Wonder if Russ will give much away on the match preview today? Honesty tends to be the default position with him.
Your first paragraph seems contradictory other than the “not selling up” part. Because what would selling everyone, not reinvesting and not putting the effort into getting the best chance of promotion be if not asset stripping? And as I pointed out - if they sell all the good players they still don’t balance their spend overall to date and are left with a championship club that will likely ultimately be loss making and without promotion would have to be sold at a loss as well. That is not how business people work. And it is keenly pointed out that this lot have no connection or affection for the club They need to try and get the club promoted. But they were never going to spend even half of the big fees brought in. Not least because it doesn’t seem like the squad even needs it once looked at objectively rather than through the negativity of last season. That changes if more players leave but in that case the income goes up and so the percentage still will be lower
He's a useful PL striker because he provides more than just goals, but his limitations are such that you only want to use him in the right setup: generally alongside a more natural goalscorer, where he can do the hard work and chip in with a few, or late in games to provide energy and disruption while leading. Good option for a PL side that has an established striker and wants a utility player coming off the bench/occasionally alongside them, bad option for a club where Che might end up needing to be a focal point (like, say, Everton if DCL can't stay healthy). The club where I think he'd fit best isn't one of the bottom-feeders, it's Villa (assuming Archer's off). Solid cover for Watkins, good enough to start in European games to ease the workload, has played plenty of pressing football and should suit Emery as an energy forward.
Patent the term, "energy forward" Could be used to describe a multitude of forward players such as Nketiah, Moore and DCL!
Are we perhaps after both Holgate and Wood ? Seems odd that the reporting is that a move of Wood is stalling when it was only first reported two days ago. Unless Swansea are being unreasonable - which seems eminently possible
What is with these no option loans? I assume they make agreeing a deal quicker ? And that we don’t think he’d be enough if we got promoted ?
Well, we did **** them off in the summer so I wouldn’t be surprised. This is preferable to setting the precedent of having our pants pulled down publicly
How ? I only heard one side but by all accounts they were completely in the wrong trying to claim we were a premier league club for compensation purposes when we were relegated and clearly weren’t. Just because they tried shenanigans doesn’t mean they have a right to be aggrieved. If they wanted more compensation then they should have put that in Martin’s contract. Or if they wanted to be able to claim more from a relegated premier league club than any other championship one - again, contract
I mean, there's always an option to buy,, it's just that there is no exclusivity. Whoever was right or wrong - the Swansea board were clearly peeved with Saints, and probably still are.
Then it sounds like the Swansea board need to grow up or get out of football. It honestly sounds truly pathetic. If they are going to react this way whenever someone approaches their manager they better hope they are consistently poor from this point on and then it never becomes a problem
It’s by the by anyway. I’m more intrigued by reports that the deal is stalling so early. Or maybe it isn’t and is due to the Swansea board
If you think people with that much money don’t have big egos, I don’t know what to tell you. What a disappointing window so far.
Aren’t members of the board usually a mix? Including people who are more “standard” FD and MD types. Sure - people with a lot more money than the average person but not astronomically so. Granted I don’t know who is on their board. But l guess if there even a couple of bigwigs with bruised egos that is enough
