[Football] Selling Off The Albion Family Silver

[Springal]

The first round cup game was away to Forest Green, in a game which Jack Spong and Ed Turns started, whilst someone called Jack Hinchy came off the bench - a player I knew so little about I had to Google what his first name was.

Whilst your point is true, I’m not sure comparing that game to AEK or Marseille is entirely fair.

Edit: Admittedly that team looks quite strong now, but Ferguson, Enciso, van Hecke & Steele weren’t first team names when it happened. Mitoma had only played about 20 minutes too.

I still don’t believe as it is now the squad is over worked / over played. IMO we are trying to be to cute / clever with selections without ever really playing our best starting XI to oir disadvantage so far

Try telling any of this squad who have played in the EFL that there’s to many games (so far…)

 

[chickens]

I want us to push on if we can, but just being in the Premier League counts as success. To be in the European places is staggering. We are unlikely to achieve this on a regular basis.

The media and the club have had a bit of a love-in recently, that makes me hugely uncomfortable. My experience of the British media is that it imitates a toddler building sandcastles at the beach, it only builds you up when it wants something to knock down later.

We have good players, we’re a good team, but the teams above us wouldn’t be at the top unless they had the ability to learn and adapt. They will work us out as far as we can be worked out, and adapt accordingly. We either have to present a moving target, or be so good that it doesn’t matter that other teams know our game plan, our players and coaching are so good that we can’t be stopped even if the opposition know what we’re going to do.

We will always have to sell if the price is right and the player is clear that they want to move. I will personally be delighted if we can regularly be in contention for the Europa League. I definitely don’t expect it.

 

[tigertim68]

Three. We sold Trossard

And lost Enoch as well , who everybody seems to have forgotten

 

[Whitechapel]

I still don’t believe as it is now the squad is over worked / over played. IMO we are trying to be to cute / clever with selections without ever really playing our best starting XI to oir disadvantage so far

Try telling any of this squad who have played in the EFL that there’s to many games (so far…)

To be fair, I agree to an extent. I think some of the moaning from footballers and people associated with them about fixture congestion are incredibly out of touch. Especially at this time of year where people will be picking up 2nd jobs to provide a proper Christmas for their kids etc.

However, I'm not a professional sports scientist so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it does have an effect. Even if we finish 4th in the group we'll have played the equivalent of winning the League Cup after entering the 2nd round in half the time frame. That doesn't include our actual game in the League Cup. If we finish 2nd or 3rd in the group then that's another round we wouldn't need if we top the group.

Ultimately this is a bit of a side-track from the point I was making though. Despite a tough set of fixtures at the star of the season, we're currently in position what would be our second highest finish ever and another season in Europe. The squad is looking a bit wobbly at the moment, but this time last season most of us thought we looked light up front, before Mitoma, Ferguson & Enciso burst on to the scene. I'm not going to claim we're on the brink of doing a Southampton just yet. There's every chance that this time next season we're worried about losing Hinselwood, Samuels & Baleba as we continue to do what we've been doing.

 

[Littlemo]

I still don’t believe as it is now the squad is over worked / over played. IMO we are trying to be to cute / clever with selections without ever really playing our best starting XI to oir disadvantage so far

Try telling any of this squad who have played in the EFL that there’s to many games (so far…)

Tbf to RDZ, I don’t think it’s about them being overworked now. It’s about getting the others up to the fitness and standard needed, so that when they are needed to play, they are fit and ready.

You need games to do that and tbh, it was one of his big mistakes last season, that he left the likes of Undav, Van Hecke, Gilmour, Enciso etc on the bench for much of the season and played tired players over them, when we might have had better results had he played and integrated them. We managed better once they were eventually brought in.

 

[MattBackHome]

As things stand we’re currently 7th, having played 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th & 9th in our 9 games. We’re doing this whilst balancing Europe for the first time in our history. The doom and gloom seems slightly premature.

Bedwetters one and all, and largely from people with enough dust in the mirror to know better.

 

[Weststander]

The defence is definitely not “fit for the knackers yard”. Dunk, Estupinan and Veltman are all high quality players, JPVH and Igor both seem very competent too. The lack of consistency and defensive ability in midfield is selling the defence short. Last season our midfield routinely consisted of Mac Allister, Caicedo and Groß, this season we’re seeing some highly suspect midfields ie the 2 man option that was steam rolled by Villa.

Agree, but it’s the lack of quality cover in defence.

Injuries/bans/trying to be too clever by half forever giving in form players long rests …. to Dunk, Veltman or Estupinan, and we’re stuffed.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

As things stand we’re currently 7th, having played 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th & 9th in our 9 games. We’re doing this whilst balancing Europe for the first time in our history. The doom and gloom seems slightly premature.

