We miss first half of last season Broja and Romeu. We obviously have a strategy which is to buy young, the big risk with this is in the 2/3 years it takes for these players to mature we are in serious danger of relegation.
Was he, though? Last year, he lost his spot...to Elyounoussi. On merit. If Nathan Redmond is the answer to our lack of creativity, we're really aiming low.
Because it just didn’t. We seemed to have bid circa 30m for Gakpo. So had there been a striker we wanted who had wanted to come and been available the funds were clearly there. I’m not sure why it is necessary to pretend otherwise
Elyounoussi is extremely bad, I don't disagree there. And he took Redmond's starting role because Redmond was completely invisible for weeks at a time. We need much better than both of them.
He didn’t want to come. He had his head turned by Man United as it looked for ages like he would be going instead of Antony. This has been widely reported. I think there are even quotes from him about not wanting to join Leeds or saints. So the funds were not the problem. I don’t think even giving him all of that 10m straight into his pocket would have done it. And that would have been an insane thing for us to do The funds were there. It seems like the players were not. And this shouldn’t exactly be a shock when you look at the other half a dozen premier league sides desperate for a proper goal scorer
Partly agree, in that we miss easy chances, but the trouble with ho wwe play, we dont create many, either.
If we are in the market for a striker in January, we are looking like a good proposition for someone who wants to include a relegation clause in the contract. I will be surprised if we buy anyone of real worth, simply because few decent players will want to come to a team that, by then, might be cemented in the bottom 3.
We had a fee agreed with the team. That wasn't the issue. The issue was that the player didn't want to join.
Agree with you on Mara, I really like some of the stuff he does. For me, Ralph appears to try to strangle any type of creativity and risk out of this side. Edozie, yep like him but not a starter yet for me.
I think it's a combo of Ralph being too passive and a lack of clinical striker. Thing is, anyone is going to struggle to manage this team effectively without the latter. So I don't know if Ralph out is a real solution, or if we just need to splash some cash. If we had a clinical striker we'd be mid table, comfortably, and the Ralph thing wouldn't be a question...
At least we’ve seen Redmond play well before. He has it in him. I think it was the second half of the 300BC season maybe, he had a blinder. Quite a while ago admittedly, but he can bloody play ball.
Yep, agree. But why did we keep Ely at all. They should have both been shipped out, but this useless ****wit has played Ely almost every game. He had 1/2 a good game v arsenal, the rest utter invisible.
Only four more PL matches until the transfer window opens. But seven (or probably eight, with Brentford potentially slotted in) matches until the transfer window shuts. And those January matches are very big for us. No way, no way, no way should be looking to sign a striker by 11pm on 31 January. We should be looking to sign one for naming in the matchday squad on 4 January. The opening of the transfer window only relates to being able to transfer a player's registration. You can still do all the background work beforehand.