Oh FFS,Don't tell me Foden and Coyle are regulars on grindr too. Note...Notice I never used the **** me intro?
I think Óscar and Moore are good at getting in the right place at the right time and suit a certain style of play. I don’t see how either of them fit Walter’s particular style of play. That’s no slight at either of them but it’s like judging a fish’s ability to climb a tree.
I think Walter’s style favours a striker like him given the chance creation levels. We can’t keep ****ing around with this position and I think this is one we can’t really criticise they’re bringing in someone who’s done it and is doing it still. Delap wasn’t a particularly relentless presser but we’d take him back in a heartbeat. We’ll be supplementing where he maybe has a shortfall with more midfielders who are combative and dynamic. Had we done this under Rosenior I have no doubt we’d have got playoffs but he favoured technicians where Seri was the best
Mm, maybe. I just remember everyone raved about Figueiredo in summer 2022 because everyone was convinced an ‘experienced’ bruiser centre-half was what we needed at the time. He was ****e and it turned out Jones and Greaves was the best centre-back pairing all along. Figueiredo was a case of signing a player without considering how he fit into the style of play. Believe it or not, Shota actually wanted us to be a possession team that played out from the back. The execution of it was just ****ing dreadful and it was in no small part due to recruiting players who couldn’t do it.
The thing is though Figuerido was signed on the back of 6 months where he was decent. You ask any forest fan before that they thought he was ****e. Moore has succeeded everywhere he’s been recently. I understand signing players for a system but there isn’t an abundance of strikers out there let alone ones that regularly score at this level available
I do get what you mean about striker profile. My hope is that Walter is approving these and is willing to adapt the style somewhat. In possession providing we have some decent wingers and a midfielder willing to run beyond someone like Moore is perfect. Out of possession I didn't think from watching Ipswich Moore was a massive burden but admittedly a faster striker like Al-Hamadi for example would suit Walter more. These are evidently the signings we can get over the line and have been working on for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully they invest in some youth now and build a decent squad core like we all hope. I'm confident someone who was outcast last year is going to make a step up as well as it does tend to happen every year similar to Coyle getting the nod over Christie despite being chastised the year before
If Moore is being brought into sit on the bench and come on late in the game, its a fantastic signing. I just hope we also bring in a younger, quicker striker as our main starting 11 player.
On the money point, we don't know what's happening with regards fees because several outlets have reported different things and we won't find out until either deal is completed. We did try to go for Delap but our race was run once Southampton and Ipswich got involved. I don't think we are trying to replicate Brighton or Brentford in an identical fashion; I could be wrong but I don't think I've heard either Tan or Acun actually state this to be the case, plenty on here have said it's what we should do and it's not difficult to imagine that some clubs probably do want to copy that model. For us to do that, we need a much better academy producing talent at a much more regular rate than it is doing. Some of our new scholars this year have come from Liverpool, Spurs and Sunderland, which are all Category 1 academies. Even if a scenario like Jevon Mills being bought by somebody like Walsall but us putting a 20% sell on fee into the deal and profiting by proxy if they go on to bigger things would be a good move. At the minute, far too many lads are coming through and then ending up at clubs like Beverley, Gainsborough or Ferriby (no disrespect to them). That's where our investment needs to be outside of the first team, in my opinion, because that's where you make the most profit going forward. If Jarvis comes into the fold and has a worldie, that's another one we will have produced. Andy Smith, Tyrell Sellars-Fleming, Rocco Coyle, Owen Foster, Stan Ashbee and Sincere Hall are all fantastic prospects, but they need that game time to properly thrive. You only have to look at Alfie Taylor who just wasted a season of his career in Ireland doing nothing despite being linked with Leicester last season to see how precarious it can be. We have to get the loans right this season for those lads, though if Macca is going Smith and Ashbee should be knocking on the manager's door asking to show what they can do. On recalling Oscar, it's probably more to fill bodies out because by all accounts he was finding his feet again at Bahia and we don't want to line up on Saturday with no recognised senior striker. If he does well, it can't hurt our chances. Plus, Oscar might be able to be retrained. We saw the conditioning that Rosie did with Tufan and it's