Are we getting close to bed wetting time?

[Ernest]

My PANTS are SOPPING wet

 

[dazzer6666]

-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ;7514935]Yep, what an atrocious match day squad!

.................... Stockdale ...................

Bruno .... Dunk .... Goldson .... Bong

............. Kayal ..... Stephens ...........

March ............................. Knockaert

........... Hemed .... Murray ...............

Bench: Maenpaa, Hunemeir, Rosenoir, Sidwell, Skalak, Baldock, Lua Lua

Does look like the dogs wotsits to be fair. Bed bone dry here.

 

[atomised]

Looks fine to me. Not worried here

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I never understand the lack of urgency in teams getting players in for a good pre-season, it's almost as if clubs don't think the first few games count.


It's not just a Brighton thing.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

A lot can happen in 6 weeks before the window closes, we haven't kept the squad together yet. Of our players consistently linked with others this summe - Dunk, Kayal and Stephens, I'd say Stephens is the one I'm most concerned about. A year left and northern boy.... Regardless of what happens with that, I think we still need 4 new signings ... A Centre half, left-back, a midfielder and the big one, another striker with real pace.

 

[severnside gull]

My favourite time of year as the new season approaches & there are no signings.
RAMP IT UP!!

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

I never understand the lack of urgency in teams getting players in for a good pre-season, it's almost as if clubs don't think the first few games count.


It's not just a Brighton thing.

It's the amount of time it takes, the negotiations with bloody agents and the lack of real quality at too high a price.
I preferred the 70's & 80's when you more or less had the same players every season with the odd sale and new recruit every now and then. Or have I got a very poor memory.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

CB and Striker one at the end of July and one day or so before window shuts.......... very, very happy.

More worried about the CMs resigning though!

 

[chaileyjem]

Kayal and Stephens holding out (surely?) on signing new contracts
Very light at CB
No sign of another striker?
Are we going to go down the route of waiting until a month into the season to get the final players in? CH did allude to not having the full squad in place by the start of the season.
Keeping the faith but starting to feel dribbles....

Last year we signed Murphy, Uwe, Goldson and Elvis after the season had started. We didn't even sign Zamora until a few days before the Forest kick off. Dunk didn't commit to the club until the end of August and that was after refusing to play in a game.
The manager of every club *always* says something like we won't be able to do all our business before the first game.
So you'd better keep dribbling.

 

[Justice]

When you look at the squad are we going to sign a player that can do a better job than what we already have at this level? Maybe a striker and some cover that's about it.

 

[Dolph Ins]

Kyal and Stephens are contracted to us for next season which means they are our players. TB may have gambled to take a financial hit if we don't go up this season. If we do go up I think they will both sign new contracts if we still want them.

 

[darkwolf666]

I never understand the lack of urgency in teams getting players in for a good pre-season, it's almost as if clubs don't think the first few games count.


It's not just a Brighton thing.

Or alternatively the management think the squad is good enough as it is?

 

[fat old seagull]

I remember the start of last season certain peeps not rating the squad...how many games unbeaten was it?


If Burke was in charge of recruitment I'd be concerned ...but the clubs record over the last 12/15 months re 'additions' has been very good...I might be too chilled about it all..but I'm confident

I'm all of that, especially the reference to David Burke. I have infinitely more confidence in Paul Stanley. My only concern at the moment is if we are losing targets to other clubs, for whatever reason. But primarily that we might be being outbid. I'd sooner consider signing one match winner, than two decent players. And although I'd love to see Tony dig deep for that super striker we crave for, as long as we stick to our guns and don't let any go, the return of Solly and arrival of Murray will bolster an already strong squad.

 

[sdmartin1]

Find it a bit bizarre that people are considering it a huge negative Stephens and Kayal haven't signed new contracts. Obviously they will both hold fire to see if there is any Premiership interest, unless people think we should be offering them both 30k p/w 2 year+ contracts. If they aren't desperate to leave they'll probably spend the rest of the season here anyway, as once their contracts run out they'll be in line for big signing on fees if they play well again this season.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

How many Championship clubs only need to make just 2 signings now ?

