CONFIRMED Lys Mousset

[CaptainMorgans]

Just saw it on twatter a few times, £4-6m upfront, rising to £9.5m

Sounded about right.

Do you know if the “fee rising to £9.5m” is payable (1) upon him reaching certain milestones (apps, goals etc), or (2) it’s the agreed final fee to be paid over time?

 

[bromtom]

Do you know if the “fee rising to £9.5m” is payable (1) upon him reaching certain milestones (apps, goals etc), or (2) it’s the agreed final fee to be paid over time?

No, I don't even know if the £4-6m was correct haha...

I imagine though it'll be appearances and goals, maybe international recognition. Can't see us agreeing to a guaranteed £9.5m signing who has (on the face of it) a less than amazing record at PL level.

 

[Oreyt]

Better to pay £10m for him than Charlie Austin

Amen to that.

 

[BushBlade]

I can remember the time when you never heard from a manager, you never knew about a new signing until the very last minute, and fans didn't judge them or moan and groan until they had seen them play a few games at the very least. Our job was simple, go to the match and cheer the team on. That's all there was. The only fans you could ever discuss anything with were the ones who stood nearest to you on the kop, or your friends and family.
Don't get me wrong, I love some of the modern trappings and conveniences, but life sure was much simpler then, with less stress and fewer heart attacks.

There were fewer heart attacks as most people had already got emphysema from work. We turned up, cheered and clapped at the start, some bloke shouted ‘come on you red and white wizards’ and we all went ‘aaaahhh’

Then it went a bit quiet whilst we fannied around with it, with the occasional ‘sing up shoreham’ and ‘fuck off Richardson, tha’s shit’.

Then we’d score and all sing for a while. Then they’d score and sing ‘you’re not singing anymore’ and we’d sing ‘you’re gonna get your fucking heads kicked in’.

Then there’d be a lot of mumbling and grumbling ‘fucking ‘ell Blades, gerrin to ‘em’ until King Keith scored. Then we were all happy, the adults and big lads could sup their pints with a smile on their faces and me and my mate would hang around on London Road by the newsagents waiting for Green’un.

 

[itsinyerblood]

I must say this rhetoric has always made me feel a bit uncomfortable. The implication being that because we've been promoted a couple of times and play nice football, fans are no longer entitled to disagree or question ANYTHING the manager does.
He's primarily accountable to the fans, you lose them, your position soon become untenable. I am obviously not advocating that, my point is, he's made some stinking signings so far; Hussey, Leonard, Thomas, Washington - It's not an indication of being a negative fan to question a random signing.

Hi Stef and Snowman , I understand your reticence regarding this phrase, so perhaps you'll allow me to widen this conversation.

I've never been one for blind faith, it's manic, foolish, and there's the possibility of culpability in something you might, with hindsight, disagree with.

Yes, Wilder has bought players who haven't made the grade. let me refer you to something that CW said recently. I don't have the quote to hand but in essence it amounted to the fact that no matter how you had imagined a player might be a good fit it just doesn't work out for either party. Is blame attached? Do we point a finger accusingly? Or do we accept that everyone, including you and I, make errors of judgement, or what might be called miscalculations?

I know myself that there have been times when I considered someone a good fit for a particular position, yet it soon became clear that they weren't equipped for the intended job. Was it my fault, or did the other person convince me that they had the necessary tools to do the job? Perhaps the problem lay somewhere between the two of us. The truth is, as much as I would go over this time and again, I never reached a moment where a clear and unambiguous solution became clear to me.

As I've said, Wilder has pursued players, Leonard being the most obvious one that comes to mind. CW must have looked at Leonard within the Southend structure and seen a midfield player capable of giving us a turbo-charged dynamo, but as we're all aware, it didn't work out for the lad. Recruitment must be a strange area, you look at a player many times, he seems to tick all the necessary boxes, yet come the moment when money passes from one account to another, suddenly the hoped for answer to a need is anything but........we're not alone in this, it happens at other clubs. Man Utd bought Tottenham's shining star, Dimitar Berbatov, a wonderfully skilful player at Spurs, but once he'd arrived at Old Trafford what we saw was a player who simply couldn't offer the same range of dazzling skills. Whatever the reasons for this we'll probably never know, but Berbatov was a pale shadow of the player that excelled at Spurs. Trying to find reasons or explanations becomes a fruitless task, you have to move on rapidly, there's no time for reflection or self-indulgence. I must add this wasn't the only error that Alex Ferguson made when it came to recruitment, but it didn't have a negative impact on the relationship between Ferguson and the Old Trafford faithful. Overall AF's record was excellent, and I suspect this will be the same for Wilder.

