yeh I’ll caveat everything I’m saying by saying I’ve got no idea who the “better options” are. So there might not be any!!! But people liked Quentin Merlin. How much would he cost?
Merlin probably €20-25m and again some defensive concerns, it's probably the weakest position in football.
I don’t think we know as little as you suggest tbf. We know the approximate levels that we can get to next season. And we know what happens when you get stuck. Ultimately the second scenario you describe is a very real and imminent pressure that we will be under. Staying clean on PSR is essential for us to establish ourselves (witness Villa overreaching and now having to do June fire sales every year). And the way that the KLD has played out should give us an innate advantage on that score. It’s why I’d be disappointed for us to move away from it. But ultimately, a fanbase that is mindful of PSR is more capable of encouraging the right behaviours from the club. If all we ever care about is ‘player a better than player b’ I think we lose the right to complain when the club pins itself and has to do something unpalatable to rebalance things. My thoughts go back to the sale of Bent. Different times of course but I have absolutely no doubt that a lot of that was the early signs of the club having ovetstretched and having to take the pain to plug a hole. We don’t want to have to plug any holes in this first few years if we can afford it.
There is no indication that the club are interested in deviating from their well thought out strategy. PSR will be absolutely something they are fully aware of and as such any signing we choose to make is with that built in to the decision Your argument comes with an inherent distrust and view that you need to hold the club to account for their spending. I'm going to trust the club implicitly and judge players on their merits so we'll have to agree to disagree.
It’s not distrust at all. It’s looking at the merits of the signing. Is the player worth the money is effectively all it is. It’s just a question that I’m framing within the context of the climate of modern football. We should always consider whether the club is using its money wisely. It’s finite after all. And if they get it wrong then our performances will undoubtedly suffer.
Great stuff. Think I'd rather we went for that Jean Kevin Augustin. What a talent. Outscored Mbappe once in a youth tournament I think. We can get him pretty cheap too, and best of all he is French and exotic sounding. With our French connections, we just might be able to pull this off!
Yeah he was, the ivorians reckon he's changed his mind last minute to go to England - want to see how this develops tomorrow.
A lot of the better fullbacks are poor defensively these days, hard to find one that can attack and defend I'd prefer Merlin to Angelino just because I think he's got the higher upside and wouldn't probably be as good as him next season
If you mean by the weakest position, that there are fewer good ones in that role than in any other, then 'twas ever thus. When Clough signed a soon to be out of work Frank Clark from that lot, and was asked why he would do such a thing, he said that he had no one who could play left back, (and that he cost nothing!). But a good left back is always a precious asset.
Oh yeah for sure, it's always been the case. Any naturally left footed players are coached into being attackers early on.