The Transfer Thread 2022/23- Everything not Wolves

[Deutsch Wolf]

Hard to believe that Alfredo is the highest paid player in Scotland. He ay that good.

You significantly overestimate the quality of Scottish football.

Most SPL players are League One level, a fair portion would only get games in League Two and below.

Only four SPL teams average over 10k through the gate, St Mirren, St Johnstone, Livingston and Ross County struggle to break 5k unless they're playing Celtic or Rangers.

I would assume Bakary Sako was the highest paid player in League One when we had him, that's the kind of quality relative to the league we're talking about.

 

[Alan]

Weird to look back and think that Rangers and Celtic were the first "big" clubs I really felt any attachment to. How little I knew of the SPL, EPL, etc back then.

I was a sucker for green and white hoops back then, I suppose.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

In the late 80s/early 90s when English clubs were banned from Europe, Rangers were a serious force. Nearly made the Champions League final in 1993.

The early 2000s Celtic team under Martin O'Neill was very good too, made a UEFA Cup final.

At their respective peaks those two would have been top six in the Premier League, no danger, but the standard as a whole has dropped off hugely in the last 20 years.

 

[Alan]

I think in a lot of ways I was drawn to them because the Old Firm is maybe the closest analogue I can think of to the Iron Bowl (Alabama v. Auburn in college football) in soccer. Loved the passion immediately, although I came to learn later that things had a tendency to spill over beyond the pitch.

 

[Throbber3]

In the late 80s/early 90s when English clubs were banned from Europe, Rangers were a serious force. Nearly made the Champions League final in 1993.

The early 2000s Celtic team under Martin O'Neill was very good too, made a UEFA Cup final.

At their respective peaks those two would have been top six in the Premier League, no danger, but the standard as a whole has dropped off hugely in the last 20 years.

Aberdeen in the 80s were decent too.

 

[Donegal Wolf]

Aberdeen in the 80s were decent too.

As were Dundee Utd, think they reached a UEFA cup final around same time as Aberdeen won the Cup Winners Cup

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

Rangers were a serious force. Nearly made the Champions League final in 1993.

CL was a terrible format at that time and created tedious group games to get to the final

 

[Johnny75]

I think in a lot of ways I was drawn to them because the Old Firm is maybe the closest analogue I can think of to the Iron Bowl (Alabama v. Auburn in college football) in soccer. Loved the passion immediately, although I came to learn later that things had a tendency to spill over beyond the pitch.

It's an odd thing about American sports as none of them gets remotely close to what we experience in the UK.

 

[Alan]

It's an odd thing about American sports as none of them gets remotely close to what we experience in the UK.

College football is definitely the closest. It's the only sport here that "gets in your blood" the same way as soccer over in y'all's neck of the world.

Are the two truly comparable, though? Hard to say. I don't know enough about how bad hooliganism got to draw solid parallels. Suffice to say that college football gets people to commit crimes in a way that other sports over here don't.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

CL was a terrible format at that time and created tedious group games to get to the final

Yep, garbage format.

Two rounds of two legged knockout games then a switch to two round robin groups of four and the winner of each made the final. Rangers finished one point behind Marseille in their group. If they'd beaten CSKA Moscow at home in their final game they'd have gone through, but they drew 0-0. A bottlejob really as CSKA had one point from five games going into it.

They made it a bit better the following year so at least you had proper semi-finals.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I don't know enough about how bad hooliganism got to draw solid parallels.

Was diabolical here in the 70s and 80s, there were genuine calls to ban the sport and all sorts at different points.

Been much improved since the 90s and the "hooligans" you get now are pretty pathetic. Fat old men in their 50s and 60s who still think it's 1983, or rat faced yoot who are about as intimidating as Oskar Buur.

 

[Lupo]

Fat old men in their 50s

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

I'm a fat old man in his fifties. Difference is most of us have grown up!

 

[Throbber3]

Was diabolical here in the 70s and 80s, there were genuine calls to ban the sport and all sorts at different points.