Like I said, blind faith isn't the issue here, but we have to invest faith in a manager, so who better that Chris wilder to give us what we want? Great football, no negatives, just players playing to their potential. He hasn't done bad so far, and it's been with the support of the fans who've seen what this man can deliver, with, I should add, a not always supportive board. Which makes his achievements all the more exceptional in my book. So by all means offer your criticisms, as long as they're considered and constructive I'm sure they'll be welcome.

 

[Th!stledo]

Who were the No 1 targets when we signed Egan and Norwood?

I would guess that Maupay and McBurnie were Wilder's prime targets based on his assessment of their value. If the valuations by the clubs are in excess of his figures then it would make sense that he would reassess his options. All signings are a gamble and the Premier is littered with 'failures' and if the odds doesn't stack up for these two players then it's reasonable to look at other options. Walking away from the Waghorn auction and going with Didsy on a 'free' worked out okay for us last season?

 

[Stef]

Hi Stef and Snowman , I understand your reticence regarding this phrase, so perhaps you'll allow me to widen this conversation.

I've never been one for blind faith, it's manic, foolish, and there's the possibility of culpability in something you might, with hindsight, disagree with.

Yes, Wilder has bought players who haven't made the grade. let me refer you to something that CW said recently. I don't have the quote to hand but in essence it amounted to the fact that no matter how you had imagined a player might be a good fit it just doesn't work out for either party. Is blame attached? Do we point a finger accusingly? Or do we accept that everyone, including you and I, make errors of judgement, or what might be called miscalculations?

I know myself that there have been times when I considered someone a good fit for a particular position, yet it soon became clear that they weren't equipped for the intended job. Was it my fault, or did the other person convince me that they had the necessary tools to do the job? Perhaps the problem lay somewhere between the two of us. The truth is, as much as I would go over this time and again, I never reached a moment where a clear and unambiguous solution became clear to me.

As I've said, Wilder has pursued players, Leonard being the most obvious one that comes to mind. CW must have looked at Leonard within the Southend structure and see a midfield player capable of giving us a turbo-charged dynamo, but as we're all aware, it didn't work out for the lad. Recruitment must be a strange area, you look at a player many times, he seems to tick all the necessary boxes, yet come the moment when money passes from one account to another, suddenly the hoped for answer to a need is anything but........we're not alone in this, it happens at other clubs. Man Utd bought Tottenham's shining star, Dimitar Berbatov, a wonderfully skilful player at Spurs, but once he'd arrived at Old Trafford what we saw was a player who simply couldn't offer the same range of dazzling skills. Whatever the reasons for this we'll probably never know, but Berbatov was a pale shadow of the player that excelled at Spurs. Trying to find reasons or explanations becomes a fruitless task, you have to move on rapidly, there's no time for reflection or self-indulgence. I must add this wasn't the only error that Alex Ferguson made when it came to recruitment, but it didn't have a negative impact on the relationship between Ferguson and the Old Trafford faithful. Overall AF's record was excellent, and I suspect this will be the same for Wilder.

Like I said, blind faith isn't the issue here, but we have to invest faith in a manager, so who better that Chris wilder to give us what we want? Great football, no negatives, just players playing to their potential. He hasn't done bad so far, and it's been with the support of the fans who've seen what this man can deliver, with, I should add, a not always supportive board. Which makes his achievements all the more exceptional in my book. So by all means offer your criticisms, as long as they're considered and constructive I'm sure they'll be welcome.

As you can see, I don't often post on here (despite joining in 2014) But really enjoyed the interactions today - It's a lot less aggressive than I remember when I would post on BM and BBC (when they had one) - Really enjoyed this reply, thought provoking and I cant disagree with a word you've said.

 

[Dublinblade]

Sorry to tangent away from your actual point here, but where did you get those PL numbers for McBurnie? Transfermarkt reckons 345 PL minutes (0 goals).

As it happens that's almost exactly the amount of minutes Mousset played in the Prem last season.

Appears your correct transfermarkt & whoscored.com suggest your right. Link I was looking at clearly incorrect.

Besides me looking like a fool the point however remains neither of them are proven at PL so the negativity around his goal scoring rate is still moot albeit less moot based on that lower minutes played number.

 

[Beans]

Appears your correct transfermarkt & whoscored.com suggest your right. Link I was looking at clearly incorrect.

Besides me looking like a fool the point however remains neither of them are proven at PL so the negativity around his goal scoring rate is still moot albeit less moot based on that lower minutes played number.

