Very valid comments about next year magic, especially Forest. At the time, I thought they were nuts & it’s very risky but they have proved it can work.
We said this last time, didn't happen; we lost Doyle & Meghoma because of a lack of opportunities, and ****ed up Ballard by sending him out on loan. Whilst Dibling & SAA barely got a look in.
If comparing us to Forest then the issue isn't the fact we signed Downes & THB, it's that "billion quid" they spent which we didn't. You were exaggerating of course, but their net spend of £160m compared to our £60m is what killed us. Downes was a fine signing for £15m and at £20m THB was decent too, he is probably already worth more than that. If you added a £30m CM alongside Downes, a £30m striker and £30m winger then we would probably be alright this season - but we don't have or aren't willing to risk spending what Forest did.
Well yeah but part of that problem was also how big our squad was. They literally had a handful of players contracted when they got promoted. We had about 20, which instantly makes it harder to add numbers They are obviously an extreme example but of the teams to get promoted in the last 3 years they look the most successful (I know 3 years is a small sample size, but football changes so much year to year I think looking back further doesn’t really represent now)
That is a good point. Our squad was, and still is although to a lesser extent, too big. A lot of that wasn't due to SR in fairness but they've had 3 years to clear the crap now. Although their smaller squad doesn't account for the additional £100m in fees spent as all those players would just replace the wages. We could get rid of the following and replace with just 1 or 2 players and we would be no worse in terms of quality or depth. Onuachu ABK Sulemana Stephens Taylor KWP McCarthy/Lumley BBD
Good point. They have got a couple of good ones such as Fernandes, Ramsdale and I think Suguwara will come good - but you can't forget the £40m on Sulemana and Onuachu.
We won’t improve until we sort out the powder puff midfield. No pace, no strength, no power, no goals, no creativity (Fernandes has potential), no premier league defensive qualities. Might be good enough for the Championship but still needs to be improved massively if we want to bounce back up. Defence would improve if the midfield was better. We have championship goal scorers in Adarma and BBD and I suspect Archer would be good enough too. More importantly we need a cohesive style of play that sees everyone knowing what to do, where to be on the pitch and balls. We lack balls. Swansea will be a test for just how low we have sunk.
I’d rather see us play SAA than Sulemana at least the lad actually puts in effort and runs. Can also see ABK getting a run out for this one.
We'll lose SAA due to a lack of minutes if we're not careful; just like we lost Doyle & Meghoma. He would offer so much more than Sulemana
The club sent me an email today telling me there were tickets available for this game. Obviously cannot attend (being in Riyadh), but l would not be willing to spend £22.50 to watch this team and putting any money into the pocket of SR feels counterintuitive at present. Which makes me think that the fans should express their disgust with SR by boycotting this game.
Another thing which annoys me with cup games, might just be me being petty so curious to see what others think... But I hate the fact that the ST reduction price is only in place for the time period where only season ticket holders can buy. You get a reduced price as a perk of a season ticket and it shouldn't matter whether you buy the day it goes on sale or two days before that match you should get that reduced price. Is it just me?
Think Archer would be an absolute beast in the Championship. Scored something like 10 goals in 20 games for Boro, and that was a couple of seasons ago. Midfield is definitely where we need improvements. I'd be going all out on a bid to bring JWP home. 10-12m should do it. Him and Downes in the middle would be amazing.
Baffles me tbh. Him and Adarma up top with Dibling playing centrally as CAM behind them is what I'd go for personally. Maybe Juric is just experimenting and trying to see what certain players like Sulemana and Onuachu bring.
