SIMMO SAYS
Well-known member
Think it's pathetic that we've wasted yet another opportunity to push on. Will struggle again this season
I'm sure you've mentioned this before
Think it's pathetic that we've wasted yet another opportunity to push on. Will struggle again this season
6.
Mission complete - the hilariously bloated squad is now on a sane level which should help everyone at the club - training sessions will be more normal, each player can get more individual coaching, not a lot of unhappy faces lurking around, Tony Bloom probably wont have to take £66m out of his wallet to cover deficits... lots of problems have been solved.
Happy with the signings and (even more so) keeping Bissouma, never thought it would happen.
Would have liked to see another attacking player of some sort but more out of luxuary than necessity, no one important has left.
Verdict: not very exciting but pretty good.
I'm sure you've mentioned this before
I think there's a lot to this but I don't agree completely. The window was more about outs than ins and keeping Biss and trimming out the likes of Ali J is decent.
Yes, we HAD to trim the wage bill - job done. Yes, we needed to signa defender to replace White and a full back was more needed than another centre back - and we've signed a really good one. And I personally like Maupay, think he's a confidence player (on 2 goals in three games), think he brings a lot to the way Potter plays and think we won't get much better for £20 million. But we could have got DIFFERENT.
The squad is crying out for pace all over and height up front. A quick "attacking option" and a proper target man are really needed because at the moment we say two things. Firstly we will be playing tippy tappy slow build up and will only ever score headers from set pieces. Secondly we will be starting with one up front or even a false nine. EVERY game. Sending Connolly out on loan in addition or even selling him and bringing in these two types of additional options would have been my preference. But it would have been expensive, difficult and risky. I acknowledge that.
I've gone FIVE/
Would have been great to get another striker in, but as we all know, decent Premier League-ready strikers are like hen's teeth, unless you have pockets much deeper than ours. If you look around the EPL, how many teams have brought in a striker? I had a look at the list for my own benefit mainly:
Man City - shipped out Aguero, not replaced
Man Utd - Ronaldo (so far out of our league it's not worth thinking about!)
Liverpool - no
Chelsea - Lukaku (just under £100m!!)
Leicester - Daka (very decent signing - but too good a player to come to us)
Spurs - No
West Ham - No
Arsenal - No (spent a fortune on midfield and defence)
Everton - No (not sure if Demarai Gray counts)
Villa - Ings (great signing, but wages way out of our league), plus Bailey
Leeds - no (unless you count Dan James - 6 goals in 50 appearances)
Wolves - Hwang (but only a loan)
Southampton - Armstrong (but lost Ings)
Burnley - No (but seem to have bought half a dozen defenders!)
Newcastle - Munoz (but only a loan - untried in EPL)
Watford - Dennis (looks promising, but no EPL experience)
Palace - No (but may get Edouard...who most on here think is crap!)
Brentford - No
Norwich - Sargent (no EPL experience...11 goals in 70 games in Bundesliga)
Gutted and sad that we will only have Maupay (who I like but was very poor last year) and an injury probe Welbeck up front. A signing would have upped their games I'm sure. Trossard and Maccillster don't have the pace or the power to score enough goals. Connolly is nowhere near good enough. He's a shadow of the player we saw make his debut.
Sad really as a striker could have seen us really go for top half imo. Now it seems the best we can hope for is a better points total and a higher finish which I still think will happen. Just would have liked to have dared to dream higher.
Would have been great to get another striker in, but as we all know, decent Premier League-ready strikers are like hen's teeth, unless you have pockets much deeper than ours. If you look around the EPL, how many teams have brought in a striker? I had a look at the list for my own benefit mainly:
Man City - shipped out Aguero, not replaced
Man Utd - Ronaldo (so far out of our league it's not worth thinking about!)
Liverpool - no
Chelsea - Lukaku (just under £100m!!)
Leicester - Daka (very decent signing - but too good a player to come to us)
Spurs - No
West Ham - No
Arsenal - No (spent a fortune on midfield and defence)
Everton - No (not sure if Demarai Gray counts)
Villa - Ings (great signing, but wages way out of our league), plus Bailey
Leeds - no (unless you count Dan James - 6 goals in 50 appearances)
Wolves - Hwang (but only a loan)
Southampton - Armstrong (but lost Ings)
Burnley - No (but seem to have bought half a dozen defenders!)
Newcastle - Munoz (but only a loan - untried in EPL)
Watford - Dennis (looks promising, but no EPL experience)
Palace - No (but may get Edouard...who most on here think is crap!)
Brentford - No
Norwich - Sargent (no EPL experience...11 goals in 70 games in Bundesliga)