael Kakuta unfortunately for him ha been having injuries (I really can't be held responsible for any injuries they had that halted their careers, there's no way I could have known), Jonathan Bamba is a great young player who went free of contract to Lille and made the Champions League 3rd place with them, Cedric Itten has developed wonderfully in Switzerland, Theo Bongonda in Belgium and so on.... BRAZILIAN SUGGESTION: FELIPE ANDERSON AND BERNARD (April 28 2018 ) I admit my evaluation for how much Lazio would want for Felipe Anderson was off. He is a great player and I said in the thread I would really want him, but I thought they would let him go for 15-20 million and they only did it after West Ham offered 27 million. So, he would have been a no-go from me at that money (not because he wasn't worth it, but because it was a lot). I think he has been phenomenal for West Ham, even though they're with fewer points than us. We're talking about an individual player here, even made the Brazil squad. Bernard has come to the PL eventually, at Everton. He hasn't set the league on fire, but he has established himself as a starter in the Everton first 11 and scored or assisted 9-10 times in 3100 minutes, so it's not bad for a winger. I believed he would have agreed to come for a maximum of 3,5 million per year contract, but apparently Everton gave him a 6.2 million a year contract, so he would have been impossible to get. Though I must say, he at least offered SOMETHING as a free player and at this kind of salary, as opposed to Meyer, who came here in the same period, also a free player and on a similar salary and, but has only offered 2 goals and 3 assists in 2600 minutes.
Informative thread, not that we should have taken them all. But most of these players are doing good in top leagues: Marius Wolf had signed with Borussia Dortmund as a free agent (ok, this would have been hard to beat, as he wouldn't have refused Dortmund for Palace), Facundo Fereyra is in Spain's first league with Espanyol, Lewis Holtby is in the Championship with Blackburg, Ki Sung Yeong is at Newcastle and so on...I really can't be held responsible that Sulejmani has broken his leg and has been missing a full year. Same for Samperio. BEST PLAYERS FROM RELEGATED TEAMS (April 23 2018 ) Informative thread. Might have found something in there. Some of them have even gone to big teams for lots of money later on: Nicolas Pepe, Shaqiri, Mooy, Amadou, Thiago Mendes, Osimhen, Fiete Arp, Jankto. JACKSON MARTINEZ (April 28 2018 ) I still think he is a good player, but he hasn't played that much since then. Went to Portugal and scored 11 in 40 matches. Well, more than Benteke in the last 2 years, but he has had a chronic affection which made him come back from China which I was not aware of at the time I made the thread. He has described it as "feeling pain every minute of every hour and finding it hard to even train". Knowing this and his medical record, I would not have gone through with a move. PEDRO (CHELSEA) SUGGESTION (May 7 2018 ) Maybe would not have been the best match for Palace, but I still think he's a good player. Like I say in the thread, I appreciate him and would have considered him as an option. Just a suggestion. CALLEJON SUGGESTION (May 9 2018 ) Similar to the Pedro big-name suggestion, another Spaniard, this one lesser known (and unjustly for him). Out of the 2, I'd always take Callejon- stronger, more involved, runs more, Milner type of fighter. When I made the thread 2 years ago I mentioned that he has a relatively small release clause for going abroad Italy- 19 million. I wouldn't recommend any other 30 year old player and especially not for this money, but if Palace were a Top 6 team, this is the guy it should go for. At that price, it would have been wrong for Palace to pay for Callejon, but this coming summer he's out of contract. 32 now, but similar to Milner, he'll go up to 37 playing at top level. Oh, since then, in the last 2-3 years, he's been the best assists provider in the Serie A CuckingFunt comment: I've seen him. He's rubbish.
The reason was that Lazio had missed out on the Champions League by a point and it meant a great financial cut was needed at the club. They had the best attack in the Serie A even though they finished 5th and some players who could have been bought without gigantic sums of money: Joaquin Correa, Felipe Anderson, Nani, Bastos. WOULD YOU SELL SCHLUPP FOR KURZAWA, ALEX TELLES OR MAX? (23 May 2018 ) This thread was concerned with getting an upgrade on the left back position. Considering that Schlupp had cost 14 million and could have been sold for a similar amount given his age, I wanted a poll as for how people would welcome an upgrade for the position with some players of similar value. The 3 above are still great players, Kurzawa has been unlucky to pick up some injuries and has played less for PSG, but that's kind of a good thing now cause he will be a free player in the summer, Alex Telles has really proven himself at Porto and costs in excess of 30 million now and Philipp Max is one of the best left backs in Germany and many big teams want him (well, he would have been hard to get back then too, I admit). LEROY SANE LEFT OUT OF LOW'S WORLD CUP SQUAD (June 4 2018 ) I won't claim that I was the only one who knew that this was a stupid thing to do, but many people commented that Low is a good manager and knows what he's doing and there's no way Germany will crash early because they didn't take Sane. After all, they were Germany and had a group with just South Korea, Mexico and Sweden. In retrospect everybody says that not taking Sane was a very bad call, but I didn't see many criticizing Low when I posted this. me: It's incomprehensible to take flop Ozil, who never runs and simply looks at the opponents on the pitch and not take Leroy Sane!! Or Rudy! What's Rudy doing in the squad? He has hardly played for Bayern this year! And how many central midfielders did he take? They got Khedira, Kroos, Gundogan, Rudy and Goretzka!! Low mostly used Goretzka as a side midfielder in the national team. Seriously?? He's taking Goretza as a side midfielder instead of Sane?? Goreztka, who is played as a central midfielder at club level! baldeagle73: Germany have won many tournaments without sane and I'm sure they will too continue to thrive with or without him Tez: From what I've seen, most Germans agree with the decision.
Spiderman: You have excelled yourself with some of the bull**** you have come out with on here. me: everyone would have taken Germany to the semifinals the last 3 World Cups. Is it a big accomplishment if Real Madrid or Bayern reach the semifinals of the Champions League 3 times in a row?? It would have take a total idiot not to reach at least the semis with Germany. What if this time they don't make it past the first 16? Will you agree with me that Low's a total *****? Willo: Clearly you believe that any manager can achieve titles on a regular basis if that team is somewhat high- profile. Perhaps Real Madrid will go for FDB !- actually, Zidane is proof that even a manager with no background as a manager can get to at least semifinals easily with a top team. And FDB doesn't seem like such a bad manager now BRUNO PERES RIGHT BACK- SUGGESTION (June 6 2018 ) More like a question, as Roma wanted a lot of money, but still a good player. Reintegrated into Roma's squad this winter after a period in Brazil.
