Hopefully with the structure the board/SD want now in place will we be more proactive and this summer's recruits get Dyche fit instead of what we have become use to ie last minute deals.

Oh, you were serious!

Why concern yourself over it? What it got to do with you how, when or if we sign new players. This sort of stuff makes you ill. You have no control over it.

For what it’s worth I hope we don’t sign anyone other than 30 year old League 2 players.

I expect to see a big improvement - there should be one (and it can’t be worse).

As crucial as incomings are outgoing. We have a lot of mediocrity sat on the fringes earning tons, we need to try and move some of those on, even if only on loan.

No

bfcjg wrote:Hopefully with the structure the board/SD want now in place will we be more proactive and this summer's recruits get Dyche fit instead of what we have become use to ie last minute deals.

Every chance as I saw Jay Rod, Craig Dawson and Dale Stephens all in Costa Coffee, Burnley Tesco. All sat at same table enjoying a cuppa and a good old chin wag, someone else was with them, could have been that Rigg fella !

Put it this way, there is a new cycle of TV deal kicking off next season and 14 clubs will earn more than the current deal (the other six less) some substantially more. The clubs coming up are looking quite strong and all but Norwich (clearly the strongest team) have the potential for bringing in some significant recruits. There turnover and possibly wage bills will surpass irrespective of where they finish ours as their ground capacity and commercial operations outstrip ours. We offer stability, team ethic and fight and no glamour, there are a few who prefer that but they a difficult to find early in a window.

Only thing worth thinking about is it will be interesting to see how much influence Rigg has.

box_of_frogs wrote:

Oh, you were serious!

I was going to put that but with a few more smileys so

No, because we don't have the financial clout to make un-refusable offers.
Would you as a player or agent take an early offer from Burnely or wait and see who else comes in?
If you value yourself or your client then probably not, you know there are other teams at or even below Burnely's level who have deeper pockets...

That's why so much business is done close to or on deadline day, everyone is waiting for everyone else to move in the hopes of getting the best deal.

It's something we will just have to live with and stop getting upset about.

People can't stop getting upset about it and this place just wouldn't be the same without the usual hysterical outbursts.

Leon Cort, come on down!

We have to either throw a sh1t load of brass at it (not going to happen for a Premier League ready made player), or find out of the blue players from the continent.

Signing players last minute is not done on purpose.

I get that we’re Burnley, and it’s a tough market, blah blah blah, but I’ll be extremely f***** off if we haven’t identified our priorities and made headway by July. If we haven’t signed anybody by mid-July we will struggle again next season.

I’m really hoping that lessons have been learned....

OP

In the summer of 2016 we had a fee agreed with FC Twente for Hakim Ziyech and we had personal terms agreed with the player and his representatives.

Then they/he waited for Ajax to come in and he signed for them - he's been a huge player in guiding them to an unlikely SF place in the Champions League.

That's the reality of it. Even if we identify our targets early and sort out the finances we are not first choice for the kind of player we need to come in and improve on what we've already got.

Signing players Stoke no longer want or need is straight forward by comparison.

Claretforever wrote:I get that we’re Burnley, and it’s a tough market, blah blah blah, but I’ll be extremely f***** off if we haven’t identified our priorities and made headway by July. If we haven’t signed anybody by mid-July we will struggle again next season.

I’m really hoping that lessons have been learned....

Were have we ever confirmed e never had targets early, the club has often referred to the kind of situation Earby has described, just many hear refuse to believe it

Depends on when the first bid comes in for McNeil

Think the squad is pretty much ready now for next season.

Maybe a young keeper to replace Pope as he moves on, and if Taylor is head hunted we need to be sure Ward is still up to speed. If Agyei makes the step up he will effectively be our new striker and offer something different.

If Lennon and JBG are fit by August there's every reason to clean up on McNeil sooner rather than later. Worth £20m of anybody's cash Imo. Crouch will still be desperate to finish his career with a flourish, so has to be worth another season.

fatboy47 wrote:Think the squad is pretty much ready now for next season.

