Free transfers watch

[From Despair To Where?]

Hmm, I'd draw a very definite line between a free transfer and a Bosman type transfer. A lot of those players rejected terms with their club and chose to run down their contracts knowing there was a better offer elsewhere.

Funny you mention the 2005/06 team as when you consider Ivar, Sidwell, Harper, Lita, Kitson, Murty and Convey, you're looking at one of the most expensively assembled squads in the club's history at that time, (along with the 2001 squad that lost the playoff to Walsall), even if our spend was peanuts relative to our rivals


Also, its ridiculous to include players we quite literally paid a transfer fee for in a list of free transfers. It was widely reported that Gunnarsson cost in excess of £100,000, which, at the time, was hardly "nominal" for us.

[Stranded]

Hmm, I'd draw a very definite line between a free transfer and a Bosman type transfer. A lot of those players rejected terms with their club and chose to run down their contracts knowing there was a better offer elsewhere.

Free transfer to me are players who remain under contract but it makes sense for the club to get them off the wage bill quickly, so they make it clear that Player X is available for nothing but that the new club need to take on his current wages etc.

Players hitting the end of their contract are no longer free transfers for me, they are free agents as we aren't dealing with a club at all.

[Snowflake Royal]

Hmm, I'd draw a very definite line between a free transfer and a Bosman type transfer. A lot of those players rejected terms with their club and chose to run down their contracts knowing there was a better offer elsewhere.

Free transfer to me are players who remain under contract but it makes sense for the club to get them off the wage bill quickly, so they make it clear that Player X is available for nothing but that the new club need to take on his current wages etc.

Players hitting the end of their contract are no longer free transfers for me, they are free agents as we aren't dealing with a club at all.

Yep, this.

[Snowball]

Hmm, I'd draw a very definite line between a free transfer and a Bosman type transfer. A lot of those players rejected terms with their club and chose to run down their contracts knowing there was a better offer elsewhere.

Funny you mention the 2005/06 team as when you consider Ivar, Sidwell, Harper, Lita, Kitson, Murty and Convey, you're looking at one of the most expensively assembled squads in the club's history at that time, (along with the 2001 squad that lost the playoff to Walsall), even if our spend was peanuts relative to our rivals


Also, its ridiculous to include players we quite literally paid a transfer fee for in a list of free transfers. It was widely reported that Gunnarsson cost in excess of £100,000, which, at the time, was hardly "nominal" for us.

You should read more carefully

I said Gunnar’s FREE was from Forest to Watford

(where he had an excellent season)

(Which led to his transfer to RDG)


The point is, players being let go on a free, or contract-not-renewef, or sold for a pittance, doesn’t mean they aren’t good or soon to be good

How much did we get for these players?

Antonio?
Fosu?
Stacey?
Dickie?
Cooper?

How much are they worth now? Two are at Premier League clubs

[Snowflake Royal]

Hmm, I'd draw a very definite line between a free transfer and a Bosman type transfer. A lot of those players rejected terms with their club and chose to run down their contracts knowing there was a better offer elsewhere.

Funny you mention the 2005/06 team as when you consider Ivar, Sidwell, Harper, Lita, Kitson, Murty and Convey, you're looking at one of the most expensively assembled squads in the club's history at that time, (along with the 2001 squad that lost the playoff to Walsall), even if our spend was peanuts relative to our rivals


Also, its ridiculous to include players we quite literally paid a transfer fee for in a list of free transfers. It was widely reported that Gunnarsson cost in excess of £100,000, which, at the time, was hardly "nominal" for us.

You should read more carefully

I said Gunnar’s FREE was from Forest to Watford

(where he had an excellent season)

(Which led to his transfer to RDG)


The point is, players being let go on a free, or contract-not-renewef, or sold for a pittance, doesn’t mean they aren’t good or soon to be good

How much did we get for these players?

Antonio?
Fosu?
Stacey?
Dickie?
Cooper?

How much are they worth now? Two are at Premier League clubs

You need to read more carefully. You arguing against a point no one made.

No one said players on a free / bosman / ooc were never good.

[From Despair To Where?]

Hmm, I'd draw a very definite line between a free transfer and a Bosman type transfer. A lot of those players rejected terms with their club and chose to run down their contracts knowing there was a better offer elsewhere.

