Bloom: "I don't like doing business in January"

[Withdean Wanderer]

That's what he said at the Poyet press conference.

Well Tony, if you've got serious Championship (and longer term Premiership) aspirations then you've got to splash the cash to keep us in league one.

Now I know some sad people are probably itching to slag me off, but please consider what i'm saying before having a dig, as I'm sure a fair few agree.

At the moment, the jock isn't good enough - nobody is denying that.
Kuipers has been out of sorts this season, Southampton aside, and age isn't on his side. In fact, the whole defence has been a bit of a shambles but for that game - Elphick, Whing, Virgo, even Tunnifcliffe hasn't done much to impress really. And to be honest, we haven't really seen enough of McNulty yet to know he can defend.

In front of them, Cox is spectacularly inconsistent, Dicker doesn't do much other than look comfortable, Crofts isn't going to get us promoted, and time certainly isn't on Forster's side.

While our offensive options need to be improved if we're going to get anywhere near the Championship for when Falmer opens, I firmly believe that if the defence isn't sorted, we could be in serious danger of being in League 2 last season. We weren't far off last year, and to be honest, with the additions of Tunnicliffe and Smith, the defence isn't much better.

Serious investment is needed if we're going to avoid another nailbiting run in.

 

[throbinson]

For once i agree

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

To be honest I wouldn't want to do my buisness in the window either!

 

[Whitterz]

Hmm interesting. Business has to be done in January, no doubt about that. New keeper, get shot of Smith would be a start. And dare I say it, a new striker to replace Forster at the end of this season.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

I disagree with your opinion about a couple of players, but I have to say that I reckon you could well be bang-on with the rest of your post. I just wonder how long TB will take to wake up & realise that he's gonna have to get his cheque book out if he wants to get The Albion where he wants to (& within the timescale he's apparently working to). Bar the Saints performance recently, this ain't going very well at the mo. is it folks?

 

[middletoenail]

WW gets a harsh go on this board, and more often than not it is because he says the truth, whether we like it or not.

There is no doubting that he is a moaning bastard (or whatever people call him) but to be totally honest he has good reason to be! I didnt expect us to beat Southampton/Leeds/Norwich/Charlton but at the same time I dont expect us to get dicked on! Its not like we are loosing by the odd goal!

I for one dont really know what to do or where to start but when I say we need investment, Im not talking of £250k-£500k, Im talking about £2m for at least 4-5 of the best players that we can get!

Smith I have no confidence in, I want to but the stats speak for themselves.. I say loan him back to the SPL till his contract runs out if we can!

Bring Hoyte in for Whing and rest Whing. Keep El-Abd (yes) untill Mcnulty is fit and sign a f***ing decent left winger as all our attacking play goes down the right.

The rest I think are ok..

 

[portlock seagull]

I'm sure Bloom will call WW in the morning

 

[murraymints4brighton]

I am sure him saying he doesn't like to buy in January is partly down to the fact he want's some money to spend on himself. He has already invested millions in the stadium and around 1 million in the transfer window.

We need a center back, it pains me to say it but another f***ing winger to complement Bennett and then we should be OK.

Oh and Andy Monkhouse is not the answer, he is diabolical! How about we continue are interest in Racon and Teale, now they would be welcome additions.

 

[Silent Bob]

I think the only way relegation would be a real threat is if we were without Kuipers, Forster, and Murray for a sustained period.
I would still like to see us doing business in January though, by then Poyet will have had a decent chance to assess the squad and think about what needs to be done. It's a lot better to cherry pick the players you want and have time to bed them in rather than trying to sign a whole squad in one window, imo.

I maintain that our first 11 properly coached would be a very good side anyway.

 

[chinners]

We
need to spend money ESP defenders and a keeper who give confidence to his defence no wonder they aren't a unit when smith is in goal

 

[Scoffers]

Did Bloom elaborate on why he doesn't like doing business in January?

 

[Austrian Gull]

Oh and Andy Monkhouse is not the answer, he is diabolical! How about we continue are interest in Racon and Teale, now they would be welcome additions.

Didn't Monkhouse score last night? If he can take a corner that beats the first man, track back from time to time and not believe that one good game a month is enough to be a professional footballer, then he's already better than our current left-sided midfielder.

Oh, and why would Racon leave Charlton to come to us? A dose of reality is needed.

