The defence - this time last year we had: GK's Dubravka/Darlow/Gillespie RB's Manquillo/Kraft CB's Schar/Lacselles CB's Fede/Clark LB's Lewis/Dummett We now have Gk's Pope/Dubz/Darlow/Gillespie RB's Trippier/Manquillo/Kraft RCB's Schar/Lacselles/Fede LCB's Botman/Burn LB's Targett/Lewis/Dummy It's a huge improvement and exactly where we needed to start - add to that Bruno in there in January. After that we are almost guaranteed a new winger (Harrison sounding closer by the day) and probably a ST as well, while I still believe we will sign Paqueta as well at the end of the window. We will have pretty much a new starting XI in under 12 months. Patience is a virtue while building a skyscraper.
Actually, no, not worried in the slightest. It's more just about expectation and impatience. We enter the season with at least some hope and shouldn't be in a relegation scrap. We will get there. It'll take longer than perhaps we want. There's a lot to get done. I just felt one or two names - and, decent though he is, Jack Harrison isn't it! - brought in to make the World sit up and take notice would have made a huge difference. One (likely) injury away from Wood back in the side, I thought we'd do better. I don't think there will be any big signing this Summer. Paqueta I think is a pipe dream, a fan fantasy. The journo's say things we don't want to hear but they've been more accurate so far. As I say, the one thing that I can't work out is how we had £30m for Ekitike in Jan, again this Summer and when he said no we didn't have anyone else lined up. Like the rest of the club, I think it'll clearly take a while for a decent scouting set up to be established. We've already seen Nickson demoted once, wouldn't be shocked if he's moved on after this window.
How many signings are we away from having a good window though? I think we are 2 exciting signing away from a really quality first team with not awful backup options behind them. 1st XI - Dubz, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Targett, Bruno, Joelinton, (RW), Willock, ASM, Wilson 2nd XI - Pope*, Manquillo, Lacselles, Burn*, Lewis, Shelvey*, Songstaff*, Fraser*, Miggy*, Murphy, (CF)* XTras - Darlow, Gillespie, Dummy, Fede, Kraft, Mongstaff, Anderson, Wood + youth players Granted we could easily improve that 2nd XI but I'd suggest 7 of those should/could fill in the first XI without disrupting to much so I'm happy with those options. And with 6 weeks to go in the window I'm buzzing with how that 25man squad is shaping up. Watch fo rthe last few weeks of the windows, there's always a flurry of activity with players moving around in the last few weeks which I think is where we will get some surprises this summer.
I take comfort that they convinced Botman to come. And to do that they must have made some decent promises to him on player acquisitions. I think there are things happening both in terms of transfer deals and commercial deals.
This is more like it. https://thisisfutbol.com/2022/07/bl...ed-gianluca-scamacca-transfer-broja-howe-pif/
If we had bought an exciting winger/forward instead of Botman for the same fee people would be more excited. But defenders aren't really exciting
100%. Not a chance Botman would have came if he never got guarantees that the club have massive ambition. I understand peoples annoyance at not getting that ‘stellar signing’ as it brings excitement and shows we mean business. On the other hand, I feel we are being a bit greedy at times and inpatient, a lot of folk on twitter seem to forget where this club was 12 months ago. I remember certain fans saying ‘we should be competing with the likes of Southampton, Leicester etc (this was a few years ago when soton had Poch) and look at us now. People expected expectations 12 months ago, we have that, now those exact same people are wanting more & more in such a short time frame. We need to remember this club was in absolute turmoil a year ago. ****e manager, ****e owner, ****e team, no connection from fans to the club. That’s the opposite now. In my opinion, I’m buzzing with where this club currently is. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Would people be happy with Harrison and Toney? I think that would be good business. We will get the Diabys and Isaks in due course but we have to be realistic