Funny you mention the 2005/06 team as when you consider Ivar, Sidwell, Harper, Lita, Kitson, Murty and Convey, you're looking at one of the most expensively assembled squads in the club's history at that time, (along with the 2001 squad that lost the playoff to Walsall), even if our spend was peanuts relative to our rivals


Also, its ridiculous to include players we quite literally paid a transfer fee for in a list of free transfers. It was widely reported that Gunnarsson cost in excess of £100,000, which, at the time, was hardly "nominal" for us.

You should read more carefully

I said Gunnar’s FREE was from Forest to Watford

(where he had an excellent season)

(Which led to his transfer to RDG)


The point is, players being let go on a free, or contract-not-renewef, or sold for a pittance, doesn’t mean they aren’t good or soon to be good

How much did we get for these players?

Antonio?
Fosu?
Stacey?
Dickie?
Cooper?

How much are they worth now? Two are at Premier League clubs

I find it odd that you try to illustrate your argument with 4 academy products and one player signed from non league for a fee all of whom were sold for decent fees and/or with sell on clauses. None were free agent/transfer signing, none were sold on frees. I would never regard an academy player as a free signing, not when we spend millions each year on the academy and years developing players, many of whom never make it at the club.

As Ian said, you seem to be up trying to argue a point nobody was making or disputing.

(Cue semantics and further shifting of goalposts )

All we can really do really do assess the merits of the players available this window and whether there is any value to be had. We did OK last season with Laurent but I suspect that was a signing agreed some time before he joined us.

Unfortunately, we are not in a strong negotiating position this summer so I suspect any signings we do make will either be on loan or out of left field,this Columbian player we're allegedly linked to being a case in point.

[SCIAG]

Yea think Snowball has read too much into Nameless’s question (perhaps a joke) about Morgan’s varying use of “released” and “out of contract”.

I don’t think anyone thinks players out of contract are automatically rubbish, though it’s fair to say that most would be unsuitable for our needs.

[morganb]

Yea think Snowball has read too much into Nameless’s question (perhaps a joke) about Morgan’s varying use of “released” and “out of contract”.

I don’t think anyone thinks players out of contract are automatically rubbish, though it’s fair to say that most would be unsuitable for our needs.

To be honest I'm just cutting and pasting from various places on Twitter so whatever is posted there simply gets dumped on here! Perhaps sometimes I take the info from an official club site (for example the Brentford details), sometimes from a news outlet or even just a regular poster.

Though once it was commented on I did wonder if there was anything to the released/out of contract somehow indicating the quality of the player it is applied to.

[Snowball]

I find it odd that you try to illustrate your argument with 4 academy products and one player signed from non league for a fee all of whom were sold for decent fees and/or with sell on clauses. None were free agent/transfer signing, none were sold on frees. I would never regard an academy player as a free signing, not when we spend millions each year on the academy and years developing players, many of whom never make it at the club.



Unfortunately, we are not in a strong negotiating position this summer so I suspect any signings we do make will either be on loan or out of left field,this Columbian player we're allegedly linked to being a case in point.

This is what I said:

Where does it say I said they went for free?

How much did we get for these players?

Antonio?
Fosu?
Stacey?
Dickie?
Cooper?

How much are they worth now? Two are at Premier League clubs

Fosu, BTW, refused a contract and did go for free. Maybe we got comp


My point was "Out of contract", "Bosman", "Can leave for free", "Let go for comp-only" "Mutually agreed cancelled contract" or any similar phrase, doesn't have to mean the player might be rubbish.

[Sutekh]

Yea think Snowball has read too much into Nameless’s question (perhaps a joke) about Morgan’s varying use of “released” and “out of contract”.

I don’t think anyone thinks players out of contract are automatically rubbish, though it’s fair to say that most would be unsuitable for our needs.

To be honest I'm just cutting and pasting from various places on Twitter so whatever is posted there simply gets dumped on here! Perhaps sometimes I take the info from an official club site (for example the Brentford details), sometimes from a news outlet or even just a regular poster.

Though once it was commented on I did wonder if there was anything to the released/out of contract somehow indicating the quality of the player it is applied to.

Released would usually mean a player not considered:

A) better that what a club already has
B) affordable as club looks to cut costs
C) good enough for the level at which the club is playing

Whereas out of contract implies something more along the lines of good enough but club and player can’t reach agreement for whatever reason.