It was more like a question, if he deserved the kind of money Feyenoord were asking, which was quite a lot, 20 million. I know Newcastle were interested, but they chose not to pay either. The pint is moot, as he has had some injuries though and could not have been signed. BEST PLAYERS NOT AT THE WORLD CUP- VALUE DROPPING BY JULY (June 17 2018 ) I was actually right. These players were more affordable that summer, after the World Cup tournament, just because they weren't in the spotlight for a month. Some of them could have even been afforded by the club (I put them in bold). They actually look pretty good when you think about it today, except for Wilshire, who is injury prone. There were 3 center forwards who were not selected for the tournament though they had good years before and were still in a decent price range for a team like Crystal Palace: Origi, Duvan Zapata ad Niasse. Origi went on to become Liverpool hero in the Champions League semifinal against Barcelona, scoring 2 goals, Duvan Zapata became Serie A goalscorer and best center forward and has played in the Champions League with Atalanta, while Niasse has gone down, to not playing for Everton. The others (like Dzeko, Benzema, Icadi, Morata, Immobile, Aubameyang) are out or Palace's level. IS 17 MILLION A GOOD PRICE FOR TADIC? (June 26 2018 ) I really suggest you re-read this thread. I make a case for why Tadic's 3rd years with Southampton was not as good as his first 2 after he was moved from he wing to attacking midfielder position and asked the question if he was worth 17 million, cause I just knew he was quality. Eventually, it turns out that I had imagined to big a price for Tadic, as he was allowed to go to Ajax for just 10 million (I imagine a 12 million for a Premier League fellow team would have been right) and a 45.000 a week salary. AT THAT MONEY, SURELY I WOULD HAVE GONE FOR HIM! Give Tadic an 80.000 weekly salary and he would not have refused. Ajax was not even a Champions League team then (they had been playing in the Europa League they year before that) and don't tell me he would have refused a Premier League salary to go to Ajax!! They were not the Ajax of today, the Ajax he and Zyiech and van de Beek made last year together. And it was right as I thought- moved back to wing position, Tadic scored and assisted 62 in 4900 minutes last seasons and 30 in 2600 minutes this season (!).If you say he can only do it at national team level, he has 38 goals and assists in 4800 minutes at national team level, from wing position. And in the PL he had 51 in 9600 minutes. I would have compared him to Andros and made the deal. I love Andros Townsend, he's a great player, but doesn't compare to Tadic. Similar age, Townsend was wanted by Newcastle and they offered 15-25 million. Southampton wanted 10-12 million for Tadic. It was as simple as that.
Analysis after Ahmed Musa's good displays at the World Cup. Eventually, he chose the Arab money route, but is still a national team starter for Nigeria and probably the best player in the EAU league. Shame he didn't stay in a top league though. Leicester wanted more than 20 million for him, so pretty expensive. I'D GO FOR GUIDO CARRILLO LOAN, NOTHING TO LOSE (July 7 2018 ) I actually think that he didn't make it as much as my standards for strikers go. If I had brought him on loan, I would not have paid the money after 6 months. He still plays at top level- in Spain for Leganes, but just didn't shine the way a center forward should. Course, if at the club had already been Batshuayi and Nils Petersen, there would have been no point in loocking at these strikers. But there were only Benteke and Sorloth and I had to look for something better. IS NANI A BAGAIN AT 5 MILLION? (July 7 2018 ) LEWIS HOLTBY- PROBABLY BEST SOLUTION TO REPLACE CABAYE (July 8 2018 ) I still think he's a very cheap and very tidy and strong and hard working option for central midfield. No PL club got him, but he went to Blackburn this season. We'll see how his career develops. They're a small team, so he would still be cheap. But he's 29 now. He was 27 when I talked about him. RAFAEL, FORMER MAN UTD RIGHT BACK AVAILABLE FOR 2 MILLION (July 9 2018 ) Cheap and good right back suggestion to replace Ward, not AWB. MY IDEAL TRANSFER TARGETS OF 2018 (July 9 2018 ) A list of god players in each position who could be solutions, with my preferred option in 1st position. Many of those players are actually still doing good today and have increased their values A LOT. In fact, I can say that close to none on that list has decreased his value, except for maybe a few at the bottom of the lists, mainly because they went over 30 years old. Out of the better ones, Almamy Toure (the right back) was allowed to leave by AS Monaco for just 0.7 million and has since established himself in the Bundesliga as right sided central defender in a system of 3-4-3. For 0.7, it was even worth to take a 20 year old and loan him around for a couple of years, until he was ready for PL first team football, he would still be a great deal. Danny da Costa has become one of the most appreciated right backs in Germany. Now he costs somewhere at 30 million. Carlos Salcedo has been going between Germany and his home country of Mexico, is a national team starter and a good central defender if you ask me. Papadopoulous has had the misfortune of serious injury which has kept him sidelined for 1 full year. He was a good defender before. Niasse...well, I have to take this as it is...A FLOP! It is the only flop I'm willing to accept from everything that I've posted here. I put him top of my list because he had been great at Hull when they were struggling to stay up and he had been great coming in as a sub for Everton. But...he went to Cardiff (another low table side) and failed to score in 900 minutes last season. Overall, he did some good things too in English football and has like 16 goals and 5 assists in 61 matches (3600 minutes). That's not a bad number, definitely better than Benteke and what strikers Palace had. And....dare I say it...better than Jordan Ayew, who is having a good season now, but has been poor the last 5 years alltogether. So, if I had bought Niasse, it maybe would have been a flop, but it would have been like a 6 million flop, not very expensive, while still possibly good coming on at times and scoring.
