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Transfers The Summer Transfer Edging Thread 2025

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sudoku said:
I have not been in that thread for yonks but I can well believe that.
The anti-ENIC cult, like all members of all cults, don't like facts.
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Hey. scarletjim scarletjim , mate.

Looking forward to you and your buddies calling out this inflammatory post.

:kaneear:

There's been dozens like this over the past few days. You've been very quiet .
 
Datzlo said:
This was dealt with in the ENIC thread not too long ago, and it's a fantasy that this approach was successful.

Klinsmann won nothing. Gazza and Lineker won an FA Cup. That's it. They got us nowhere near the big table of football and instead set the club back financially. Sugar would have done far better to focus on building a squad of overall quality instead of buying one or two stars and hoping they could make us good again.

Ardiles was a different story, in a different era, but by the time Scholar took over the club in 1984 it had the largest debt in English football, he had to literally diversify club holdings into computer and clothing companies (Hummel and Martex) to stay afloat, and we became the first club in the world to be floated on the London Stock Exchange. And of course he had to get a loan from Maxwell to sort it all out.

All the commercialization and whatnot about modern football that you all hate? We helped start it, unfortunately. Back when you guys think we were 'ambitious', when instead Scholar was leading the way in basing revenue on merchandising and rinsing the fan's pockets instead of delivering on the pitch. That's why we won only a couple of cups at the start of the decade, and were barren for the rest of it, UEFA Cup aside. Rest of the time we were bouncing in and out of the bottom half of the table and being knocked out of the FA Cup usually before Round 5, with only 1 more final appearance where we couldn't beat Coventry.

The 80s were mediocre. The 90s were gash. The 2000s were mediocre, and the 2010s were the 2nd-best period of league and European performance we've ever known.
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Totally disagree that the 80s were mediocre!

Cup wins in 81 and 82
Uefa in 84
86/87 was arguably our most exciting team in the last 45 years. Should have won that cup final.
Had the pleasure of seeing Gazza and Lineker in a great team to watch.

The 80s were anything but mediocre
 
Shadydan said:
What? 😂

I hate this narrative that's popped up recently that this club used to buy the odd star, yeah so what? The rest of the team were shite and we could only support having those players because they earn more than their team mates, great strategy that lol

Even if we put in a bid for Isak now anyway, what's the point? he's not signing for us, no matter how much wages we offer... he'd only reject us which would ironically appease the naysayers' dopemine hit of mocking us yet again 'we tried' etc...
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Headline ....9th richest club in the world can't buy players, baldy has indeed won.
 
Datzlo said:
This was dealt with in the ENIC thread not too long ago, and it's a fantasy that this approach was successful.

Klinsmann won nothing. Gazza and Lineker won an FA Cup. That's it. They got us nowhere near the big table of football and instead set the club back financially. Sugar would have done far better to focus on building a squad of overall quality instead of buying one or two stars and hoping they could make us good again.

Ardiles was a different story, in a different era, but by the time Scholar took over the club in 1984 it had the largest debt in English football, he had to literally diversify club holdings into computer and clothing companies (Hummel and Martex) to stay afloat, and we became the first club in the world to be floated on the London Stock Exchange. And of course he had to get a loan from Maxwell to sort it all out.

All the commercialization and whatnot about modern football that you all hate? We helped start it, unfortunately. Back when you guys think we were 'ambitious', when instead Scholar was leading the way in basing revenue on merchandising and rinsing the fan's pockets instead of delivering on the pitch. That's why we won only a couple of cups at the start of the decade, and were barren for the rest of it, UEFA Cup aside. Rest of the time we were bouncing in and out of the bottom half of the table and being knocked out of the FA Cup usually before Round 5, with only 1 more final appearance where we couldn't beat Coventry.

The 80s were mediocre. The 90s were gash. The 2000s were mediocre, and the 2010s were the 2nd-best period of league and European performance we've ever known.
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Yet we managed to acquire so called superstars, but now when we are the 9th richest club in the world we can't? Oh we must not do a Leeds, Levy has truly won, our rivals spend like there is no tomorrow, while we sit on our hands. We have seen this all to often, over the past 25yrs.
 
nicoclaesen said:
Totally disagree that the 80s were mediocre!

Cup wins in 81 and 82
Uefa in 84
86/87 was arguably our most exciting team in the last 45 years. Should have won that cup final.
Had the pleasure of seeing Gazza and Lineker in a great team to watch.

The 80s were anything but mediocre
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Didn't I just cover that?

In 1981 we needed an own goal to salvage a replay against a team in 12th, but then again we were 10th ourselves. In 1982 we needed a penalty in a replay against a team from Division 2. 1987 was a failure in every competition, just like the years we came 2nd and 3rd under Poch and lost the European Cup final.

1984 was lovely. But, then again, it's when Scholar took over and turned us into a commercial entity more concerned with finances than football, which is why the best we did after that was almost beat Coventry, and almost get into a title race. The rest of the decade was pretty poor.

