We have more strength in depth but probably not enough to stay up. If we go down Robertson and Harry will gonforvsay circa 20 million, all the loans will be off. Maybe Clucas an all we don't have a lot left then. Bar 4 goalies!
Not a perfect set of transfer results, but it was never really going to be, as we're far from the most attractive proposition in the Prem. Having said that, Marco has a few extra players to work his magic with, so if he can get similar performances out of them, it might just be enough.
Silva said he wanted more wingers as we didn't have enough wingers. So Ehab sells Snodgrass, a natural winger. We sign one winger, who is unproven, but talented. So how is this squad more suited to Silva? It's not. Ehab talks about thinking long term, this whole window speaks of being short term. Our squad isn't settled, what we should of done is add 3/4 players to an already okay squad rather than trying to completely reshape it with loans. If we go down we will have a tiny squad and no money, if we stay up we will have a tiny squad and need to rebuild again. We have no long term strategy. I have no idea on most of our signings, I am yet to be convinced by Elabdelloui (sp.) he looks pretty poor to me, and the other new ones I've not seen. I will continue to support the team and the new players, but I reckon we are going down.
Have you had a go in the "name the squad" thread? Let's see your well balanced, 3 centre backs, squad.
I've not said a single word about his wages, I've no idea what they are, or how much of them we're paying.
Grosicki and Markovic are both wingers, so we've added those two. We've also added a natural RB so Elmo can be played further forward.
How many times have you seen snodgrass beat the full back get to the byline and cross the ball? He's not a natural winger
The final list... Incoming... Signed Oumar Niasse (striker) - Everton (loan) Evandro (attacking midfield) - Porto (undisclosed) Omar Elabdellaoui (right back) - Olympiacos (loan) Lazar Markovic (winger) - Liverpool (loan) Andrea Ranocchia (defender) - Inter Milan (loan) Alfred N'Diaye (defensive midfield) - Villarreal (loan) Kamil Grosicki (winger) - £7m Rennes Gone Allan McGregor - Cardiff City (loan) Johan Tor Horst - York City (loan) Jake Livermore - West Brom (£10m) Robert Snodgrass - West Ham (£10.2m) Alex Bruce - Wigan (loan) James Weir - Wigan (loan) Rory Watson - Scunthorpe (free) Josh Clackstone - Notts County (loan)
Absolutely agree. If we had spent a huge amount of money on speculative signings (and they would have to have been speculative - we weren't going to attract really well proven PL talent in our current position), then the potential millstone of having them on our books next season in the Championship could have been a financial disaster. Whether Marco can blend a team of overseas loanees with no PL experience into a team to avoid relegation - well that's another matter.
Not saying we should have sold snodgrass but We actually have a few wingers now Elmo can push up to play on the wing now and markovic and the chap from Poland
Probably the best comment I've seen this morning, is that we now have a stronger squad, but not necessarily as strong a starting XI. Time will tell. We also made a £15m profit on player sales, so anyone who thought that bank loan was to fund purchases was wrong. No doubt some of that profit will be eaten up by an increased wage bill, but hopefully some further debt will also be repaid.
