Spent £10m on L1 players (8 Viewers)

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
Robins is on record saying the coaches are settling into their roles - it’s too early to evaluate them at this point. The early start hasn’t been great, but plenty of time to improve things.

Let’s think back to 2017 when AV was starting, there was doubt expressed at the time of MR to coach without his previous long time assistant, Steven Taylor.

It could all end in tears but knee jerking based on little data is a sure way to make mistakes.
That may all be true, but it is irrelevant to that fact that it was the previous coaching team who had developed and improved the players you referred to. So far, there is no evidence either way that the current plethora of coaches will prove as capable.
 

JulianDarbyFTW

Well-Known Member
According to Opta, we've got more chance of finishing 21st (4.7% chance) than in the top 6 (4.6%). It seems that they think we have very middling players. I don't necessarily agree, but we're clearly unbalanced and extremely light in key positions.

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skybluecam

Well-Known Member
I don’t just “advocate arbitrary practices” for the sake of it, I have my own reasoning behind them, maybe it’s flawed but it’s just an opinion. I’ve talked in depth before about the idea behind why I think European signings are generally better than L1 signings, and yes I’ve got no evidence to back this up, but it’s my personal opinion that championship clubs overpay for L1 players because fans/scouts/managers etc have a more in-depth view of L1 than other leagues around the world, we follow English football more than Swedish or Belgian football for instance. So any player that does well in L1 is in more of a spotlight than the equivalent league abroad, but it doesn’t mean that they’re better than their European equivalent.

For instance, how much would have Kitching been worth if he had played for an Italian Serie B team? I highly doubt it would have been £4 mil. There’s just a bigger pool of talent abroad as well, so many leagues to look at. I just think it’s much better (and has been much better) for us to look at Europe than to risk £4-5 mil on a player from L1.

(Sorry it’s a bit of a Parklife, it’s hard to describe the gut feeling I have about L1 😂)
You’re right, but you’re not taking into account how much of a benefit that “spotlight” is.

It’s much easier and cheaper to scout, negotiate with and sign domestic players.

Also, if Kitching was a serie B player he would likely not qualify automatically for a visa and we have a limited number of exceptions we can use.
 

Ring Of Steel

Well-Known Member
I did say it’s hard to put into words my feelings about buying L1 players 😂 Basically I just feel that the price tag of L1 players is higher than what they’re actually worth, due to them being in the spotlight of British fans/scouts/managers, when compared to the average European equivalent which requires more in-depth scouting. Also maybe the jump in quality from L1 to the championship is higher than from say the Belgian Pro League or the Swedish Allsvenskan for example, maybe?

but what is the point you’re actually making? Or is this just a general observation?
 

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
You’re right, but you’re not taking into account how much of a benefit that “spotlight” is.

It’s much easier and cheaper to scout, negotiate with and sign domestic players.

Also, if Kitching was a serie B player he would likely not qualify automatically for a visa and we have a limited number of exceptions we can use.
If Kitching was a Serie B player he would still be English and not need a visa.

If we had been after Cucinare we would have ended a visa.
 

skybluecam

Well-Known Member
If Kitching was a Serie B player he would still be English and not need a visa.

If we had been after Cucinare we would have ended a visa.
Ok lol, but he wouldn’t be English. There’s 1 English player in the whole of serie b
 

BlueSkiesForever

Well-Known Member
but what is the point you’re actually making? Or is this just a general observation?

I can’t remember where this discussion started but I quoted someone and then someone quoted me and then it ended up here 😂 I’m not really bothered tbh but I just really hope we don’t try and unearth hidden gems in L1 any time soon, just feels like a big risk and a waste of money to me.
 

TomRad85

Well-Known Member
I can’t remember where this discussion started but I quoted someone and then someone quoted me and then it ended up here 😂 I’m not really bothered tbh but I just really hope we don’t try and unearth hidden gems in L1 any time soon, just feels like a big risk and a waste of money to me.
We haven't tried to unearth anything in reality, EMC was the only one of the players you are talking about without Championship experience. Signings like Dovin and Torp i'd refer to more as attempts to 'unearth' talent.
 