 

[Steve Foster]

I agree with most of these postings. In addition I would say if Murray or Forster are not on form then our alternative strike force is NOT even league 1 standard. Get rid of Dickinson & Davies in the window

 

[Gwylan]

It's total nonsense to say that we're going to have a wholesale clearout. How many players did we get rid of last season? 16 wasn't it? And i's suggested we have another one.

We're not going to get rid of people mid-contract. That's a fact. And Tony Bloom is not a bottomless pit of money - we have a squad of 26 players and that should be enough. Maybe we can bring in one or two, but a squad of 30+ players carries its own burden.

People really shouldn't be impatient about this - the idea that a team, that came within a whisker of relegation last season, will suddenly transform itself into a team of promotion candidates is a fanciful one. This is a long-term project and we're going to have to wait until some contracts are up to replace the squad members. I'm sure we'll avoid relegation this year and the next and start mounting a promotion challenge in 2011/12. That seems a realistic objective to me.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

Interesting and well thought out post however we must remember this is a tough spell we are going through in a very short space of time giving the manager little time to work on the essentials.

I think that we are a capable mid table team and thats where we will finish at the end of the season. I agree that we need the aforementioned signings to make us a credible challenger for promotion but these should be considered and planned and not a knee jerk January window assault. If we rush to sign players just because they are better then what we currently have then the pot will be empty when the opportunity arises to sign players that are CONSIDERABLY better than what we have

 

[supaseagull]

forgive me for stating the blaringly obvious, but haven't we just lost against two of the best teams in League 1? It's likely we'll also lose against Charlton and yet again, people's expectations after a very good win against Southampton and an expected win at home against Wycombe, are as usual stupidly high.

I seem to recall various posters after the SOuthampton game were predicting the play offs? that's just stupid!

Also to start singling out players who are adequate League 1 players is wrong. The fact is that players like Cox are going to look poor against teams like Norwich and Leeds is because they're up against players of a Championship standard. I'd guarantee you that the likes of Cox, Elphick & Dickinson will be amazing on Saturday because they're playing lower league opposition.

All I'm saying here is just have a reality check. Losing 4-1 up at Norwich isn't the end of the world and 3-0 at home against a team who would do well in the Championship is no disgrace...

 

[Austrian Gull]

I hope Gustavo has a good list of contacts in the game because he'll need them to be able to bring in the right players and, just as tough, to persuade anyone to take some of our idlers off his hands.

We desperately need an injection of pace in the team; some solid defenders who aren't afraid of having the ball at their feet; modern, attacking full-backs (we may have one in Jimmy Mac); a central midfielder who can impose himself on the game and a goalkeeper who is good enough and not injury-prone (neither of our current keepers fit the bill).

As for getting rid of our players, who would genuinely want them? Port Vale, maybe?

 

[Northstander]

forgive me for stating the blaringly obvious, but haven't we just lost against two of the best teams in League 1? It's likely we'll also lose against Charlton and yet again, people's expectations after a very good win against Southampton and an expected win at home against Wycombe, are as usual stupidly high.

I seem to recall various posters after the SOuthampton game were predicting the play offs? that's just stupid!

Also to start singling out players who are adequate League 1 players is wrong. The fact is that players like Cox are going to look poor against teams like Norwich and Leeds is because they're up against players of a Championship standard. I'd guarantee you that the likes of Cox, Elphick & Dickinson will be amazing on Saturday because they're playing lower league opposition.

All I'm saying here is just have a reality check. Losing 4-1 up at Norwich isn't the end of the world and 3-0 at home against a team who would do well in the Championship is no disgrace...

*sensible post alert* - spot on!

 

[Knotty]

Interesting and well thought out post however we must remember this is a tough spell we are going through in a very short space of time giving the manager little time to work on the essentials.

I think that we are a capable mid table team and thats where we will finish at the end of the season. I agree that we need the aforementioned signings to make us a credible challenger for promotion but these should be considered and planned and not a knee jerk January window assault. If we rush to sign players just because they are better then what we currently have then the pot will be empty when the opportunity arises to sign players that are CONSIDERABLY better than what we have

Too true, particularly the knee-jerk signings. Some seem to think that by signing a handful of better players in January, all our problems will be solved and we'll go shooting up the table. But can't other teams improve their squads too? To use a motor racing analogy, we might be going 20mph faster after January, but so might the clubs we want to catch!

I see this as a much longer-term challenge than some are expecting.