None of the above mean that the player concerned moving to another club is not going to be a success.

[SCIAG]

Yea think Snowball has read too much into Nameless’s question (perhaps a joke) about Morgan’s varying use of “released” and “out of contract”.

I don’t think anyone thinks players out of contract are automatically rubbish, though it’s fair to say that most would be unsuitable for our needs.

To be honest I'm just cutting and pasting from various places on Twitter so whatever is posted there simply gets dumped on here! Perhaps sometimes I take the info from an official club site (for example the Brentford details), sometimes from a news outlet or even just a regular poster.

Though once it was commented on I did wonder if there was anything to the released/out of contract somehow indicating the quality of the player it is applied to.

Yeah it was a weird thing to pick up on, might have worked better in a spoken conversation where tone would be a bit clearer.

[From Despair To Where?]

I find it odd that you try to illustrate your argument with 4 academy products and one player signed from non league for a fee all of whom were sold for decent fees and/or with sell on clauses. None were free agent/transfer signing, none were sold on frees. I would never regard an academy player as a free signing, not when we spend millions each year on the academy and years developing players, many of whom never make it at the club.



Unfortunately, we are not in a strong negotiating position this summer so I suspect any signings we do make will either be on loan or out of left field,this Columbian player we're allegedly linked to being a case in point.

This is what I said:

Where does it say I said they went for free?

How much did we get for these players?

Antonio?
Fosu?
Stacey?
Dickie?
Cooper?

How much are they worth now? Two are at Premier League clubs

Fosu, BTW, refused a contract and did go for free. Maybe we got comp


My point was "Out of contract", "Bosman", "Can leave for free", "Let go for comp-only" "Mutually agreed cancelled contract" or any similar phrase, doesn't have to mean the player might be rubbish.

Well, it is a thread about free transfers. Antonio wasn't bought or sold on a free, Stacey was academy and we got close to £2m for him in sell ons, Wiki isn't always the most reliable source but it suggests we got a fee for Fosu which I accept may be a development fee, and Dickie and Cooper were both academy graduates and we got a fee for both. I think we also had a sell on with Dickie. May even have got one for Cooper but, obviously, he's still at Millwall.

You are trying to argue a point that no-one had actually made. You do this quite a lot; misunderstand a point and then hare of at a tangent into a spiralling arguement rather than say "Fair cop, I misunderstood the point being made".

[Nameless]

Yea think Snowball has read too much into Nameless’s question (perhaps a joke) about Morgan’s varying use of “released” and “out of contract”.

I don’t think anyone thinks players out of contract are automatically rubbish, though it’s fair to say that most would be unsuitable for our needs.

To be honest I'm just cutting and pasting from various places on Twitter so whatever is posted there simply gets dumped on here! Perhaps sometimes I take the info from an official club site (for example the Brentford details), sometimes from a news outlet or even just a regular poster.

Though once it was commented on I did wonder if there was anything to the released/out of contract somehow indicating the quality of the player it is applied to.

Released would usually mean a player not considered:

A) better that what a club already has
B) affordable as club looks to cut costs
C) good enough for the level at which the club is playing

Whereas out of contract implies something more along the lines of good enough but club and player can’t reach agreement for whatever reason.

None of the above mean that the player concerned moving to another club is not going to be a success.

not sure there really is such a thing as 'releasing' a player these days is there ? I think they call it mutual termination of contract because a contract is just that so unless a player agrees to leave (with a paying up of his contract) a club can't just wave him off....

[morganb]

So now the January transfer window has slammed shut we're back to fishing in the pool of free agents.

What players are currently available for free who would be worth Reading looking at?

We did have a trialist in January (Brandon Mason) but guess he wasn't good enough and has disappeared without a trace.

Robert Snodgrass is now available and have seen Andre Wisdom's name mentioned on Twitter (and Sam Baldock).

What fitness levels do we expect free agents to have - will they need 3-4 weeks to get fit or will the hit the ground running?

[andrew1957]

So now the January transfer window has slammed shut we're back to fishing in the pool of free agents.

What players are currently available for free who would be worth Reading looking at?

We did have a trialist in January (Brandon Mason) but guess he wasn't good enough and has disappeared without a trace.

Robert Snodgrass is now available and have seen Andre Wisdom's name mentioned on Twitter (and Sam Baldock).

