For those lauding a ‘Great January’

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I don’t think an awful lot of Blades thought it was a great January. A fair few of us have been saying for a while the reason the season has petered out was because championship quality wasn’t signed and instead we got in a few L1 benchwarmers (bar Evans).

Wilder pretty much said in his interview tonight we won’t improve if we keep signing L1 players. He’s right.
 



Harrisblade said:
Because up until now every game has been a 'must not lose game' and for months they've all been on a knife-edge.
If not for that, Wilder would have had a freer hand in team selection and would probably have mixed things up much more.
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I'm glad the signing of Holmes was one for the future.
 
Where has this notion of no money come from? Do we enjoy saying it as an excuse to slag McCabe off and play up to our love of always being underdogs? Here is a list of teams who spent less than us on signings in the January window;
Bolton
Millwall
Forest
Burton
Birmingham
Bristol
Ipswich
Barnsley
Preston
Brentford
Pigs
Reading
Sunderland
Middlesbrough
Hull
Derby
Villa
We've finished roughly where we deserve to finish with the money spent. As good as Widler is, let's be honest he hasn't been working on a Burton size budget. Transfer market values aren't always spot on but I highly doubt we've got a budget in the bottom 6 of the division.
 
Also not convinced we needed midfielders in JTW, certainly what we had was no worse than what we saw today & over last 6 weeks.
 
It’s a shame we didn’t sign a couple of game changers in January as that would quite possibly have seen us home. But I’ve no quibbles with who we signed at all. Two will only improve, one could yet contribute and the other was worth a try.

With regard to Holmes, I heard he’s had some ongoing family issues that were distracting him at charlton even before he came here. Whether or not you take that rumour as fact, it’s axiomatic that footballers are humans who suffer ups and downs like the rest of us. I hope we see him back next season.
 
We needed one midfielder, so the Evans signing was fine, but with limited resources, using them on one better player rather than getting both Holmes and Leonard would surely have made more sense. It's easy to say with hindsight, but we didn't actually need either of them.
 
Cassius Kray said:
We didn't sell our star players and Wilder was able to reinforce with a number of signings he was keen to make. It was clearly a good window.

Have Leonard and Holmes been as good as we hoped they would be? No. It's a shame that not every one of Wilder's signings has turned out to be immediately brilliant, but it would be pretty unreasonable to expect that.
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Be very OTT to say that most of his signings have turned out immediately brilliant. I don’t want to list the failures (I’ll be here a while) because I’m not that type. But let’s not say he’s signed 80% good players cos it’s not true
 
Holmes, Leonard, Wilson. All wages and fees taken into account = Mitrovic.

Who would have been the better addition?
 
Eric Cartman said:
where do you stand now?

I never saw it as a great January to be honest. And so it’s shown.

Have we lowered expectation so much that buying a few league one players and not selling one of our better players is seen as a ‘great’ window? In the play off mix very much at that point too.

All boils down to that for me. Real shame.
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I don't remember anyone claiming it was a great window? I think most of us were pleased we didn't sell Brooks. I think most of us were pleased we finally got our man, after chasing Ryan Leonard all summer. Personally I knew nothing about Jon Lundstram, Lee Evans or James Wilson, other than what I read after we'd signed them. I don't believe anything an Oxford fan has to say after the way they've rubbished Wilder. Wigan fans were generally very positive about Evans, whilst Man U fans were saying that Wilson was a better finisher than Marcus Rashford! So, I must be honest, I thought Wilder had done well considering what little amount of cash they'd given him.

We weren't to know that Leonard would be a flop, that Lundstram would be slow with catastrophic passing, that Evans would be good at times but very negative with a fondness for going backwards, and that Wilson would have an ego that kept tripping him up. That's how they have turned out in the main. I'll cut Lundstram a bit of slack, I think he's actually improved to the point of being our best player in a few games over the last couple of months, but he's still adjusting at this level.

And as for Brooks...well...I still think he's a fantastic young talent, but the lad needs to find a way to impose himself on a game for 90 minutes, not the last 20. He needs to bulk out a bit physically and make himself less easy to be knocked off the ball.

Anyhow, I assume the point of this post is to have a go at those who thought it was a good January transfer window? I think you're wasting your time, because no-one really knew that and most Blades I know took the view that it could have been a hell of a lot worse!
 
For us to get better we needed to sign some players that were mentioned on here.

Forshaw / Clayton / Keiffer Moore plus a few others.

Instead we went with cheap players. That’s the difference. Most teams when at the top in janursry will spend absurd amounts.

Boro years ago signed Rhodes just to try and get them the points to get there. He cost a fortune and didn’t play. But they were happy to risk it for a return to the prem.
 
Eric Cartman said:
where do you stand now?

I never saw it as a great January to be honest. And so it’s shown.

Have we lowered expectation so much that buying a few league one players and not selling one of our better players is seen as a ‘great’ window? In the play off mix very much at that point too.

All boils down to that for me. Real shame.
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Wait till next season before judging them
 



Mitrovic Loan Fee: £600k.
https://www.101greatgoals.com/news/revealed-fulham-paid-newcastle-mitrovic/

Mitrovic Salary for Loan Period: £800k (1million euros)
http://sportwitness.co.uk/wanting-n...r-stall-strange-medical-mitrovic-went-fulham/

Holmes Transfer Fee: £350k?
Holmes Salary for 5 month Period: £100k @ £5k per week

Leonard Transfer Fee: £400k?
Leonard Salary for 5 month Period: £100k @ £5k per week

Wilson Loan Fee: £?
Wilson Salary for 5 month Period: £200k @ £10k per week.

Feel free to correct the United side of the numbers if anyone knows the correct figures.
 
Champagneblade said:
Holmes, Leonard, Wilson. All wages and fees taken into account = Mitrovic.

