I don't often agree with Robbie and his crazy stats but. If we were averaging 2 goals conceded last Premier league season playing attacking football conceding 75 and scoring 26 . I would have thought an overhaul of our defense would be the first thing addressed and then maybe push the boat out on a long term replacement for Pukki. Instead we sold our best player that carried us for the last few seasons and spent the money on more midfielders. We now probably have to upload a few to trim our squad down and go into the season with no credible goal threat other than Pukki and no centre backs that have performed that well at this level. I'm still full of hope but we are one injury away from a crisis already after game 1. I understand we aren't a rich club but replacement centre backs and strikers never seem to be on the radar . I would have been more confident spending the money on Ajer and Armstrong but we were priced out for both . I hope I'm wrong and Idah scores for fun with Zimmermann and Omobamidele keeping back to back clean sheets but it's not very realistic. Skipp was magnificent last season but we seem to have given up on replacing him too.
To me it just beggars belief - scrap getting a wingback or a centre back or a defensive midfielder or anything. Hire a new corners defensive coach. There is just no excuse for how shaky we look every single corner. Even the terrible ones which fail to beat our first man somehow end up with an opposition player having a clear sight at goal from the edge of the box!
It's not a case of giving up, we clearly wanted him back. Spurs appear to want to keep him. He's a Spurs player. That's it. Maybe it's only just become clear that he won't be coming back. We also clearly wanted Ajer, but seem to have got strung along until it got to the point that the value someone else was willing to pay for him was more than we were prepared to pay Whose to say we don't have other irons in the fire, for a DM or CB. One thing everyone should be aware of is that Webber doesn't like to conduct business in public. Maybe we are struggling to find an available CB who wants to play for us that is better than we already have. Everyone including the club seems to pretty much agree that we want a CB & DM, maybe we'll get them maybe we won't. But just wanting something doesn't mean you can have it, even if now days people think it does. I certainly hope that the club doesn't go back to the days of spending vast amounts of money just to placate the fans.
Excellent article, thanks DH. It highlights, of course, that stats don’t win you matches (or even get you draws), but it does underline that a 3-0 loss on Saturday didn’t truly represent our performance and if you can keep up those sorts of statistics results do follow - though we need morale to stay in order to do so. I maintain that, deadball situations aside, we are not that bad defensively - against the likes of Salah etc we really didn’t give up much in the middle of the park and all three of their goals effectively came from unfortunate ricochets, combined with admittedly deadeye dick finishing. I remain positive even without a new DM or CB (though I would prefer those additions than not) as long as we sort out defending corners (a big “as long as”, I know).
I know what to expect from Robbie, but i did not expect so much negativity from you, so early on in the season. As far as I know, we a still actively seeking a replacement for Skipp as well as an additinal CB . I agree it was a shame we couldn't afford to sign Armstrong, but I thought Sergant looked useful when he came on on Saturday. So perhaps he will successfully share the burden of getting us enough goals with Pukki and Idah. Tzolis had a reasonable strike rate last season in a good league, so I do not share your pessimistic outlook that we will not score enough. Unlike some , I would have been happy if Cahill had agreed to join us as I could have seen him organizing our defense and improving out set piece defending. I just hope we don't sign some youngster still wet behind the ears. We should be planning for survival this season and not yet another promotion push next season.
This latest announcement about Williams has made me start to feel negative, too. I'm probably putting 2 and 2 together and making 5, but I feel I can sense people starting to cover their ass. 'We got you loan deals from Man Utd and Chelsea, what more do you want?' Frankly, I want a decent CB and a very good DM, not some flash signing from Man U who may well not be any better than the players we currently have.
Last time we went up I thought great , as long as we get a decent couple of centre backs and another striker we have a good chance at survival. Our defence wasn't great that Championship season so strengthening was vital . We brought in Amadou and I was one of the first to recognise he could cover at centre back but no centre back signing. By mid September I had to endure Farke complaining about an injury crisis at CB, colour me shocked . Klose was injured pre season and never really recovered so we were a man down starting the season. Since then we sold Godfrey and replaced him with Gibson and Klose I'm guessing has been released . Zimmermann looks shot now and it was a stretch to hope he would step up Handley often looks out of his depth and Omobamidele is still a rookie . IF we fail to replace Skipp and bring in a centre back before the transfer window shuts then I'll continue to moan like Robby the doom monger until January if we maintain our 2 goals conceded per game stat going . If Cantwell or Aarons leave which looks likely then we will have weakened considerably. Relying on Mumba and a lounee. I'm hoping Sargent will bang goals in but he's not a 20 goals a season proven scorer , we can hope . If Webber unveils a Klose type signing and a Skipp clone in the next couple of weeks I will happily eat my hat and stop moaning .