Not my thread, but I make my opinion on a possible transfer of Tammy Abraham known: Just update: Chelsea apparently wants just 15 million for the very fit, just 20 years old English U21 international Tammy Abraham. A loan with an option to buy at this money would actually be pretty decent. He's the future of English football in my opinion. A player who is young, runs into spaces, will never have weight problems at the way he's built and would have a possible resale value of 50 million in 2-3 years. National team will surely up his value, cause I can't see any other centre forward coming from behind to get into the squad behind Kane and Vardy ( who isn't quite young anymore) and Southgate promotes young players. There would be Calvert-Lewin, but it just doesn't seem the same quality and Everton are holding to him with their teeth anyway. Well, needless to say, this is exactly what happened and now this Tammy Abraham bloke is considered one of the best center forwards in England and is worth 50 million. About Piazon I say: I think Piazon's clause would be less, so could be worth a shot, but there are others, better, who could have come on loan. Harry Wilson from Liverpool comes to my mind.- proven right Goldffinger: Don’t get the Tammy Abraham lovein. Why would Chelsea let him go for £15m if he’s the next best english sensation...(as mattteo says) Would be pleased to be wrong but I don’t see him as a Premiership level player MKCPFC: Is this the bloke who got relegated with Swansea ? Window actually ended with no move for Tammy Abraham. He could the only move on loan to a Championship side. Chelsea relied on Morata and Giroud. I said: There are already reports about Abraham possibly going on loan to Derby because he won't be getting playing time as 3rd choice striker unless it's cup games. Going to the Championship seems so little for a player like Abraham. He already proved himself there, he's at an age when he needs to be playing in the PL. I can't believe no PL team signed him.- I was right. He went to Aston Villa and was amazing again in the Championship and only then did he come back to the PL, making the Chelsea squad and having Lampard's trust this season. ROMA ASKING JUST 13 MILLION FOR STEPHANE EL SAHHARAWY (July 26 201 This is a player I would have surely gone for. I had mentioned here as a great possibility even before, in 2017, before he scored the 2 wonderful goals against Chelsea in the Champions League. He was one of my favorites! The man wanted just 2.8 million per season to stay in Europe: [Link] shaarawy-s-wage-demands-at-roma-87807 milaneagle (obviously Milan and not Roma fan): having seen him live many times at Milan this guy is too lightweight for the prem. El Shaarawy did this against Chelsea, a Premier League team: If he had scored those goals while being a PL player, his value would have doubled and he would have been sold for at least 30 million to a Top 6 team, that's why I actually think he would have come to Palace, cause he had this possibility of making the step up to a lot of teams: Man United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea, City. He just needed to play in the league to prove himself. Result: next year he was the best player for AS Roma, scoring 11 goals and assisting 6 in 2500 minutes, as a winger or attacking midfielder. They added 4 million to his price and let him go to China on a big salary, even though all he wanted was a decent salary to stay in Europe: [Link] rumors/2019/7/7/20684589/di-marzio-el-shaarawy-to-shanghai-shenhua-for-18-million Extract: "once again we have to point out the absurdity of Roma's wage structure. Upon signing Leonardo Spinazzola to a four year deal, a guy who had played for seven different teams since 2012 and has a history of knee injuries, Roma immediately doubled his salary to €3 million. Yet, for their leading scorer and a guy who had become a workhorse for the club, who is the same age as Spinazzola I might add, they didn't see fit to match that same €3 million salary."
Muto came to the PL to Newcastle and you could say that he is a flop, but he gets very little playing time. Put this guy in for more than 20 minutes and I still retain my belief that he would come good. He scored 2 goals (against Manchester United and Leicester, top teams, well, Leicester RAMIRES AVAILABLE FOR 3 MILLION MAKES KOUYATE DEAL RUSHED (August 3 2018 ) After the club had bought 29 year old Koouyate for 10 million. Ramires was 2 years older, but 7 million cheaper. I have nothing against Kouyate, I think he is a good defensive midfielder, 10 million just seemed a lot to me at the time. I believe Kouyate has done well for Palace and I believe Ramires would have done the same. I still remember his days at Chelsea and he was one of the best, along with Essien and Obi Mikel. He is very much like Kouyate, the same type of long, skinny legs, but also fast. 52 matches for Brazil's national team are not easy to get. And Confederations Cup winner, participant in 2 World Cups. In 2019 he has gone to Palmeiras and has been playing for them since. (Brazil league is Portugal league level) BAGHDAD BOUNEDJAH SUGGESTION (September 26 2018 ) Suggestion to keep an eye on, as it was September and the Transfer window had shut. he actually went on to become a starter for the Algeria national team, their top goalscorer and to win for them the Africa Cup of Nations, scoring the only goal in the final and his third in the tournament. His sale value went from about 5 million to about 15, with many French clubs (cause they transfer these players directly from Africa), especially Marseille, very interested.
I like Kagawa, even though Manchester United wasn't the best team for him. He has since left Borussia Dortmund on loan for Besiktas in Turkey, where he played well, and in a 3 million transfer this season- so not even that 12 million in the title- to Real Zaragoza of Spain's second division, who wanted him in order to gain promotion to the first league. They're about 3rd in rankings (so kind of similar level to WBA or Fulham) and Kagawa has been so-so. I would not have gotten a work permit for him anyway, as he has not played in the national team much in the last 2 years, so it would have been impossible anyway. Something funny is that in this thread, Jimenez replies with : Miguel Almirón would cost half as much STRIKERS WE COULD REALISTICALLY GET TO SCORE ASAP (November 17 2018 ) An analysis on who I thought were the best options if the club didn;t listen to what I said at right time and didn;t bring in Nils Petersen or swap Bentek for Batshuayi. Goalscoring crisis continued and we still had Benteke and Sorloth at the club. I made a list of about 15 strikers the club could afford. At the last reply in the page, because I was pushed to name just 1 or 2, I say that, taking all of them into consideration, you can't go wrong with Tiquinho Soares or Emiliano Sala because they are tall and powerful and well built and will score many goals. Unfortunately, RIP Emilioano Sala, he died in the plane crash accident right after signing to come to the Premier League. Tiquinho is still great playing for FC Porto. Actually, all in the list are still great and their value has increased. Sidenote: Alfredo Morelos was worth just about 6 million back in the day as Rangers had been eliminated from Europe by Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg 1 year before sprites: Benteke is not a championship striker (in reply to me for calling him that). He's just woefully out of form. At his best, he's close to world class...just need to get him back there somehow. Well, sprites, it's January 2020 and he is still like that. ON FIRE MIDFIELDERS WE COULD REALISTICALLY GET (10 MILLION MAX.) (December 1st 2018 ) An analysis of very good midfielders. My favorite player from that list and the one who I would have went for (closest to Zaha type of football in the eventuality that he went away) was Cristian Tello of Betis Sevilla. But the others are good as well. Show me one player from that list (who has not had a serious leg broken injury- I can't be held responsible for that) who is not performing well in a Top league. Many of them even came to the PL: Trossard at Bighton, Djenepo at Southampton, Emiliano Buendia up with Norwich, Danjuma to Bournemouth, Minamino to Liverpool.
