[Albion] Have we spunked our money on average players….or

[tigertim68]

The thing that worries me none of the players seemed to have improved since the beginning of the season , indeed the teams drop of in performance is reflected in the players , we desperately need more experience in the team , and maybe in our management team

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Young players with a lot of potential they aren't showing. Hopefully that applies to the manager. Not convinced

 

[jcdenton08]

When we purchased these players to develop and give experience to in the “long term”, they didn’t mean 18 games.

 

[Han Solo]

I predict all of them to have more successful and far less average careers than anyone posting on this board tonight and a 0-0 against Brentford ain't changing that.

 

[BNthree]

We spunked £200m, as we could under FFP rules, on a load of potential talent we might hopefully sell on one day. Nothing about strengthening the team and all about business.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

I’m pleased with all of the new players. In the limited time they’ve all actually played for us, I think they’ve all shown they’re going to be important players for us.

I’m incredibly excited about how good this team could be in a year or two.

My only disappointment with the summer window was that I’d have ideally spent a bit more as ideally wanted another right back, centre back and possibly a striker!

 

[Springal]

I think we are catching up a bit, losing Mac & Caicedo in the same window wasn’t in the plan, and seemingly our transfer plans for last season were a bit undercooked or we couldn’t get enough over the line.

Losing a lot of off the field personnel won’t have helped regardless of what those that talk about algorithms will say.

I don’t think I’ve seen any of the new players yet and thought they look miles off it but the manager needs to get a system that brings out the best.

Also not helpful how many of our ‘stars’ are way off if - Enciso, Mitoma, Ferguson ..

 

[GT49er]

Funnily enough none of these moaners were here when we were 4th, 2 points off of being second.

Hardly any of the new boys were in the team then either!

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I’m pleased with all of the new players. In the limited time they’ve all actually played for us, I think they’ve all shown they’re going to be important players for us.

I’m incredibly excited about how good this team could be in a year or two.

My only disappointment with the summer window was that I’d have ideally spent a bit more as ideally wanted another right back, centre back and possibly a striker!

You really are glass half full….. (I do mean that positively).

I feel more excited about the ones on loan.

We really miss Ferdi and Wieffer (out of the new signing).

 

[Simster]

Players will be fine if they had decent coach!

We've thrown away leads against Leicester, West Ham and Southampton in our last four games, yet you want to blame the manager alone for this lack of gumption and character?

What exactly do our £40m+ players on thousands a week have to do for you to consider that maybe they're also part of the current problem?

 

[London Irish]

I don’t think Fab believes in a lot of structure so it’s all looking a bit of a haphazard mess right now as the players themselves try to make things happen with very mixed results. Pleased with Gruda tonight, a step up from West Ham. Georginho is treading water at the moment but is a good player. Minteh created what could have been a match winner but a woefully out of form Adingra said we’re having no joy today

 

[Zeus]

The owner has let the squad building be led by the algorithm proposing players that might be worth money in future over what the team needed now. So we’re chock full of kid wingers and cams and no experience or leadership. Horribly unbalanced which means we don’t know how to win football matches.

 

[portlock seagull]

It feels like Fab wants to play with all his toys in every game, and more so, has no idea how to set his stall out. It’s too Jumble Sale for my liking. Gamleys not Hamleys.

 

[Seagull58]

Need a younger Welbz. A natural goal scorer.

Someone that shoots........

We had someone who shoots in the team yesterday. Barndoor Julio shoots all the time. Unfortunately, when he was 6 yards out with about 6 Square yards to aim at either side of the keeper he managed to hit the thin white post.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

10 players approximately £220m spent.

I would suggest we have spent average money for players with potential.

Suspect we won't make much money (may even lose money) on the 4 players that were signed to join the first team
Weiffer, O'Riley, Rutter, Kadioglu (£125m spent - £100m transfermarkt valuation)

May not make money on our expensive youngsters
Minteh, Gruda (£60m - £50m valuation )

But we'll probably get a decent return on our young development squad
Cozier Duberry, Yalcouye, Osman, Gomez (£35m - currently £40m value)

Overall, I would expect us to make at least a small profit on the resale value and/or also get a decent amount of playing time from them.
Which in my mind is good business.

i.e £200m back to reinvest over the next 3 seasons.

 

[Mackenzie]

We're not building for today, we're building for tomorrow.

The young talent will get better and better over the next few seasons.

To be fair, they're already f***ing quality... but you need to be more patient.

Do you think Hurzeler is the man to develop these players? So far which players would you say have improved since the beginning of his tenure?

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

This is not to knock Tony Bloom's model, as where it has worked (Caicedo, MacAllister, Bissouma, etc), it has clearly worked very well. Trossard is another example. I know he left heavily out of favour because of his behaviour and attitude, but on form he was virtually unplayable at times. However, I wish we would take more of a mix and match approach, as the likes of Fulham and Nottingham Forest do. Alex Iwobi has been excellent for them the last few times we have played them, and they also tend to go for young players, such as Harry Wilson and Morgan Gibbs-White, who haven't made it at Premier League clubs, or who are on their way down, rather than end of career players.

I am happy with Verbruggen in goal (and one of the positive things Hurzeler has done is to end goalkeeper rotation, which must have helped his confidence, and bar the odd ricket - Tottenham at home and Fulham away he has played very well), but I would be told the reason we wouldn't sign a keeper like Leno is that he wouldn't have any resale value (or wages, but are Fulham that better off than us?). I disagree - I suspect before long one of the Manchester clubs will make Fulham an offer they can't refuse, then Fulham will probably buy Kelleher. I'm not saying we should have bought Leno, just using him as an example of the type of player they go for. Also, taking Trossard as an example, some of our recent signings seem to be more experimental than previously, whereas Trossard was Captain of Genk when we signed him and, as far as I know, already an established Belgian international. Such players are obviously going to take longer to fit well together in a team.

 

[Mustafa II]

Do you think Hurzeler is the man to develop these players? So far which players would you say have improved since the beginning of his tenure?

I don't know. Time will tell. My view is that he's continually improving as a manager, just like our young players are.

I would say Baleba, Ayari, Verbruggen are some young players that have improved under his tenure, but that is probably because they're getting a lot of game time. Again, time will tell.

 

[Albion in the north]

Anybody know how many times weve been able to play the same team 2 or 3 times in a row? The impact of injuries?

 

[dazzer6666]

Do you think Hurzeler is the man to develop these players? So far which players would you say have improved since the beginning of his tenure?

Not seen enough of them before they joined us to know, and Rutter excepted none of them have had a sufficiently long spell uninjured and starting to be able to judge yet. Rutter looks decent value but is missing Danny.