Ajer signs for Brentford.

This is an interesting one.

We know that Brentford's moneyball approach to players means that they scout them extensively and place a huge amount of emphasis on statistics and data. The best example of which was signing Watkins for under 2 million and flogging him for over 30.

Someone in Brentford has spotting something that thinks he's good value for money to play in the most competitive league in Europe. It's easy to deride Brentford for this but when a club with cutting edge technology and huge success in their signing policy signing him just makes me feel that I'm missing something, particularly when I think about how horrendous a season he had.
Perhaps they didn’t look at the stats on ducking and winning headers from set pieces and concentrated on runs out from the back with no end product.
 
With all these big fees they have achieved it will be interesting to see how much they will spend especially after them pushing the boat out with their new manager :))
 
Perhaps they didn’t look at the stats on ducking and winning headers from set pieces and concentrated on runs out from the back with no end product.

That's just the thing, though - they've clearly made an extensive report on guy, been scouting him for years and have signed him in spite any conceived weaknesses. We're talking about arguably the most careful planning and scouting network in British football.

And they've signed Ajer! Stuff like this just undermines my football knowledge.
 
Why is everyone trying to pretend that he hasn’t gone for £13m? You might not have paid it but you really think a premier league club wouldn’t considering all the money down there? I imagine there was a sell on from his previous club but I dont doubt they would get around that much for him. As has been said the funnier part is the expected excuses why all that money hasn’t been fully reinvested on player recruitment
 
Who knows what the actual figure was but they’ve managed to get a decent fee for an average player that has less than 12 months on his contract. He also didn’t want to play for the club any more so it’s a bad apple out the way and the money will probably go to adding to the team/squad - whether Postecoglou can bring in better is another matter?
 
I'm not noted for my ability to spot a players potential (maybe apart from the more obvious ones)
& I don't doubt Brentford's ability to both recognise talent & be able to build on a player's strengths & improve their weaknesses

But I have to say if Ajer makes similar mistakes to those he regularly did in the SPL -& continues his sporadic form without drastic & / or immediate improvement -
- then quite frankly Brentford are going to regret this signing IMO
 
We allowed him the possession. It was better he had it than giving it to someone more productive.

Do you recall any significant end product?
He got about as far as our penalty area. It's not his job to round the keeper and score as well.
 
They had reportedly bid £7m for a player a couple of weeks ago in various outlets. A few days later he was sold for €4m euros and €1.4m per year wages. Why would a club turn down £7m to then sell the player for just over half of that? No club in the world would so clearly celtc leak fantasy figures for buying and selling players. They add the players wages and leak the “deal worth”. Their poodle journos and especially their gullible bloggers report “a bid of”.
 
I only watch as many Celtic games as we play against them (so five this year) so it's hard for me to determine whether he's actually any good.

I really think this is a head scratcher only because Brentford have signed him. I wouldn't think twice if he was going to Norwich or Watford but to see a guy whose biggest standout moment this year was a no-look backpass in a game in which his team were getting gubbed 3-1 sign for a team that place such emphasis on analytics and data (and with great success, too!) makes me wonder what I'm missing. Interesting they've been scouting him for a while.
I’m hesitant to talk up one of their players too much but looking at Ajer in this season’s games is probably akin to judging Tav on the Warburton Premiership season really. Can you blame him for looking crap when he’s playing against a team as good as ours with team mates like Duffy, Taylor, Kenny et al? Under a decent manager and a decent system, he’ll look more like a decent player.

He’s got a good passing range and is a very progressive ball carrier plus has a lot of pace for recovery. The fact his runs and passes ultimately might come to nothing isn’t always on him and Brentford are probably more interested in the fact he’s making them than the end result. I won’t argue about there being defensive flaws in his game but for a team like Brentford, his ability on the ball is what makes him an appealing prospect.
 
Why is everyone trying to pretend that he hasn’t gone for £13m? You might not have paid it but you really think a premier league club wouldn’t considering all the money down there? I imagine there was a sell on from his previous club but I dont doubt they would get around that much for him. As has been said the funnier part is the expected excuses why all that money hasn’t been fully reinvested on player recruitment
13 million isn't what Celtic got! That fee would be wages plus add ons.why are you pretending it's not?
 
I'm just surprised that Brentford, a club known for extensive scouting, saw something in Ajer.

Though for an EPL club 13.5 million is project money. Maybe they think they can mould him into a good defender. Certainly isn't one tight now.
 
We allowed him the possession. It was better he had it than giving it to someone more productive.

Do you recall any significant end product?
He almost scored once

then he done a no look pass to his goalie whilst losing

but he’s not the donkey people make out on here as though he’s lustig or duffer. I reckon he will do ok for Brentford
 
He’s not the complete donkey that he’s been made out to be I dont think. It certainly weakens them massively and he’ll be hard to replace for them which is good as they will need to take a huge gamble on spending big to replace him or the car park will be busy .
 
They will never, ever see £13.5m in hard cash in the bank for Ajer.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is an absolute mentalist.
 
Is it though?

There was a player a couple of weeks ago they claimed they bid 7mil for who joined another team for team for about 4mil just after

Only one time ever when they genuinely got a big fee up front they released the news to the stock exchange.

Why just that one time?
Remember when they sold Ki to Swansea for £7.5m?
A week later Swansea signed a guy for £5m and announced him as their most expensive signing ever.
 
Why is everyone trying to pretend that he hasn’t gone for £13m? You might not have paid it but you really think a premier league club wouldn’t considering all the money down there? I imagine there was a sell on from his previous club but I dont doubt they would get around that much for him. As has been said the funnier part is the expected excuses why all that money hasn’t been fully reinvested on player recruitment
If you believe they got a fee of £13.5 million for a player with 10 months left on his contract then you probably believe they paid the guts of £10 million on a defender from Sweden and a 19 year old winger
 
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