We might have spent £200m but this is a poor squad. Too many young players, too many injuries, the older players we have are on the verge of being too old and unable to play well anymore. Too many forwards and we let go of too much PL experience over the last few windows and never replaced it.
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[Albion] £200 million on players
- Thread starter Guinness Boy
- Start date
portslade seagull
Well-known member
And the madness is you can see Baleba, Pedro and a couple of others going in the summer to further weaken us as we build for the future. The Southampton model really doesn't work longterm
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
Yep
TottonSeagull
Well-known member
TBF ….. if we can’t have melt down after a 0-7 when can we
??
Washie
Well-known member
I think we may head the Southampton route.
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
RDZ said we need balance of experience and youth to progress further. Funny now everyone seems to be in agreement.
Yeah tbf I agreed with him at the time. Yet even then we had more experience than we have now.
Gabbiano
Well-known member
We've had our turn, now it's Bournemouth and Forest.
brighton_tom
Well-known member
- Jul 23, 2008
- 5,943
Before im anywhere near 'fab out' we need to seriously invest in the defence. You can only get by for so long before a disaster happens if you dont invest in a solid foundation. Todays defence cost roughly a combined £4m.
Basil Fawlty
Don't Mention The War
When you spend £200 million on the midfield and attack, you totally forget about the defence. When you spend that type of money you do it from back to front, not front to back. In this case we got it totally wrong, still can't believe Forest signed Milenkovic from Fiorentina for £12 million. The same team we brought Igor from, surely he would of been on our radar or even RDZ radar at the time.
Dave the OAP
Well-known member
This with bells on£200M on a job lot of players last summer, prices up to £40M. More than we've ever bought in a one-er before, and more than we've ever spent. £200M, and that's six new players to be shoe horned in (right now that Gomez and Cashin have arrived - plus three out on loan coming back in the summer, Cozier-Duberry, Yalcouye and Osman) - and yet only one (Rutter) has made any sort of impact, plus I suppose you could say Minteh is OK to use turn-and-turn about with Adingra. The rest? Not deemed good enough to start when Baleba and Ayari are out injured.
We seem to be moving away from our South American recruitment which has brought us success in recent years too - buying now (at higher prices) from PL2, The Championship and mid-range Europe - and all the South American flair we had - Buonanotte, Enciso, Sarmiento and Barco - have been banished on loan.
Add to that a new Manager who, let's say, we're not all entirely convinced about .............. building progress? Feels more like breaking up the band.
Basil Fawlty
Don't Mention The War
No way are Forest well run, dodgy Greek owner. 1,000 players brought in a short period to be this good. The only team I agree with is and I hate to admit it, is Bournemouth. But when the big clubs come knocking, they will be back to where they belong!
I've not been impressed by many of the new signings. I do understand it takes time and we've had injuries.
I am now fairly convinced the managers not experienced enough to be working at this level with that many young players.
I am now fairly convinced the managers not experienced enough to be working at this level with that many young players.
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
At least the ST’s have gone up.
Including at DM. Baleba and Hinshelwood the only players with that skillset.
When I and many others hoped for defensive improvements in summer windows we were lambasted as “Ah, demanding that TB pumps in more millions”. We weren’t and the money was found for an army of wingers/no10’s.
- Jan 19, 2010
- 1,499
The dismissal process?
Home and Away
Well-known member
- Sep 18, 2018
- 299
Players look soft and slow. Maybe skilled, but no decision making skills, no strength, no endurance.
TottonSeagull
Well-known member
No faith in the coach!
oldboyroy
Well-known member
Yep. That's it in a nutshell. We've got points and in mid table but as you say, we've had a handful of 30 min spells and have yet to put in a 90 min performance apart from Norwich in cup and will include United away too. Defensively, we're a complete shambles and all the cash spent in summer simply hasn't improved us at all. Yes, we have injuries but so have most others. Maybe Tony's algorithms are not working so well and his plans for possibly Europe and a trophy are looking very unlikely at present. We are miles off challenging top 4 which, is what Fab says he wants to do?
Garry Nelson's Left Foot
Well-known member
The defence is undeniably poor.
My concern is that we could have prime Ashley Cole, Van Dijk, Rio Ferdinand and Cafu and they'd still struggle if the manager puts out such an unbalanced and tactically naive team in front of them.
When there is no midfield in front of them it's very difficult to maintain shape and good defensive practice. What even is good defensive practice when you're constantly being over run and the team is told to pile forward constantly. We were still getting caught on the counter at 5 down after 80+ minutes.
I really don't want to be FH out but he makes it very easy to be. I'll grin and bear it this season, I'll make the most of any games we manage to win, but if we're pulling the same schoolboy tactics and performances next season I'll very definitely be FH out.