£24 million in, where do we go now?

Morton94

Well-known member
So 2 players we brought through our academy, picked up after failed experiences elsewhere have been sold for £24 million up front and could reportedly from what I've seen could rise an extra £10-£15 million. Close to £40 million in up front fees and add ons is absolutely incredible buisness and a huge well done to anyone involved over the last 3/4 years neutering 2 talents to earn the club some serious money!

However, unlike Spence, I'm absolutely gutted Tav is going. He took pelters for years and continues somehow to take them from people who don't understand goals and assists aren't everything for a player in Tav's position.
He has unbelievable energy and work rate and the defensive side to his game seems to go under the radar. 135 games for us under several different managers at either LWB, LW, CM, RWB or CAM is incredible, hard to remember sometimes he's only 23.

I wish him the very best of luck in the Premier League and hope he absolutely smashes it! My only issue is why Bournemouth 😂 I really think he could have done much better.

Now on to us!
Steffen, Roberts, Smith, Leinhan and Giles are massive upgrades on Lumley, Daniels, Hall, Peltier and Taylor.

What else do we need? It's obvious we need a left Sided center half, my pick would be to go get Jacob Grieves out of Hull.
CDM cover/slow replacement for Howson. My choice would be Hamza Choudhury on loan from Leicester, I'd absolutely love having a nasty b**tard in midfield.
Cm as competition for Crooks, my choice would be Hannibal on loan from Man United, I've heard great things about him from my Man United supporting friends, plus what a class name

Now the big ones... A Tav replacement and 3 strikers.
My choice for a Tav replacement is who I think 99% of fans are hoping we go nick, Callum O'Hare from Coventry.
Up top it looks like Marcus Forss, Rodrigo Muniz and one more. That final one has to be the marquee signing. My hope is that it will be Adam Armstrong.
The bonus of anyone else (Matthew Hoppe looking likely) will only be aiding to our promotion push.

It's not all doom and gloom, there's plenty of reason to be hopeful, we have the best manager in the league and we just have to trust the process.

UTFB
 
Defensively, good signings. Midfield? Significantly weaker numerically and I believe lacking a little up front? That has and is a concern. IF we can get the right strikers in - you know, those who score goals, is still very much an Achilles heal. Not overstatating a fact - we need some quality up front.
 
It’s blooming exciting, the backroom team are in place to build a squad full of the right players. Can’t see any Ramirez or Assombalonga types. Everything is falling in to place.
 
We only have four senior centre halves at the club so would ideally want 2 more (2 players for each position). There's a chance Bola is viewed as emergency CB cover but could risk leaving us light at LWB.

Wing backs are sorted with Smith joining yesterday.

At present the midfield has to pick itself (supposing Tav leaves) - we have 3 players for 3 positions(!) - I think we need another three CM.

If Forss arrives we still need another two CF in my opinion.

Total - 7 more arrivals for a competitive squad.
 
So 2 players we brought through our academy, picked up after failed experiences elsewhere have been sold for £24 million up front and could reportedly from what I've seen could rise an extra £10-£15 million. Close to £40 million in up front fees and add ons is absolutely incredible buisness and a huge well done to anyone involved over the last 3/4 years neutering 2 talents to earn the club some serious money!

However, unlike Spence, I'm absolutely gutted Tav is going. He took pelters for years and continues somehow to take them from people who don't understand goals and assists aren't everything for a player in Tav's position.
He has unbelievable energy and work rate and the defensive side to his game seems to go under the radar. 135 games for us under several different managers at either LWB, LW, CM, RWB or CAM is incredible, hard to remember sometimes he's only 23.

I wish him the very best of luck in the Premier League and hope he absolutely smashes it! My only issue is why Bournemouth 😂 I really think he could have done much better.

Now on to us!
Steffen, Roberts, Smith, Leinhan and Giles are massive upgrades on Lumley, Daniels, Hall, Peltier and Taylor.

What else do we need? It's obvious we need a left Sided center half, my pick would be to go get Jacob Grieves out of Hull.
CDM cover/slow replacement for Howson. My choice would be Hamza Choudhury on loan from Leicester, I'd absolutely love having a nasty b**tard in midfield.
Cm as competition for Crooks, my choice would be Hannibal on loan from Man United, I've heard great things about him from my Man United supporting friends, plus what a class name

Now the big ones... A Tav replacement and 3 strikers.
My choice for a Tav replacement is who I think 99% of fans are hoping we go nick, Callum O'Hare from Coventry.
Up top it looks like Marcus Forss, Rodrigo Muniz and one more. That final one has to be the marquee signing. My hope is that it will be Adam Armstrong.
The bonus of anyone else (Matthew Hoppe looking likely) will only be aiding to our promotion push.

It's not all doom and gloom, there's plenty of reason to be hopeful, we have the best manager in the league and we just have to trust the process.

UTFB
That money will just about cover us for the season without Gibson dipping into his pocket - that’s where we’re at
 
As exciting as having some money to reinvest might be - I’d be disappointed to see us splash it all on 1 or 2 players. We have a terrible record of getting much value for these players - see Fletcher, assombalonga, Flint, Saville, Gestede etc… even going back as far as Alves.

