This I don't see much depth past James and Drinkwater, plus someone experienced in the middle of the park is one of the main things for me. Ulloa must be fairly good if Pearson hasn't given up on him.
I think one of the other problems is that if we signed a player on 40K a week other players have in their contracts saying they will have parity with any top earners....imagine the uproar if we did that ffs. In NP I trust
Championship players that ripped the division apart last year? I think they showed everyone they are too good for the Championship; perhaps you weren't watching? Or perhaps you judged us on just one viewing, like you did with Mahrez? Hull only tripped over the finishing line on the last day in the Championship (in second place, and mainly thanks to Watford messing up) hence you had to make a fair few signings to survive - which you only just did, despite spending something in the region of £30m on transfer fees alone. I'm quite glad some are misinterpreting our limited spending as not being ready for the Prem. Historically, we always do better when we're not fancied.
Oh yeah for some reason I got mixed up with the Argies. But the point still stand Vincent Kompany, Jan Vertoghen, Toby Alderweirlder etc Still quality defenders
Let's be clear here, Algeria were a very good side in the World Cup. They pushed Germany all the way in their knock-out match. Mahrez, who is only just making his name, did well to get into the side. Besides, the manager didn't so much "drop him" as rotated the squad frequently. Only one of the outfield squad failed to get onto the pitch. Jelavic hardly set the world alight in a very weak group and was dropped after one game. Does that mean he's not Prem class? Afterall, Hull paid nearly £7m for him!
Jelavic was dropped because Mandzukic was better, Jelavic is also proven in the Premier League so the comparison between him and Mahrez is ridiculous.
It wasn't a comparison between Jelavic and Mahrez. It was pointing out a flaw in your thinking that just because he was dropped from the first team of a team at the World Cup, doesn't mean he ain't any good
Half a good season out of 2 and a half years is hardly proven If offered a choice of Jelavic or Ulloa i would take Ulloa
Looking average at the World Cup, how awful. Would love to know your review of Jelavic's performances. Although to be fair they'd never have scored against Brazil if he wasn't such a donkey.
Average in what context? I'll be happy if he's an average Prem player, or an average on the world stage. He certainly wasn't average in the Championship.
He was ****, that's why he was dropped for Mandzukic. Unlike you I can criticise my team's players without getting overly defensive.
Did anyone say we can't critise our players? You're twisting it to suit you so let me spell it out for you. Mahrez didn't play well in that world Cup game but that was unlike his normal self that we see week in week out so the point the others are making is that you cannot say he is a bad player based on one poor performance against a ver good Belgium side, the same as Jelevic had a bad game agains Brazil but cannot be considered a ba player. Good players have off days but nobody knows how Mahrez will do in the prem no you not us so it is unfair of you to write him off at this point. Is that clear, do you understand?
I think this has gone a bit off topic, but addressing the relevant points you have more or less agreed with the question... Is NP a championship manager in the transfer market? You, like myself, are full of praise for his transfers LAST season, where the risk of buying a 400k player from France or an ex Polish International on a free transfer is very minimal risk compared to paying an extra £2million for a "top class" striker and maintaining PL status. TBF I would have loved for us to bring someone like Jelavic for £7million as a proven PL player who would add an extra dimension to our style. Bruce has that PL experience and knows sometimes you may have to pay over the odds/break the contract limits to sign the players like Huddlestone or Jelavic that will guarentee PL experience. I mean mainting top flight status next year must be worth a good £100million more than going down so why not implement a bit of logic and spend some of that to achieve it. Like I said before I am hoping to be proven wrong but I can honestly say at this moment in time I don't think the strategy is right. I think it is worth investing the £1-2 million more which clubs are asking for IF NP believes Ulloa, Slimani or Wickham are the right targets as the pre season bonding is probably worth the extra cost in context of the bigger picture.
