[4evaabaggie]

To be fair ........ we have been putting in offers ...... offers that seem fair ....... but selling clubs are wanting extortionate fees well above a players worth. Yes some rivals are paying silly money, will it do a Luis sauez on their big fat posteriors. Could be many people with teeth marks. We paid £15m for a player who has been injured for most of the last three years.
We need numbers, but not just for numbers sake, they need to be at least as good as what we've got but younger preferably better but equal will do for now. Ones that will Keep us in the greed league hopefully top ten and start building bigger and better from here in ......... numbers wise we're in trouble currently.

Come on you Baggies

[Salopbaggie]

Problem is, as I know you will be aware, 4evaa, if we were just another two weeks on, we could not put out a team of regular first team players (even though I have seen on the club site, we have named 7 of the younger players on the "First Team Squad" page.  With Mozza and GMac looking longer term before the season even starts and question marks over Brunt, McClean and Phillips.

I know many of us complain about the "silly" prices that clubs are valuing players at, however, a price is not silly, if people are prepared to pay it, and it appears most of the other clubs are.  Sadly we are in the position where we desperately need  4 or 5 cover squad players, but we also need a couple of flair players and we can not have both, short of some serious investment.  If anyone can put this in a more positive way I would be really grateful to hear it, as it looks extremely worrying, even more than last year in some ways, as we may have 1 or 2 better quality players, but we have lost another 3 or 4 squad players.

Still almost two weeks to the start of the season, so no jumping of the cliff just yet, but I certainly can not see the board stumping up for players to cover all of the positions we need covering.

Can anyone pick a competitive Premiership team from this, bearing in mind you can only use players in black type?

1: Ben Foster
13: Boaz Myhill
40: Alex Palmer
2: Allan-Roméo Nyom
6: Jonny Evans
23: Gareth McAuley
25: Craig Dawson
26: Ahmed El-Sayed Hegazi
49: Kane Wilson
50: Dara O'Shea
5: Claudio Yacob
7: James Morrison
8: Jake Livermore
10: Matt Phillips
11: Chris Brunt
4: James McClean
Callum McManaman (No squad no.)  
22: Nacer Chadli
34: Rekeem Harper
44: Tyler Roberts
45: Jonathan Leko
47: Sam Field
4 Hal Robson-Kanu
9 Salomón Rondón
19 Jay Rodriguez
Yuning Zhang    (on loan)

This is about the best I could come up with playing some type of 4-2-2-2 with Leko and Field interchangeable.

Foster, Dawson, Hegazi, Evans, Nyom, Yacob, Livermore, Chadli, Leko, Rondón, Rodriguez.

(4evva did you see that p.m. from a couple of weeks ago?)

[drewks]

IMO the crux of it is that we need to recognise what is, nowadays, a realistic price for a player. It seems like we are OK with taking in all the "greed league" payments but, unlike clubs of similar (and even smaller) size,  are very loathed to pay it out again on players.
Of course, as has been said many times, we don't want to become another Leeds, or Bolton, or Wigan, but I don't think we're expecting to pay out what we haven't got - we'd just like to see the club competing with similar clubs, FFS, on the transfer and wage fronts.  
Constant penny pinching will catch up with us, and I'm fearful that this will happen THIS season unless we suddenly come to our senses.

[4evaabaggie]

Salop, Drewks,

Unfortunately I can't argue with any of the points you have made, I too am worried about the start of the season, we all know our squad has been paper thin for years, the takeover was in part to blame, if your selling why spend, if your buying wait until purchase confirmed, result .... limbo. Our squad has gone from thin to anorexic. We all know we need bodies thorough the door, so does every other club, price jumps up silly, I would not pay £40k for a mini I would not pay £30m for troy deeny, there in lies part of the problem. Steady squad growth every year prevents desperation and being held to ransom ........ currently we are staring down both barrels of a sawn off.

If I had the answer I would be rich and the owner of the pride of the Midlands ...... I can but dream.

(Salop, yes read your PM thanks, looking like being mid to late September.)

---

West Brom linked with Barcelona's Vermaelen.

Sounds good in the headline until you read the first few lines.

"He joined Barcelona from Aresnal in 2014, so far so good, he has suffered three years of injury problems, not so good, he has two years left on his contract, last year loaned out to Roma where his injuries continued.

Why are we constantly linked with crocks, injury prone and risky players.

Spend some cash and let's build on our advantage over the rest of the Midlands before we join them again.

[SomersetBaggie]

Salop, Drewks,  

Unfortunately I can't argue with any of the points you have made, I too am worried about the start of the season, we all know our squad has been paper thin for years, the takeover was in part to blame, if your selling why spend, if your buying wait until purchase confirmed, result .... limbo. Our squad has gone from thin to anorexic. We all know we need bodies thorough the door, so does every other club, price jumps up silly, I would not pay £40k for a mini I would not pay £30m for troy deeny, there in lies part of the problem. Steady squad growth every year prevents desperation and being held to ransom ........ currently we are staring down both barrels of a sawn off.

If I had the answer I would be rich and the owner of the pride of the Midlands ...... I can but dream.

(Salop, yes read your PM thanks, looking like being mid to late September.)

---

West Brom linked with Barcelona's Vermaelen.

Sounds good in the headline until you read the first few lines.

"He joined Barcelona from Aresnal in 2014, so far so good, he has suffered three years of injury problems, not so good, he has two years left on his contract, last year loaned out to Roma where his injuries continued.

Why are we constantly linked with crocks, injury prone and risky players.

Spend some cash and let's build on our advantage over the rest of the Midlands before we join them again.

Because he will be cheap....will never be fit to play but will be cheap.

Pathetic!!

[4evaabaggie]

We have had a pretty good record recently for signing injury prone players and keeping them fit but to keep putting our future at such risk is madness, for every success there's a biscuitman waiting to escape .....

[Beefy 1965]

Thomas Vermaelen.
Here's the link ......

http://c.newsnow.co.uk/A/895969099?-11200:789:0

[Sir Megson]

Still quite entertaining seeing the knickers well and truly in a twist at the paper talk. Rumours is all they are until we see the bloke holding up the shirt!

[Stairs]

Problem is the over inflated price of players.

Even if my company doubled my wages I'd still be unhappy to pay £10 for a pint of lager, even if now I could afford to do so. I just stand in bars like that and look at the other fools who are paying for it.

It's the same for WBA I fear. They might be stumbling over wads of cash. But paying £20m plus for someone who a few years ago was worth £5m is madness!!

[Sir Megson]

Problem is the over inflated price of players.

Even if my company doubled my wages I'd still be unhappy to pay £10 for a pint of lager, even if now I could afford to do so. I just stand in bars like that and look at the other fools who are paying for it.

It's the same for WBA I fear. They might be stumbling over wads of cash. But paying £20m plus for someone who a few years ago was worth £5m is madness!!

Exactly right Stairs, some of the transfer fees paid already have been nigh on ridiculous. Lukaku and Pickford being the two that have shocked me the most.

It's also about getting the right quality in and improving the side, and that takes time and we still have that in abundance before the window closes.

I genuinely feel that at least one big wow signing is needed to give everyone a boost though...