Yoane Wissa

[Yorkie]

8 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

More referring to the point of us spending 55m on a 29year old whos had just 1 20 goal season in his career. 

 

The panic being we left it until the last minute and ended up paying a huge premium. 

 

I won't argue with that but "we left it late" is a really loaded way of describing what happened which ignores all context. 

 

In any case, his injury is fair sized mitigation for our poor-to-average first third of the season. People liked to call him the Wilson replacement because he wasn't a particularly fashionable name and much less exciting than Isak, but he was the one coming here to be first choice. Him getting injured was an absolute Yoan Pissa.

[r0cafella]

Just now, Yorkie said:

 

I won't argue with that but "we left it late" is a really loaded way of describing what happened which ignores all context. 

 

In any case, his injury is fair sized mitigation for our poor-to-average first third of the season. People liked to call him the Wilson replacement because he wasn't a particularly fashionable name and much less exciting than Isak, but he was the one coming here to be first choice. Him getting injured was an absolute Yoan Pissa.

Yorkie my friend it doesn't though does it? We knew Wilson wasn't renewing at the start of the window so we needed at least 1 striker ASAP. It took us until the end of the window to achieve such a simple task. We also knew Isak was leaving... We weren't born yesterday we know the Isak deal was agreed in advance of the announcement. 

 

I don't think it is any mitigation if our start personally, we can't have it both ways. Either players need time to bed in or they don't. I thought the consensus was players need time to learn our system etc?

 

I'm highlighting this deal as it was the most egregious of the lot for me. Massive fee for a player who wont get better will only drop in value and is off for a month Jolly part way through the season. 

 

Don't get me wrong I understand the factors and why we did it. I just disagree with it. 

[Kid Icarus]

Some creative writing going on here mind. 

 

I'm more than happy to criticise the club for last summer, but to describe an injury as '3 to 6 months to settle in' and a player we were after for months as a 'last minute panic buy' are very strange ways to describe the situation.

[r0cafella]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

Some creative writing going on here mind. 

 

I'm more than happy to criticise the club for last summer, but to describe an injury as '3 to 6 months to settle in' and a player we were after for months as a 'last minute panic buy' are very strange ways to describe the situation.

Eh not really, in highlighting the fact it's often stated players Eddie buys need time to settle in. With that in mind why are we think Wissa hits the ground running?

 

Regarding the fee, I think it's pretty obvious it's a panic buy either that or PSR no longer exists and nobody has told me. 

[TRon]

37 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Yorkie my friend it doesn't though does it? We knew Wilson wasn't renewing at the start of the window so we needed at least 1 striker ASAP. It took us until the end of the window to achieve such a simple task. We also knew Isak was leaving... We weren't born yesterday we know the Isak deal was agreed in advance of the announcement. 

 

I don't think it is any mitigation if our start personally, we can't have it both ways. Either players need time to bed in or they don't. I thought the consensus was players need time to learn our system etc?

 

I'm highlighting this deal as it was the most egregious of the lot for me. Massive fee for a player who wont get better will only drop in value and is off for a month Jolly part way through the season. 

 

Don't get me wrong I understand the factors and why we did it. I just disagree with it. 

 

We overpaid for Wissa because we needed someone who could replace one of the PL's best strikers in the last two years. Our plans got wrecked by the injury, but no one could have foreseen that. I'm not sure what other options we had at that point. Maybe we could have cast the net for some young up and comer a bit sooner. 

[Kid Icarus]

14 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Eh not really, in highlighting the fact it's often stated players Eddie buys need time to settle in. With that in mind why are we think Wissa hits the ground running?

 

Regarding the fee, I think it's pretty obvious it's a panic buy either that or PSR no longer exists and nobody has told me. 

Yes really. Whether he had fit straight in or taken time is moot if he's injured and going to AFCON. That's not 3 to 6 months settling in, and the person who posted about us giving him time only mentioned match fitness and him understanding the system - nothing about 3 to 6 months. 

 

It's an inflated fee for a player we clearly wanted and chased for the full window. If you think that's what's widely defined as a panic buy, then I'd have to disagree and I don't think I'd be the only one. How we ended up getting Woltemade is much nearer to what's generally considered a panic buy.

 

Posts like that stick out like a sore thumb as not playing with a straight bat to me personally.