An analysis of 2 very good Argentine players, one who was not getting playing time in Tottenham, one who still hadn't flourished fr Lazio (though by now he is the most sought after player in Italy!!) and one who was having problems with Marseille in France (but eventually went to FC Sevilla in the summer for 13 million and is now their star player and they think they'll get a transfer bid or 30 million for him, after some great performances in Spain). LINKED WITH LUKA JOVIC, 12 LEAGUE AND 5 EUROPA LEAGUE GOALS (December 25 2018 ) Just passing the rumor along, couldn't believe it myself. It's great that Palace aims high, but seriously, don't go for a 40 million player, you can't have him. But some of the talk is this: me: Article says the other 2 options for Palace are Batshuayi and Solanke. With Bats I'd be very happy as he was last year in Germany the star that Jovic is today, scored a lot for Borussia Dortmund. Went to Valencia to play in the Champions League for them. He's just not suited for Spanish football, but does great in leagues where you play faster, like Bundesliga or the Premier League. (proven right in time) Solanke...I don't know. He's highly rated in England, but he has not proven himself in a top league. And I don't think he could either at this age, not score more than 5-6 goals a season that is. (also proven right in time) aashman12: Michy has 3 in 18 at Valencia. Not very good at all. me: It's not easy when you only come on as a substitute for a few minutes. 4 in 3 matches this autumn for the national team, 12 in 23 in total for Belgium, 9 in 14 for Borussia Dortmund and 12 in 25 in the last year at Chelsea sounds a lot better, doesn't it?
Informative thread. Center forwards who weren't really playing for their clubs. I say in the thread that they're not really my personal suggestions, but they are players to look at and maybe, maybe, consider. PATRICK HERRMANN, 27 YO FROM BUNDESLIGA- PAPER TALK (December 30 2018 ) Just expressing my thoughts on what I read. Read that club was after Patrick Herrmann, who was close to contract end with Borussia Moenchengladbach, a bit unhappy that he wasn't playing a lot, and I gave my opinion that he's a great player and for that kind of money should not be missed. Result: he didn't come, has extended his contract with 'Gladbach, has since established himself as a more important player and provided 9 goals and 6 assists in 2100 minutes (!) EASTERN EUROPEAN SCORERS COST LESS THAN 3 MILLION (January 2 2019 ) A thread about possible investments for the future with little money. Maybe 1-2 players from the list should have been invested in. My first one was Kiril Despodov, who was later seen by many of you in the England Bulgaria match and was quite impressive (in a poor team though). He was bought by Cagliari for 2.5 million, but hasn't been used by their manager, instead sent on loan to the Austrian league, where's he's doing amazingly for Sturm Graz. I rarely name players from my country, but at that moment I named Florinel Coman of Steaua Bucharest, who was in a bad phase with the club ownership and available for 2.5 million. Today they want 25 million for him after a breakthrough seasons and a semifinal at youth level with the U21 national team (scoring twice against England U21 in the group stage). There has already been a 9 million offer from Sporting Lisbon and they refused, he has only gotten better since. Now would not be a good time to take him, but at that point it was. I'm not saying I would have paid the 2.5 million if I had a tight budget to invest in youngsters, but I thing that for Despodov I would have paid. And he's also increased his value. ASIAN CUP STRIKER ABDULLA MIGHT BE PALACE ANSWER (January 6 2019 ) While watching the Asian Cup. I knew the national team had been playing against tough opponents, not just against Asian teams: 4-3 against Ecuador, 1-1 and 2-2 against Iceland, 1-0 against Swizerland. He would have been an investment for the future, a 22 year old striker with his attributes (fast, Sudanese ancestry), capable of playing on the wings as well. The boy was worth about 2-3 million at the time and would have surely loved to be the first Qatarese to sign for an English team. In fact, they would have let him come just so that they have their country promoted in Europe. He would not have gotten a work permit yet, so we would have loaned him out, but he will be quality in the future. I finish my thread saying: "Let's just see how Qatar fares against big teams of Asia like Japan and South Korea. Their striking force of Abdulla, Afif and al-Haydos look very good to me." This was in a time when nobody believed Qatar would go past the first 8 stage, with teams such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, Iran or Saudi Arabia way ahead of them in the Asian Cup rankings. Result: Qatar went on to beat everyone and win the competition and Almoez Alli was goalscorer with 9 goals in 7 matches. This beauty in the final against Japan (a World Cup Top 16 country with all players from Germany, England or Spain): [Link] This was a chance in 1.000 and I can't believe myself how right I was before the tournament even started!! Replies: FFS, what more do I have to do to prove people??????????????? OLDIES BUT GOLDIES (January 24 2019 ) A look into older players. I'm not saying any of this list should have definitely been bought if the transfers before were good and young players would heve been already at the club, but as the situation was, these players were better than what we had. I already talked about Nani, my other personal favorite from the list was Gervinho. And look what this guy did since I talked about him: Does this guy look like a 32 year old? LUCAS PEREZ FROM WEST HAM SUGGESTION (January 19 2019 ) Wasn't played much by Pellegrini at West Ham. I said he deserves more. He was very good in his few minutes on the pitch. I knew this player since his Deportivo la Coruna days. Went to Spain for 2 million, scored 8 and assisted 3 this season in 4 months, is only behind Lionel Mesi ( EverybodyDannsNow (this guy again): He’s completely flopped at both PL clubs he’s played for - the goals and assists you’ve quoted in the last a few years are nearly exclusively in cup completions - his PL record is atrocious His PL record was actually very good for the minutes he played, but he always talks against what I say. Time has proven me right. Though he will surely say Lucas Perez has been good in Spain, not in England. Like surely the other top scorers in Spain (Messi, Benzema, Luis Suarez) wouldn't be wanted in England... NickinOx: He also claims only he had the foresight to see x y or z but was ignored. This often ignores the thousands of players he has said will be good, but never seem to be heard of outside of his posts (talking about me) Who are those thousands of players not heard of from my posts? I'm making this thread right now and almost everybody on the list so far has done well in top leagues after I talked about them.