not an understatement to say he transformed Tufan as a player. It was night and day from the player we signed to the one that left. Oscar is no slouch, he isn't as rapid as Philogene, but he's not exactly slow and lumbering either. On your last sentence about the disconnect, I see your point, but consider Acun's past. He is a media personality, so everything in the public eye must be positive and perhaps not entirely representative of the whole picture. That's not to say he's lying, but there might be certain aspects of what he says that are stretched to benefit the club's image. At the end of the day, it's in his best interests as a businessman to get us promoted, so therefore it's in his best interests to have people around him that are able to make good footballing decisions. Tan is one of those people, Beri Pardo is another, ditto Mert and Walter, they're incredibly intelligent when it comes to football and I know the whole "brain trust" thing is becoming a meme (sadly not the Scrubs one I was hoping for), but it makes total sense and is something Ehab should have done instead of pinning all his hopes on Darnbrough. Signing older players isn't profitable, but value isn't just found in what a player could be sold on for in the future. The long term picture is massively important, but likewise we need an impact in the short term or it's just going to be a rinse and repeat until Acun leaves. If Moore comes in and grabs 12-15 goals this season, it's been a good purchase. I think he's a great striker at this level, not somebody I thought we had a chance of getting and offers something different to the other strikers we're looking at (which are younger and quicker, more like the pressing style Walter plays). He's not going to get bullied by the likes of Stoke and Millwall, put it that way.
How do you know Walter isn't going to change his style to suit the English game more, at the end of the day his 'style' didn't do him much good at Hamburg as they sacked him!
On Brighton - when they got promoted they had both Glenn Murray and Steve Sidwell on their squads - who were getting on a bit but got plenty of game time I seem to recall? Even since then Brighton haven’t been averse to signing more experienced heads alongside their prospects - I’m thinking Milner, Welbeck, Lallana etc. I completely agree our main money this summer should be going on prospects and this is really the only way we’ll ever compete to get in the PL. But a squad full of them? Brentford made it work but I can’t think of many others, surely that’s how everyone is aiming to do it now. It’ll be a hard job and filled with bigger risk. A blend for me is perfect and if part of that is bringing in a striker from a team that finished 2nd last year than I’m all for it. But I’d like to see prospects through the door too.
Damn it is hard to chase this thread. But finally a striker with decent goalscoring history mentioned, good news. For me football is simple, find a striker who can score at least half of games, find a good keeper with reliable hands - I don't ****ing care about their legs, and finally, find midfielders who can run and pass at decent level, not only good at one of them. Rest of the positions can be filled somehow, most of the line-backs were wingers in youth level. At this level, these full back positions only requires good level athleticism, any player from 2nd tier French league can fill those, it is not Champions League in the end. And if Acun is eager to bring Turkish talent, I mean if he really wants Turkish presence in team, I don't want Fener offloads anymore, please go for young and physical ones, they are pretty cheap also. Akturkoglu, great sprinter, signed Galatasaray from 3rd league, for free, Yilmaz signed from lower league plays like a beast, for a million or two and Yuksek signed Fenerbahce from Tier-4, all physical and consistent players. For example Enis Destan, Oguz Aydin, Levent Mercan (was a good option but signed Fener). Don't go for players technically gifted but lacks physicality, like Sinik. Considering slow tempo of Turkish league, those guys will be crushed in Championship, both game tempo and match count will kill them.
I was surprised how good Moore was with his feet when I’ve seen him a few times last season. Always looks a threat.
All well and good .... but we're 4 weeks from the season starting and we currently have only the bare bones of a senior team, being one that would without a shadow of a doubt be relegated. Kalman's take imo is therefore reasonable at this stage (the caveat I added). It isn't just a "Foden and Coyle (being) just fine playing with eah other after a couple of weeks training". It's near enough a full new team. Yes, hopefully signings do start to come in rapidly now and Walter & his coaches do get sufficient time before the season kicks off (which is the milestone Kalman was stating). I do think we'll end up with a decent squad, but I'm doubtful that it will be all done in time to "gel" before the season starts, but rather come in dribs & drabs right up to & including deadline day .... after which the gelling will continue and we will be playing massive catch up. But only TWT.