[r0cafella]

3 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Yes really. Whether he had fit straight in or taken time is moot if he's injured and going to AFCON. That's not 3 to 6 months settling in, and the person who posted about us giving him time only mentioned match fitness and him understanding the system - nothing about 3 to 6 months. 

 

It's an inflated fee for a player we clearly wanted and chased for the full window. If you think that's what's widely defined as a panic buy, then I'd have to disagree and I don't think I'd be the only one. How we ended up getting Woltemade is much nearer to what's generally considered a panic buy.

 

Posts like that stick out like a sore thumb as not playing with a straight bat to me personally.

Why aren't I playing a straight bat? I've held this position consistently since we were like with him   

 

And it's hypotheticals right? We don't know how he would have settled in if he didn't get an injury a lot of posters were saying he guaranteed us 20 goals this season...

 

Big Nick was also a panic buy, a byproduct of poor targetting throughout the window and being generally slow and tardy, nobody misses out on targets like us after all. 

[Yorkie]

18 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Why aren't I playing a straight bat? I've held this position consistently since we were like with him   

 

And it's hypotheticals right? We don't know how he would have settled in if he didn't get an injury a lot of posters were saying he guaranteed us 20 goals this season...

 

Big Nick was also a panic buy, a byproduct of poor targetting throughout the window and being generally slow and tardy, nobody misses out on targets like us after all. 

 

'Slow and tardy' I won't argue too hard against - we had gaps in the corporate structure which seemingly impacted our ability to move quickly, which is regrettable and on us. I think it was overstated a lot at the time but clearly it wasn't the ideal set-up going into an important summer.

 

'Poor targeting' has always felt grossly unfair to me. We targeted the best players on the market who would otherwise have been attainable if the financial rules didn't function massively in the interests of the ESL clubs. I find it continually maddening how our fans will sooner give disproportionate criticism to the club about our shortlists than that patently obvious structural unfairness. Proper damned if you do/damned if you don't stuff. 

[r0cafella]

2 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

'Slow and tardy' I won't argue too hard against - we had gaps in the corporate structure which seemingly impacted our ability to move quickly, which is regrettable and on us. I think it was overstated a lot at the time but clearly it wasn't the ideal set-up going into an important summer.

 

'Poor targeting' has always felt grossly unfair to me. We targeted the best players on the market who would otherwise have been attainable if the financial rules didn't function massively in the interests of the ESL clubs. I find it continually maddening how our fans will sooner give disproportionate criticism to the club about our shortlists than that patently obvious structural unfairness. Proper damned if you do/damned if you don't stuff. 

The targetting was poor imo because we spent a lot of time trying to get players we were never going to get over the line. The way last season panned out those cartel clubs were always going to be throwing money around  

 

In terms of structural unfairness, you won't find many posters who have written about it more than me tbh but we can't change that and to be frank the club doesn't appear interested in challenging the rules either. 

[Kid Icarus]

40 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Why aren't I playing a straight bat? I've held this position consistently since we were like with him   

 

And it's hypotheticals right? We don't know how he would have settled in if he didn't get an injury a lot of posters were saying he guaranteed us 20 goals this season...

 

Big Nick was also a panic buy, a byproduct of poor targetting throughout the window and being generally slow and tardy, nobody misses out on targets like us after all. 

 

Because you're a smart dude. I would expect you to know that 'panic buy' doesn't apply to Wissa at all and has connotations of us going for a player we didn't want as a last resort, which wasn't the case. Overpaid, held to ransom, paid a premium, painted into a corner, lack of plan B etc? Absolutely all apply, not panic buy though - you don't panic buy a player you've been after for months. 

 

Our strategy was bizarre in the summer - whether the problem was that we had ideas above our station and didn't strategise accordingly, whether it was actually very standard practice and the issue was that it was all very public, or it was that we were naive, or just simply didn't have a proper DoF, who knows, probably all of it to an extent, but I do feel for Howe x2 and Nickson for being put in that position in the first place and as I said at the time it had a very 'the operation was a success but the patient died' feeling about it. 

[Andy]

I think "poor targeting" is a fair assesment of Elanga and possibly Ramsey. I understand that they need time, but we just didn't have time to give going into this season, and even if and when they do ultimately improve, I'm still not convinced they're the right players to solve our problems. It doesn't seem like either of these were last resorts, they appear to have been primary targets. 