Apologies, wasn't trying to undermine you, just genuinely curious to see if I was missing something. Agreed that it doesn't detract from your point.

 

[Ron_Justice]

Decent little write up from James Shield : Star Article

'But it is the story of Mousset's move to Bournemouth which reveals the most about his ability. Back then, before investing around £7m to acquire his services, Howe waged a long and successful charm offensive to beat off competition from a host of other interested parties following the youngster's performances at 2016 Toulon Tournament. And, as his track record in this particular section of the transfer market demonstrates, Wilder's counterpart is an expert at identifying special up-and-coming talents.

With Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Southampton all expressing an interest in Mousset following his displays against the likes of Mexico, the Czech Republic, Mali and Bulgaria, Howe resolved to set about persuading Mousset that the Vitality Stadium should be his next destination as he prepared to leave Le Havre, where he had progressed through a youth programme which counts Paul Pogba, Riyad Mahrez and Dimitri Payet as former graduates.

By his own admission, the negotiations were "protracted" such was the level of interest in Mousset. But Howe's work - and his reputation for developing players - eventually paid off.'

 

[Ricky]

With the saving we'll make signing him over Maupay other options will open up in other positions.

It could enable us to spread the spend through the team more evenly and ultimately end up stronger.

We could for example consider right sided defensive players and midfielders who we thought would be a stretch too far previously.

 

[itsinyerblood]

As you can see, I don't often post on here (despite joining in 2014) But really enjoyed the interactions today - It's a lot less aggressive than I remember when I would post on BM and BBC (when they had one) - Really enjoyed this reply, thought provoking and I cant disagree with a word you've said.

Cheers mate, glad you feel as if your contribution was responded to with the attention it deserved. It's not always the case I should add, but then some posters seem intent on provoking a negative reaction.

Management must be hellish at times, but that's the nature of the beast, and Wilder seems more than equipped, with good people around him, to steer us in a positive manner. Personally I feel we landed on our feet the day he became manager, and what's happened since has vindicated that. No doubt mistakes will be made, but in my experience it's not the mistake that is the crucial issue, it's the quality of response and how the problem is resolved that matters most of all.

 

[Snowman]

Hi Stef and Snowman , I understand your reticence regarding this phrase, so perhaps you'll allow me to widen this conversation.

I've never been one for blind faith, it's manic, foolish, and there's the possibility of culpability in something you might, with hindsight, disagree with.

Yes, Wilder has bought players who haven't made the grade. let me refer you to something that CW said recently. I don't have the quote to hand but in essence it amounted to the fact that no matter how you had imagined a player might be a good fit it just doesn't work out for either party. Is blame attached? Do we point a finger accusingly? Or do we accept that everyone, including you and I, make errors of judgement, or what might be called miscalculations?

I know myself that there have been times when I considered someone a good fit for a particular position, yet it soon became clear that they weren't equipped for the intended job. Was it my fault, or did the other person convince me that they had the necessary tools to do the job? Perhaps the problem lay somewhere between the two of us. The truth is, as much as I would go over this time and again, I never reached a moment where a clear and unambiguous solution became clear to me.

As I've said, Wilder has pursued players, Leonard being the most obvious one that comes to mind. CW must have looked at Leonard within the Southend structure and seen a midfield player capable of giving us a turbo-charged dynamo, but as we're all aware, it didn't work out for the lad. Recruitment must be a strange area, you look at a player many times, he seems to tick all the necessary boxes, yet come the moment when money passes from one account to another, suddenly the hoped for answer to a need is anything but........we're not alone in this, it happens at other clubs. Man Utd bought Tottenham's shining star, Dimitar Berbatov, a wonderfully skilful player at Spurs, but once he'd arrived at Old Trafford what we saw was a player who simply couldn't offer the same range of dazzling skills. Whatever the reasons for this we'll probably never know, but Berbatov was a pale shadow of the player that excelled at Spurs. Trying to find reasons or explanations becomes a fruitless task, you have to move on rapidly, there's no time for reflection or self-indulgence. I must add this wasn't the only error that Alex Ferguson made when it came to recruitment, but it didn't have a negative impact on the relationship between Ferguson and the Old Trafford faithful. Overall AF's record was excellent, and I suspect this will be the same for Wilder.

Like I said, blind faith isn't the issue here, but we have to invest faith in a manager, so who better that Chris wilder to give us what we want? Great football, no negatives, just players playing to their potential. He hasn't done bad so far, and it's been with the support of the fans who've seen what this man can deliver, with, I should add, a not always supportive board. Which makes his achievements all the more exceptional in my book. So by all means offer your criticisms, as long as they're considered and constructive I'm sure they'll be welcome.