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
I can’t remember where this discussion started but I quoted someone and then someone quoted me and then it ended up here 😂 I’m not really bothered tbh but I just really hope we don’t try and unearth hidden gems in L1 any time soon, just feels like a big risk and a waste of money to me.
Signing players from a league below is the norm for 95% of football teams. Sakamoto was signed from a team relegated from the Belgian first division, likewise with Hamer in the Netherlands.

Signing players from the league above isn’t easy either, Birmingham spent up to £15m on a striker who scored less goals individually than Wright, Simms and BTA… Or looking at someone like Joe Worrall, the price point wasn’t the problem, his wages were. Generally, we’re only going to sign players that Prem teams don’t really want or are distressed and have to sell for FFP (Everton with Simms).
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
We haven't tried to unearth anything in reality, EMC was the only one of the players you are talking about without Championship experience. Signings like Dovin and Torp i'd refer to more as attempts to 'unearth' talent.

Im still not convinced one relegation season finishing rock bottom and conceding 73 goals is particularly great championship experience.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Does Hamers Premier League experience count then?

Probably not. Especially as no one picked him up post relegation. Rudoni I think is a good signing, probably slightly overpaid but young, two full seasons at this level and signed as soon as his club was relegated.

EMC and Kitching worry me because their career trajectory doesn’t feel as rapid and sustained.
 

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
Probably not. Especially as no one picked him up post relegation. Rudoni I think is a good signing, probably slightly overpaid but young, two full seasons at this level and signed as soon as his club was relegated.

EMC and Kitching worry me because their career trajectory doesn’t feel as rapid and sustained.
Really? Barnsley got to the playoff finals with Thomas and Kitching as their captain - I was at their game and they were unlucky to have lost. I’m pretty sure Luton signed one of their CBs too that offseason - so it was a top end L1 unit. They looked a fantastic duo when we switched to 4-2-3-1 and hindsight being what it is, I think our squad and particularly the defenders miss having McFadz around as a senior figure.

As for EMC, he started off at Barnet and had to work his way up the leagues which culminated in 32 goal contributions from the wing. He was signing for a Championship team this summer for north of £5m easily because his data metrics were that good.

We’ve still got about 40 games left and these players will make a lot of people look silly come May.
 

Ring Of Steel

Well-Known Member
I can’t remember where this discussion started but I quoted someone and then someone quoted me and then it ended up here 😂 I’m not really bothered tbh but I just really hope we don’t try and unearth hidden gems in L1 any time soon, just feels like a big risk and a waste of money to me.

what are you talking about? ‘Hidden’? They were well reputed platers in L1. The hidden ones are the non-English, the exact opposite of what you’re saying here. Nothing you are coming out with makes sense
 

SBAndy

Well-Known Member
Probably not. Especially as no one picked him up post relegation. Rudoni I think is a good signing, probably slightly overpaid but young, two full seasons at this level and signed as soon as his club was relegated.

EMC and Kitching worry me because their career trajectory doesn’t feel as rapid and sustained.

Mason-Clark was towards the top of pretty much every metric vs others in his position last season.

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He’s had a slow start but it’s blatant that there’s a player in there.
 

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
what are you talking about? ‘Hidden’? They were well reputed platers in L1. The hidden ones are the non-English, the exact opposite of what you’re saying here. Nothing you are coming out with makes sense
Imagine calling a player who has 32 goal contributions in the league below a ‘hidden gem’. Even if EMC achieves half his output from last season, the numbers are significant and improves our team.

He’s come close a few times already and that’s without playing particularly well.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
Gems

 

COVKIDSNEVERQUIT

Well-Known Member
Jesus the guy didn’t want to stay. Just like Vik, Just like COH….


I was replying to a post that the money spent on EMC would've been better spent on giving Hamer the contract he wanted, we need midfielders, we have Bassette who can play along the front line. 🤔
 

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
I was replying to a post that the money spent on EMC would've been better spent on giving Hamer the contract he wanted, we need midfielders, we have Bassette who can play along the front line. 🤔
In hindsight..the worst sale was Hamers.

Ridiculous talent..he can single handedly drive any team in this division.

He can lift any team. His stats as a championship midfielder are plain stupid.

He will get more goals and assists this season. Than Rudoni/Sheaf/Eccles/Torp combined.

Instead of wasting£4m on EMC we should have used that money to keep him.

irreplaceable. and wasted his money.
Imagine the travesty had we let Hamer go for free? I’m sorry, but £15m for that deal was 100% worth it.