Maybe a young keeper to replace Pope as he moves on, and if Taylor is head hunted we need to be sure Ward is still up to speed. If Agyei makes the step up he will effectively be our new striker and offer something different.

If Lennon and JBG are fit by August there's every reason to clean up on McNeil sooner rather than later. Worth £20m of anybody's cash Imo. Crouch will still be desperate to finish his career with a flourish, so has to be worth another season.

Why would we sell McNeil this summer?? Agyei to make the step up surely not!

fatboy47 wrote:Think the squad is pretty much ready now for next season.

Maybe a young keeper to replace Pope as he moves on, and if Taylor is head hunted we need to be sure Ward is still up to speed. If Agyei makes the step up he will effectively be our new striker and offer something different.

If Lennon and JBG are fit by August there's every reason to clean up on McNeil sooner rather than later. Worth £20m of anybody's cash Imo. Crouch will still be desperate to finish his career with a flourish, so has to be worth another season.

So many lines cast in one post.

Fatboy strikes again. Great post!

On a more serious note; first business should be a bit of pruning.
8 squad players' contracts will be up this summer. Which should we keep (if any)?

EarbyClaret wrote:In the summer of 2016 we had a fee agreed with FC Twente for Hakim Ziyech and we had personal terms agreed with the player and his representatives.

Then they/he waited for Ajax to come in and he signed for them - he's been a huge player in guiding them to an unlikely SF place in the Champions League.

That's the reality of it. Even if we identify our targets early and sort out the finances we are not first choice for the kind of player we need to come in and improve on what we've already got.

Signing players Stoke no longer want or need is straight forward by comparison.

Interesting, any idea what the fee roughly was?

boatshed bill wrote:Fatboy strikes again. Great post!

Jesus, has relegation written all over it

We signed the likes of Gudmundsson, Pope, Tarkowski and Barnes for fairly modest fees from championship sides a few years back, all relatively unknowns. I hope we have a few of players in this mould lined up that we can develop into valuable first team players as well as a couple of big signings to keep the masses happy. It seems we have concentrated on picking up scraps from relegated teams the last few years, it’s all very underwhelming and these types of players always seem to have reached their level. I’m sure there are plenty of gems in the championship not just the obvious players player of the year nominees and over prices “wonderkids”.

The west brom board will be waiting for the first call of many from mike

I reckon Rigg should delete the contacts for Forest, WBA and Brum from his phone. Should save him a lot of time.

Expect fast sales yes.

fatboy47 wrote:Think the squad is pretty much ready now for next season.

Maybe a young keeper to replace Pope as he moves on, and if Taylor is head hunted we need to be sure Ward is still up to speed. If Agyei makes the step up he will effectively be our new striker and offer something different.

If Lennon and JBG are fit by August there's every reason to clean up on McNeil sooner rather than later. Worth £20m of anybody's cash Imo. Crouch will still be desperate to finish his career with a flourish, so has to be worth another season.

Wind up merchant alert

cockneyclaret wrote:The west brom board will be waiting for the first call of many from mike

And regardless who we sign you will still be here whining away about everything

Last year Brighton got about 8 players signed in the first 3 weeks, one of them, Andone, highly touted to come here.

Not worked out so well.

CharlieinNewMexico wrote:Last year Brighton got about 8 players signed in the first 3 weeks, one of them, Andone, highly touted to come here.

Not worked out so well.

Dont forget there record signing who they got all sorted nice and early in July Jahanbakhsh for around 17m who has done nothing all season and one of the first names they want out. Yep it is a must to get everyone in soon as poss.

Early signings? That will be a one year contract for Crouch.

CharlieinNewMexico wrote:Last year Brighton got about 8 players signed in the first 3 weeks, one of them, Andone, highly touted to come here.

Not worked out so well.

Brighton also signed about six players who were complete unknowns from abroad who I still don't think have made a first team appearance.

