They wanted to leave. Their representatives wanted their clients at bigger clubs. The Albion’s business model exists to support this inevitability.
I wasn't contradicting that.
And that’s fine if we replace key players or have the replacement knocking on the first team door. Not just sell and leave massive gaps in the squad
Odd, that's how I thought we looked in the first half only to then double down in the second.
That would be ideal - but how well would Mac Allister and Caicedo have played this season if they'd been denied the big move that the former had earned and the latter had already been denied once? I don't think there's much you can do when the money's huge and the player wants to go.
That’s not what I said we needed to replace them and we didn’t.
Fair enough. I reckon Bloom would have loved to replace them too. I guess it's just not easy to bring in players at the right price that are as good as a Champions League standard pairing. If poor old Mwepu had been able to carry on, I think by the end of last season we'd have been talking about the best midfield in the Premier League bar Man City, and it wasn't far off it without Enock. To have a chance of attaining that ready-made quality, we'd have been looking at a minimum combined £80m+ in transfer fees (assuming players of that calibre would even sign for us - look at Kudus) plus the knock-on for the wage structure. If even one of those players turns out to be a dud, we're on the slippery slope that's put so many other clubs on their arse.
Surely you have to trust your recruitment team. As it happens they got it right about Kudus.
We were right in it until the penalty
True. He's excellent - but that would have been £40m plus wages beyond what we pay, with the knock-on effect for the rest of the squad. And then you need another one.. plus a full-back and maybe a winger. And then hope they don't get injured, because you've spent all the money on a few first-teamers and still don't have the depth of squad that RDZ keeps banging on about. I don't disagree with you...just think it's easy to say, much harder to get right.
IIRC we were after both Kudus and Darwin Nunez at a time when they weren't really big, high-profile stars and might have been in our price range; both they (and their agents) got bigger and better offers and, not surprisingly, went for them.
Nah f*** that. The club were blindsided by Boehly’s billions. They NEVER considered the obscene offer for Caicedo and when he went it meant that one of the best young DMs in the world was out the door. You just can’t ‘replace’ that talent. f***ing City or Madrid would suffer if they lost Cac & Mac in quick succession.
At one point the Kudus deal was practically done they must have known wage demands at that point
Mac leaving was expected almost a certainty and we are told we have replacement lists ready to go for each position.
Perhaps missing out on Kudus provoked the Fati experiment. The squad might be f***ed off that Fati gets 160 bags a week and is hopeless! Irrespective of how good our lists are, replacing Mac was anticipated and Gilmour has done a fair job in his role. Caicedo not anticipated and thus shit timing. Baleba is raw but with potential and we’ve suffered in midfield.
If we’d have got Kudus and Nunez back then, every chance they’d have still been hot prospects that needed time to settle and develop. Pretty much like the players we do sign. It’s the idea that we could have picked up players last summer already as good as Mac and Caicedo that I’d dispute. Think you’re right about other club’s scouting. We’ve been so successful that early interest in anyone now seems to get all the clubs with bigger wallets interested.
I think we were still interested in Kudus when Wet Sham muscled in, weren't we?
Yes I believe so. Heard we were in a good position for the purchase until they offered a bit more at fairly much the last minute... maybe a nice Casio as well?