This. Anybody would think we were hovering above the relegation zone.

 

[KZNSeagull]

If the club knew Caicedo was going in the summer, why did they offer him a new contract which, incidentally, he signed? Are we now saying that Mitoma is going to leave next summer because he has signed a new contract? The club has to plan for the future by getting players to sign contracts. If one of them decides he cannot survive on a gazillion pounds a week and has to go elsewhere (even though he was 5 months into a 4 year contract), then I am not really sure the club can plan for that in the short term. Caicedo was signed long before Bissouma left.

Yup, we need defensive cover but conversely, if we signed so many players ala Chelsea, when would they play if everyone was fit? After all, there is lot of grumbling about too much rotation. It's a toss up which injuries and Casheido have messed up slightly, but it will come right again and it's not like we are doing that badly

On the subject of rotation, does our squad run a lot more than the other PL teams playing in Europe? If so, I can understand RDZ liking to rest players, but otherwise I think he has overdone it a bit. Man City etc rotate but not to the extent RDZ does unless, of course, paying players mega bucks suddenly makes them a lot fitter so they don't have to.

 

[GT49er]

I’m not sure he’d have played Trossard again since there seemed to be a lot of stropping about and falling out. I only meant players RDZ would have kept and played.

Agree - I think Trossard probably felt (quite rightly, I think) that he was being edged towards the margins under RDZ, and also maybe his face/playing style didn't fit, so offski he went. As did Sanchez. Webbo next?

 

[Springal]

On the subject of rotation, does our squad run a lot more than the other PL teams playing in Europe? If so, I can understand RDZ liking to rest players, but otherwise I think he has overdone it a bit. Man City etc rotate but not to the extent RDZ does unless, of course, paying players mega bucks suddenly makes them a lot fitter so they don't have to.

Man City actually played the fewest players in the whole PL last season! 22 different players, next nearest was 25

 

[dejavuatbtn]

It was a bit weird watching Chelsea v Arsenal with 6 players on the pitch who were with us in the past couple of seasons. Must be some kind of record - once was the time our players left to fall in the abyss.

 

[gripper stebson]

Was watching the Chelsea v Arsenal game last night. By the end of the game a quarter of the players on the pitch came from us. Not many sides could cope with such a huge exodus of talent wihtout a bit of a drop off.

Still frustrating though!

 

[gripper stebson]

It was a bit weird watching Chelsea v Arsenal with 6 players on the pitch who were with us in the past couple of seasons. Must be some kind of record - once was the time our players left to fall in the abyss.

Great minds...

 

[Sheebo]

We look to be shaping up to sell off the Albion Family Silver Attack next summer.

would like to know why you think this and why we look to be shaping up to do this - I see zero evidence myself…?

 

[tstanbur]

Surely we are only selling players when they make it very clear they want to leave. And at that point we maximise the selling price.

Otherwise we don’t appear to be looking to sell anyone.

It just so happened that this situation happened for two of our best players at the same time, which appears to have given some the wrong idea.

 

[Wozza]

If the club knew Caicedo was going in the summer, why did they offer him a new contract which, incidentally, he signed?

To keep him sweet/motivated for the last few months of the season. Raised his price. Got us into Europe. A win all around.

He and Alexis were always going to go. Genuinely amazed that folk on here thought otherwise.

Back to main topic, club messed up a bit by not getting a) an adequate replacement for Caicedo (was always going to be tricky given his influence) and b) an extra LB.

(Obviously Colwill would have been nice.)

Don't really think it's doom and gloom, though.

 

[dazzer6666]

I still don’t believe as it is now the squad is over worked / over played. IMO we are trying to be to cute / clever with selections without ever really playing our best starting XI to oir disadvantage so far

Try telling any of this squad who have played in the EFL that there’s to many games (so far…)

Tell it to the players getting injured

 

[Justice]

I heard from someone who works at the club they didn’t expect the £100m plus asking price for Caciedo to be met and he was firmly in the plans for this season.

 

[dazzer6666]

If the club knew Caicedo was going in the summer, why did they offer him a new contract which, incidentally, he signed? Are we now saying that Mitoma is going to leave next summer because he has signed a new contract? The club has to plan for the future by getting players to sign contracts. If one of them decides he cannot survive on a gazillion pounds a week and has to go elsewhere (even though he was 5 months into a 4 year contract), then I am not really sure the club can plan for that in the short term. Caicedo was signed long before Bissouma left.

To keep him motivated until the next window (knowing our qualification for Europe probably depended on it) and to maximise the sell-on value. Great busines.