I meant as a backup striker. Leya Iseka has scored now and then for his French Ligue 1 club Toulouse, bt I'm still waiting for him to have a breakthrough. Still young. I would have invested 5 million in him and loaned him out. ANTONIO VALENCIA INSTEAD OF BOLASIE OR MOSES? (January 28 2019 ) This thread was made because there were many threads in the "Transfer Talk" section in which people were arguing if it's better to pay over 10 million for Bolasie or for Moses to bring them back. I proposed the Valencia comparison cause he was a player of similar age and calibre, not that he was exactly my favorite, but he was free. I still think he's a decent right back, who can, at times, play as a winger. But I admit, some of the answers in the thread were goo, such as that he's one-dimensional and only plays on the right side. In the end, I would not have gone for him after this talk, but compared to Bolasie and Moses, he cost nothing. Eventually, he went back to home country, where he's a starting right back, while Moses went to Turkey on loan (where he got injured) and Bolasie went to Belgium on loan.
Pretty good, young center forward. Time has proven it. I say he's ok to be bought at 9-12 million, 1 yer later there are rumors that Palace now has to pay 30 million for him, after he played really well for Zenit. AMAZING FORWARD FRANK OHANDZA HAS JUST BECOME FREE (January 31 2019 ) This is another thread made after the transfer window had shut and we could not transfer anymore players, with the ones who could be added to the 25 players squad only free agents. So that's why I named Ohandza, not that he was my special forward from all people. I still think he's pretty good though and has scored more in less time in the Chinese Superleague than Ighalo, Oscar, Arnautovic or Leo Baptistao last year. Only surpassed by Zahavi, Paulinho, Alex Teixeira, Carrasco, Graziano Pelle, Renato Augusto and a few more, all on salaries of over 200.000 per week. Ohandza was on 20.000, that's why I talked about him. IVAN CAVALEIRO NOT GETTING PLAYTIME. TIME TO SCOOP? (February 23 2019 ) Wolves made him available on loan with a 14 million option to buy. Result: he goes to Fulham, scores 6, assists 6 (5th in assists ranking after 2 other players who lead the top I had talked about before: Matheus Pereira and Niclas Eliasson) in 2000 minutes on the wing, Fulham take up the option since this January, don't even wait for the summer!! Just 28.000 salary per week
An informative thread about the 30 best wingers who I considered could be brought by Palace. Some were cheap (under 10 million), others were (and still are) quite expensive (but if we sell Zaha for 60-80 million, then any player under 40 million is an option). I name Cristian Tello "my favorite player on the list". All these 30 players are still doing great, not even 1 of them is doing bad!! TOP 40 PLAYERS THIS SEASON. ANY CLOSE TO PALACE? (May 8 2019 ) Informative post. I think 1 or 2 may have become available. Pablo Sarabia, Dusan Tadic, El Shaarawy and Depay would have been at Palace if I had managed this club since 2017. That's 4 players in the best 42 in the world in the previous season. Sarabia cost 1 million in 2016 and I had known about him and really liked him, I talked about Tadic, El Shaarawy and Depay here (fees of 12, 13 and 15 million, salaries of less than 80.000)
Eventually accepted a lot of money from Fenerbahce and went to play there. Scored only about 3 so far for them, but assisted like 6-7 times, so he's a really good center forward for other players. Would have been an option, but not for crazy salary money. IANIS HAGI SUGGESTION (June 15 2019 ) In the Ianis Hagi thread, though not made by me, I specifically argued against the buying of this player as I considered him only good when he takes all set pieces: penalties, corners, free kicks and without much skills to adapt to PL football, as he fals down at the slightest foul. Spiderman (this guy again): Good goal but Mattteo says no so we must move on.... Omph: Yes yes we know you are infallible - it must be so because you told us. rossboss29: Recommends 413 players, bangs on telling us how right he is if they have a good game or season, which by all possibilities will happen with so many recommendations. When someone he claims is crap comes good, doesn’t take the news well. Spiderman: I have replied to Mattteo on a number of occasions, in particular when he accuses Premier League players of being fat (which is ridiculous) This guy simply doesn't ant to understand that weight problem is a really issue for players like Charlie Adam, Luke Shaw, Bakary Sako, Tom Huddlestone, Hal Robson Kanu and others.... Result for Ianis Hagi: He has played very little at Genk of Belgium and the club considers him a flop after 6 months and is prepared to let him go.
Informative post with suggestions. First suggestion is left footed winger Matheus Pereira (Brazilian with Portuguese passport), made available by Sporting on loan with an option to buy of 9 million. Goes to WBA in the Championship, is the best player in that league and now WBA will surely pay the money and sell him for more than 25 million to a PL club. Other young players from the "Recommendations section" who could have been bought and loaned out for the future: Jefferson Savarino- free, Miguel Trauco- went to Fance in Ligue 1 and is playing great, Arzamendia, Daichi Kamada.
Similar informative post with suggestions. Fewer recommendations this time, as the age is really small. In the end, the goalkeeper Adam Lafont would have been the best, loaned by Fiorentina with just a 7 million option to buy. He has established himself at Nantes, the team with the fewest received goals in France and a 20 yo goalkeeper is surely worth more than 20 million in today's market. Also, youngster Schiappaccase, but he belongs to Atletico Madrid and I think they will want too much money.