Not arguing against the strategy on its own, but its what very established clubs do who have no danger of relegation. Thats something that neither us or Brighton will ever be safe from, every season.

We lost two of our best keepers and injuries to our playmaker Defour and Lennon and JBG
Recruiting of Joe Hart all caused problems that took months to sort.

No reason at all to keep Crouch, unless we need someone to change the light bulbs!

We won't get in early, we never do, that's a fact of life that I cannot see ever changing. The board will still haggle the life out of any potential deal. The only thing I am certain of is that we need to spend a lot of money just to stand still from our present position. There is not a lot wrong with the squad that wouldn't be put right by signing 2/3 players of decent quality but at present day stupid PL prices it's not out of the question that clubs need to spend 70/100 million just to sign 3 players and even then they won't be world-beaters. The main issue will be keeping hold of what we have got. McNeil probably won't go anywhere in summer, which is good. Hopefully JBG can get back to some form of fitness because I still believe he is arguably our best player (depending on how McNeil pans out next season). Defour is an enigma. Fabulous player but far too prone to injury/fitness problems so maybe he might be gone (although I wouldn't want him to leave particularly). Obviously Heaton MUST stay (which means we may lose Pope) so Hart could leave (and contrary to a lot of opinion on here I think that at the time he was a good signing when we needed him). As for the rest there is nothing wrong that a bit more consistancy wouldn't put right, even Tarks and Mee have been a little suspect at times this season, And then there is Vydra...what are we going to do with this guy. I am convinced that the reason he isn't gettng a game is personal because he has certainly looked decent in his cameo roles. Dyche either needs to start playing him (even if only tactically for certain games) or get rid because, maybe through no fault of his own, he is definitely dead wood at the moment. Or maybe Dyche is doing a Tarks with him and maybe he will come to the fore next season (but I'm not holding my breath).

3 players in would be great...two is probably the least we need...one is probably what we will wind up with...none would be terrible and probabl;y make for a worse season than this one.

JohnDearyMe wrote:Interesting, any idea what the fee roughly was?

confirmation that he opted for Ajax
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/s ... e-garlick/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Price (which at the time was more than Ajax eventually paid
http://www.****.co.uk/news/tmnw/ ... ndex.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

to show it was an offer made early in the window
https://readburnley.com/2016/07/29/burn ... im-ziyech/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Aclaret wrote:Every chance as I saw Jay Rod, Craig Dawson and Dale Stephens all in Costa Coffee, Burnley Tesco. All sat at same table enjoying a cuppa and a good old chin wag, someone else was with them, could have been that Rigg fella !

I heard they were all waiting to meet up with Henri Lansbury.

Should do yes, but probably not. Regardless I’m feeling quite a lot more optimistic about this one - always takes a season of struggles to teach us a lesson regarding transfers.

Robbie Brady will be like a new signing...

Depends on the sort of player we're targeting.

If we're targeting players who can really improve us, probably not for the reasons pointed out - those players are in demand, they have no incentive to sign for Burnley early in the window before they know if bigger fish might be interested, and their clubs are keen to maximise the price. It's just not in Burnley's gift to get those deals done early and it's not really the club's fault (of course, there's a difference between doing business early, and hanging onto the same target until far too late).

Alternatively, if we're targeting players who are less fashionable and/or who see Burnley as an opportunity beyond what they might have expected - this years equivalents of Westwood, JBG, Pope, Walters, Bardsley and Cork, if you like - then we can probably get our business done early.

To some extent, you've got to choose between the two. I suspect we'll do a mixture of both sorts of business.

We need some sales first...

Vyrda, Wells, Hart, Lennon, Ward and Defour can all go for me. 200k a week in wages there and maybe £20m - £25m cash?

bfcjg wrote:Hopefully with the structure the board/SD want now in place will we be more proactive and this summer's recruits get Dyche fit instead of what we have become use to ie last minute deals.

We are proactive but the chairman has already said it will be a waiting game approach again.