[SIGNED perm] Yaser Asprilla

Then why would he be on the bench? Lewis joined late and hasn't appeared in a squad yet, Ince neither and he joined quite early

 

But how useful will he be for just this one year when he’s still so raw ?

 

According to?

 

So moving to a better club for more money is a mistake now. Got it.

 

Definitely means he's 100% staying then

 

It's not as if they've been dishonest before is it?

Hang on...

Mr Straightjacket...?

 

I think under the right manager he'd be a key player for us this season, but Ismael may well not be that manager, and we'd be looking for a lot of money for a club not to be able to have him in their system immediately

 

Hypothetical scenario: sell Asprilla for £20m, sign Archer for £15m. That would be a pretty good deal imo, but we know any incoming fees won't be put towards signings.

 

Maybe further down the road than Lewis. I’m happy he didn’t play Tuesday but you would think he play a part Saturday

 

Given we have already sold Sarr and Pedro I’m not sure whether the club need to sell Asprilla now. If we could sell for £20m now but include a decent sell on clause, and then use say £10m to sign Archer, that would look a decent deal to me. Esp if Asprilla is pushing for a move. Maybe even get him back on loan if we genuinely think he will be making an impact this season. We were never going to see Asprilla realise his full potential while playing for us in the champ.

 

Brighton, Newcastle and Real Madrid sniffing around apparently so should get a good deal. Will be sad to see him go though.

 

Fair enough, Brazil also got knocked out of the under 20's World Cup on the same day as Columbia but Martins has featured in both games.

 

So Brighton are about to get a lot of money eh...

 

Asprilla joined up with the Colombia senior squad after the U20s were knocked out.

 

Mad to see where Brighton are now. Effortlessly taking all our best players, recieving massive fees due to shrewd wheeling and dealing. Just a few years ago they they minnows.

Hard to not look at them and think what might have been with us.

And the scary thing is, those ****s up the road could be in a similar situation if they stay up this year.

Funny how quickly things change. And by funny I mean utterly, wrist slashingly depressing.

 

He obviously doesn't see Vicarage Road as his Paradise!

 

As RC said above your post clearly Paradise Lost or perhaps for us Paradise Park?!

 

Genuinely though, how many 'smaller' clubs end up in a better position long-term after promotion? Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth for sure, but they have big backing behind them, the likes of Blackpool and Huddersfield quickly returned to the level they were at before

 

Yes if we were being bankrolled by megarich owners.

 

Not to say we haven't made big mistakes that we are suffering the results from now, but surely you can see the big glaring difference between the two situations?

 

Alternative hypothetical scenario: sell Asprilla for £20m, sign Josh Onomah on a free transfer on deadline day

 

I don't know much about their chav owner but he's hardly sovereign wealth fund rich is he?

Fact is, but for Deulofeu's injury and that inept January transfer window then there is no way Brighton would be bullying us now.

 

You forgot about our valiant pursuit of Axel Tuanzebe, before deciding against it, as he eventually joins Boro.

"The ownership are happy with the defensive options, and believe Mattie Pollock will thrive under Ismael's system" - Adam Leventhal

 

"Bloom has an estimated net worth of £1.3billion"

We are paupers in comparison

 

...and has pumped huge sums into the club. Having said that they have run the club exceptionally well over the last few years.

 

It’s an interesting question. It’s not just about what league you are in, but also did the premier league venture leave a club with better long term facilities, higher profile, improved stadium, more robust finances etc. I don’t know the answer but it would be interesting analysis to compare clubs before and after once all parachute payments and big name players are long gone.

 

Our ground looks better than it did, sure it's not spectacular, and I'd accept it is quite 90s but i like it feels like a proper ground with a bit of character rather than a soulless identi stadium.

Most teams that are underdogs come down in the end. Exception so far seems to be Palace. Brighton look in great shape at the moment but so did Leicester 2 years ago. That said, Leicester look too strong not to bounce back.

 

Leicester are obviously the outliers having won the league, but in any case, they and Palace were already, if not 'yoyo' teams, certainly teams who had spent a fair bit of time in the Premier League already

 

This is where GT was so clever, he had a nose for the type of player that he felt would fit in and didn't ever try to bankrupt the club in the process.
These days the gulf between top of Prem and Div1&2 is enormous so I think the managers in those divisions really have to dig deep with little backing.
Managers in top 10 of the prem view their options as "current/proven/expensive" sector and their fans totally expect supposed top level players. This works for the very top teams as they're rich, but far too many expensive signings turn out to be a waste of money.
Leicester's prem win was exceptional but that team was semi full of decent hard working players plus a few technically very good players.
I really hope VI has the right approach to player acquisitions and so far so good. I'm not going to criticise his recent purchases because we've had to shed a lot of players quickly and bring in new players.
I feel we are in for a ride, but fingers firmly crossed it will give us days to celebrate....

 

The scum have signed Ross Barkley up in a desperate attempt to contend in the Premier League - their fate is already sealed.

 

I am sure they said the same when we signed spurs reject Capoue...

 

We paid £6m for Capoue.

Barkley is a man literally no one wants so has had to sign for Luton.

 

Scum boss has said the dreaded "extremely confident of survival" line. It's all gone a bit Boothroyd.