I've been a Harry supporter since he's been with us but I really struggle to see or should l say count, how many half decent signings he's made. Unfortunately, Harry has had a laxative affect on virtually all his signings ................... they've all turned to sh-it. sb's comments above tell no lie. The biggest problem with Rio was that he obviously thought he could come here, wind down a little, write a book, add a couple of newspaper articles here and there and provide a cameo performance for our beloved club. He was correct, he's done just that ............... the fools are us.
All Harold needs to do is get Beausejour in to play with Isla and move Vargas into the middle Cost about 25,000 quid and we would worry any team
I am struggling to remember which players Harry brought in his first transfer window, but I can't remember any of them being remotely on the good side. His signings last season? Some will say they were good as we ended up winning the play off. Again though, only Austin can be regarded as a very good signing. Richard Dunne has been good for the club since last April but took until then to have any impact. Don't get me started on the likes of BAE, Keene, Macheda etc. OK, they were "only" loans but promoting from the Tigers Club would have been better!
Austin has been a good signing. A few like the Chileans and Fer have been ok, but aren't played in their best positions. Dunne ok. Kranjcar sometimes, but most of the rest haven't done much yet or like Rio were terrible signings. Nevertheless he should have done far better with what he has had since he took over.
Austin was a very good buy I would say about 10% success overall but put that against the money spent then it's very bad Plus in the process he has totally buggered our club image and soul He himself came to us only thinking of himself To be fair he did get us playing but since then it's been a dreadful transition imo Did he sign Henry? He has been our best player imo yet he has wanted to replace him
Redknapps signings have more often than not been awful. Loftforwords article recently stated that he has signed near to 30 players and think how many millions he has spent. Championship signings were awful. Austin was a great signing but Harry was fortunate to get him because of our wealth. He should have had more successes. Dunne's been great. But the list of duds was longer; Keane, Maiga BAE (while loaning YSY to Donny?!), Doyle, Benayoun, Hughes. Expensive short term deals then has the front to moan how light his squad is at the start of this year. Then goes and signs players aiming for a 3-5-2. Fer, Mutch, Sandro and now I would say an out of position Vargas have been expensive mistakes while we set up with a 4-4-2 If we had Sean Dyche with that budget we'd be a top half team
BAE, Maiga, Doyle, Keane were all loans, short term solutions and in most cases back up players. Hughes was on a pay-per-play basis. Was anyone ever expecting these to be mroe than that? Benayoun actually wasn't that bad - scored against Wigan at home and put in a man of the match display along with being one of the more composed players. Vargas can't be classified as an expensive mistake when he is, again, a loan player. The idea of a loan player is always a risk, therefore the margin for error is greater. As far as I am aware, we never paid a fee for any loan players we have bought in. And in the championship, for all the loan players we bought in (as expensive as they are) we also got a hell of a lot of more expensive players off the budget (Remy, Taarabt, Granero, Mbia to name a few). As much as I think some of Redknapp's signings have been questionable this summer, I wouldn't say his Championship signings were as awful as you've made out, considering several were on loan and used as squad players with little financial risk.
Sandro is the King Kong of football (though sadly, after King Kong fell off the top of the Empire State Building)
Why would you think Harry makes players bad? If this is true then shouldn't he take the credit for makimg Charlie Austin a potential international. We have a limited budget and he is trying to fulfill an obligation to buy players with scope for the future; there are bound to be misses! Look at the money Van Gaal has spent on Di Maria and Falcao are they successful buys/loans? No.
I personally don't think that the signings have been bad in themselves. However I am very concerned and disappointed by our : TACTICS: have brought in players to play 3-5-2 (ie 3 centre backs and 2 wing backs) and then play totally different formations! PLAYER COACHING / DEVEOPMENT: most of our players tend to stagnate and potentially regress, yet alone develop! Charlie is possibly the exception to the rule. It really hurt me to see Jason Puncheon tearing us to pieces a few weeks ago. whilst Junior Hoillet could not beat a player. Other examples: - Stephen Caulker good performances but seems to be regressing at present - Vargas who is regarded as a world class attacker can't seem to score for us - Matty Philips looks useless (and he was to be quite a talent for development) - Mutch seems to be very poor (and again he was to be quite a talent for development) - Fer seems to be inconsistent (and again he was to be quite a talent for development), etc The good performers are the "old pro's": - Dunn - Hill - Green, etc who probably do not need and coaching (or are resilent against it!) One area of progress seems to be Joey Barton's self control of his characters / temper which I admit has impressed me.
vargas not been too bad on the right to be honest. looked significantly livelier on the right side with him there than we have with anybody else in the last year or two imo.
We are first season back in a Division that just gets harder and harder. He had to buy, how could he have stayed with what we had? It should be recognised that with our budget and targeted player type; i.e. pay fees for players with scope and age on their side and get more experienced players in on loan (BTW does anyone think this is not a senesible strategy?) that there will be hits and misses. Charlie Austin has been a first class signing by Harry and given time so will Caulker and McCarthy. The Chileans have been excellent loan signings. This is virtually a new team from last season. Of course we are struggling as are Leicester and Burnley who also came up. The major blow for us (and I am sure you will blame this on him) was losing Loic Remy just before the window closed; and what position would we have finished with him? I reckon 15th or 16th which would have been Fanatastic even before a ball was kicked. I
You cannot say any of them have been mistakes after half a season. Fer is lively and always involved, Vargas too. Sando's injured so the jury's out there. Mutch - there's a good player in there somewhere I'm sure and it'd be madness to move him on until he's had more of a chance.
I'd be surprised if there weren't loan fees for at least some and their wages would have been plenty. We must have spent £20m+ and well over £100k a week on the three put together. Sandro has always been injury prone and we bought him anyway. Mutch hasn't taken the chances he's been given and Fer looks reasonably talented but horrifically lazy.
Yes i agree they all need to improve - all the more reason to hang on to them and get them playing the way we know they can. Sandro was a gamble with his injury problems granted but thats why he's at rangers and not somewhere better. Austen was a potential liability with this alleged 'dodgy' knee but he's been a success - sometimes a gamble pays off, sometimes it doesn't. As sure as the day is long though we're not in a position to jettison players worth that sort of money after 6 months.
Just looking at this season's signings, surely the question is who of them will be here next season? If you accept (please God, let it be so) that Harold won't be in charge next season, how many of them would be wanted by a new manager? How many of them would try to jump ship if we were relegated? The chances that Austin, Caulker & Fer would willingly stay are minimal. Add to that the players that will be out of contract. Will they sign new deals for the Championship? If we received realistic offers for any of our players during this window I think we should snap their hands off & take the money & run! Because of the policy implemented by TF & HR we will need another new team to be signed in the summer (for at least the fourth season running). Would you trust HR to make these signings? Would you expect him to look further ahead than six months? It is because of this short term policy that we are in the mire! All transfers are a gamble, but I would sugest that since being our manager, Harrold has a very low sucess rate. I will have no problems if we reach next Tuesday without any additions to our squad!
You posed a question and got it answered, be prepared for differences of opinion. if you are happy with the league position, quality of football, and performance of players and manager/coaches, that's fine. A sensible strategy would have been to sack Redknapp the day we were relegated last time, start the rebuild with a new manager and accept it woud take 2-3 years in the championship to get some kind of soul back. And yes, I did say that at the time. [
