There seems to be a general mood of disappointment and from some anger over the transfer dealings in the window. Feel more balanced about it myself. Personally I think TP has taken a calculated gamble, which if he gets wrong will be catastrophic. Having looked at the table I believe he has taken the view that with 30 points, we are in a position to obtain enough points to keep us safe this year. As a result he has moved on a couple of the bigger wage earners, whilst not paying the silly money for players that has been flying around this window. Given our midfield issues re creativity I would not have sold Tuncay without bringing in at least one forward thinking creative midfield player but in terms of creativity at least Ric did not leave and Carew on loan is a good piece of business. The summer will, in my view, see a big clear out at Stoke and a change of emphasis from TP. He has always talked about three years and we will be established in the PL and can move on. That's his time to prove it, as a 4th year of sterile football will see him coming under increased pressure from fans, some of whom are just becoming more vocal and disgruntled with the style of play. Looking at our 25 man squad there are some who have gone and at least 6 or 7 that need to go as they are frankly not good enough for this level. The summer will see the true extent of our intentions for the future.
I really fear for our style of play now, I fear it's going to be like the days of 2004/05 season when probably the worst football i've seen was being played week in week out by Pulis, we've got 3 bruising target man and you could argue Jonny is a sort of target man, as he doesn't have any pace and is good in the air. I really don't understand what is going on.
Not as bad as I'd feared we still have Shawcross, Matty and no one came in for Huth. The players we sold could argueably be our best but we were not using them, I think we got Tunny 2 years too soon ( like putting a roller engine in a transit). We have enough to stay up, we need to build over the summmer, but try and get the players we want early, to bed them in for the new season. I just hope we have not put the quality players we need to attract off coming to Stoke, lets face it we could have done better by Tunny.
