Mikky Posted Friday at 23:04 Share Posted Friday at 23:04 3 minutes ago, Jesse Pinkman said: They can impose all the criteria they want. The fact is the squad isn’t good enough to compete for the top 6 unless 2/3 top 6 teams drop off this year. To think there are only 4/5 players in the world who can improve the squad is batshit insane. This - you are telling me that they couldn’t find a RW better than Miggy or Murphy? A CB better than Krafth? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Puppets Posted Friday at 23:06 Share Posted Friday at 23:06 Just now, Jesse Pinkman said: They can impose all the criteria they want. The fact is the squad isn’t good enough to compete for the top 6 unless 2/3 top 6 teams drop off this year. To think there are only 4/5 players in the world who can improve the squad is batshit insane. 1) I disagree. If our big players stay fit, this squad is more than capable of challenging for European places. Why wouldn’t they be? We finished 7th last year, a few wins away from 4th, after spending most of the season with 10+ first teamers on the treatment table. Gordon, Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Trippier, Livramento, Schar, Pope, Botman (when he returns), Wilson (if he can play 15+ games), Barnes… we have a really talented bunch of lads. 2) I don’t think it’s so “batshit insane” to think that EH know very specifically the kind of player they want, that would improve the team, be a “good egg”, be available for the right deal, AND actually want to join. But hey, each to their own opinions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Puppets Posted Friday at 23:09 Share Posted Friday at 23:09 2 minutes ago, Mikky said: This - you are telling me that they couldn’t find a RW better than Miggy or Murphy? A CB better than Krafth? Understand your frustration on Miggy / Murphy (although I do think both are good squad players), but re: Krath… we’re not looking for a CB better than him. We’re looking for one better than both Botman and Schar. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted Friday at 23:13 Share Posted Friday at 23:13 6 minutes ago, Mikky said: This - you are telling me that they couldn’t find a RW better than Miggy or Murphy? A CB better than Krafth? Just throwing a couple of the £30-40m players we were linked with out there. Elanga and Thiaw. Reckon these are top 4 level signings? So we spend £70-80m on these two, all it does is kicks the issue down the road until next season when we still need a top quality RW and CB, but we've £80m less to spend to get them and find ourselves in a worse predicament. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Pinkman Posted Friday at 23:16 Share Posted Friday at 23:16 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said: 1) I disagree. If our big players stay fit, this squad is more than capable of challenging for European places. Why wouldn’t they be? We finished 7th last year, a few wins away from 4th, after spending most of the season with 10+ first teamers on the treatment table. Gordon, Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Trippier, Livramento, Schar, Pope, Botman (when he returns), Wilson (if he can play 15+ games), Barnes… we have a really talented bunch of lads. 2) I don’t think it’s so “batshit insane” to think that EH know very specifically the kind of player they want, that would improve the team, be a “good egg”, be available for the right deal, AND actually want to join. But hey, each to their own opinions. Yes the first 11-12 players are European worthy. No doubt but then there is a big drop in quality. You seem to be banking on these twelve players staying fit all season but it’s very likely we will suffer some big injuries like most teams over the course of 38 game season. Especially the way injuries are sky rocketing in top flight football. We have talent but the top 8 teams are packed with the best talent in the world. It’s insane because we all know 50+ players atleast that would improve this squad. I think EH has way over complicated it if that’s his approach and will likely come back to bite him. Edited Friday at 23:18 by Jesse Pinkman Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weezertron Posted Friday at 23:17 Share Posted Friday at 23:17 2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said: Just throwing a couple of the £30-40m players we were linked with out there. Elanga and Thiaw. Reckon these are top 4 level signings? So we spend £70-80m on these two, all it does is kicks the issue down the road until next season when we still need a top quality RW and CB, but we've £80m less to spend to get them and find ourselves in a worse predicament. Understood but there needs to be a balance. We’ve swung too far the other way. We might do well this season but everything will have to be perfect Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gottlob Posted Friday at 23:17 Share Posted Friday at 23:17 Over the past two summers we've signed Tonali, Barnes, Livramento, Hall, Kelly, Osula and you can add Vlachodimos if you'd like for the first team squad. We've spent around £170-190 million on those players, and of the lot only Tonali has seemed like a certainty for the first eleven. So I'm not sure I buy the sincerity or the rationale behind the argument that we're only looking for the best of the best, ready-made players who can immediately enhance the first team. It just sounds like hot air in the place of serious squad building. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upthemags Posted Friday at 23:24 Share Posted Friday at 23:24 (edited) Mercifully, this is at an end. Time to back what we have and smash the table. I've offered plenty of conjecture, which I think is fair mind. But at the end of the day, we all support the same club, and we have serious serious talent on the pitch, and we might just be surprised by what they show us once we settle in. While CL seems highly unlikely, is it out of the realm of possibility? Absolutely not. Edited Friday at 23:24 by Upthemags Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny1403 Posted Friday at 23:28 Share Posted Friday at 23:28 25 minutes ago, J7 said: It’s been an absolute disaster in my opinion. A total failure. From a club with momentum less than a year ago, we now look a shambles off the pitch. The whole Gordon/PSR affair clearly left a bitter taste in the squad, and we’ve shown our top players we aren’t as interested in competing as they were no doubt sold when joining. Its pointless trying to point the finger in one direction, but I cannot grasp the approach to a window where you need to improve in a number of areas, lumping all your money on one over priced target. We don’t have a good enough squad yet to do that. A few things to add while I’m greeting on. We had the 4th oldest team in the league last year. Done nothing to address that. And we have a number of players out of contract next year, some who really aren’t up to the standard of where we are or want to be in the league, who are going to have to get new contracts unless we go crazy in the market in the next two windows. The player turnover in the next two windows is going to have to be huge unless we’re planning on taking Burn, Krafth, Murphy, Miggy, Trippier, Schar, Lascelles and Wilson into 25/26, not to mention replacing whoever we have to sell to fund the rebuild of the squad. It wasn’t a transfer window to just waste. Sorry what? You genuinely don’t think the management isn’t interested in competing? Another batshit take. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloGeordio Posted Friday at 23:29 Share Posted Friday at 23:29 3 minutes ago, Upthemags said: Mercifully, this is at an end. Time to back what we have and smash the table. I've offered plenty of conjecture, which I think is fair mind. But at the end of the day, we all support the same club, and we have serious serious talent on the pitch, and we might just be surprised by what they show us once we settle in. CL seems highly unlikely. Impossible? No. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nufcjb Posted Friday at 23:31 Share Posted Friday at 23:31 (edited) 1 minute ago, PauloGeordio said: Even the advertising board down there is telling the club to 'Shop Now'. They didn't listen though did they..... Edited Friday at 23:31 by nufcjb Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobsonsWonderland Posted Friday at 23:32 Share Posted Friday at 23:32 (edited) Sold two kids Kept our best players We have had worse windows... Clutching at straws Edited yesterday at 00:39 by RobsonsWonderland Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-more Mag Posted Friday at 23:54 Share Posted Friday at 23:54 (edited) 1 hour ago, Shadow Puppets said: Watch Howe’s press conference. He explains it all pretty clearly. 1) There WAS money to spend. 2) They identified “4 or 5 players” per position to attempt to sign that fit into our criteria (EH listed the criteria as very specific… the right position, the right profile / attributes / attitude, and crucially the right deal for the good of the club). 3) They couldn’t get the deals done. 4) They decided against signing players that didn’t line up with their criteria of what we need. 5) EH reiterated multiple times that working relationships are GOOD. 6) EH repeatedly said that all people were in agreement on what needed to be done and how it should be done. 7) EH repeatedly said that with PSR constraints every signing has to be perfect for the club, meet all the criteria, be the right deal etc, so unfortunately in this case they chose to do nothing rather than spend on players that they didn’t feel would improve the squad or fit the profile they want for this club. Maybe I’m just a “glass-half-full” kind of guy, but all of that seems pretty reasonable. Frustrating, yes, but completely understandable. I really really think people need to take a step back, look at where we are, how far we’ve come in 2.5 years, and question whether needlessly creating drama out of this is really the most useful thing to do. Our fanbase has a habit of imploding when things aren’t going exactly to plan, which is then reflected in the stadium and then ultimately on the pitch. We’ve had a great 2.5 years. We’ve hit a road bump. Don’t make it worse than it is by overreacting, because a negative atmosphere is far more likely to contribute to a bad season than a couple of players we didn’t sign. That’s basically the kind of message I hoped they’d come out with. It’s also pretty much the only one they could plausibly get away with. And I think they can only really get away with it once. Because getting 0 out of 8-10 targets for CB and RW, and eating up so much time doing it, is really fucking bad. If your criteria