I’d rather see us keep investing at lower levels and more wisely for the future. Who’s to say Tavs place isn’t filled by McGree and Boyd-Munce, both of who were bargain.

Most of our big sales recently have been players we got for cheap or free.
 
plus money for Nat Wood.

going to be an exciting few weeks - looking forward to it with glee

we should also factor in that we probably need £5 million to operate the club during the closed season with no revenues coming through the gate
 
I reckon we'll be reinvesting 50% of what has come in, 75% at the most just so Gibson has a year off keeping us afloat and to maybe hold a bit back for January. Even still the board and scouts should, SHOULD, be able to find players to suit CW style for that sort of money. The team was almost there anyway so not like we needed a complete rebuild.

If Tav goes we need 1 centre back, 2 midfielders and 3 strikers i think.

Lenihan, Fry, New defender (Greaves?), Dijksteel, Bola/McNair++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Bilongo/Dodds/Robinson from the reserves
Crooks, Howson, McGree, McNair, New midfielder 1, New midfielder 2, Caolon Boyd-Munce +++++++++ Hackney/Gibson from the reserves
Watmore, Forss, Hoppe, Muniz OR Armstrong, Coburn +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Kavanagh from the reserves

I find it odd we aren't been linked with many midfielders and centre backs anymore, just forwards.
 
Given that fees are amortised over the period of the contract, we won't receive anything like £24m 'up front', but it will make us financially stable for the next few seasons, albeit what we spend will obviously impact on that.

I don't have an issue with Tav going, as disappointing as it is from a playing front.

The club has wasted millions upon millions over the last 10 years and needed to do something different.

We relay upon our academy to generate income and it has this summer (again).

The other bit we need to get right is to invest better, stop paying over the odds for players who we think are the finished product and bring in ones who we can develop ourselves.

That obviously need to be supported by the loan market, which all championship hopefuls need to exploit.

We looked buy Gyorkores for example, a player that has had a single good season. We could have signed him last summer, so what stopped us? Coventry obviously saw the potential, which wasn't obvious looking at his stats.

Boro are and always will be selling club, unless we get some oil money, which will never happen.
 
Given that fees are amortised over the period of the contract, we won't receive anything like £24m 'up front', but it will make us financially stable for the next few seasons, albeit what we spend will obviously impact on that.

I don't have an issue with Tav going, as disappointing as it is from a playing front.

The club has wasted millions upon millions over the last 10 years and needed to do something different.

We relay upon our academy to generate income and it has this summer (again).

The other bit we need to get right is to invest better, stop paying over the odds for players who we think are the finished product and bring in ones who we can develop ourselves.

That obviously need to be supported by the loan market, which all championship hopefuls need to exploit.

We looked buy Gyorkores for example, a player that has had a single good season. We could have signed him last summer, so what stopped us? Coventry obviously saw the potential, which wasn't obvious looking at his stats.

Boro are and always will be selling club, unless we get some oil money, which will never happen.
We can still 'spend' all of that £24m now though as our purchases would also be amortised
 
I don't necessarily think we need 'marquee' players, we've seen those happen before and most of the time they flop.

Norwich under Kieran Scott seemed to recruit more unknown players to the average fan rather than bringing in well-known expensive players, I think we will see that.

I've been looking at what Norwich did in their promotion seasons with KS and noticed in the 2018-19 season when they won the league, in the summer the lost James Maddison, their best player by a long way, as well as Josh Murphy to Premier League Cardiff.

They then brought in Pukki and Buendia, two of the best Championship players in recent years if not of all time, how many had heard of them before then?
 
Options per position in decreasing likelihood currently.................

GK

Steffen, Roberts, Daniels - Sorted

RCB
Dijksteel, McNair, Lenihan, Smith, Howson - Sorted

CB
Lenihan, Fry, Dijksteel/Smith/McNair? - Sorted (just about)

LCB
Signing, Bola, McNair, Smith - Not sorted - Signing - Greaves as a starter?

RWB
Jones, Smith, Howson, Dijksteel - Sorted

LWB
Giles, Bola, Boyd-Munce, McGree(maybe) - Sorted (just about)

RCM
Crooks, Howson then kids - Not sorted - Signing - Hannibal?

DCM
Howson, McNair, Crooks then kids - Not sorted - Signing - Choudhury?

LCM
McGree, Boyd-Munce then kids - Not sorted - Signing - O'Hare?

CF/ST
Watmore, Coburn (maybe Akpom & Ikpeazu too?) - Not sorted - Signings x 3 - Probably from; Forss, Hoppe, Muniz (maybe Riis or Gykores)?

So possibly up to 7 incomings in five weeks?

Easily doable, we have the coin, we have the manager and training facilities, we have the stadium and fan base. We need to sell our vision to the players and persuade a few clubs to release them rather than waiting till the last weekend in August.

I have faith.

UTB
 
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