 

Wissa we obviously wanted but only at a certain price, then seemingly ended up paying what Brentford wanted anyway, we might as well have done that to begin with and given the lad a proper pre-season. I can see r0ca's argument about him being a panic buy to an extent, yes he was a target all along, but we definitely didn't seem fully convinced by the value and only gave in once we had no other options and were desperate. 

 

Trafford, by all accounts we dawdled and allowed City to jump in. Going purely off the reporting, it seems there is every chance they wouldn't have taken up their option to buy him until Edison was confirmed to be leaving, but we just couldn't get the deal done. 

 

The Woltemade search was obviously an understandable mess. I think we tried to target the right strikers but the PSR argument is valid there. 

[r0cafella]

6 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

Because you're a smart dude. I would expect you to know that 'panic buy' doesn't apply to Wissa at all and has connotations of us going for a player we didn't want as a last resort, which wasn't the case. Overpaid, held to ransom, paid a premium, painted into a corner, lack of plan B etc? Absolutely all apply, not panic buy though - you don't panic buy a player you've been after for months. 

 

Our strategy was bizarre in the summer - whether the problem was that we had ideas above our station and didn't strategise accordingly, whether it was actually very standard practice and the issue was that it was all very public, or it was that we were naive, or just simply didn't have a proper DoF, who knows, probably all of it to an extent, but I do feel for Howe x2 and Nickson for being put in that position in the first place and as I said at the time it had a very 'the operation was a success but the patient died' feeling about it. 

Granted, my wording could be more precise. I do believe the price represents "panic" however your point is valid. 

 

I believe we suffer from a bit of hubris honestly, this isn't a knock on us, it's absolutely correct we have lofty ambitions but this whole proven premier league idea we prioritise is flawed given our position. That doesn't mean we shouldn't buy premier league players but we should have clearer goals in our recruitment as our long term planning is off at least from my POV. 

 

1, We shouldn't be signing players over the age of 24 which include fees, PSR is too restrictive for us to buy players who lack resale value imo. 

 

2, we shouldn't sign squad players specifically, we should always be looking to improve our starting 11, this provides us with better competition, players like Bruno and Joelinton look to be cruising tbh. 

[kingxlnc]

11 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Shearer retired from international duty at 29 to focus on staying fit for Newcastle.  And I never met anyone on Tyneside who was upset with that decision 

This was the wrong choice - it meant we had Heskey starting up front for England, and the likes of Darius Vassell

Shearer and Owen up front and we win WC 2002

[Yorkie]

12 minutes ago, Andy said:

I think "poor targeting" is a fair assesment of Elanga and possibly Ramsey. I understand that they need time, but we just didn't have time to give going into this season, and even if and when they do ultimately improve, I'm still not convinced they're the right players to solve our problems. It doesn't seem like either of these were last resorts, they appear to have been primary targets. 

 

Wissa we obviously wanted but only at a certain price, then seemingly ended up paying what Brentford wanted anyway, we might as well have done that to begin with and given the lad a proper pre-season. I can see r0ca's argument about him being a panic buy to an extent, yes he was a target all along, but we definitely didn't seem fully convinced by the value and only gave in once we had no other options and were desperate. 

 

Trafford, by all accounts we dawdled and allowed City to jump in. Going purely off the reporting, it seems there is every chance they wouldn't have taken up their option to buy him until Edison was confirmed to be leaving, but we just couldn't get the deal done. 

 

The Woltemade search was obviously an understandable mess. I think we tried to target the right strikers but the PSR argument is valid there. 

 

I agree with bits and disagree with bits here but - on Ramsey - the guy needs to be in there from the friggin start for us to give any sort of fair assessment. He started at Leeds and was one of our better players and looked useful against Benfica as well. He's the dictionary definition of too early to judge.

[TheBrownBottle]

15 minutes ago, kingxlnc said:

This was the wrong choice - it meant we had Heskey starting up front for England, and the likes of Darius Vassell

Shearer and Owen up front and we win WC 2002

I wouldn’t swap an England WC win for the memories of that 01/02 season, which might not have been possible if Shearer was playing for England. 

[Andy]

4 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

I agree with bits and disagree with bits here but - on Ramsey - the guy needs to be in there from the friggin start for us to give any sort of fair assessment. He started at Leeds and was one of our better players and looked useful against Benfica as well. He's the dictionary definition of too early to judge.

 

I was never a fan of him at Villa to be honest and I always think some attention should be paid to the reaction opposition fans have to a player leaving. Obviously it's not always reliable, but delight at a transfer fee is always concerning, especially for a player who is already based in this league. 