No criticism of Wilder or signings made. Read it again if you wish. Merely said that the oft repeated phrase "in Wilder we Trust" was juvenile. Some won't be saying that if we have a losing and relegation season. I haven't said that and won't say it. He's just as capable of screwing up as the next manager and to my mind more so when it comes to his clever substitutions. He's got a hell of a job on this season with comparatively bugger all money and with all the vultures and leeches trying to steal whatever cash we have. If he doesn't make a massive bugger up "a la Warnock", he'll get my full support.

 

[dillis]

Very happy with this signing. It’s actually quite an exciting one IMO.
Some of the comments against him are embarrassing!

 

[BushBlade]

No criticism of Wilder or signings made. Read it again if you wish. Merely said that the oft repeated phrase "in Wilder we Trust" was juvenile. Some won't be saying that if we have a losing and relegation season. I haven't said that and won't say it. He's just as capable of screwing up as the next manager and to my mind more so when it comes to his clever substitutions. He's got a hell of a job on this season with comparatively bugger all money and with all the vultures and leeches trying to steal whatever cash we have. If he doesn't make a massive bugger up "a la Warnock", he'll get my full support.

So he won’t get your support if we go down on goal difference again?

 

[Snowman]

So he won’t get your support if we go down on goal difference again?

He can go down on who or what he wants, even several guinea pigs and a rampant randy cockatoo, but he won't get my support if he plays Jagielka at full back and spends the entire season playing as though we are second class passengers apologising for being in the upper class saloon. If we go down spectacularly or even by goal difference I expect CW to have given it a right go. If he does, no complaints from me.

 

[ChrisBlade]

The guy compromises our thoroughbred Team Brexit tag...

 

[itsinyerblood]

No criticism of Wilder or signings made. Read it again if you wish. Merely said that the oft repeated phrase "in Wilder we Trust" was juvenile. Some won't be saying that if we have a losing and relegation season. I haven't said that and won't say it. He's just as capable as screwing up as the next manager and to my mind more so when it comes to his clever substitutions. He's got a hell of a job on this season with comparatively bugger all money and with all the vultures and leeches trying to steal whatever cash we have. If he doesn't make a massive bugger up "a la Warnock", he'll get my full support.

By which standard, two promotions doesn't get your support? Snowy, phrases come and go, but to deny that Wilder has done exceptionally since he arrived suggests that someone hasn't been paying attention. I agree, substitutes are sometimes bewildering, but unless you're sitting next to Wilder and understand his reasoning for bringing player X on instead of player Y I guess we're left with partial understanding for a decision. As I wrote in my previous post, mistakes happen. That's part and parcel of being human. The key is what quality of response anyone brings to rectifying that mistake.

If anyone imagines we'll steam-roller other teams in this division they're sadly mistaken. If we manager to remain in this division it will be a superb result, but if not I'll make my decisions based on how we've played and whether I feel Wilder has screwed up on a regular basis. Until then, I'm entering this new season with happiness, expectation at seeing some good to great games, and wondering how we'll compete against tried and tested Prem teams. Remember how the pigs used to bait us, as a Div 1 team, saying that we wouldn't be able to cope with the rigours of the Championship? That went well if I recall.

 

[BlairBlade]

We need more French speakers.
Go and get Maupay and the Bordeaux guy.
With Henderson that will be 8 recruits for this close season. I think eight is a terrific number.

 

[benn5712]

Just got in from the fish pond and read pages 1 - 19 of this thread/op.
If someone has said this earlier I apologise.
Bottom line is Bournemouth get Brooksy for nowt and lose a PL sized wage packet.

I've read pages 1 AND 19.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

There were fewer heart attacks as most people had already got emphysema from work. We turned up, cheered and clapped at the start, some bloke shouted ‘come on you red and white wizards’ and we all went ‘aaaahhh’

Then it went a bit quiet whilst we fannied around with it, with the occasional ‘sing up shoreham’ and ‘fuck off Richardson, tha’s shit’.

Then we’d score and all sing for a while. Then they’d score and sing ‘you’re not singing anymore’ and we’d sing ‘you’re gonna get your fucking heads kicked in’.

Then there’d be a lot of mumbling and grumbling ‘fucking ‘ell Blades, gerrin to ‘em’ until King Keith scored. Then we were all happy, the adults and big lads could sup their pints with a smile on their faces and me and my mate would hang around on London Road by the newsagents waiting for Green’un.

