Weezertron Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 53 minutes ago, Skeletor said: Whilst I would have loved us to fill all the gaps in the squad we had clear constraints and we've obviously chosen to build this as a long term project rather than the Chelsea/Man City approach. Top 4 has probably clouded a lot of our judgements, but in a few years we'll have a squad that can compete. I just hope the top brass see it the same way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Weezertron said: I just hope the top brass see it the same way. Depends who we class the top brass as. Staveley/Ghodoussi/Jamie Reuben probably. The Saudis are still a question mark. The ambition they're showing to get the Saudi League up there is probably the same ambition they have for this club and we don't know how they would tolerate regression or "failure" this season. Edited September 6, 2023 by Skeletor Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Those guys haven’t missed so far. I hope PIF give them leeway. I expect them too as well. I think the summer will show its value in the years to come. Even with some of the U18s signings. We’re building. This season always had the potential to be a little sticky. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
r0cafella Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Hindsight being 20/20 and all, but it seems most of us rated our summer business between 7-8 (myself included). Looking back and with the benefit of that hindsight do you standby your assessment? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 I don't think there's any realistic foresight the club or anyone could have had to know about a gambling ban and the worst injury crisis in the whole time I've been supporting the club. It would be unfair of me to use that as part of any hindsight so I won't. I gave it a 7.5 and said we were an AM/RW and a RCB away from a 10, I stand by that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timeEd32 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) Tino - A revelation. Five years from now he'll probably be on a list with Bruno, Botman, and others as some of the best signings of the PIF era. Barnes - I think he would have been exactly what we thought we were getting. Just a very unlucky injury. I also think we might have seen more of Gordon on the RW if Barnes had been available, which could have made that seem like less of an urgent need for upgrading. Hall - An opportunistic signing for the future. I thought he'd be more involved given the injuries, but I guess he's not ready. I'm curious if he's less ready than the club would have thought. I'm also less sure now what position we have in mind for him. Minteh - Obviously not helping us this year, but seems a good signing. At minimum he appears on track to collect a profit. Tonali - When the biggest spend goes on a player who gets banned for a year that's obviously going to make things look worse in hindsight. He had a slow start, but I think he would have helped us a lot in the last three CL games. He's cost us a lot in more ways than one, so he's going to need to be a star caliber player next season to make up for it. Edited December 14, 2023 by timeEd32 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Hall's the only one that you can justifiably raise an eyebrow at imo, because the jury is out on two of the other three and Tino is objectively just a canny signing. But it's not like Hall's signing prevented a different one from happening and besides, it's only the injury crisis which has increased the levels of scrutiny on it. If he's not as good as the scouting reports suggested then fine, it's a bit of a swing and a miss; but it's plausible that he was never meant for regular first team football this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
et tu brute Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, r0cafella said: Hindsight being 20/20 and all, but it seems most of us rated our summer business between 7-8 (myself included). Looking back and with the benefit of that hindsight do you standby your assessment? Yep I rated it low as I thought we had not upgraded the first choice 11 enough. I'm a big believer that you upgrade your first team first,!then the players who were first choice, will become squad players. You're killing two birds with one stone that way. If I rated the transfer window now, I would actually probably give it an even lower mark. Edited December 14, 2023 by et tu brute Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stottie Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 I thought the window was fine. Ideally, we'd have also sold Almiron to Saudi to get funds, but this would have attracted far more scrutiny than Liverpool selling two players to Saudi. Or however many Chelsea players went there. We got to sell Maxi and that was our lot. Tino's been great, Barnes did look good in the little we saw and should click straight in, Minteh's doing great, and Hall is very young. We needed Bruno backup, and Tonali has the experience/pedigree to qualify. He didn't exactly hit the ground running and has since been banned for something we could not have foreseen, but let's have faith in Tonali's experience and pedigree. We got him for Lavia money, so it should have been canny business. The other Italian lad we were supposedly interested in, Barella at Inter, looks like his numbers are down this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 I'd still rank it the same, we can't have possibly expected or foreseen a dozen first team absentees. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbandit Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 The window was a major success if only because we got Tino who’s world class. Barnes had a freak injury, Tonali has really screwed us but how could we have known. Neither of those could have been anticipated and I’m sure they’ll both come back strong. Hall remains a mystery Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallowgate Toon Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Think in about 5 years with Leicester Barnes only had 1 injury that kept him out for months rather than weeks Shite luck. Maintain that, at the time, Barnes and Tonali were very clear upgrades to our starting XI. Had both been largely available, we'd likely have been seeing the best of them now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikon Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 I wouldn’t have signed Barnes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 I thought a right winger was an absolute must in the summer, still think it’s the biggest area we need to upgrade. Think it’s the only position that hasn’t been directly upgraded since the takeover. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbandit Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 (edited) Bit shit that the club most similar to us in terms of where they’re going went for Diaby and he’s looked great Edited December 14, 2023 by gbandit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Not fussed about Diaby at all. Szoboszlai on the other hand... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timeEd32 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 6 minutes ago, The Prophet said: Not fussed about Diaby at all. Szoboszlai on the other hand... Agreed, though it's not clear to me if we ever really had a chance. It seems he was very set on Liverpool. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 He looks very good, albeit Liverpool are playing him as an eight Diaby is exactly as expected. Brilliant some games, anonymous others (usually against better sides). I assume Emery hasn't been starting him because his system can only accommodate one player who doesn't graft. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newcastle Fan Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Diaby would've made a world of difference to our team, he can use his right foot for once. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 On 01/09/2023 at 13:49, The College Dropout said: I think the small squad might work in our favour (although we are far too light at CB). Small knit group. Everyone should get minutes bar one or two. Howe doesn’t seem to like much rotation anyway. This came back to haunt us but I was right about Howe and rotation. I think we needed at least 1 creative player. And we still need him. Lascelles has been a revelation at CB in the main but we still need an upgrade. Everyone would’ve loved Hall to get some more minutes. But he doesn’t look ready. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Glad we didn’t go for Diaby tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Howe doesn't like to change a settled back four, but when we've had options he rotates further up the park. See Almiron and Murphy, Wilson and Isak, along with ASM, Joelinton and Gordon on the left. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny1403 Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 2 hours ago, gbandit said: Bit shit that the club most similar to us in terms of where they’re going went for Diaby and he’s looked great Eh? He’s been dropped several times recently Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitley mag Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 Apart from Tino serious question marks against the rest. Don’t think Barnes or Tonali look like what we needed, just more pace on the wing without any craft in Barnes and Tonali looks another midfield workhorse to me. Our 2 blue chip signings don’t bring anything different to the table and that’s without even getting into how Tonali comes back from ban. Give me Kone, Thuram or Diaby over the signings we made. Big pressure to get it right going forward or PIF will rightfully start asking questions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbandit Posted December 14, 2023 Share Posted December 14, 2023 38 minutes ago, jonny1403 said: Eh? He’s been dropped several times recently 3 goals, 5 assists and these minutes are very strong for a new signing to the league. he’s also looked class in the games I’ve seen him https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/moussa-diaby/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/395516/saison/2023/wettbewerb/GB1/verein/405 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now