Sadly I think your right.....from a business point of view getting a young player that basically cost us nothing and developing him into an EPL player must be very profitable as we have seen with Southampton. Surprised not more pressure coming from Ellis....
Completely disagree there. The players we have can, and should, player better, more positive football. By no means a bad side individually. Just play anti football.
Just been thinking about this actually, our team would smash the championship, we just need to turn a few draws into wins
No doubt a bout it, we've got a Premier League team who should stay up comfortably on paper. But we need to bring 5 in minimum in the summer. More if we get rid of the weaker players which we would be working on if the squad wasn't in such a mess. DG, Fletch, Wickham, Bridcutt, Buckley, Gomez and Jones should all be out the door but won't be going anywhere because of our situation. So we'll plug 5 gaps, hold on to players we should be moving on and have yet another slow start while our 5/6 new players try to integrate with players who aren't good enough to be here. Short has done well to get our pennies balances but he hasn't addressed the problems in the squad adequately so I can't anything but another slow start and another struggle should we stay up. We've got a good team in this squad, but the squad itself is in a mess, still.
This is where we've been going wrong for years. Bodging jobs to keep things running instead of getting tradesmen in. Water tank is leaking so you put a bit of silicone on it. Car radiator leaks so crack an egg in it. Slow puncture in your tyres, who cares, just keep pumping them up. Car has oil leaks, nee bother, it's easily topped up. You get the picture?
Ageed mate. We're still doing it too. We could put a stop to it next season buy buy 5 young up and coming players to replace the the outgoings long term but instead we'll loan a couple, add a couple of average free agents then spend a fortune of a marquee signing who'll end up a crock.
Says it all when your best defender is in his midthirties, signed halfway through the season as he was unattached.
You've quote the first reply to the thread mate. I'll give you one guess as to who it was a response to.
To answer the OP - when we get it right. Look at ManU with some of their recent signings. Huge outlay for players with ability but somehow need adjustment time.
The Bad news: Looking at the 14 "success" players Funky has mentioned since the end of the 2010-11 season and 5 loan players, 2 GK's. This means the outfield players who he deems as good signings in the last 4 years are: Van Aanholt (has looked very good), Defoe (32), Reveillere (35), Fletcher (28 this month), Johnson (27), Larsson (29) and Watmore (good prospect). The team you put out on Saturday must have had an average age of 29ish with nearly all either being at or past their peak. The Good news: I think you're under-rating some of the 'decent' players. Whickham, O'Shea, etc. Mostly though some perspective. Since the end of the 2010-2011 season (when you finished 10th) all of the bottom 7 teams in that league have been relegated (W. Ham, Blackpool, Birmingham, Wolves, Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton) as have Fulham (who finished 8th) and potentially Villa (who finished 9th). In the last 4 years almost half the league has changed so survival, even ugly survival, is something to glad of. How many of those relegated teams have come back?
Oh also (sorry to double post) but that was the first season back for West Brom and Newcastle. So during your time in the Premiership - this spell - more than half the league teams have been there less time. You are probably the 8th/9th longest at the moment.
