The players highlighted in bold are defintely not unsuccessful. We wouldn't have got promoted without Billy Sharp so that one is really odd. Before his injury Jay was brilliant and we will still sell him for a profit now. Austin was our top scorer this season. Pied has been injured so he should be "too soon to tell". Anyway, to my main point. I agree we have signed several flops which are rarely mentioned when we hail the mighty black box. However, look at the money we have spent on these flops. I will grant you Ramirez and Osvaldo (Cortese signings but still) were a big waste of money. But the majority of the other signings were either loans or just a few million such as Juanmi and Forren. If you compare that to the successful list, we spent £10m+ on almost all of those players. It shows that we are willing to take a risk with small purchases which may not come good. But that overall, we spend our money very wisely.
Tadic is an occasional Lallana....to be a great player and get into a top side, you have to do better than that. Having said that I hope Tadic stays as he can be good with the right players next to him....but he isn't good enough for us to build a team round. So if he doesn't extract his digit, we should look for better.
About 10-15 games here. He is a lazy player mentally. Which is a shame. His stats were better then Lallana's the first season, but since then Tadic has looked like he can't be arsed.
Stats don't tell the whole story but he was much better in his first year than since then. Although I don't think you can say he hasn't looked arsed. Why would he suddenly stop caring and putting 100% in? I just don't think he is as good as Lallana full stop. Although I believe you and I have discussed this before; I think we have to just agree to disagree
To be fair, his partnership with Pellè was what made him so successful in those first 2 seasons, and he hasn't really had a target striker to work with most of the rest of the time.
http://www.football.london/arsenal-...l-striker-causes-confusion-appearing-13128115 Arsenal youngster Fortune is pictured in Southampton kit despite still being under contract to the Gunners. Ooops.
Lallana was an occasional lallana at saints. To be fair he is a more effective player now. Unlike almost every player we sell to arsenal where they either stagnate/get worse or both.
Being fair to Tadic, he's not the only one underperforming/not achieving. The whole middle and front line of the team haven't clicked this year. Disruption caused by selling Mane, Pelle, Wanyama? Not knowing what the manager expects him to do? Who knows but he has definately slid in terms of his performances while Lallana has settled and gone the other way. He will be a great asset in the right formation again.
To be fair our policy as worked very well so far. But I still maintain that you can't sell 2/3 key players every Summer and keep getting away with it... 2 reasons (imo): First is that in any industry recruitment generally is around 50%, for our model to work I feel it needs to be closer to 80%. Secondly, I think it's difficult to maintain a high team spirit with such a high turnover, which is vital for a smaller club. For me the second one is more important, team spirit was a big part of our success under Adkins and upto Pochs full season. I actually feel that the rumours of Puels fallout with players may have contributed to our 'indifferent' season... rightly or wrongly (wrongly imo) Claude doesn't carry the automatic authority/respect that Ron did when he came in - different debate really but a related point Since summer '14 though even after sales we've had a couple of strong characters who have helped steady the ship. Whether it was Morgan and Fonte in '14... Vic and Fonte in '15 and Ryan, Virgil and Fonte (maybe Long as well) this season. You'll notice how I've included Jose in all of those... I know he may/may not have played up this year - and that's a different debate - but there's no doubt his presence has helped steady the ship throughout all the sales. There's still strong characters in the squad, Romeu for example, but none who have been here for a decent period of time. If Virgil and Ryan leave I'm not sure who those characters to steady the ship will be... Oriol certainly to be fair. But new signings like Redmond etc. who no doubt have been good signings, don't have the connection to the club or the longevity to help maintain team spirit. All imo of course...
I agree with the first point, for our model to work we need to regularly be hitting 80% of our signings, if we want to mount a challenge on the bigger teams (probably in a 2 year window as it is rare to sign 10 players in one season). The second point I don't agree with. These guys are highly motivated individuals with (obviously) exceptional talent, they wouldn't have made it as far in football as they have if they weren't. Team spirit/comradery/strong character is not a thing at top level football I don't think, they are all strong characters. Yes there will be players who get on well with each other and build a friendship off the pitch and an understanding on it, and of course playing with each other for as many games as possible will help with an on the field understanding, but I just don't think it matters that much when off the pitch (I get that you might be talking about on the field, but I interpreted it differently). There will be players at every club who dislike other players but that means nothing when you are actually playing, you work together towards the same common goal, to win football matches. You may not speak to someone else in the side apart from when you are on the pitch, you may think they are a complete dick, but it really doesn't matter when you are actually playing.
Agree with all this. Impossible to maintain morale in a club where every season your match winners go out the door. Its a poisoned chalice for any incoming manage unless he has the funds and the shortlist of players to build his own team. Claude got neither.
Humm. This team spirit thing is interesting. It's not that they are playing a sport - they are coming to work, and any analogy with other teams needs to take that into account. I have led a few teams in my time, and getting the "spirit" right is a delicate balance. I have had groups who were very well blended. They'd meet up socially, and clearly enjoyed each others company, but trying to get work out of the buggers could be a challenge. The ideal, in my experience, is a where the atmosphere is relaxed but the buddiness is about work. In this environment, people support and encourage each other to improve. I've seen some highly talented people come in, develop and make the team better before moving on with the full backing of their colleagues. However, introduce a know all who clearly is using the team as a stepping stone and it poisons the atmosphere. If, for example, Ryan were to leave in the next few weeks, then a test of team spirit would be how this would be met by the other players. The outpouring of genuine affection for the departing Morgan both from the club and his fellow players told you a lot about his standing. The deafening silence when Lallana went may have done too!
It was a blow to us to lose Koeman after we qualified for Europe and were looking forward to the next season....the players must have felt the same. Puel was therefore on a difficult path...he needed one of two things to happen....start well (like Poch did) so all the players got on side and/or to have a presence so that the players believed in him. Puel had neither...he can't change his persona and the team struggled with the changes (not helped by losing Wanyama, Pelle and Mane). He also didn't have the full support of Fonte who was looking for a move. You have to feel for the man....he was onto a loser.
Very good point. I think this post highlights the lack of big characters and leaders. Apart from Van Dijk, I don't think we really have any players that are really big influence and presence on the pitch. Steven Davis seems to have a lot of people's respect but he isn't going to rally the troops when chasing a game. Bertrand is more likely to moan and complain than motivate and inspire. Romeu is a fantastic player but I don't see him as a leader. Schneiderlin was quite a presence for us in him time here and lallana was constantly encouraging team mates. This isn't a criticism of the current players as leadership isnt something that comes naturally to a lot of people, the players can't help their personality. I think we should perhaps look to sign, amd then retain, players with that leadership.
Completely agree with this but I think the closest we have to a presence on the pitch is Austin. Whenever I've been, he has been the loudest and very encouraging to everyone on the pitch. I remember against Palace in the cup he was continually reassuring Shane after he kept missing.