We have spent a fair wedge on midfielders, including Giannoulis and Gibson North of £50m which is a considerable amount minus the Buendia fee. I'll concede that Sargent is our back up striker and tick that box but I'm certain that Spurs haven't been stringing us along all summer regarding Skipp , I read back in May that he won't be returning as he's rated very highly by them . At this stage of the season we are more likely to be paying what's demanded or lose out and "go to war without a gun" again . As Dave used to say I'm a pant wetter . Guilty as charged
I feel like NCFC are a little behind the curve here, which is rare for us. There's been an acceleration in the trend of hiring specialist coaches lately. Much was made of Italy's attacking set-piece coach, who has built a library of 600+ routines. Liverpool have a throw-in coach, Man United recently poached an attacking set-piece coach from Chelsea I believe, and was credited with an improvement there. Newcastle hired an attack coach to support Steve Bruce back in February, who received plaudits for their attacking improvements. Norwich....seem to have decided that our squad was too short, and that's it? Considering what a coach costs in comparison to multiple £5m+ signings, I'm surprised we've not looked to bring a specialist in to support Farke.
Yes, I agree. And no coach can have it all, but it is interesting to me that Farke was an attacking player in his youth - maybe that means nothing, but I suspect that coaches are more natural in their own personal positions.
Tony Pulis is currently available .......... (........I'm only half joking) PS (before anyone picks up the wrong end of the stick), I mean as a set piece coach
I’d say that’s a good idea but there’s no way Pulis would be willing to be a defence coach, I would think?
If I was called a rent boy at school , probably the worst thing I could have done would to have told the local LGBTQP community to speak out against bullying and bring massive attention to it . I didn't hear any Gilmore rent boy chants during the Liverpool game but I know now . I believe it's called the Streisand effect. Does Billy really care ?
Probably not, but a lot of football supporters are gay, including Liverpool supporters, and so would be offended. It’s just not acceptable these days. And there are advantages to bringing it to everyone’s attention as then it shines a spotlight on the bad behaviour and encourages the majority of supporters to frown at the minority of abusers, which will do far more to stamp out this bigotry than targeted prosecutions. It can be considered cool to be on the wrong end of the law, but very few people are happy with their mates thinking badly of them.
Do you think that shining the spotlight on Gilmore and that he's gay will stop rival supporters from repeating the childish chant ? At the Gillingham game every time their keeper took a kick the crowd chanted "Oooooooooooooooooooh , your **** aaaaaaaah". The poor guy must have felt dehumanised and after letting in 5 goals he must have been close to tears . Referees are sometimes called ****ers too by a minority of ignorant idiots "Oooh Are Cantona " was clearly racist due to his ethnicity too . Is Billy Gilmore even homosexual ? Not that it matters
Just done a bit of research and it turns out that "rent boys" and other sex workers are celebrated as beautiful and brave they even have their own flag now. So just as "queer" used to be an offensive slur a few decades ago rent boy is something a young gay sex worker can celebrate as a positive role model and LGBTQP leader . Maybe Billy will inspire our children to be the next generation of rent boys? https://www.thegayuk.com/this-new-pride-flag-aims-to-be-the-most-inclusive-ever/
Personally speaking if I was gay and heard some ignorant football fans calling a young player a rent boy. I wouldn't associate being a gay person with " prostitution " Not all gay men are rent boys so associating the two is probably more offensive than the chant
No idea if he’s homosexual - I think the “rent boys” slur is against Chelsea generally, so as he is a Chelsea player I assume that’s where it comes from. So it’s not really about Gilmour as far as I can tell, but rather about the word - the aim of the campaign being to ban it being used at all, irrespective of the target, much like the use of “y*d” is condemned when directed at Tottenham fans, whether or not they are Jewish. And yes, I think shining the spotlight on the fact that many people find the word offensive will likely see it being used much less often. Which is good IMO.