What fitness levels do we expect free agents to have - will they need 3-4 weeks to get fit or will the hit the ground running?

I am inclined to think that we should just use our Academy players to fill any gaps. If we go down we go down. Perhaps that outcome would turn out to be a blessing over the long term because if we survive, next season could look like an even greater struggle as we will have so few players left under contract and it will be very hard to build a credible squad next summer whoever is in charge.

[NathStPaul]

Diego Costa is available on a free.

[Sutekh]

So now the January transfer window has slammed shut we're back to fishing in the pool of free agents.

What players are currently available for free who would be worth Reading looking at?

We did have a trialist in January (Brandon Mason) but guess he wasn't good enough and has disappeared without a trace.

Robert Snodgrass is now available and have seen Andre Wisdom's name mentioned on Twitter (and Sam Baldock).

What fitness levels do we expect free agents to have - will they need 3-4 weeks to get fit or will the hit the ground running?

I am inclined to think that we should just use our Academy players to fill any gaps. If we go down we go down. Perhaps that outcome would turn out to be a blessing over the long term because if we survive, next season could look like an even greater struggle as we will have so few players left under contract and it will be very hard to build a credible squad next summer whoever is in charge.

Think the club actually have to be careful with that as it may have an effect on the ability to bring players in over the summer. I think if the club gives league minutes/starts to an academy player it can change whether the FL see that player as experienced or youth and therefore lose squad places that could be filled by more experienced free transfer/loans etc.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Snodgrass I would have been in favour of if we didn't sign Ince, but I wouldn't want our precious squad spaces to be used on another winger as we are well stocked in that area now.

Brandon Mason may be decent as LB cover, but again, I think the priorities have to lie at CB and CF really.

Rodrigo Ely has left Forest, as a Football Manager guru, I'd had him before and he's been decent for me, for all that is worth. Winston Reid would be my choice though personally if we can get him fit. Andre Wisdom similar to Mason but he can play CB as well so he would be a good option for versatility. Joost van Aken is out of contract from Sheff Wednesday, plenty of Championship experience under his belt.

DeAndre Yedlin is still a free agent if we want a more attack-minded RB, there were rumours linking him with Hull which may end up happening but if we could hijack a deal, I wouldn't be against it. Ahmed El-Mohamady would be similar.

One Hal Robson-Kanu is a free agent, wouldn't be against this given his history and would do a job for us for 6 months I think. Pauno will know him from his managing career in America but, Goivanni dos Santos is another forward who is a free agent, his wages may prove too much. Referring back to linking with Pauno, Robert Beric, recently released by Chicago and formally of St. Etienne (with International experience) would represent a good bit of business, wages may be a stumbling block however.

Basically, plenty of options.

[Fezza]

Snodgrass I would have been in favour of if we didn't sign Ince, but I wouldn't want our precious squad spaces to be used on another winger as we are well stocked in that area now.

Brandon Mason may be decent as LB cover, but again, I think the priorities have to lie at CB and CF really.

Rodrigo Ely has left Forest, as a Football Manager guru, I'd had him before and he's been decent for me, for all that is worth. Winston Reid would be my choice though personally if we can get him fit. Andre Wisdom similar to Mason but he can play CB as well so he would be a good option for versatility. Joost van Aken is out of contract from Sheff Wednesday, plenty of Championship experience under his belt.

DeAndre Yedlin is still a free agent if we want a more attack-minded RB, there were rumours linking him with Hull which may end up happening but if we could hijack a deal, I wouldn't be against it. Ahmed El-Mohamady would be similar.

One Hal Robson-Kanu is a free agent, wouldn't be against this given his history and would do a job for us for 6 months I think. Pauno will know him from his managing career in America but, Goivanni dos Santos is another forward who is a free agent, his wages may prove too much. Referring back to linking with Pauno, Robert Beric, recently released by Chicago and formally of St. Etienne (with International experience) would represent a good bit of business, wages may be a stumbling block however.

Basically, plenty of options.

Elmo lives locally but seems to have turned his hand to punditary in the middle east so is very unlikely.

Regrettably wages are against us for all of the better players. We were very interested in Beric a few years ago but his career nosedived. Didn't we treat Hal poorly (also the wrong type of forward I think - we need someone who is more of a target man).

[PistolPete]

Just googled Yedlin, he's moving to Inter Miami. Really interesting piece here though

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/united- ... -in-europe