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Value for money signings


Winchester Red
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With the news that the signing of VW is getting close, it got me thinking as to which players that we've signed for £1m+ fees have been worth the outlay.

 

I came to the conclusion that typically players that cost lots typically don't pay their way, whilst economy purchases often are worth their weight in good.

 

Examples being...... Mega bucks

Delgado, Ramirez (so far), Delap, Mcloughlan,....

 

The juries still out on JRod

 

£1m or less

Lambert, spiderman, Moran, shaw, bridge, marsden..... This list could go on all night.

 

So my question is. Which players that have cost a decent fee have made the grade?

 

Best for me would be niemi.

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We haven't signed that many player that cost a "decent fee" compared to todays market. Wasn't Delap our record signing until we signed Ramirez last season?Players like Lambert and Fonte cost us quite a bit for League One standards so I'd say they're the last ones that cost a decent fee that "made it".Another candidate would be Killer (2 million if I remember correctly).I'm not including last seasons signings. Can't judge after one season.

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I always had a soft spot for Jim Magilton. Was never going to set the world alight but chipped in with some important goals from midfield, could pass a ball, and all for just over Half a million quid.

 

How much was Danny Fox? £1.6 million or something? He's a tricky one to argue about, as we got a good season out of him at nPC level but is not cut out for life in the Premier League against some of the world's best players.

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The best in my time has to be Dave Armstrong - £600,000 and our club record, when the world record was £1000,000 and a brilliant player for us. If VW comes close to Armstrong's ability he will be a quality signing...

 

If he comes close to DA he'll be worth she'd loads - fantastic player

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Transfer few was def under £1m though. Plenty of those have been excellent

 

Very few transfer fees were over £1M at the time we signed Keegan though. Can't remember how much we paid for KK, but a year later David Armstrong became our record signing at a stonking £440,000. And remained our record signing for a good few years, come to that.

 

In other words, these things are all relative...

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Kevin Davies - signed for £750k sold for 10 times that a year later

Dean Richards free - sold for £8m

Niemi and Michael Svenson - £2m each and two of the best players we've ever had in their positions

Jimmy Case £50k, incredible.

Mark Wright - signed for next to nowt, brilliant centre half

Tim flowers - signed from Wolves for next to nowt, brilliant keeper.

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Very few transfer fees were over £1M at the time we signed Keegan though. Can't remember how much we paid for KK, but a year later David Armstrong became our record signing at a stonking £440,000. And remained our record signing for a good few years, come to that.

 

In other words, these things are all relative...

 

Keegan cost Saints £400,000 from Hamburg in 1980, Armstrong £600,000 from Boro a year later...

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Keegan cost Saints £400,000 from Hamburg in 1980, Armstrong £600,000 from Boro a year later...

 

Ah, OK - I've clearly got confused on my transfer fees! I had £440,000 in my mind for some reason, so maybe that was Keegan. Either way, Armstrong was a fantastic signing at any price.

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Players can't do much about it. 500k years ago would have been like 12m today anyway. There have been poor value cheap players too.

 

People might doubt Ramirez but his value won't have gone done much, so hardly a poor value signing. But then someone like Rasiak, 2m at a time when you're broke and with zero resale value, so despite the goals maybe a poor signing.

 

We weren't broke at that point though, we were just gambling with the parachute payments.

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Players can't do much about it. 500k years ago would have been like 12m today anyway. There have been poor value cheap players too.

 

People might doubt Ramirez but his value won't have gone done much, so hardly a poor value signing. But then someone like Rasiak, 2m at a time when you're broke and with zero resale value, so despite the goals maybe a poor signing.

 

Rasiak's goal at Pride Park was only a poor penalty or two away from promotion to much greater riches.

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Cork and Morgan-each around a million or so but able to see off Man City , Liverpool and Chelsea and made Man U look like a pub team in the second half at Old Trafford.

 

As for Wanyama £12-it is a huge amount of money for somebody untested at this level week in week out. Even is he is the player people think he is (based on a couple or so of champions league games last year) can he work within our system and settle into our team?

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As for the actual question in the OP (which most seemed to have ignored) we generally haven't done well with players who've cost a lot in relative terms. I'd suggest Crouch was a good buy. Can't remember exactly how much he cost (£2m) but he scored a fair few goals and we sold him on at a considerable profit.

We resurrected his career to be honest - he was a bit of a laughing stock at Villa, I remember one of his glaring misses at St Mary's... but then we signed him, gave him confidence, saw his touch come back and he never looked back.

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Crouch - bought for £2.5m, 12 in 27, sold for £7m

 

Beattie - came in valued at £1m as part of the £7m who received for Kevin Davis, scored 68 in 204, sold for £6m

 

both value for money imo, and provided a good return on investment too

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I'd say that with whomever is at the helm, we've always been pretty good bargain hunters. Clyne and Davis last season were snips really and both had solid seasons contributing to the team. Both would be worth more than we paid for them if we sold them - Clyne much more so.

 

Dean Richards is perhaps that best profit we've made. A Bosman, a couple of years of excellent service and we milked Spurs for £8 million. Even with his acrimonious departure under the Hoddle cloud, that was an excellent sum of money.

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Been thinking this over, and McMenemy had a cracking track record in getting value from big money and bargain basement signings. The only big money 'flop' that springs to mind is probably Charlie George (who still managed a goal every four games as an attacking midfielder), but that was mainly due to a horrendous run of injuries.

 

You could argue that he always paid big money for proven 'thoroughbreds' but they always seemed to hold form or indeed improve at Saints, Shilton a case in point here. As for the bargain basements, starting at left back - how about 27 year old Ivan Golac from Partizan Belgrade for £50,000, or his replacement the 22 year old Mark Dennis for £30,000. What price now!...

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