If the 80s were great, so was ENIC. If ENIC is crap, then so were the 80s. But I did have the pleasure of seeing Kane, Son, Hugo, Walker, Jan and Toby, Bale and Modders in a great team to watch...
 
Shadydan said:
The Extra Mile(sey) The Extra Mile(sey) who we finishing behind next season to make you think we will finish 8th/9th?
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I don’t think that view is unrealistic, seeing as we are 8th in the markets behind

Liverpool Woolwich City Chelsea Newcastle Man Utd and Villa. There is always likely to be a Brighton/Bouremouth/Forest challenging also.

I can’t see us all of a sudden going from 17th to say 5th as things stand
 
Trotter said:
I don’t think that view is unrealistic, seeing as we are 8th in the markets behind

Liverpool Woolwich City Chelsea Newcastle Man Utd and Villa. There is always likely to be a Brighton/Bouremouth/Forest challenging also.

I can’t see us all of a sudden going from 17th to say 5th as things stand
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We went from 5th to 17th the season before...
 
Trotter said:
I don’t think that view is unrealistic, seeing as we are 8th in the markets behind

Liverpool Woolwich City Chelsea Newcastle Man Utd and Villa. There is always likely to be a Brighton/Bouremouth/Forest challenging also.

I can’t see us all of a sudden going from 17th to say 5th as things stand
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TBF we went from 5th to 17th in the time it took to say "it's who we are, mate"
 
Datzlo said:
Didn't I just cover that?

In 1981 we needed an own goal to salvage a replay against a team in 12th, but then again we were 10th ourselves. In 1982 we needed a penalty in a replay against a team from Division 2. 1987 was a failure in every competition, just like the years we came 2nd and 3rd under Poch and lost the European Cup final.

1984 was lovely. But, then again, it's when Scholar took over and turned us into a commercial entity more concerned with finances than football, which is why the best we did after that was almost beat Coventry, and almost get into a title race. The rest of the decade was pretty poor.

If the 80s were great, so was ENIC. If ENIC is crap, then so were the 80s. But I did have the pleasure of seeing Kane, Son, Hugo, Walker, Jan and Toby, Bale and Modders in a great team to watch...
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They were also a great team to watch but I still think 86/87 was fantastic to watch. I never said the 80s were great but they certainly were not mediocre. We had sides that were enjoyable to watch and players that were incredible.
 
Datzlo said:
You act as if Liverpool didn't spend years being called the Dippers precisely because they followed a pragmatic, hidden-value approach to their transfer strategy. Even when Klopp came along they bought Bobby Firmino and Christian Benteke, and these were not Big Names that Big Clubs were competing for. Then they followed it up with Mane and Wijnaldum, with only us for competition there, and Salah came the following year as a Chelsea reject reborn at Roma.

Not a single one of these transfers was a marquee signing, not a single one was even over 40m pounds, and look where it got them. NOW they cam afford to spend the earth on whomever they want, because Klopp earned it.

But we're not competing with them. We're competing with Newcastle, and even in the past 3 years we've massively out-spent them. Here, take a look at this fun little chart I made (all prices in Euros, all data from transfermarkt: Spurs, Woolwich, Newcastle):

Spending.jpg


In case anyone is confused, we've been spending a lot of money to try and catch/keep up.

Edit: I can't get the Scum link to work because the forum autochanges to Woolwich, even in a URL.
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The main diff is we have spent badly especially on the forward areas. Hence still need a starting left forward and most would argue a better CF than Solanke. We’ve already spent £55M on kudus who is a much better footballer than the £47M Johnson.
 
septicsac said:
Yet we managed to acquire so called superstars,
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Why do you guys consider that such a good thing? It hasn't worked for anyone except City or Chelsea, and they could afford to miss as much as they hit with their superstar signings. Liverpool picked up Firmino, Sane, Salah, Wijanldum etc all for less than 40m, and even when they splurged on VVD and Becker these were not players around which the biggest clubs in the world were circling.

So where the fuck does this desperation come from to sign a superstar? Teddy Sheringham was a superstar, and when we broke our club record to sign him, he delivered by winning the Golden Boot that year. But we came 8th. He delivered again, somewhat, the following year by being our club's top scorer, but we came 15th. And we sure didn't have a UEFA Cup with it.

It didn't work. It never has, for us, even with Jimmy Greaves. Not in terms of winning the league and being the best team in the land with the best players. Not even with Ossie, although the FA Cup wins and 1984 are still great achievements for us.

What got us almost over the finish line was sticking with a relatively untried coach, putting together a squad of potential stars eager for glory, along with England's top striker (maybe ever) from our own academy; a product of investment by ENIC years earlier.

septicsac said:
but now when we are the 9th richest club in the world we can't? Oh we must not do a Leeds, Levy has truly won, our rivals spend like there is no tomorrow, while we sit on our hands. We have seen this all to often, over the past 25yrs.
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What I've seen is us go from being a laughing stock of London to 90 minutes away from the biggest prize in club football, and the closest we've come to winning the league since before most of this board were even born.
 
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