Rival Watch

[From Despair To Where?]

Birmingham have £1m bid accepted for perennial scorer against Reading, Lyndon Dykes.

About to turn 29, and hasn't scored more than 8 league goals in a season since 2020/21. And he is, by all accounts, being forced out by QPR as they want the money, so probably isn't thrilled about the move down a division

It won't help his International career either.

He's Scottish. It will make fcuk all difference.

There's Shankland and Nisbet and that's pretty much it. I guess there's Che Adams but he's hardly prolific.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

About to turn 29, and hasn't scored more than 8 league goals in a season since 2020/21. And he is, by all accounts, being forced out by QPR as they want the money, so probably isn't thrilled about the move down a division

It won't help his International career either.

He's Scottish. It will make fcuk all difference.

There's Shankland and Nisbet and that's pretty much it. I guess there's Che Adams but he's hardly prolific.

Correct - called up today for the forthcoming internationals.

[Clyde1998]

About to turn 29, and hasn't scored more than 8 league goals in a season since 2020/21. And he is, by all accounts, being forced out by QPR as they want the money, so probably isn't thrilled about the move down a division

It won't help his International career either.

He's Scottish. It will make fcuk all difference.

There's Shankland and Nisbet and that's pretty much it. I guess there's Che Adams but he's hardly prolific.

Agreed. It won't make much of a difference to Dykes getting in the Scotland squad.

He's ahead of Shankland and Nisbet; the latter wasn't in the squad announced yesterday and hasn't been in the squad for nearly a year. Tommy Conway signed for Middlesbrough a couple of weeks ago after a couple of decent goalscoring seasons at Bristol City; he'll probably be a mainstay in the squad now after being the replacement in the squad for Dykes at the Euros.

Che Adams signed for Torino in the summer; scored and got an assist on his full debut against Atalanta. It'll be interesting to see what he does this season, as over the past few years it's been between him and Dykes for the one striker slot.

Neither Dykes nor Adams are particularly prolific, at least in the system that's been used, but Dykes is effective at getting the attacking midfielders into the game via his hold up play and heading. He was arguably the player Scotland missed the most out of the five (or so) injured during the Euros who would've been in the squad, simply due to the lack of alternatives in his role.

Ross Stewart is the closest alternative, but he's was injured for most of the last couple of seasons. He'll almost certainly have to go on loan to get back in contention for the Scotland squad, as I can't see him playing in the Premier League this season.

I think the hierarchy of Scotland strikers currently is (bold are in the current squad):

1. Che Adams (Torino)
2. Lyndon Dykes (QPR -> Birmingham)
3. Tommy Conway (Middlesbrough) / Lawrance Shankland (Hearts)
4. Ross Stewart (Southampton) / Lewis Morgan (New York Red Bulls; more of a winger/AM) / Jacob Brown (Luton; been used as more of a winger/AM)
5. Kevin Nisbet (Aberdeen; loan from Millwall)

[From Despair To Where?]

I only mentioned Shankland and Nisbet because I think they're the better goalscorers of all the available Scottish forwards but neither fit the system that Clarke plays.

[Clyde1998]

Scott Wright has joined Birmingham from Rangers, becoming their fifteenth signing of the summer.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Scott Wright has joined Birmingham from Rangers, becoming their fifteenth signing of the summer.

They're also bidding >£9m for Jay Stansfield. I wonder if we're going to see tighter FFP restriction in L1 and L2 off the back of this.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Scott Wright has joined Birmingham from Rangers, becoming their fifteenth signing of the summer.

They're also bidding >£9m for Jay Stansfield. I wonder if we're going to see tighter FFP restriction in L1 and L2 off the back of this.

Record signing in L1 if it happens.

Wrexham still signing players too...

[Clyde1998]

Scott Wright has joined Birmingham from Rangers, becoming their fifteenth signing of the summer.

They're also bidding >£9m for Jay Stansfield. I wonder if we're going to see tighter FFP restriction in L1 and L2 off the back of this.

You hope so. Sides are basically unrestricted as their owners can simply inject money to meet the current financial rules (IIRC, less than 65% of revenue on wages).

It feels like they're gambling on signing a side that could challenge for promotion from the Championship next season, as they'll probably have FFP issues once they're back in the Championship.

[Clyde1998]

Scott Wright has joined Birmingham from Rangers, becoming their fifteenth signing of the summer.

They're also bidding >£9m for Jay Stansfield. I wonder if we're going to see tighter FFP restriction in L1 and L2 off the back of this.

Record signing in L1 if it happens.

Wrexham still signing players too...

I think they've roughly matched the record twice this season already - Christoph Klarer and Willum Willumsson (both around £4m). Will Grigg to Sunderland in 2018 was £4m apparently.

TransferMarkt reckons they've spent €16.7m (~£14m) this season already. They'd be approaching £25m if they signed Stansfield!

[Sutekh]

They're also bidding >£9m for Jay Stansfield. I wonder if we're going to see tighter FFP restriction in L1 and L2 off the back of this.

Record signing in L1 if it happens.

Wrexham still signing players too...

I think they've roughly matched the record twice this season already - Christoph Klarer and Willum Willumsson (both around £4m). Will Grigg to Sunderland in 2018 was £4m apparently.

TransferMarkt reckons they've spent €16.7m (~£14m) this season already. They'd be approaching £25m if they signed Stansfield!

Then there's all the wages! It's utterly ludicrous at L1 level, what did Fulham spend when they were at this level and had the likes of Peschisoldo, Horsfield, Albert, Saha, Beardsley and god knows who else in their squad.

Really hope they stay down....

[Sutekh]

Scott Wright has joined Birmingham from Rangers, becoming their fifteenth signing of the summer.

They're also bidding >£9m for Jay Stansfield. I wonder if we're going to see tighter FFP restriction in L1 and L2 off the back of this.

BBC reporting Fulham have rejected a £10m bid from Brum.

[Clyde1998]

Record signing in L1 if it happens.

Wrexham still signing players too...

I think they've roughly matched the record twice this season already - Christoph Klarer and Willum Willumsson (both around £4m). Will Grigg to Sunderland in 2018 was £4m apparently.

TransferMarkt reckons they've spent €16.7m (~£14m) this season already. They'd be approaching £25m if they signed Stansfield!

Then there's all the wages! It's utterly ludicrous at L1 level, what did Fulham spend when they were at this level and had the likes of Peschisoldo, Horsfield, Albert, Saha, Beardsley and god knows who else in their squad.

Really hope they stay down....

I've worked out Fulham spent around £7.75m in 1997-98 (6th) and around £3m in 1998-99 (1st). The wages must've been well beyond this level.

The Transfer Index suggests that's around £44.7m and £13.2m respectively in 2018-19 money. Not sure how good a transfer inflation index is when looking at lower leagues though, as revenue/costs don't seem to have increased anywhere near as much as they have in higher leagues and that's probably the biggest factor in club expenditure.

Took them two years of big spending to actually get promoted though (albeit their spending started after being promoted from the fourth tier, rather than relegation from the second tier) and then they spent even more money to get to and stay in the Premier League.

[Sutekh]

I think they've roughly matched the record twice this season already - Christoph Klarer and Willum Willumsson (both around £4m). Will Grigg to Sunderland in 2018 was £4m apparently.

TransferMarkt reckons they've spent €16.7m (~£14m) this season already. They'd be approaching £25m if they signed Stansfield!

Then there's all the wages! It's utterly ludicrous at L1 level, what did Fulham spend when they were at this level and had the likes of Peschisoldo, Horsfield, Albert, Saha, Beardsley and god knows who else in their squad.

Really hope they stay down....

I've worked out Fulham spent around £7.75m in 1997-98 (6th) and around £3m in 1998-99 (1st). The wages must've been well beyond this level.

The Transfer Index suggests that's around £44.7m and £13.2m respectively in 2018-19 money. Not sure how good a transfer inflation index is when looking at lower leagues though, as revenue/costs don't seem to have increased anywhere near as much as they have in higher leagues and that's probably the biggest factor in club expenditure.

Took them two years of big spending to actually get promoted though (albeit their spending started after being promoted from the fourth tier, rather than relegation from the second tier) and then they spent even more money to get to and stay in the Premier League.

Thanks, having ffp restrictions 25 years ago might well have set Fulham off on a different course.

[Snowflake Royal]

Would enjoy a joint L1 approach of just kicking all their players into a prolonged spell on the treatment table and watch their house of cards explode.

They may have worse owners than Dai. But they may get away with it.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Would enjoy a joint L1 approach of just kicking all their players into a prolonged spell on the treatment table and watch their house of cards explode.

They may have worse owners than Dai. But they may get away with it.

How could they be worse than Dai? He got relegated, lost interest and fcuked off. They got relegated and doubled down on their ambition and invested. What they are doing is not "bad"; they're being compared in this thread to Fulham for whom the Al-Fayed era worked out pretty well for.

Of course it could all go wrong, but it could all go very right too. And the fact they have hung around after a disastrous first season is a pretty encouraging sign for them.

[Snowflake Royal]

Would enjoy a joint L1 approach of just kicking all their players into a prolonged spell on the treatment table and watch their house of cards explode.

They may have worse owners than Dai. But they may get away with it.

How could they be worse than Dai? He got relegated, lost interest and fcuked off. They got relegated and doubled down on their ambition and invested. What they are doing is not "bad"; they're being compared in this thread to Fulham for whom the Al-Fayed era worked out pretty well for.

Of course it could all go wrong, but it could all go very right too. And the fact they have hung around after a disastrous first season is a pretty encouraging sign for them.

They've sacked 2 good managers doing well and replaced them with useless names falling down the table.

They've had Birmingham fighting relegation consistently longer than we were. They're spending PL money in L1.

They've only avoided deductions because they sold Bellingham for more than twice what we got for Olise, and then probably got a huge sell on too.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Would enjoy a joint L1 approach of just kicking all their players into a prolonged spell on the treatment table and watch their house of cards explode.

They may have worse owners than Dai. But they may get away with it.

How could they be worse than Dai? He got relegated, lost interest and fcuked off. They got relegated and doubled down on their ambition and invested. What they are doing is not "bad"; they're being compared in this thread to Fulham for whom the Al-Fayed era worked out pretty well for.

Of course it could all go wrong, but it could all go very right too. And the fact they have hung around after a disastrous first season is a pretty encouraging sign for them.

They've sacked 2 good managers doing well and replaced them with useless names falling down the table.

They've had Birmingham fighting relegation consistently longer than we were. They're spending PL money in L1.

They've only avoided deductions because they sold Bellingham for more than twice what we got for Olise, and then probably got a huge sell on too.

These guys have owned the club fewer than 18 months.

[Snowflake Royal]

How could they be worse than Dai? He got relegated, lost interest and fcuked off. They got relegated and doubled down on their ambition and invested. What they are doing is not "bad"; they're being compared in this thread to Fulham for whom the Al-Fayed era worked out pretty well for.

Of course it could all go wrong, but it could all go very right too. And the fact they have hung around after a disastrous first season is a pretty encouraging sign for them.

They've sacked 2 good managers doing well and replaced them with useless names falling down the table.

They've had Birmingham fighting relegation consistently longer than we were. They're spending PL money in L1.

They've only avoided deductions because they sold Bellingham for more than twice what we got for Olise, and then probably got a huge sell on too.

These guys have owned the club fewer than 18 months.

I stand corrected, didn’t realise they had newbies.

[Brogue]

So Birmingham complete the stansfield transfer for 20 million wtaf

[Pepe the Horseman]

Taking the piss.