We just having gone about replacing Hamer in the same we had done replacing Vik, we’d be alright. In reality, the only thing we’ve done to mitigate Hamer leaving is to bring in Torp for £2m. Eccles, Sheaf and Allen have been with us since Day 1 of the Championship. All it takes is a quick look at Hamer’s 22/23 stats to show you what’s missing in our team.

Compare that to flipping Vik into Simms, Wright, BTA and Bassette.
 

BlueSkiesForever

Well-Known Member
We haven't tried to unearth anything in reality, EMC was the only one of the players you are talking about without Championship experience. Signings like Dovin and Torp i'd refer to more as attempts to 'unearth' talent.

Sorry that’s what I meant, I should have put speech marks around “unearth”, I agree we haven’t unearthed anyone of significance from L1 in recent years.
 

BlueSkiesForever

Well-Known Member
Signing players from a league below is the norm for 95% of football teams. Sakamoto was signed from a team relegated from the Belgian first division, likewise with Hamer in the Netherlands.

Signing players from the league above isn’t easy either, Birmingham spent up to £15m on a striker who scored less goals individually than Wright, Simms and BTA… Or looking at someone like Joe Worrall, the price point wasn’t the problem, his wages were. Generally, we’re only going to sign players that Prem teams don’t really want or are distressed and have to sell for FFP (Everton with Simms).

I agree, we’re not looking at prem quality because obviously it’ll come at a cost and I assume that’s not what Doug’s after. I think looking at quality that’s somewhat comparable to the championship, like the Belgian Pro League, Bundesliga relegation teams/Bundesliga 2, Turkey Super League, even lower table teams in Brazil Serie A/B or Argentina Primera etc, are probably where we should be looking rather than blowing £4-5 mil on League 1 players.
 

Perennial Lurker

Well-Known Member
I agree, we’re not looking at prem quality because obviously it’ll come at a cost and I assume that’s not what Doug’s after. I think looking at quality that’s somewhat comparable to the championship, like the Belgian Pro League, Bundesliga relegation teams/Bundesliga 2, Turkey Super League, even lower table teams in Brazil Serie A/B or Argentina Primera etc, are probably where we should be looking rather than blowing £4-5 mil on League 1 players.
You do understand the Visa problems trying to sign players from lesser/lower leagues?
 

BlueSkiesForever

Well-Known Member
You do understand the Visa problems trying to sign players from lesser/lower leagues?

I’m sure there are some issues but we’ve done it with Van Ewijk, Sakamoto, Binks, Torp, Wright, Rodrigues etc so it can’t be that hard? Unless you’re talking about countries like Brazil/Argentina? In which case, yeah I’m not sure what it takes to bring players over from South America/rest of the world 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

Diogenes

Well-Known Member
these are the ramblings of a man with way too much time on his hands. I’ve re-read it twice and I still don’t really know what the point is.


As Chief Chatgpt Wanker I consulted the oracle and it summarises his rambling as:

"The writer believes that Championship clubs overpay for League One (L1) players because of the greater attention on English football, compared to leagues abroad. They argue that European signings offer better value due to a larger talent pool, using Kitching’s £4 million valuation as an example of inflated pricing for L1 players."
 

Mucca Mad Boys

Well-Known Member
I agree, we’re not looking at prem quality because obviously it’ll come at a cost and I assume that’s not what Doug’s after. I think looking at quality that’s somewhat comparable to the championship, like the Belgian Pro League, Bundesliga relegation teams/Bundesliga 2, Turkey Super League, even lower table teams in Brazil Serie A/B or Argentina Primera etc, are probably where we should be looking rather than blowing £4-5 mil on League 1 players.
Championship teams aren’t signing Serie A, Bundesliga or Argentina Primera first team players. So you’re taking chances on fringe players at best.

The quoted figures you give are for two players, Kitching and EMC. Firstly, in relation to Kitching, it’s unlikely the deal is structured without performance/landmark payments. Secondly, EMC’s 32 goal contributions in the league below is worth £4m, for sure.

The going rate for top end L1 talent is £3-5m now. Just as we would expect £10-25m for our top talent which would be unprecedented in our first Championship spell from 2001-2012.
 