Who knew DH Lawrence was a Blade?

 

[Swannyblade]

Christian Nade played for Le Havre...is Mousset 2019's Nade? Did we like Nade??
Ravel Morrison is already 2019's Colin Kazim-Richards.
Where's 2019's Rob Hulse?

 

[Ricky]

Where's 2019's Rob Hulse?

OM9

 

[8lade]

19 pages before I came in, it's pretty much all been said (multiple times) I'm just surprised that people don't bother reading any of the thread before posting on it.
Number of times
Strike rate called into question = 15
Above has been answered = 8
Fee of 10 m is shocking = 9
Mousset not proven but Championship striker is = 8
In Wilder we Trust =12
Etc (numbers for illustrative purposes only I wasn't reading another 10 pages of the same comments by different people).
[Not having a pop Benn I was typing this as you posted, your approach was better than mine of trying to read every post!]

 

[Snowman]

By which standard, two promotions doesn't get your support? Snowy, phrases come and go, but to deny that Wilder has done exceptionally since he arrived suggests that someone hasn't been paying attention. I agree, substitutes are sometimes bewildering, but unless you're sitting next to Wilder and understand his reasoning for bringing player X on instead of player Y I guess we're left with partial understanding for a decision. As I wrote in my previous post, mistakes happen. That's part and parcel of being human. The key is what quality of response anyone brings to rectifying that mistake.

If anyone imagines we'll steam-roller other teams in this division they're sadly mistaken. If we manager to remain in this division it will be a superb result, but if not I'll make my decisions based on how we've played and whether I feel Wilder has screwed up on a regular basis. Until then, I'm entering this new season with happiness, expectation at seeing some good to great games, and wondering how we'll compete against tried and tested Prem teams. Remember how the pigs used to bait us, as a Div 1 team, saying that we wouldn't be able to cope with the rigours of the Championship? That went well if I recall.

Really don't see where you are coming from. You seem to be reading into a simple post stuff I haven't said. Where have I denied he has done exceptionally since he arrived? Where did I say two promotions didn't get my support? Stop looking for an argument.

He's a manager. He's done very well and also made mistakes in my view (and in others and has admitted it). We're in for a really difficult season in which he will get my support as usual. However, if for instance he consistently gets his side 2-0 up and against all logic when we are still pressing reverts to a back 9 and we draw or lose, he will deserve pelters from me and others. We all laugh at the cult on the other side of the city. We have a great manager who has done wonders, but he can still screw up. He is not a god and we as United fans are definitely not a cult.

 

[itsinyerblood]

I see a WW2 tactic at work here.....Wilder's Trojan horse is to sign a French compatriot, return for Maupay knowing that he and Mousset have already made contact, bob's yer uncle!

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

 

[itsinyerblood]

Really don't see where you are coming from. You seem to be reading into a simple post stuff I haven't said. Where have I denied he has done exceptionally since he arrived? Where did I say two promotions didn't get my support? Stop looking for an argument.

He's a manager. He's done very well and also made mistakes in my view (and in others and has admitted it). We're in for a really difficult season in which he will get my support as usual. However, if for instance he consistently gets his side 2-0 up and against all logic when we are still pressing reverts to a back 9 and we draw or lose, he will deserve pelters from me and others. We all laugh at the cult on the other side of the city. We have a great manager who has done wonders, but he can still screw up. He is not a god and we as United fans are definitely not a cult.

Calm down mate....show me where I attributed the comments you find offending to your good self? You appear to have adopted them by default. All I did was offer a set of views that seem to appear on the forum from time to time. The forum exists for a reason, not, at least in my view, to descend into something unworthy of it's posters. I don't quite get the 'cult' point. Maybe for others it's how they view being a Blade, but for me it's just one part of my life. I'm passionate up to a point, but it's a long way from what you might consider a mindless supporter. I think that Wilder is neither faultless or irreplaceable (don't know where the 'god' tag came from?), but for this moment in time we have an exceptional manager and we're fortunate to have him on board. You seem far harsher in your assessment of the man, but that's your entitlement.

 

[alcoblade]

He's scored 3 goals in 58 appearances for Bournemouth.

Am I missing something about how he plays, or is just a shocking return for a forward? Am I right to wonder why we'd be going in for him? Not seen him play in fairness.

I understand that his total on-field minutes equate to less than 10 full appearances. He was kept out by 2 strikers that would walk into our team.

Based on that stat, it’s not that shabby.

 

[Tynemouth Blade]

I like him, he can levitate