I would love to buy the bigger, and more depth squad argument, but it seems that is just in midfield, and now in goal with Forster and Artur. We have 1 Right back, 1 experienced left back (on loan), 4 CBs (Fonte and 3 others who we feel aren't up to standard on a regular basis - Jos, Maya, and Stephens), 3 fit strikers (Pelle, Gallagher who is young and not quite there yet, and Mayuka is seems a load of nothing really). If we sign 2 CBs, and get in another striker, then I can understand that. I know the club are trying, and if the deals which are rumoured to be in the offing come through, then it will be great. At the moment though, our team, and our squad isn't there yet in comparison to previous years. Please don't think this is a negative post though, because I do believe we will sign new players.
Al, we just need to be patient. Our manager joined us at the start of July. We are making good progress and by the 2nd September I am confident the squad will look pretty good.
I understand that, and have echoed those thoughts in my previous post, it's just that at this moment in time, with Liverpool less than a week away, we don't have that squad. That's all, but I'm aware that Les and the others are trying their best. For what its worth though, if we do get all these linked players, you have to applaud the board for this window, all in all.
That would be fab, and again, if that is who we sign, then the board will have kept to their word, and the squad/team will be stronger.
Understand where you are, but put the Liverpool game out of your mind. We are where we are and the timings are all several weeks behind because of what has happened. Liverpool is just another game.
If we get something from the Liverpool game it will be a bonus, but such results do happen as we have proved over the last few years. However, I think we should accept that, unlike last year, we are a bit behind this season. Our manager has come into a new league (for him) and the team are getting used to him and each other. I have confidence in Koeman that we will come good, but we should accept that we are probably going to be a few games into the season before things begin to gel.
Liverpool aside, our first six games are ones we should be taking a lot of points from. My concern is that if we are still finding our feet as a side and signing new players, we could lose out on ten points or so which is massive over the course of the season. I am confident we can get the right players in but don't want to be playing catch up after more favourable fixtures.
We may have been priced out of Rojo if £16m is the value. I know that seems ridiculous but I think our money would be better spent on players further up the pitch.
If we sign him for £16m we will still have cash for more players. Our board are not completely dumb.
Gardos will be £6m which takes our spend to £36m so far. Our lowest budget quoted is around £70m so we could be spending half the remainder on Rojo. £16m for a winger and a striker will be more challenging for the quality we desire
where does this £70m come from? What happened to the money we would have spent before we sold anyone? I think Rojo will be bought if we can get him for anything under £20m as long as the wages fit our structure (which may well be increased this season anyway)