Similar informative post with suggestions. Notice that in the "recommended" section I make the biggest case for youngster Dejan Kulusevski, who had only been playing in the Italian youth system until this point. I specifically say that "He will be one of the best central midfielders in world football in the next decade." and that, as he hasn't yet made any first team starts, they will probably sell for around 5 million, but such a young player at a really young age would have been a great transfer even at 10 million, I would have surely sanctioned this move because I just knew that he will value a lot more in the future, with playing time. Result: Parma took him on loan this season and used him mostly as a right winger rather than just central midfielder (to use his left foot and cut inside more) and he scored and assisted about 10 goals in the Serie A at this age. Inter Milano and Juventus fought a bidding war after they saw this and this month Juventus pays Atalanta 40 million in order to get him, just so that Inter doesn't!! 40 million For a player who was playing at youth level 6 months ago and I doubt that many people knew outside of me. Some more young players I could have invested in: Kownacki/Embolo (though if I already had 2 great strikers from previous transfers, I wouldn't need one more by this point), Leya Iseka (one for the future, I talked about him), Andreas Skov Olsen, who is a really terrific left footed winger for his age, Ruben Vargas from Switzerland (cause he cost just 2 million and I wouldn't have missed that opportunity), Despodov (talked about him). BEST PLAYERS FROM THE ONES WITHOUT CONTRACT (July 14 2019 ) A list of the players without contract. I conclude that the best for Palace would be Lewis Holtby and Eli Dasa (pending a work permit and considering that AWB had already left) EUROPEAN TRANSFERS UNTIL MID-JULY (July 16 2019 ) Informative post of the good deals we missed. Cente forwards Embolo/Kownacki/Aleksandr Isak. Left foot wingers Hernani/Bongonda. Right foot wingers Cavaleiro/Sansone. Attacking midfielder Ljajic. Goalkeeper Lafont etc. Embolo has been let go by Schalke for just 10 million. For a 22 year old player with his qualities, taht's just hard to understand. Schalke was after a bad season and they searched for guilty ones, but Embolo was a player they should have raised. He went to Moenchengladbach and is scoring, doing great. Isak has gone to Real Sociedad and even though he is just 20, he has scored plenty in the Spanish La Liga. Kownacki has been bought by Fortuna Dusseldorf, has established himself as a winger but has not scored in his 12 matches. This is mostly because all of them have been as a left winger, which is where Fortuna uses him, not center forward. As I previously said, Hernani is doing well for Levante, Bongonda is with Belgian champions Genk, Cavaleiro is very good for Fulham, Sansone is very good for Bologna, Ljajic for Besiktas Istanbul, Lafont for Nantes. STRIKER SAMATTA FROM GENK- PL CLASS FOR UNDER 10 MILLION (July 19 2019 ) I still think he is worth the money for his quality, but I see him more as a second strike then leading the line. Seems a bit short in order to do what Benteke and other do at high balls, but if Jordan Ayew can play as center forward, Samatta can as well. DAN CROWLEY, 21 YEARS OLD, HOME GROWN, TO BIRMINGHAM FOR JUST 0.7 MILLION (July 19 2019 ) Really cheap for a home grown. Might develop into a first team PL player. One to keep an eye one. Should have paid the 0.7 million and loaned him out. Now, if he turns good, Birmingham will surely ask for 5-10 million. He has played as a starter this season and scored and assisted 5 in 1600 minutes for them, mostly as a winger. WHAT ABOUT SCOTT SINCLAIR (July 24 2019 ) He would have been a decent option as an English player free of contract. Not so much now, cause he hasn't played for Celtic much these last months. Going to the Championship. TOP 10 AFRICAN PLAYER YOUSSEF MSAKNI (August 10 2019 ) One of the best African players in my opinion, great at international level for Tunisia. We'll see how this one goes. He's still playing for Al Duhail in the Qatari league. DEANDRE YEDLINN SUGGESTION (August 7 2019 ) COENTRAO (FREE AGENT) AS LEFT BACK (august 8 2019 ) Cheap suggestion for left back in case Schlupp was not used there or left. FRANK RIBERY DEMANDS JUST 85K- eventually 68K- A WEEK SALARY (SUGGESTION) (August 13 2019 ) Turns out he eventually agreed to just 68.000 a week and signed for Fiorentina of Italy (a club of Palace's level but with less money), which had hardly saved itself from relegation the previous year. LEFT FOOTED RW BACKUP UFFE BECH (August 13 2019 ) Another suggestion I made after the transfer window had closed and we couldn't sign anymore players. It was in desperation, as we didn't have Townsend backup there and we could only sign free players. We are currently playing with Max Meyer there and he is not a winger. Uffe Bech has gone to Panathinaikos in Greece and has played little. He wasn't my best suggestion, but it was in desperation, after the window had shut down. You'll say that he can't play in the PL if he doesn't play much at Panathinaikos, but worse than 0 crosses or 0 assists from Meyer, it couldn't have been!
Now it is like this, taking into consideration all the investment since January 2018:
The winter before that (2017) PVA and Schlupp were brought in so that they solved the left footed defender's problem. I did actually approve of PVA's transfer, as I wrote it here: topcat: Overpriced at £9 million but we all know that you pay over the odds in January. me: I actually think it's a very small sum. I was sure they'd demand 20 million for him, ESPECIALLY when selling to rivals in the relegation battle. Hmmm...I guess the ones providing the assists are just not as important as the ones actually scoring goals. Or so does Sunderland think Result: PVA came to us and has been a marquee signing for the last years, without him Sunderland was relegated (just like I said), I think PVA's goal against them actually sealed the fate of Moyes, who didn't even know he was selling his best player. PVA has had hos defensive blunders, but has provided many assists for us and he has even been a target for Juventus Torino last year, with his value over 10 million even at 30 years old. And I was ok with Schlupp too, though his price was a little big. But ok with Schlupp as a left back option, not an almost center forward! The squad's overall transfer balance since the winter of 2017 (when I first started writing the transfer threads) has been of minus 43 million pounds (95 million invested, 52 recovered), with investments in Sorloth, Jach, among others. I won't even go backwards to speak of the 30 million on Benteke!! Meyer arrived free, but on a gigantic salary. The current possible transfer values of the squad are: .............J. Ayew (15m)................... That's a 255 million squad, with assets also in Sorloth, who may be worth another 10 million. Transfermarkt lists the squad at 217 million euros, but I think my estimations hold. Sure, you could add another 20 million to the price of Zaha, or you could take away from Sakho given his recent injuries, but I think these are more realistic. Average age of squad is 29,1 years, the oldest in the Premier League. Now....if I would have been allowed to transfer the players I wanted: ..........Batshuayi(cost:.Benteke+.5-10m).....