Who would have been the better addition?
Click to expand...
Mitrovic was on £60k per week at Newcastle. On top of that he would be paid 23,500 euros (£16,000) for each Newcastle win and 11,700 euros (£8,000) for each draw. When Mitrovic joined Newcastle in 2015,deals were struck that Anderlecht would receive 16.5m euros (£11.5m) plus bonuses if Mitrovic reached certain landmarks.

Of that 16.5m euros, Partizan Belgrade will receive 2.3m euros (£1.6m), which is their 20% sell-on clause agreed when Anderlecht paid them 5m euros for the striker.

Anderlecht will also receive 5% of any subsequent sale of Mitrovic by Newcastle.The 'loan fee' to Fulham was £600,000. Dunno what his wages and bonuses will be at Fulham, but it won't be peanuts.

Even if we could afford sums like these (we can't) and ignoring the dressing-room unrest, Mitrovic was a gamble when he moved to Fulham in late January. He'd only scored one goal in the PL and had injury worries. If the gamble hadn't paid off for Fulham, it's loose change to them but potentially-ruinous to The Blades.

Just seen your post, Nick.
 
I was never fussed about Wilson anyway, we can do better. But I think Leonard Holmes and Evans were good signings on a relative shoestring and they will come good
 
We have only finite resourses , as we only have millionaires not billionaires
As much as we cry out for more investment unless we attract someone with real money, we have to continue finding gems by panning in a stream not popping off to cartier like some clubs can
 
Kozzy_is_my_Dad said:
I was never fussed about Wilson anyway, we can do better. But I think Leonard Holmes and Evans were good signings on a relative shoestring and they will come good
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Holmes won’t. He’s not had a chance this season, and he’s not getting any younger.

I’ve already said above I think it’s too early to write Leonard off.
 
blade too long said:
We have only finite resourses , as we only have millionaires not billionaires
As much as we cry out for more investment unless we attract someone with real money, we have to continue finding gems by panning in a stream not popping off to cartier like some clubs can
Click to expand...

And that's the basic truth. Of the four play-off teams, three will be disappointed but have the resources to 'go again' next season. The first rule of gambling is 'only bet as much as you can afford to lose', which puts us at a huge disadvantage. We've all longed for a return to The Championship, but we're playing with some very big boys now. It's no good coming over all 'Oliver Twist' if the money's simply not there.
 
grafikhaus said:
Mitrovic was on £60k per week at Newcastle. On top of that he would be paid 23,500 euros (£16,000) for each Newcastle win and 11,700 euros (£8,000) for each draw. When Mitrovic joined Newcastle in 2015,deals were struck that Anderlecht would receive 16.5m euros (£11.5m) plus bonuses if Mitrovic reached certain landmarks.

Of that 16.5m euros, Partizan Belgrade will receive 2.3m euros (£1.6m), which is their 20% sell-on clause agreed when Anderlecht paid them 5m euros for the striker.

Anderlecht will also receive 5% of any subsequent sale of Mitrovic by Newcastle.The 'loan fee' to Fulham was £600,000. Dunno what his wages and bonuses will be at Fulham, but it won't be peanuts.

Even if we could afford sums like these (we can't) and ignoring the dressing-room unrest, Mitrovic was a gamble when he moved to Fulham in late January. He'd only scored one goal in the PL and had injury worries. If the gamble hadn't paid off for Fulham, it's loose change to them but potentially-ruinous to The Blades.

Just seen your post, Nick.
Click to expand...

That post relates to this article:

https://www.themag.co.uk/2015/07/de...-offer-to-mitrovic-revealed-by-belgian-media/

The information I relate to in my more recent post is based on more recent newspaper reports and more research by myself, which I've linked to. The original being:

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180202_03335032

Without a 'delete historic post' ability on this forum, I may find that I defeat my own arguments on here over time. ;)
 
grafikhaus said:
Mitrovic was on £60k per week at Newcastle. On top of that he would be paid 23,500 euros (£16,000) for each Newcastle win and 11,700 euros (£8,000) for each draw. When Mitrovic joined Newcastle in 2015,deals were struck that Anderlecht would receive 16.5m euros (£11.5m) plus bonuses if Mitrovic reached certain landmarks.

Of that 16.5m euros, Partizan Belgrade will receive 2.3m euros (£1.6m), which is their 20% sell-on clause agreed when Anderlecht paid them 5m euros for the striker.

Anderlecht will also receive 5% of any subsequent sale of Mitrovic by Newcastle.The 'loan fee' to Fulham was £600,000. Dunno what his wages and bonuses will be at Fulham, but it won't be peanuts.

Even if we could afford sums like these (we can't) and ignoring the dressing-room unrest, Mitrovic was a gamble when he moved to Fulham in late January. He'd only scored one goal in the PL and had injury worries. If the gamble hadn't paid off for Fulham, it's loose change to them but potentially-ruinous to The Blades.

Just seen your post, Nick.
Click to expand...
Clearly the outlay would be sizeable.

But the point is instead of going for many of hit and miss quality, a few of high quality are far better.

Clearly some speculation here:

Leonard was reported as 700k. If so that is the loan fee covered and 100k change.

Add to that 400k for Holmes and maybe 200k loan fee for Wilson.

Plus perhaps their combined wages of 25k combined.

For a 20 week period from Jan to end of June that’s 60,000 per week.

I don’t see how 60k per week wouldn’t have been near to his wages.

We did spend money in Jan but it didn’t provide much of an immediate inpact to the XI.

Perhaps we should have done more in the summer.
 



Wilson was a supremely bad error of judgement from day one, signed purely on the basis he was a ManUre. Genuinely poor footballer.

Holmes appears to be going the same route as Samir, with significantly less game time under his belt.

UTB
 
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