if giles was a free transfer, youd be thinking.. wages we could have spent elsewhere.. when you realise how much his transfer fee cost.. my body shivers
I refuse to believe we have less quality than Derby who sit pretty in mid table. If we can add a little bit over January and fitness stays okay then I think we’ll be fine. What Derby do have that we don’t though is 3 good off the ball midfielders, Adams being the pick of the bunch, he covers every blade and actually makes tackles. Slater couldn’t knock over a bloke with no legs he’s that powder puff
Well we obviously do have less quality as you've just stated what they have that we don't... We have a starting 11 with to many players that at best should be squad players at the bottom end of the league
I suppose but in terms of technical ability we are light years. We’ve neglected the midfield for 3 seasons
Ebou Adams is nowt special on the ball but as a pure ball-winning midfielder, he’s better than what we’ve got currently. Strong, athletic, works hard, won’t be bullied etc. Not as good on the ball as some of our midfielders but he wouldn’t have let Baah glide past him like Mehlem and Slater did on Wednesday. If he couldn’t win the ball back cleanly, he’d have just took him out and taken the yellow for the team. We signed loads of central midfielders in the summer and bar Palmer and Zambrano (now suspended), none have improved us one bit.
Most our technical ability is in the treatment room though unfortunately. Our league position isn't a blip or a bit of bad luck, we're bottom because we can't finish chances or stop making stupid mistakes at the back. We need an injection of exactly what you've described but we also need decent and consistent players with technical ability
I think we also need a leader on the pitch who can motivate and organise. Coyle tries hard but was again shown up today for both goals. Also time players were selected because they could put in a shift and worth their wages. I really do not see any championship clubs coming in for any of this squad so the clear out is not going to happen. as been stated here many times non of the loan players have impressed so hopefully we can send them back
Adams averages 4 tackles a game, he genuinely is a freak off the ball. Absolutely crap on it, but we could really do with him
If we want to move players on in Jan it's really going to cost us, but as you say the loan players going back would help
That’s why I was raving about Cheick Condé in the summer. Similar profile to Adams in terms of defensive work off the ball but good on the ball too. Could play as a lone number 6 or in a double pivot. Would’ve cost £3-4 million in the summer and been worth every penny of that. Dublin is probably aware of him but doubt he’d come here in January even if we were interested now given the situation. Instead we took a huge gamble on Zambrano that has backfired as we’re now left with Simons as our only physical defensive midfielder. It’s an absolute joke how piss-poor our transfer policy has been under Acun.
I think it was hit or miss in previous windows but the last transfer window was very poor. At the time they were recruiting city had just missed out on the playoffs so should have been able to attract better players. For most of the summer signings their Christmas has already come and we are saddled with poor quality signing with a seemingly don’t care attitude and taking the money
It’s like when we brought in the likes of Kevin Stewart and Jon Toral. Those signings should have been pretty good and they all turned out to be absolute poo.
Millar, Belloumi, Kamara, Drameh, Hughes, Palmer, Alzate, Zambrano, Rushworth are not poor quality signings. Possibly add Burstow too. With what we had left from last season, that should have been enough, even with our 2 so far underwhelming CFs, to see us comfortably mid table (athough I am now starting to re-think on Pedro, perhaps he might actually be half decent now we're freed of Walter and now he's properly up to speed). Usual awful luck with injuries plus the failed punt on Walter, and to a degree Zambrano, have ****ed us up. Roll on Winter 2024 / January 2025 transfer window
