The January 2026 Transfer Window

[bluebruce]

9 minutes ago, Emerald Isle Rover said:

How would scouts know a players final valuation that between the clubs in negotiations

they identify players strengths weaknesses and profile the club might be looking for that could possibly fall within their budget

th selling club slapping in unrealistic price tag on to a player isn’t the scouts issue or fault 

let’s take the Barnsley striker coming 29 this year never played above league one 18 months left on contract and he’s valued by his club at 5million? Not realistic nor matches what his real valuation on the open market would be 

Scouts aren't only supposed to look at players. They're supposed to have contacts, put out feelers. Have a general understanding of whether a player might be realistically in reach. Like you said 'that could possibly fall within their budget'. They don't really have a great sense of that if they've recommended someone who will cost 5 times what we can offer.

I think the 28 year old striker one is fair enough to be surprised by, that's an outrageous fee to demand. But the young, promising Cleary was likely always out of reach.

[Emerald Isle Rover]

Just now, bluebruce said:

Scouts aren't only supposed to look at players. They're supposed to have contacts, put out feelers. Have a general understanding of whether a player might be realistically in reach. Like you said 'that could possibly fall within their budget'. They don't really have a great sense of that if they've recommended someone who will cost 5 times what we can offer.

I think the 28 year old striker one is fair enough to be surprised by, that's an outrageous fee to demand. But the young, promising Cleary was likely always out of reach.

On the market he likely is in reach, Cleary in every single market value I can find is under 1mill. Can scouts possibly have addition contacts with their ears to the ground yes maybe but again back to the main point which was whoever scouted this fella seems on initial viewings of him made a good call but valuations lye with the clubs not the market in which most scouts use

[Tomphil2]

Scouts will know exactly the ball park figures in regards to the cost of the players they are required to scout.

If a club, agent or player makes bigger demands once the ball is rolling that's on them.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, M_B said:

I have, but when it's  constantly looking for and pointing out negatives, then putting anything remotely positive down to luck, then it all becomes a bit pointless having a discussion. 

It hardly needs to be looked for.

Alebiosu is a very good bit of recruitment for example. But we actually signed him because he was a realistic target within budget. No use finding players well out of our budget.

[RevidgeBlue]

28 minutes ago, Emerald Isle Rover said:

How would scouts know a players final valuation that between the clubs in negotiations

they identify players strengths weaknesses and profile the club might be looking for that could possibly fall within their budget

th selling club slapping in unrealistic price tag on to a player isn’t the scouts issue or fault 

let’s take the Barnsley striker coming 29 this year never played above league one 18 months left on contract and he’s valued by his club at 5million? Not realistic nor matches what his real valuation on the open market would be 

Can't agree with any of that.

If the selling Club dont want to sell a particular player they can put whatever price tag they want on his head.  It's not really up to you or me to decide if a price is unreasonable and if the interested Club dont want to pay it they dont get, unless they can reach a compromise.

Now our scouts may not know exactly how much a Club wants for a player but I refuse to believe they haven't got a fairly good idea otherwise all the work they do would be completely pointless.

And how long does it take us to ring up and find out what the asking price is anyway? Unearthing a player available for £5m when we  only have £1m to spend isn't good scouting and having found out the asking price, we shouldn't have pursued it further by putting in a derisory offer, it just makes us look a joke.

As for the more recent link - if any Club are willing to meet Barnsley's asking price they'll get him. I highly doubt it will be us so if it's not, that will be another dead end and waste of everyone's time.

 

[rigger]

Remember the Adam Wharton quote, that nobody could have seen how good of a player he was. My take on that is that we have employees that cannot see how bad some of our players are.