Cheers 2 Penneth, I have very little fear of that, you just happen to be catching my good side at present
It's nice to have another realist (pessimist) on board. Think Pontus & Douglas can cut it in the premier if we get there, possibly Saiz
Morbid welcome mate In the event we go up watch what happens with the 49ers investment ( taps side of nose and winks) also watch investment plans kickmin. I expect us to stay up but in the unlikely event we drop we will recieve a shed load of parachute money and keep whatever team we came down with plus add prem quality players to it so we bounce straight back up. There are stories out there about Heaton being spoken to now and much depends on Pope being fully fit after he did his shoulder playing in the Europa League. Whichever keeper is brought in needs to do Bielsaball and Greene and Stockdale cant do that. Stockdale was almost with us this Summer but 2 things stopped it. Birmingham and money wanted Bielsa said he couldnt do Bielsaball so club dropped it (this from Phil Hay)
Look we don’t care whether you’re happy clappy or captain suicide, what we want to know is did you ever play in goal for your school team? If not your opinion counts for sh*t and you may as well f*ck off now before it starts getting nasty
Cheers Doc I'm not denying that there are not investment possibilities and I know that LOL thinks that we have 3 players that could play in the premier league, I at best think those players would be squad players at the majority of the teams in the league above us, except for those that are already struggling, although that is not to say that each of those individuals could not improve and make a success of premier league football, if they were surrounded by players of better quality. I guess my point is there are plenty on here that are suggesting our squad isnt good enough to win promotion ( and I agree, I don't think the squad is good enough, but thats not to say that I don't pray that Bielsa can work his magic and get us across the finish line, and yes we don't know what or if any purchases will be made in the January transfer market), however we will need to spend serious money to have a chance of staying in the premier league. Fulham spent over £100m and are struggling, and they were a half decent side in the Championship last season. Wolves spent nearly £70mil, and are doing ok, but they were the stand out team last year, and yet some folk seem to have the opinion that we get to the premier league and that money will sort everything out. I obviously have a differing opinion, hence my comment about needing serious investment from somewhere other than Radz himself. I fully get what you say about parachute payments etc, and to be honest I could see us being a yo yo team for a couple of seasons, however I'd prefer us not to have to rely upon that as firstly it means we get a crap season followed hopefully by a good season and secondly I'm not someone who favours the parachute payment system, so I don't really want us to have to reply upon it (as of course if we get relegated from the premier league , someone will change the scheme so we end up being disadvantaged ) Not sure if your keeper comments are just a general observation or in reply to what I've written, but I wouldnt disagree with anything you've said there. I only mentioned keepers in response to a query from Leeds60 about emergency loans, which unfortunately doesn't apply in our situation.
Actually I did play in goal for the school, unfortunately it was in hockey not football, but I did play in goal for our works 5 a-side team for 3 years if that's any use
Morbid nothing wrong with anything you said there mate as it will be mega hard to stay if we manage to go up. The players are last years players which were League 1 standard but our manager as made some look like prem players and the rest are top championship players, so Bielsaball works. In the prem if we have Bielsa we will also have players nobody has heard of before but players that Bielsa loves and has had before. Ponce, Gomez and quite a few more. So I reckon we will be buying players at decent prices because nobody heard of them but these players would hopefully be super bargains.
Both of those qualify fella... as long as you’ve experienced the birds eye view you’re fit to comment
I guess it comes down to what you and I consider a decent price, and also how many players we need to sign. Whilst I accept that many will disagree with me, but if we base it on my view that only Philips is likely to be premier quality ( I accept that others think that Pontus, