The Perce

[Fido]

Last season has no relevance.

No one can say for certain how Covid 19 will affect the transfer window, but it will.

If i was guessing there will be far less money spent this summer and transfer fees will be reduced.  There is going to be huge financial uncertainty coupled with a shorter transfer window, may mean less activity. Clubs nay be reluctant to sell, knowing that if they hold onto players higher fees may be more forthcoming in summer 2021.

I think it will have some effect on the PL but not much and a massive effect on Chump and lower given the relative revenue percentage of gate receipts. This may well be the case for other countries' top divisions too and may the case that they have to offload players to survive in the short summer.

In short, I don't know 

[Shabby Russian]

Last season has no relevance.

No one can say for certain how Covid 19 will affect the transfer window, but it will.

If i was guessing there will be far less money spent this summer and transfer fees will be reduced.  There is going to be huge financial uncertainty coupled with a shorter transfer window, may mean less activity. Clubs nay be reluctant to sell, knowing that if they hold onto players higher fees may be more forthcoming in summer 2021.

I think it will have some effect on the PL but not much and a massive effect on Chump and lower given the relative revenue percentage of gate receipts. This may well be the case for other countries' top divisions too and may the case that they have to offload players to survive in the short summer.

In short, I don't know 

You might be right - an in depth knowledge of players from the lower leagues may be a massive advantage as there my be a few bargains to be had.Because yes some clubs will need to sell to survive.

[Fido]

Last season has no relevance.

No one can say for certain how Covid 19 will affect the transfer window, but it will.

If i was guessing there will be far less money spent this summer and transfer fees will be reduced.  There is going to be huge financial uncertainty coupled with a shorter transfer window, may mean less activity. Clubs nay be reluctant to sell, knowing that if they hold onto players higher fees may be more forthcoming in summer 2021.

I think it will have some effect on the PL but not much and a massive effect on Chump and lower given the relative revenue percentage of gate receipts. This may well be the case for other countries' top divisions too and may the case that they have to offload players to survive in the short summer.

In short, I don't know 

You might be right - an in depth knowledge of players from the lower leagues may be a massive advantage as there my be a few bargains to be had.Because yes some clubs will need to sell to survive.

God knows why I wrote "summer" instead of "term" but there you go...

[SW4Baggie]

Norwich was £8m, Villa £150m and I think Sheff Utd was around £30m

Cuzer

Sheff United spent £65m over the summer and January windows, including 2 players for almost £20m in Berge and McBurnie, as well as the loans for Retsos, Besic and Henderson.

Apparently they're sniffing around John Swift for £3m from Reading... at that price we'd be stupid not to be involved IMO

Avoiding relegation next season will be almighty difficult as without additional investment from Lai (LOL) we're going to have to pull a hell of a lot of rabbits out of a hell of a lot of hats. I'd hope we'd be looking into the Championship as there will definitely be bargains to be had.

[Fulham Fallout]

There will be bargains galore from the chump down as clubs struggle to survive. The opposite of course is that PL clubs will find it more difficult to sell players to the chump and so I’d expect more PL players going out on loan to other PL teams or the chump.

[Offside]

the last line about enjoying it is my one wish. We need to be competitive with the likes of Southampton, Burnley, Newcastle etc, and not be cannon fodder. There is little more disheartening than going to a game expecting to be mullered.

[Pragmatist]

There will be bargains in the Championship and lower leagues and also from overseas leagues. Now more than ever before we will be reliant on our talent spotting.

People think too much about transfer fees when talking about “spend”. Wages are crucial with 3-4 year contracts needing to be offered. The more players we can buy on frees or for less than £5m transfer fee the better. There will be one or two of those domestically (Robinson at LB from Wigan for example), maybe Clyne from Liverpool, maybe Joe Hart, but I think it’s from Portugal, France and Germany where we are likely to get real value.

[Ministry Of Silly Signings]

There will be bargains in the Championship and lower leagues and also from overseas leagues.  Now more than ever before we will be reliant on our talent spotting.

People think too much about transfer fees when talking about “spend”.  Wages are crucial with 3-4 year contracts needing to be offered.  The more players we can buy on frees or for less than £5m transfer fee the better.  There will be one or two of those domestically (Robinson at LB from Wigan for example), maybe Clyne from Liverpool, maybe Joe Hart, but I think it’s from Portugal, France and Germany where we are likely to get real value.

Interesting, some clubs seem to think none of this affects them. Vile, for example, saying Greasy is worth £85 Mil !. Norwich, announcing that bidding for Cantwell and Godfrey starts at £30 Mil.  Would imagine they will struggle to get anything like those amounts.

You are right about our talent spotting.  There will be bargains, many clubs are in danger financially. As you say, Portugal is always a good place to look, likewise South America and Eastern Europe. Seem to recall Slav wanted a forward from Dynamo Zagreb in January.

[SW4Baggie]

There will be bargains in the Championship and lower leagues and also from overseas leagues.  Now more than ever before we will be reliant on our talent spotting.

People think too much about transfer fees when talking about “spend”.  Wages are crucial with 3-4 year contracts needing to be offered.  The more players we can buy on frees or for less than £5m transfer fee the better.  There will be one or two of those domestically (Robinson at LB from Wigan for example), maybe Clyne from Liverpool, maybe Joe Hart, but I think it’s from Portugal, France and Germany where we are likely to get real value.

I think we need to start looking further down the food chain. 

The PL mostly recruits from the top divisions in France, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Italy which come with high premiums. These divisions tend to recruit from Scandinavia, the Czech, Slovak and former Yugo- divisions as well as keeping an eye on what's happening in Turkey and Greece. I remember an article with Nicky Hammond saying that most players who were successful from abroad in the PL started out in the French second tier and Bundesliga-B teams, yet we're still not exploiting those resources... Brentford are all over this and this is why they seem to have a non-stop production line of quality. 

I really hope we've been investing heavily in our scouting operation across these countries... we need to be at the front of the line to pick up players before they make their move to one of the European big leagues and paying far more attention to the wealth of British talent currently in L1 and the Champ.

[clem4england]

Last season has no relevance.

No one can say for certain how Covid 19 will affect the transfer window, but it will.

If i was guessing there will be far less money spent this summer and transfer fees will be reduced.  There is going to be huge financial uncertainty coupled with a shorter transfer window, may mean less activity. Clubs nay be reluctant to sell, knowing that if they hold onto players higher fees may be more forthcoming in summer 2021.

I think there will be a lot of free transfers in the lower leagues and a lot more squads beefed up with youngsters and consequently a lot of players who either need to lower their expectations or will find they are club-less. I'm not sure it will affect the top echelons so much and Chelsea's spending seems to suggest it is business as normal. I think we'll be in between.