Been much improved since the 90s and the "hooligans" you get now are pretty pathetic. Fat old men in their 50s and 60s who still think it's 1983, or rat faced yoot who are about as intimidating as Oskar Buur.

Some of the 80s fighting was horrific. Claret everywhere. Chains , bottles razors. All in the name of your team. There was a lot of far right influence too it seemed. I can handle myself , but I am happy to have run away several times when at matches in and around London then. Later with work and the rise of Cambridge UTD it was late 80s early nineties and the Taylor report was in. The campaign to clean up the hooligan element and start bans was in full swing as were football intelligence units. That weeded a lot of the organised gangs out. However , our own fans were disgusting when Reading played here back in the early 00s. I went with a friend and the abuse our fans were giving , spitting at women , throwing cans etc was embarrassing. It seems to be much better on match days now and I think the station improvements have probably helped with that.
I used to do a lot of England internationals then too when the old Wembley was a proper tip and Wembley way could be good for a rumble so best avoided. Not days I miss to be fair, except it was a lot easier to get tickets for games then!

 

[HanDoJin]

Some of the 80s fighting was horrific. Claret everywhere. Chains , bottles razors. All in the name of your team. There was a lot of far right influence too it seemed. I can handle myself , but I am happy to have run away several times when at matches in and around London then. Later with work and the rise of Cambridge UTD it was late 80s early nineties and the Taylor report was in. The campaign to clean up the hooligan element and start bans was in full swing as were football intelligence units. That weeded a lot of the organised gangs out. However , our own fans were disgusting when Reading played here back in the early 00s. I went with a friend and the abuse our fans were giving , spitting at women , throwing cans etc was embarrassing. It seems to be much better on match days now and I think the station improvements have probably helped with that.
I used to do a lot of England internationals then too when the old Wembley was a proper tip and Wembley way could be good for a rumble so best avoided. Not days I miss to be fair, except it was a lot easier to get tickets for games then!

And even with the absolutely necessary/ sensible/ correct "sanitisation" of the game in England, the Molineux would no doubt still feel intimidating compared with the squeaky clean, ultra-family-friendly "let's go Blue Jays" baseball experience here*

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

The old firm rivalry is largely formed from sectarianism, absolutely horrible to get caught up in that guff and has nothing to do with football. I worked in Glasgow for about 6 months on a job stopping in a Celtic stronghold it wasnt the most pleasant experience.

Met some good lads, but also some absolute helmets, the amount of young lads with slashed faces was shocking.

 

[Throbber3]

9 teams spent nothing in the january window from the premier league and another three spent between 3 and 10 million that was us Watford and Palace. So only 8 spent and the biggest were Newcastle Everton Liverpool Spurs Villa Burnley Man City

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

We are in a 4th-10th fight.

We brought in Chiquino for Traore effectively. Generously we could call that even, but we don't know.

West Ham did nothing, and are an Antonio injury from serious problems.
Arsenal are weaker at the arse end of the window because their best striker is gone, even if Arteta had fallen out with him. They knew this was coming so why not replace him rather than thin out their squad so much? Bizarre.
Spurs have shuffled some deck chairs, but who knows if it helps them.
United have binned off Van De Beek but brought nothing in. And they are a bit of a basket case still.
Leicester did absolutely nothing
Brighton brought in players but off they went on loan
Villa have been active and a lot of their business was very interesting, but they are still a bit of a way back.

No idea what the window has done for that fight, but we are still in it.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I don't think anyone did particularly good business on the whole, certainly nothing season changing. I expect everyone to finish roughly where they are with a few swaps of 1-2 places here and there. I can't see us collapsing and finishing 14th or something.

United lost Martial (played a part in their winner vs West Ham, so was still getting limited gametime) and Greenwood for non-footballing reasons too.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Hate to say it but Jonny and Neto will be like new signings. We should have a decent second half but obviously only one CM injury away from being up shit creek.