If we let Raphina or Harrison leave and also allow Summerville to leave I'll be lumping on relegation. I genuinely think Summerville could step in for Raphinha.
Okay, but I can’t really remember (might be my age) who he brought in when he got us promoted that made us go wow (for the championship). I’m ready to be reminded / corrected
Hélder Costa, Benjamin White (loan), Jack Harrison (loan), Illan Meslier (loan) and Eddie Nketiah (loan) Even those loans were about 2m a year plus wages. Completely unheard of amounts of money for previous 16 seasons. Btw in o way am I trying to detract from Bielsas achievement but put a little perspective on it
So, with the exception of Costa who played in the championship with wolves every other player was a gamble. As balance, how many did he get rid of that were brought in at request of previous managers? Are you saying Heckingbottom would have got us promoted with the same players.
*Costa felt like a new addition (although could argue Saiz left few months before with no replacement, albeit slightly different positions) *White replaced Jansson who was highly rated and sold for a decent fee. Worked out well for the 1 season, but when we couldn't make it permanent left us looking around in a shortened pre season. *Harrison turned out well. *Meslier came in as a bench player and only needed due to a ban but took his chance well. *Nketiah replaced Roofe. I liked Roofe in Bielsa's first season in particular and feel this didn't work out so well due to him being recalled and us then wasting money on JKA. *Bamford replaced Lassoga (Wood). Got a big fee for Wood, fair enough the Bamford signing did show ambition. *Douglas again a good signing on paper but didn't quite work out. Got good money for Jack Clarke and Vieira too. In conclusion I didn't have much expectation based on ins/outs, but the performances were class right from the off.
Point I made is Bielsa was properly backed. Heckungbittom was another mistake. Gary monk managed 7th with virtually no backing for example
The best thing Monk did was bring in one Pablo Hernandez, on a free and get Bartley and Pontus on loan
Yeah Heckingbottom a complete waste in that period, good job he didn't do relatively well or they may have persisted with him! Monk brought in Green, Roofe, Ayling, O'Kane Bridcutt, Pablo, Bartley and Jansson. Pedrazza and Barrow in the winter. On the back of the foreigners leaving and Cook being sold. Interesting matchup between the 16/17 and 18/19 squads
With respect but LDS has blown this away. His time may have been up but let’s not diminish his achievement.
OK being the pedantic so and so that I am, I did exactly what you said Eire, and found you're very first and original post on 14 May 2011 This of course has nothing at all to do with the discussion on this thread, its just me being me and taking Eire's challenge of reading his "original post" in the most literal sense that I could Thank god its was only the fourth from last page of posts for our part of the forum, or else I might have even lost the will to do something that would mildly appeal to my own sense of humour
It's scary in a way. I'm just over 3 months away from my 10 year anniversary of being on here . So an average of 161 posts per year, or one post every 2 1/4 days. To those who think I post useless stats, this post will blow your mind
Didn't realise that I'd been here 11 years too. Well, come August it will. Serves me right for lurking too long. Guess I must have been 18 when I joined, given I'm only 29! (And if any basturd shouts: "29 stone, more like!", they're dead!
Just so you don't feel left out WJ. Posted 13 August 2011, on page 597 of our section of the forum BTW I think Snoddy was tired
