22 Jul 2026 15:51:50
Is £100 million the norm now for decent players moving to Premier League clubs? That is the question being asked by punters and pundits alike.

1.) 22 Jul 2026
22 Jul 2026 16:39:08
It appears to be RPD. Look at Crystal Palace, they are quoting for their CH.

Teams like Arsenal have been caught out, and are finding their budgets are not sufficient, whereas, on the other hand, clubs like Forest and Bournemouth are striking gold.

2.) 22 Jul 2026
22 Jul 2026 17:13:27
Bill, it is crazy. However, you can look at it another way. Say the highest amount a PL club would pay for a player is £75 million. If we were trying to sell Jackson, we couldn't ask for more than £35 million. However, with current prices, we are quoting £65 million.

3.) 22 Jul 2026
22 Jul 2026 17:27:02
I seem to remember us getting approx £15m loan fee for Jackson from BM. That also looks cheap now!!

4.) 22 Jul 2026
22 Jul 2026 21:11:18
The disparity in income between the PL and other leagues is astronomical. Last season, the PL had 9 out of the top 20 clubs in revenue, 6 in the top 10, and 6 more from 21-30. So, 15/30 of the highest earning clubs are from the PL. West Ham was 20th, Brentford and Wolves 29th and 30th. Let that sink in for a second. There are 4 German, 3 Italian and 3 Spanish clubs in the top 30.



The disparity is only growing too. With the change from FFP to SCR, I think we'll start to see higher fees, but slightly lower wages going forward from the bigger clubs in order to meet SCR.

There does also seem to be less top talents/high potential players around atm, which is forcing prices up.

5.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 08:05:11
Maybe Blue.co saw this coming and hence the stockpiling of talent to sell at a profit? I think one poster called it player trading to beat PSR.

6.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 08:51:56
RPD, I'm not sure how true this is, but I was told that you often get inflated transfer fee prices after a WC.
Having said that, it does look like a significant percentage of the players we invested in could be sold now for a real or book profit.

That takes the £1.5bn blown argument off the table. Whether we invested in the right positions is still a valid argument, in my opinion.

7.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 09:09:44
Tom, "the £1.5bn blown" comment tended to be from the same 2 individuals and was never relevant.

8.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 09:25:32
RPD, I bet they would rush back if we lost money on a string of investments. I think one popped back when we sold a player recently. It's all just good fun!!

9.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 10:19:11
Tom, RPD

Like all deals, some we will make a profit on, some we will lose money on, it's the way it goes. For example, how much do you think we would get for Fofana?

10.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 11:12:54
Bill, that was always the point. It was when some posters mentioned that £1.5bn had been "blown." Obviously, that couldn't be true as an amount, but, as I say, the choice of "player" could be an argument, but us fans would never agree on that point.

11.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 17:04:31
Tom, we have blown a lot of money. End of the day, players in the starting XI will always mean more to fans than amortised book values, of which the majority on here won't have a clue about.

Garnacho a prime example. We may sell him to Villa at a similar price to what we paid for him (which is great), however we wasted a year with him as a serious starting option, which should never have been the case.

Most on here said at the time they didn't see it working out, and we have now had to spend again on a player who may play on the left, or we could be looking at further signings at LW. Ditto for the fullback, CB and keeper positions specifically, and to an extent CM, although, granted, Enzo's future largely decides that.

12.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 17:28:58
For me there are three separate issues. The amount of money spent is not the most important of them.

1) The poor advice received and accepted at the start of our present owners' tenure. I think we were lucky to get out of those deals without too much damage other than wasting time. As I said at the time, I was fearful of so-called "statement" signings.
2) The so-called investment in young players made some sort of sense, albeit I saw it as an experiment. What I do not understand is what I see as another experiment in the appointment of certain managers. Unlike some, I had no problems with TT getting the tin tac.
3) I have mentioned the investment in young players, but like most I think it went too far.

We should have been looking for a tad more experience in key positions, also players with leadership qualities.

I have now, and never had, any doubts that if we sold the whole squad we would get a good return, cash-wise, on our transfer investment, but I accept some of the investments will turn out to be bad, cash- and player-wise; that just happens, in my opinion, at every club.

The term "blown" was used in the financial sense, and that is clearly not the case, but have we made player signings that were not a priority? In my opinion, yes. Have we wasted time with an experiment? In my opinion, yes.

13.) 23 Jul 2026
23 Jul 2026 21:56:19
Tom, there are signs that the club are moving in a different direction. I don't really care whether we have "blown" X amount. I am interested in the here and now, and building a squad to compete next season and beyond.

Appointing Alonso so quickly is a positive sign. The transfer window will be interesting, both as regards to ins and outs. No doubt, I will moan about some incomings, or perhaps not?