Well, what a day. The 5 today makes it a total of 12 new players. But make no mistake, our squad was so small that buying wasn't an option, it was essential.
Especially pleasing has been the Club not making do with 'discards' or premiership journeymen. Instead, they've gone for quality and (largely) youth. Just take today's five:
Tim Fosu-Mensah (20)
Zambo Aguissa (24)
Joe Byran (24)
Sergio Rico (24)
Luciano Vietto (24)
No wonder the Gaffer is happy
Immediately he has a mini-selection problem, in having 5 loanees but only 4 are allowed in the 18 match day squad. More importantly though building a new team won't happen overnight and he has to get the ethos right - one of the strengths of the promotion squad was its team spirit.
What he does have is competition in every position - something he's whinged about as lacking in the past. That said, the newbies shouldn't be allowed to assume they can just walk into the team and rest assured the 'old firm' who got us here, won't lie down easily. Kamara and Kebano, just as examples, have had a good pre-season. So there's going to be some disappointed guys and he'll need all his management skills to retain that all important and essential squad togetherness.
Especially pleasing has been the Club not making do with 'discards' or premiership journeymen. Instead, they've gone for quality and (largely) youth. Just take today's five:
Tim Fosu-Mensah (20)
Zambo Aguissa (24)
Joe Byran (24)
Sergio Rico (24)
Luciano Vietto (24)
No wonder the Gaffer is happy
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However, and the Captain has already touched on this in another thread, bringing in a load of new signings doesn't guarantee anything if they don't gel and tactics don't fit. So Jokanovic has his work cut out.Immediately he has a mini-selection problem, in having 5 loanees but only 4 are allowed in the 18 match day squad. More importantly though building a new team won't happen overnight and he has to get the ethos right - one of the strengths of the promotion squad was its team spirit.
What he does have is competition in every position - something he's whinged about as lacking in the past. That said, the newbies shouldn't be allowed to assume they can just walk into the team and rest assured the 'old firm' who got us here, won't lie down easily. Kamara and Kebano, just as examples, have had a good pre-season. So there's going to be some disappointed guys and he'll need all his management skills to retain that all important and essential squad togetherness.