are that specific, and you’re so certain that you’re right on a small handful of targets, then you damn well be able to deliver. If you can’t, all the good criteria and good intentions in the world aren’t going to do anything to help. Edited Friday at 23:55 by B-more Mag Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanji Posted Friday at 23:55 Share Posted Friday at 23:55 38 minutes ago, Jesse Pinkman said: Yes the first 11-12 players are European worthy. No doubt but then there is a big drop in quality. You seem to be banking on these twelve players staying fit all season but it’s very likely we will suffer some big injuries like most teams over the course of 38 game season. Especially the way injuries are sky rocketing in top flight football. We have talent but the top 8 teams are packed with the best talent in the world. It’s insane because we all know 50+ players atleast that would improve this squad. I think EH has way over complicated it if that’s his approach and will likely come back to bite him. We had 15 players injured most of last season and were a city bottle job away from Europe. We were Nick pope away from champions league again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conjo Posted yesterday at 00:30 Share Posted yesterday at 00:30 1 hour ago, J7 said: From a club with momentum less than a year ago, we now look a shambles off the pitch. so much stupid on display today Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledDog Posted yesterday at 00:39 Share Posted yesterday at 00:39 Right, now that that one's out of the way, any new links today on players coming in the next window? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted yesterday at 00:45 Share Posted yesterday at 00:45 It most certainly is a shambles that Dubravka is still our number 2 keeper, mind. Absolutely no excusing the failure to address that and I’ve no idea why some are trying to. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izakaya Posted yesterday at 00:48 Share Posted yesterday at 00:48 50 minutes ago, Kanji said: We had 15 players injured most of last season and were a city bottle job away from Europe. We were Nick pope away from champions league again. Who gives a Frenchmans fuck about last season? Managers change, players change, team dynamics change every season. What happened last season happened in the microcosm of last season. No two seasons are the same. Those around us have changed massively and we've done two thirds of fuck all. Standing still is going backwards. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timeEd32 Posted yesterday at 00:48 Share Posted yesterday at 00:48 1 minute ago, Ronaldo said: It most certainly is a shambles that Dubravka is still our number 2 keeper, mind. Absolutely no excusing the failure to address that and I’ve no idea why some are trying to. This combined with the joke that is Vlachodimos is probably my least favorite part of the window. That or our complete inability to sell anyone. Pope has to make it through the season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero Posted yesterday at 01:09 Share Posted yesterday at 01:09 19 minutes ago, timeEd32 said: This combined with the joke that is Vlachodimos is probably my least favorite part of the window. That or our complete inability to sell anyone. Pope has to make it through the season. in other words, same as last season, once Pope is injured we are done wheres the lesson learnt? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andycap Posted yesterday at 01:19 Share Posted yesterday at 01:19 Trafford 20 million Thiaw 35-40 millon The two would be understudies to popey and schar. Only right wing we needed better than what we have. Loan with option to buy a would've been my preference with that one maybes Elanga madueke someone of that ilk. Before we got priced out leaving it so late. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas Posted yesterday at 01:38 Share Posted yesterday at 01:38 (edited) 2 hours ago, Mikky said: This - you are telling me that they couldn’t find a RW better than Miggy or Murphy? A CB better than Krafth? It would still cost £25-35m to sign a better player than any of those that could be a feature going forward rather than a cheaper panic buy that might be an improvement - either way it comes out of the kitty for players we think will move us forward. Buying players just because they are improvements on those players isn't going to do that with the rules as they are. Its like teams that survive relegation buying a relegated teams players just higher in the league, and you go nowhere. Edited yesterday at 01:40 by Jonas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
On the Grid Posted yesterday at 01:40 Share Posted yesterday at 01:40 Poor fan base expecting the world when it's hardly been touched. Remember where we came from Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elric Posted yesterday at 01:51 Share Posted yesterday at 01:51 10 minutes ago, On the Grid said: Poor fan base expecting the world when it's hardly been touched. Remember where we came from This'll have some bites by tomorrow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloGeordio Posted yesterday at 02:12 Share Posted yesterday at 02:12 Lock until January. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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