I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a reason for why we’ve done next to **** all. I also reckon it’s down to how ****ed the Europa squad situation is. Any new signing has to take the place of someone already in the squad unless we re-sign a CG player. So Kinsky will have to replace someone, you also have Spence too who has made it impossible to not select him again and when you factor in only 3 changes are permitted, we’re ****ed really.
hadn’t even considered the europa squad. What an absolute mess we’re in. Injuries are inevitable for any team. But as we’ve discovered over the last 18 months, we’re more susceptible due to the style of play. Which means needing a strong, balanced squad. Which we haven’t got and wasn’t/isn’t being addressed properly. It also needs appropriate rotation, which we (to a certain extent due to the lack of suitable squad) can’t fulfil. It also needs as much flexibility in working with what you do have, which is where Ange has exacerbated things further by not playing certain players like Lankshear and Spence. Once again it feels like there’s a massive disconnect between the board and the manager. We had this under conte.
I think this is definitely the case. This has all the hallmarks of the manager being a dead man walking. Levy can't sack him now because we're still in the cups and in his defence there's a dozen players out injured. But as soon as those facts change, he's gone. Ange confirmed that we were going to sign Kinsky anyway in the summer, we just brought the plan forward to January. I'd be amazed if we see any further signings of significance.
agreed, it just doesn’t make any sense. Other teams are strengthening in January, so we can’t keep hiding behind the “January is too difficult” excuse. If there’s ever been a January window where we need to make additions, it’s this one, so it’s quite telling that we haven’t. I suspect you could be right in your theory of him being a dead man walking. This would also coincide with those comments we previously heard about Terzic. They seemed a bit bizarre at the time, but maybe it all ties together.
Reguilon at least has a logic to it, given he was told to leave last summer but didn't Most managers would banish players to an extended stint in limbo for that
That was last summer. Are you seriously saying that despite being desperate for a LB, you wouldn't have started reintegrating a player before Xmas? That smacks of a personal intransigence which somewhat fits with his 'my way or the high way' style of play.
The sheer fact Ange registered him in the Prem squad should’ve definitely resulted in game time too. If you wanted to send him a message and banish him, you don’t register him in and you send him to the 21s. Putting him in and not playing him even when desperate shows an incredibly stupid piece of management, though that’s generally summing up his time as manager these days - incredibly stupid.
Here's a scenario that I'm wondering about: as we're system over manager, what are the chances that Lange has a signing or two ready to go - but Ange is seen as an obstacle, either because we've been waiting for an excuse to replace him, or possibly because Ange has flat refused who those players It would certainly be greaseball **** if by Friday we've sacked Ange, brought in a replacement and very quickly afterwards announce a couple of signings Weird thing is we have sort of got precedent for this: Santini turned down Andy Reid, but once he was out the door we signed him (with a Michael Dawson chaser) and that did look like Arnesen had been plotting
If for one second we ignore the managerial situation as that's taking up the bulk of mutliple threads, and "pretend" his future is absolutely secure for the moment, how do you see the rest of this window playing out? We need signings, no doubt of that but we're in a situation where at this moment in time, our Europa squad is full barring the return of any former CG player and it's also worth noting for anyone that may not know, only three changes to the Europa squad is permitted. So any signing right now will likely have to join either in place of a current player in the squad or join knowing beforehand we won't be registering them for Europe, if it ends up being the latter we can almost guarantee it won't be a very good player and more likely a Werner-esque stop-gap loan type. Who do you potentially see joining (name or just a position)? Who do you potentially see dropping out of the Europa squad should anyone come in? Do you think we'll use two of the changes for Kinsky and Spence?
I think, for the reasons you mention, that we’ll end up with one, possibly. Ideally we need 3 or 4, but unless there’s some sort of miracle in the next 10 days not much is happening, IMO. - unless the club decides to opt for potentially unfavourable targets that meet the CG quota etc, which makes that current situation easier. with all that’s going on with the manager, I can see a situation where we don’t sign anyone else to be honest. - with “January is too difficult” being the excuse.
Also everyone is now acutely aware of our desperation so costs rise and the mercenaries will lick their lips for a last chance pay day. I suspect the club will roll the dice on getting the injured squad players back as quickly as possible...
