Well you might be OK with our CB options this season being Vlaar, Fonte, Yoshida and Hooiveld, but I certainly wouldn't be!! (Even more so no we have no Shaw)
No idea. Never seen Gardos play. I'd never even heard of him until 24 hours or so ago. I take it that he can't be worse than Jos, but is he up to Lovren's standard?
We already had enough Premier League quality goalkeepers for our first XI. We don't have enough Premier League quality CBs for our first XI. Who we might have signed is irrelevant. At this point Yoshida looks like starting and he's not good enough as first choice in the Premier League. I'll be happy (although less unhappy might be a better way to put it) if we sign someone who's a clear upgrade on what we already have. I suspect our chances of signing someone as good as Lovren are pretty slim now.
Well we are signing two CBS, so Gardos plus another. I imagine we will spend a lot as we were offering quite a lot for Rojo
It's not irrelevant if we're still pursuing them, and it's not irrelevant if discussing our overall pleasure or displeasure with this window. We're likely to be a team that struggles to score goals. To have a decent-or-better season, we're going to need to do very well defensively, and I really don't think that Clyne/Vlaar/Fonte/Bertrand is an upper-tier back four.
Davis and Gazzaniga are not Prem keepers. I do not really see what you are moaning about. Koeman has already said we are/were after Rojo. Do you really think just because we may have not get Rojo we just give up and not look for another good cb? We have also heard we are signing Gardos, so it's not like we are stregthening our whole squad.
Well we are broadly on the same page then. In my book, Yoshida isn't even good enough to be a first choice back-up in the PL, let alone a first choice starter. So like I said, I would be very happy to see Vlaar come in and push Yoshida down the pecking order. But that wouldn't stop me being disappointed if our primary CB pair for the next nine months is Vlaar and Fonte. In my book, that is a large step back from last season. It is not a first choice CB pairing which appeals to me in the slightest. Vlaar AND someone better than Vlaar please (if it were to be Vlaar - I don't particularly mind either way. I just want two CBs, both of whom are better than Yoshida and at least one of whom could do an adequate job of replacing Lovren).
He's good if you're planning to stack men behind the ball, as Villa did. On a team pressing up the pitch, though, he's likely to be exposed with some regularity.
No they're not good enough. Our backups aren't good enough. That means we need better backup, not that we need a first choice keeper. We do desperately need first choices in other areas (CB, winger, striker). Before you say it, no signing Forster doesn't mean we won't get the other players but (from what I recall) you think we're going to sign Redmond. So it looks like we're spending more on the player we don't need than we are on the player we desperately do need. Which to me is very very strange. I'd much rather we focus our spending on areas where we don't have starters who are good enough. So spend £2-3m on the capable backup keeper we need and £10-12m on the first choice winger we really need rather than spend £10m on a keeper who I'm not totally sure will be better than what we already have and £6m (or whatever) on Redmond, who wasn't even guaranteed a place in the Norwich team that got relegated last year. As for the centre backs, I never said we'd give up but based on the summer so far my gut feeling is that we won't be able to convince anyone as good as Lovren to come here. Yeah, fair enough. I'm not as down on Vlaar as you are but I do agree we need 2 CBs. Plus at least one winger (I won't be impressed if it's Redmond) and a striker (Ings seems to be the best we've been linked with but even then it's a heck of an ask for him).
If we chase players X, Y and Z who are a keeper, CB and winger, but only sign the keeper, doesn't mean we consider a keeper more important, but may mean we couldn't get the CB and winger over the line. I am happy that we have got one more player in Forster, because it means one more box ticked. The recruitment team can now concentrate more fully on the next target....we may moan, but these guys must have been working their socks off being put in the unusual position of chasing so many players at the same time. They don't go for one target per position, but have a series of targets because we may not get our first or even second choice.