Milivojevic and Kouyate could be there as the 2 defensive midfielders, though they probably wouldn't have been my first choices considering the price. But I don't mind them, they are good at being holding midfielders and actually do their job well. Also for Sako, though I honestly would have never paid 27 million to get him. I WOULD have gotten Cahill though, especially as he was free of contract, I've always admired Cahill. Cost: 15 million Depay (January 2017 ), 9 million for PVA (January 2017 ), 14 million for Schlupp (January 2017 ), 5 -10 million extra to Benteke swap for Batshuayi (January 2018 ), 6 million for Andone/Niasse (January 2018 ), 7 million for Nils Petersen (January 2018 ), 2 million for Hernani/Jony (January 2018 ), 1 million for Ola John (January 2018- just cause he was so cheap I would have given him a 6 months time as backup to Depay), 5 million for Danny da Costa (January 2018 ), 15 million for Tammy Abraham (July 2018 ), 12 million for Tadic or 10 million for Harry Wilson (July 2018 ), 10 million for 2 defensive midfielders together (one of them would have probably been Ramires, the other one probably Jackson Irvine, though I feel fine with Luka and Kouyate as well, I appreciate them), 5-7 million for a center back (any from Salcedo, Papadopoulous, Zambrano, Nkoulou, Rakitsky, Mangala, Diego Reyes etc.), 7 million for Lafont after the loan, 14 million for Quincy Promes or 10 million for Cristian Tello in July 2019. If I could sell Schlupp for 15, maybe I would have gone for Kurzawa or Philipp Max. If not, stick to Schlupp. Total investment: 121-134 million Incomes: I would have sold Depay this summer after 2 and a half years. I'm not saying that he certainly would have been the player he was in Olympique Lyon, but he certainly would have been a great player for the Premier League and would have linked amazingly with Zaha, 2 world class players. Depay gone for 60 million this summer, Andone with easy to recover 6 million, Townsend sold for 15 million, Nils Petersen after 2 years of displaying similar performances like in the Bundesliga (very strong player, will do well in any league) would make room for younger players and would go for 10 million at his age, Ward for 10 million, Mandanda for 3 million. Probably no money for Ola John if he didn't fit in or had medical problems. No money for Wickham either, as I'd just let him go and have playing time in the Championship. Total income: 104 million Balance loss of 17-30 million Buuuut........ ...............Batshuayi(30m)................... That's a 400-410 million squad (140 million more expensive than the current one). Easily. And I don't know what you might like more, but a team with Depay and Zaha all these years and by now with Ribery, Zaha, Quincy Promes or Tello, El Shaarawy, Batshuayi, Tammy Abraham, Tadic or Harry Wilson would have been amazing in the Premier League. Easily at least 6 million per year, so at least 12 million, from better league positioning (Top 10). By now, this would have surely been a Top 6 squad. Not sure if Top 4, but easily Top 6. Definitely better than Arsenal's. El Shaarawy, even if a backup, would have entered and scored a lot of goals in the Premier League and would have upped his level. Tadic, if he would have secured some performances like he did at Ajax or in his first years at Southampton, would surely worth 20 million, cause Townsend is worth 15 and he's not at Tadic's level. Or Harry Wilson, who is already worth 30 million after what he did this year, Liverpool will surely demand that now. He was just a kid loaned at Hull City when I would have taken him. I just gave 20 million as estimation for AWB, cause he wouldn't have gone for 50 million if not playing all the time (I admit it it, I'm as honest as I can), as Danny da Costa is also a good player. But a youngster like AWB would still be worth 20 million. And the point is- we'd still have AWB!! A goalkeeper at 20 years, like Lafont, if he started playing matches in the PL, would surely be worth at least 25 million. Even if Guaita was here to have more matches as a starter. Average age (even after Ribery's coming in the team): 26,7 or 27,7, depending on whether it's Tadic or Harry Wilson. That's a better age than the current one. And the next steps would have been to make it even lower. By now (or even last summer), Hernani/Jony would have done his job for the club and be moved on for 10 million and Skov Olsen (20 years old) or Matheus Pereira (23 yo) would have been brought in to replace him, for a similar fee. With the money allocated to youth transfers and development, I would have bought and loaned out: Kulusevski for even 10 million (cause I just saw how good he was at just 18-19 years old, you can read that I wrote about it the "Potential transfers from the Euro U21" thread), Bongonda for 1 million in 2018, Eliasson for 2 million (before he became the second assist provider in the Championship this season, but it's ok because he finishes his contract in the summer and bosses could still bring him in and he would even accept to be loaned out a little more years in the Championship if he knew there was a PL club waiting for him, I know it), Moussa Kone for 3 million, Almoez Alli Abdula for 2 million, Avdijaj for free, Gustafson 1 million, Jefferson Savarino for free, Alberth Elis for free, Ruben Vargas for 2 million, Despodov for 2.5 million, Leya Iseka for 5 million, Dan Crowley for 0.7 million, Joe Aribo free, Tom Dele-Bashiru free, Almamy Toure for 0.7 million, Rolando Aarons 2 million, Imoh Ezekiel free, Stepinski 2.5 million, Trauco 1 million, Arzamendia 0.7 million), Felix Passlack (1 million). In total: 34.5 million Now let's see how much the club could have brought in after these players developed. For example, Kulusevski belonged to Atalanta and he didn't make a single Serie A start for them. They just loaned him to Parma who was stupid enough not to insert a buy-option, but just took him on a season-long long because he was a promising youth. He played soo well for Parma that the Italian giants became crazy for him. Juventus and Inter threw massive amounts of money that Atalanta wasn't even thinking about before the start of this season (I heard they would have rejected offers of 6 million from England, but would have surely accepted 10 million for a youth player with no first team appearances). But all of a sudden, they got offers from the big Serie A in the order of dozens of millions. They sold Kulusevski for 40 million just because he had been on loan at Parma 4 months. So, Kulusevski, value gone up to 40 million Total income if sold in this transfer window: 134.5 million Balance: 100 million profit They could even be ready for Palace first team in a few months time, really promising youngsters. By position: ................Leya Iseka...................
