You make a good point. Arsenal's transfer fees tend to be more modest than the other 4. Only Rice really stands out as a fee well beyond what we would pay. It is easy to argue that Liverpool and City have a better ROI because they are by a distance the most successful teams in recent history, so the very best players want to play for them. But that isn't necessarily true. VVD and Allison joined them before Klopp had won a single trophy. Rice joined Arsenal when all Arteta had under his belt was an FA Cup with Emery's team. The trick is pushing as hard as possible for that one world class player to elevate you to the trophy-winning (or at least: trophy-competing) level that seems to be the trick we're missing. Instead, we've adopted an approach that is significantly more costly - buying 3 x £50m players every year instead of 1 x £90m player, and are gambling that one or more of those players will develop into someone of the level of a Van Dijk.
1. Coaches dictate the manner of football played. 2. Managers control the selection of starting XIs / formations, and adjusts those in-game and cross-season as events dictate. I am of the opinion that #1 should be controlled by the club, If a manager can provably demonstrate they have coaching nous that improves on what a club already has, that is a bonus not a requirement.
I agree and I think it is obvious that world class players make a difference. But I still think that the issue is that none will join us, not what our policy is.
I agree. Spurs need to make world class players rather than buy them. They’ve done it with Modric, Bale & Kane. Hopefully the next couple aren’t too far away.
I think the difference is normally that the Head Coach is responsible for the first team squad but not recruitment. The traditional role of an English Football Manager includes recruitment.
Tel is 20. Savihno is 21. Moore is 18. Big difference. Tel was competing with Son in any case. No problem there. Call it the depth we need. Moore is not ready. Hence loan. Hopefully, when or before Moore is 20, he'll be more ready to compete. I agree that the HG CG quota situation is dire. Having said that, If academy players aren't good enough they should go on loan, and if they never come good enough, on sale.
Utd have signed three forwards who were gun players at their clubs - in the case of Cunha and Mbeumo, top performers in the PL last season. But football is a team game . They succeeded because of the players around them; it doesn’t necessarily follow that they will do well in a different team. I am hopeful rather than optimistic that they will prove to be great signings. The best managers/coaches will see how players fit into their team. They will identify players with a specific skill set or whatever qualities the team needs. That may not involve signing players who have been top players elsewhere. Only time will tell
We don't give them a chance to shine though. Case in (baffling) point: We have a young GK in Josh Keeley who absolutely excelled on loan, so what do we do? We go and buy Kinsky who is exactly the same age and give him a bunch of games in the first team. Clearly talented but by the same token his game has glaring weaknesses. I'd love to meet the scout who can look at two promising 22 yo GKs and point out which will be top quality by the age of 27, and which will fall by the wayside. So all we've done is spent money on stunting Josh's development with a player who currently isn't noticeably better than him and won't count as CG. The lack of joined up thinking does my nut in.
One issue with having Kudus and Savinho on the wings is they don't have the goal output of Son or even Johnson, which puts the onus on Solanke/Richarlison to up their goal tallies That being said, I don't think they'll necessarily both start games, for example I can see Savinho and Johnson playing so that Savinho has both Solanke or Johnson as targets to cue up
While I agree that such a person doesn't exist it does seem that every football club's recruitment department is expected to make such calls. I can't even see any way of measuring their performance on such things and I expect it's close to a coin toss decision in practice. But every club acts in the same sort of way so perhaps we are wrong.
Brenaldo as a ST with all these winger clones the club seems obsessed with supplying him could be the plan.
I hear you in that case. The way of successful teams is sometimes to bank players. They all can't make the first team, but at least some can be loaned out or sold for a profit. It's all a bit of mystery to me who gets to do what.
