Mental aswell how many of those have been outright failures at the clubs who signed them too Could easily say 5-6 were complete wastes of money
You're right mate. It's a balance thing. I'd say we have a good number of players who are capable of handling life in the PL. Half at least of the side who played at Wembley. But all of them would be more likely to settle if they were to be playing in more established PL sides. Ballard for instance, would IMO be fine in say Bournemouth's side. He would then be surrounded by players who have had a few years in the league and who have experience in it. This counts and is why a lot of them would have been targets for different PL teams if we hadn't went up. The same could be said for a number of others. So it's getting the balance right. We need some help as all promoted teams do. A lot of it, as the team was so young and inexperienced when we got promoted. But if we get it, then some of these players will, IMO thrive and step up. That's a bit of a Goldilocks picture, but it is what we are trying to do I think. We do have some really good players, and we emphatically can not, will not and should not try and change a whole team. We are going to be okay. Whatever happens, and these lads who got us here have went some way to ensure that.
I think there’s a tendency to read too much into preseason performances. I agree Neil has struggled for form looking back a bit longer but the lad spent months adapting to RLBs system and his own form suffered for it, iirc the lad even admitted that himself at one point. There was a couple of months it clicked and I’m hoping being surrounded by a better calibre of players will see him raise his game.
In the situation we’re in, all three that is, we can’t get experienced players without reaching into the relegation teams or paying huge wages and fees ( we can’t) and that’s got no guarantee either.
Aye. So it's the likes of Reinaldo and Xhaka if that was possible. Maybe a goalie. It might be experience, but not necessarily PL Experience, which as you say, is not affordable.
Mate thats great post and one that sums my feelings up. However this weekend and recently I have noticed and bitten too many times at posts. Every single player fron last year bar ELF have been written off as not good enough on social media and here. If more than 2 of them start against West Ham then I worry if its even worth turning up they will clearly batter us and anyone daring to offer a different opinion is a happy clapper, older generation that doesn't understand the modern game. After all 1 player on his own managed to drag the entire rest of the team down Saturday, impressive from that 1 player
Of course it will be ok, my worry is like last year the minority get loud and their "realism" goes around. Take last year with Patto, didnt take long for the fatto ****e to really take hold, then the embarrassment of our own player being jeered at the sol for making a pass. God help us this season
I’m expecting championship interest in Alan Browne in the next week or so. Reckon he’ll be gone soon. Just a feeling…
the post i quoted was 'would you have areola here' so i replied with my opinion and that i would not want to swap him for patto as he is still, as far as i am aware, our number one keeper.
Just catching up. the club want a keeper for West Ham. They did anyway. Patto injury has increased the need but even RLB said the other that we need a goalkeeper, he wants one, he wants defenders. In fact he wants reinforcements in all areas still. So I’m expecting us to be busy I’ve watched some more of riznyk today and I really do see it with him. Fine tune a couple issues and he could be a really good keeper, his reaction stops are great which are going to be vital for us
So him and his lovely girlfriend were in a clubhouse and keeping an eye on the game because I support Sunderland. Xhaka came off to good applause from their fans, a dirty look from Ten Haag and 'is this his last game' comments. Nothing too impressive to be fair and the 'auf wiedersehen pet' comment was his to me ... ... made me laugh though and better than nowt
He does listen to me. I drop messages in bottles off the bridge in fatfield and the river takes them to him. He rarely responds though.
Yeah not flappy and when he does gets it out of danger, if the fee is around £10-12m like has been banded about then could be a great deal.... but we can't exactly trust that.
To be fair I don't think the club could've said much more, they're making no secrets of wanting players and which positions. Since Ghisolfi arrived things have really stepped up. I think we'll manage the next signings, and loans in/loans out, etc, very well. What a transformation since a year back. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Rigg, Hume, Ballard, Mayenda, Huggins, etc, deal with things ... ... other players have emerged in the PL before, why not some of ours.