And a squad with a younger average age and going towards even younger through some changes like the Skov Olsen/Pereira for Hernani/Jony one, down to 25.X, one of the lowest in the Premier League. And this taking into consideration Ribery. I know why I would have bought Ribery. It was a one in a lifetime chance. It brings any club notoriety, people who watch the matches, it increases the value of every player just by being here. It's RIBERY!!! Messi, Ronaldo, Robben and Ribery were the best players of the past decade. But only the Frenchman has the running, pressing and recovery style to be an amazing teammate and an example on the pitch. And for just 68.ooo a week, the amount he agreed with relegation threatened Italian side Fiorentina....it would have been good business for a 2 year contract. I did all the above possibilities in just 3 years. I'm not even saying that if I had been here since before of 2017, Pablo Sarabia (who has been bought by PSG from Sevilla after being one the greatest players in Spain)would have been brought here for just 1 million in 2016, Joaquin Correa would have been playing here, Neal Maupay would have been among the youth that I would have bought, for just 2 million in the summer of 2017, cause I'd have had to be blind not to see what this kid was doing in France: 8 goals and 4 assists in Ligue 1 in 2200 minutes and 15 goals and 2 assists in Ligue 2 and Cups in 2700 minutes by the age of 21, 4 goals in 10 matches for the France U19 national team. And Brentford got him for 2 million!! Remember those talks about them having better scouts?
These would be the top earners, rest would have even smaller salaries. I mean, Hernani or Jony would have come from 20.000 per week and they'd have demanded like 30.000. Quincy Promes has a 25.000 salary. Tammy Abraham has a 50.000 weekly salary. Yes, I'm sure I would have sattisfied their demands. Salaries of young loaned out players would be supported by the club you send them to (Championship or Serie A somewhere else)- they're young and they sign for decent salaries, not over 30.000 a week. And they would have scored for Crystal Palace and satisfied the fans' demands. But now the time has passed. I can do this again. I can start from scratch and build a stronger club with over 200 million in 3 years. I can keep going for a longer time too, cause I know what I'm doing and as you can see from the above, I am very, very rarely wrong. I apologize to the users whose names I used above, but that was the truth of the discussions and we should remember it and what the future brought. If I was wrong, point it out, but I think the numbers to where the players got speak for themselves. And even if you don't agree with some or think I could not have brought some of the players in, by all means, tell me which and cut them out. From +200 million, you can even cut a lot and the club would still have been in a gigantic profit. In 3 years. Next stop would have been: top 4. In 10 years: champions. Edited by mattteo (14 Jan 2020 1.43pm)
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Now I'm not going to brag that I would have transferred him (I don't even know if Liverpool would have let him go back in 2017), but I put him on a list of best 7 youth right backs, out of which 5 today play in Top 5 leagues, while Iorfa is very appreciated in the Championship and on his way up too, with Passlack playing in the Eredivisie. 
) and they hardly used him afterwards. Furthermore, from the 900 minutes they used him, they played him like winger in half. Winger??!| OldFella London 14 Jan 20 1.34pm |
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Well that's 5 minutes of my life I'm not getting back : ) You seem to have missed out your threads on under age sex in this compilation.. Honestly think you need to get out more, Mattteo.
Jackson.. Wan Bissaka.... Sansom.. Nicholas.. Cannon.. Guehi.... Zaha... Thomas.. Byrne... Holton.. Rogers.. that should do it.. |
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Nicholas91  The Democratic Republic of Kent 14 Jan 20 1.43pm |
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Originally posted by OldFella
Well that's 5 minutes of my life I'm not getting back : ) You seem to have missed out your threads on under age sex in this compilation.. Honestly think you need to get out more, Mattteo.
Ha, made me laugh. What a load of self indulgent bo***cks.
Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!! |
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| mattteo 14 Jan 20 1.47pm |
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But don't worry, these threads are there to stay and are living proof. As is your situation
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| JohnB 14 Jan 20 1.48pm |
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Whatever happened to the block button that used to be on here?
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| Nicholas91 The Democratic Republic of Kent 14 Jan 20 2.05pm |
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Originally posted by mattteo
But don't worry, these threads are there to stay and are living proof. As is your situation My situation is I am earning a fair amount of money at work mate having worked my way to a cushy job where I've enough time to muck about looking on the palace forum during the day. Your situation seems far more worrying to me. I don't appreciate being called dumb by the likes of you. Get a job and a life.
Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!! |
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| mattteo 14 Jan 20 2.11pm |
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Originally posted by Nicholas91
My situation is I am earning a fair amount of money at work mate having worked my way to a cushy job where I've enough time to muck about looking on the palace forum during the day. Your situation seems far more worrying to me. I don't appreciate being called dumb by the likes of you. Get a job and a life.
You're a guy who couldn't keep his words to himself and called what I wrote self indulgent bollocks., What did yo expect? If you had no idea what the thread was about or why you should even read it, stay out.
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| Midlands Eagle 14 Jan 20 2.19pm |
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Yet again it seems that I have to ask you all to stop sniping. Any further posts that are not concerned with the subject matter of transfers will either be deleted or the poster will be carded
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| Nicholas91 The Democratic Republic of Kent 14 Jan 20 2.22pm |
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Originally posted by mattteo
You're a guy who couldn't keep his words to himself and called what I wrote self indulgent bollocks., What did yo expect? If you had no idea what the thread was about or why you should even read it, stay out. Flawless reasoning I have to say. And by the way, yes I do. Apologies in advance ME if I've pushed this too far, I'll steer clear now.
Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!! |
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Uphill  Bedford 14 Jan 20 2.33pm |
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It is obvious that Matteo makes a deep and profound exploration of the transfer scene. His resultant personal life is no concern of mine but the mind boggles .... I wonder if Dougie Freedman undertakes a similar exposition of what is available and possible within our transfer budget. Probably not but he might get a few tips. I do think he should have alternative plans B, C, D, E and F when looking for players. All can agree he was patently at fault in not finding a replacement for AWB in the summer and for that he will be damned if not rectified this month. Meanwhile, I am happy to indulge Matteo as, obviously, are the HOL Editorial staff ......
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| braunstoneagle the middle of bumf*** nowhere... 14 Jan 20 5.06pm |
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matteo...what are you thoughts on nabil bentalab. my knowledge doesnt go beyond half a good season at spurs under sherwood (?) then disappearing off the face of the earth
‘Football isn’t instant coffee. You have to work at it. You must grow the bean, grind it.’ Ian Holloway |
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| Bangell Oxford 14 Jan 20 5.07pm |
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You are a seriously worrying individual. Seek some help.
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