Newcastle no doubt have enough already, but I reckon virtually all the other Championship clubs have more to do than us.

Derby have signed no one ( I think), Massive fans are in signing-meltdown and they don't even have a left back currently.

And we need just 2 players.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Last year we signed Murphy, Uwe, Goldson and Elvis after the season had started. We didn't even sign Zamora until a few days before the Forest kick off. Dunk didn't commit to the club until the end of August and that was after refusing to play in a game.
The manager of every club *always* says something like we won't be able to do all our business before the first game.
So you'd better keep dribbling.

Completely agree with this. We've got such a good squad that we can wait. I'd rather get the main striker signing in August and get it right than rush into it.

The only concern I have, given our injuries, is centre back but I'm confident we wouldn't have let Dallison go on loan if we weren't confident of signing one soon.

 

[maltaseagull]

Be good if we actually knew what the squad is going to be this season. We can hope that Kayal and Stephens stay and we can hope we have a CB and another quality forward lined up. If so we will have a storming season. At what stage is it reasonable to feel concerned that none of the above have been tied up?

September?

 

[Machiavelli]

Kayal and Stephens holding out (surely?) on signing new contracts

Very light at CB

No sign of another striker?

Are we going to go down the route of waiting until a month into the season to get the final players in? CH did allude to not having the full squad in place by the start of the season.

Keeping the faith but starting to feel dribbles....

You need to just relax, and recognise that the board, management and recruitment team that we have are top, top quality. CH did state that he wouldn't be surprised if we didn't have a full squad in place for the start of the season. This is not surprising as the transfer windown closes nearly four weeks later.
We might lose a player or even more but, if we do, we'll get as good a price as we can. Equally, some might come in, but even the consensus on here is that we only need about three more players at this stage. We're not in a substantially different position to any of our key competitors for a play-off place.

 

[Kosh]

What a load of rubbish. After the play off capitulation as you put it (by which I assume you mean when we lost to Derby with half our team out), we lost most of our best players, a manager (who was replaced very late on by a poor manager) and we had Burke in charge of signings (and he was terrible).

This season we reacted by Hughton signing on a four year deal. We've, so far, kept all our key players and we've got a much better recruitment team than before if we do lose a couple of players.

To predict we will finish 11th-14th with a squad who won 13 out of the last 20 league games last season is frankly laughable. Especially as you seem to be laughing at how we struggled a couple of seasons ago and find it funny (great fan).

Errmmm sorry but no - wtf are you twattering on about? I refer to 15/16 PO season, remember ? The two games against Wednesday, where a combination of bad luck (granted) and sub standard performances (Stockdale, Wilson) meant we lost to a bang average Wed side. I can't understand where you got the idea I was referring to two years ago?!? As for laughing; well I made comments (following the PO failure) re losing Dunk, Stephen's, Kayal and now you can add Hemed to the maybe pile- these were shot to pieces on here, I now feel that come Jan at least two of these will almost certainly be gone.

If we finish above 11th I'll be delighted, if that makes me a "bad" fan, well I prostrate myself at your glorious feet.

I have my opinion, you clearly have yours - best of luck with the we're going to win the league/finish second theory. We were a surprise package last year, by retaining the near same squad we're in clear danger of weaknesses being discovered and systems being counter acted to great effect. This season will not just be a walk to the PO or above, this will be the hardest season yet for this team to repeat and go one better than last year.

Mark my words, we will find a group of ready, wise and motivated teams waiting to prove we were nothing more than a one season wonder - and in a season too, lest we forget, where we won nothing.

Nah- my bed is now a water bed, and unless we supplement our squad with real fire, we're looking at mid-table at best.

Just my opinion - I'm usually wrong, and naturally I hope I am.

Kosh

 

[jimhigham]

An alternative view might be that with a largely established team/squad we can make hay in the early part of the season while other sides are still "gelling". Then we look to augment the squad with a couple of tweaks here or there.

Hopefully.