[Albion] Positive article on Football 365

[Justice]

H

Good article and interesting for those that expected us to go large on a striker with the £50m from the Ben White sale burning a hole in Tony's pocket :

"The fee received for White covered the fees that they paid over the summer for Enock Mwepu (£18m), Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m), Marc Cucurella (£15.4m) and Abdallah Sima (£7m)".

Thats's £45m of the £50m already spent, not factoring their wages. Yes, substantial wages were saved by releasing many players but looking at the above figures it's not entirely surprising we didn't splash anything on a first team ready striker.

£24m on another defensive midfielder and a striker punt seems strange when we are still an injury away from having a major problem up front. Personally would of rather it be spent on a quality forward but there you go.

 

[Wozza]

Good article and interesting for those that expected us to go large on a striker with the £50m from the Ben White sale burning a hole in Tony's pocket :

"The fee received for White covered the fees that they paid over the summer for Enock Mwepu (£18m), Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m), Marc Cucurella (£15.4m) and Abdallah Sima (£7m)".

Thats's £45m of the £50m already spent, not factoring their wages. Yes, substantial wages were saved by releasing many players but looking at the above figures it's not entirely surprising we didn't splash anything on a first team ready striker.

We've all become used to spending 10s of £millions each summer without selling. Take it for granted until we see one of those transfer league tables covering the last five seasons or so.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

We've also paid fees for players who have gone into the u18's and u23s. It also ignores the Japanese fella. We even paid a fee for a womens player, so doubt we broke even this summer transfer fee-wise.

That said, I believe breaking even isn't the aim and I still think we would have bought the striker if the price was right.

I think it's more, on the striker front, we would have bought a striker if the right one/a suitable one had been available - in other words, not most of the ones we were constantly linked with by speculating journalists.

 

[lawros left foot]

The mad thing is we arguably haven't played THAT well so far this season.

Burnley - Dreadful first half, but turned it around well.
Watford - Fair enough, we were good.
Everton - We weren't at the races.
Brentford - Defended manfully but could've easily lost if they'd had their shooting boots on. Nicked a game that probably should've been a draw.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted.

Just had this exact conversation with a Spurs fan. He thinks our luck has turned. I think it’s as much about confidence.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Good article and interesting for those that expected us to go large on a striker with the £50m from the Ben White sale burning a hole in Tony's pocket :

"The fee received for White covered the fees that they paid over the summer for Enock Mwepu (£18m), Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m), Marc Cucurella (£15.4m) and Abdallah Sima (£7m)".

Thats's £45m of the £50m already spent, not factoring their wages. Yes, substantial wages were saved by releasing many players but looking at the above figures it's not entirely surprising we didn't splash anything on a first team ready striker.

There will be a few nominal fees from players who have left, plus loan fees, which I'm sure all adds up.

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

Over the years, often thought about a visiting team’s scrappy performance ‘how are they top of the league’?’ Shaking my head at the 0-1 result.

 

[Mellotron]

Just had this exact conversation with a Spurs fan. He thinks our luck has turned. I think it’s as much about confidence.

One notable thing is that we are finishing games strongly - Burnley an obvious example, but also against Brentford we were becoming more and more the dominant side in that final 20 minutes.

 

[el punal]

Just had this exact conversation with a Spurs fan. He thinks our luck has turned. I think it’s as much about confidence.

Trossard’s goal was definitely about confidence, reiterating your point. Last season he would have snatched at that shot and missed.

 

[Audax]

Trossard’s goal was definitely about confidence, reiterating your point. Last season he would have snatched at that shot and missed.

Snatched at it, after taking an extra touch that made the angle easier for the keeper even if it'd been on target...

There definitely seems to be an element there of the players being more confident to just take the shot on rather than trying to optimise it and then actually getting a much worse result.

 

[Justice]

First real test coming up, Everton we had two many players out of position to really judge our progress.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Where he’s talking about the attendance increase, those figures broadly represent ground capacity at each stage. Pretty sure we’ve been at over 90% capacity in all those instances


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[Harry Wilson's tackle]

It's very positive and reads well, but I don't think it'll win any Pulitzers. I quibble with the bit about attendances, which were mainly a function of stadium capacity, and transfers. GP doesn't have a lot to do with them as far as we know. Then he writes that we were 'the unluckiest team in the league' but later says that 'the league table doesn't lie'.

There's nothing much here that you couldn't write from looking at Soccerbase and a few online articles. And did anyone ever really think that Bloom or Benham are the type of gambler he describes?

Tough crowd!

I agree that I could have written the article myself (albeit it would have ended up five times as long and I would have referred to two or three people as ***********s meaning the article would have been pulled), but I have a modicum of knowledge and a mass of enthusiasm for the club. In contrast most journalists are simply looking for a way to make themselves look clever or controversial by creating their unique narrative, using the smallest amount of effort and with a scavenger's regard for the facts. This article was good because it was steady, and pleasing because it was complimentary. Of course I didn't learn anything, but I'm not the target reader.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Where he’s talking about the attendance increase, those figures broadly represent ground capacity at each stage. Pretty sure we’ve been at over 90% capacity in all those instances


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Indeed, but to get bums on seats you need to have the seats, which I though was his point.

Maybe I'm in too kindly and generous frame of mind this afternoon?