 

I think he's looked tidy so far, but that's about the only opinion I can formulate on his performances for us. I'd like to see him be more brave on the ball when he's given an opportunity. 

[Sibierski]

10 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

We were bidding for him from mid-July. Panicking would have been walking away after the first bid and moving down the list. Howe clearly wanted him. 

 

 

 

Yea, bidding at £25m  Then ended up paying more than double come deadline day. 
 

Club clearly had a price point, and in the end panicked and went way beyond that which will have ramifications further down the line. 
 

People were laughing at DCL and I don’t know why, when short term he was a perfectly valid option. It’s like we have a nose up attitude to those type of deals at the moment.

[Optimistic Nut]

£25m was never in a million years getting a 1 in 2 striker last season mind.

 

Reckon we had £40-45m as our price point but Brentford had us by the bollocks in the end. Same we did with Liverpool when we managed to get them from £25m to £35m when we knew they had the Torres money. 

[TRC]

3 hours ago, Yorkie said:

 

I agree with bits and disagree with bits here but - on Ramsey - the guy needs to be in there from the friggin start for us to give any sort of fair assessment. He started at Leeds and was one of our better players and looked useful against Benfica as well. He's the dictionary definition of too early to judge.

Elanga it was fairly clear he was suited to a certain style - open counter attacking play.

 

Ramsey seemed like a good idea albeit risky signing.

 

Thats the problem with our team we have signed players for many different styles, it’s very disjointed right now. I know we can blame PSR but Elanga was a target for a long long time.

[Ben]

Wissa needs to show he's up for the fight and drop out of African Nations £55 million is a lot of cash to be getting injured again 

[black_n_white]

13 hours ago, Yorkie said:

 

I won't argue with that but "we left it late" is a really loaded way of describing what happened which ignores all context. 

 

In any case, his injury is fair sized mitigation for our poor-to-average first third of the season. People liked to call him the Wilson replacement because he wasn't a particularly fashionable name and much less exciting than Isak, but he was the one coming here to be first choice. Him getting injured was an absolute Yoan Pissa.

Always stood by the fact that Wissa was the Isak replacement

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

13 hours ago, r0cafella said:

Yorkie my friend it doesn't though does it? We knew Wilson wasn't renewing at the start of the window so we needed at least 1 striker ASAP. It took us until the end of the window to achieve such a simple task. We also knew Isak was leaving... We weren't born yesterday we know the Isak deal was agreed in advance of the announcement. 

 

I don't think it is any mitigation if our start personally, we can't have it both ways. Either players need time to bed in or they don't. I thought the consensus was players need time to learn our system etc?

 

I'm highlighting this deal as it was the most egregious of the lot for me. Massive fee for a player who wont get better will only drop in value and is off for a month Jolly part way through the season. 

 

Don't get me wrong I understand the factors and why we did it. I just disagree with it. 

Was that for the want of trying though, or did I just imagine the failed pursuits of Delap, Pedro, Ekitike and Sesko?

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

11 hours ago, Andy said:

 

I was never a fan of him at Villa to be honest and I always think some attention should be paid to the reaction opposition fans have to a player leaving. Obviously it's not always reliable, but delight at a transfer fee is always concerning, especially for a player who is already based in this league. 

 

I think he's looked tidy so far, but that's about the only opinion I can formulate on his performances for us. I'd like to see him be more brave on the ball when he's given an opportunity. 

Where did you see Villa fans in delight at getting a fee for him? I only saw annoyance similar to us with Anderson with them being pissed off that they’d lost one of their own due to PSR

[OverThere]

13 hours ago, TRC said:

Elanga it was fairly clear he was suited to a certain style - open counter attacking play.

 

Ramsey seemed like a good idea albeit risky signing.

 

Thats the problem with our team we have signed players for many different styles, it’s very disjointed right now. I know we can blame PSR but Elanga was a target for a long long time.

Strange one because we haven't been a counter attacking team for a number of seasons now

[Swissmag]

10 hours ago, Ben said:

Wissa needs to show he's up for the fight and drop out of African Nations £55 million is a lot of cash to be getting injured again 

They aren‘t qualified yet anyway. They have to face Cameroon in the semis and potentially Nigeria/Gabon in the final. Not an easy ride

 

 

Edited November 11, 2025 by Swissmag