Para1140

Well-Known Member
Over the last two seasons he’s been statistically significantly worse than our other options.
Friends Wife GIF by Gogglebox Australia
 

BlueSkiesForever

Well-Known Member
Championship teams aren’t signing Serie A, Bundesliga or Argentina Primera first team players. So you’re taking chances on fringe players at best.

The quoted figures you give are for two players, Kitching and EMC. Firstly, in relation to Kitching, it’s unlikely the deal is structured without performance/landmark payments. Secondly, EMC’s 32 goal contributions in the league below is worth £4m, for sure.

The going rate for top end L1 talent is £3-5m now. Just as we would expect £10-25m for our top talent which would be unprecedented in our first Championship spell from 2001-2012.

I did say lower table teams in Brazilian Serie A-B and the same for Bundesliga 1-2, I’m obviously not talking about signing players from Dortmund or Leipzig, more the Köln, Augsburg, Hertha, Karlsruher type teams, which is completely feasible for a championship team.

As for EMC, I agree that on paper it’s worth the £4 mil but my point is that in reality it doesn’t seem to translate to the championship. We’ve obviously not gone and bought shit looking players from L1, but none of them have so far made the step up to championship level (EMC has more to offer, granted). I just don’t believe that what you get for your cash in L1 is worth it, all these players look great but when they step up they either take an age to do so or can’t do it. Compared to Van Ewijk or Sakamoto, who we bought for a similar price, the difference in quality is night and day.
 

BlueSkiesForever

Well-Known Member
what are you talking about? ‘Hidden’? They were well reputed platers in L1. The hidden ones are the non-English, the exact opposite of what you’re saying here. Nothing you are coming out with makes sense

Sorry I somehow missed this comment, anyway, as I said to Tom above, the “hidden gems” was meant to be in inverted commas as I was being sarcastic but just forgot to add the quotation marks. It’s more in reference to the idea that we keep trying to take L1 players and make them into a championship quality, with the idea of making it to the prem with that supposed talent. Although compared to the average football fan, I’m guessing not many people have heard of Collins or Kitching etc anyway.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
I did say lower table teams in Brazilian Serie A-B and the same for Bundesliga 1-2, I’m obviously not talking about signing players from Dortmund or Leipzig, more the Köln, Augsburg, Hertha, Karlsruher type teams, which is completely feasible for a championship team.

As for EMC, I agree that on paper it’s worth the £4 mil but my point is that in reality it doesn’t seem to translate to the championship. We’ve obviously not gone and bought shit looking players from L1, but none of them have so far made the step up to championship level (EMC has more to offer, granted). I just don’t believe that what you get for your cash in L1 is worth it, all these players look great but when they step up they either take an age to do so or can’t do it. Compared to Van Ewijk or Sakamoto, who we bought for a similar price, the difference in quality is night and day.
We're 9 games in

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BlueSkiesForever

Well-Known Member
We're 9 games in

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Exactly, hence why I said EMC has more to offer. Kitching, probably not as he’s had a season partially playing for us.

I’m certain EMC will be better than he’s shown so far but he’s the only signing from L1 that’s looked like he has potential, or even has potential to go for more than we bought him for.
 

itsabuzzard

Well-Known Member
I don’t just “advocate arbitrary practices” for the sake of it, I have my own reasoning behind them, maybe it’s flawed but it’s just an opinion. I’ve talked in depth before about the idea behind why I think European signings are generally better than L1 signings, and yes I’ve got no evidence to back this up, but it’s my personal opinion that championship clubs overpay for L1 players because fans/scouts/managers etc have a more in-depth view of L1 than other leagues around the world, we follow English football more than Swedish or Belgian football for instance. So any player that does well in L1 is in more of a spotlight than the equivalent league abroad, but it doesn’t mean that they’re better than their European equivalent.

For instance, how much would have Kitching been worth if he had played for an Italian Serie B team? I highly doubt it would have been £4 mil. There’s just a bigger pool of talent abroad as well, so many leagues to look at. I just think it’s much better (and has been much better) for us to look at Europe than to risk £4-5 mil on a player from L1.

(Sorry it’s a bit of a Parklife, it’s hard to describe the gut feeling I have about L1 😂)
"I've talked in depth before about the idea...and yes I've got no evidence to back this up" Priceless.
 

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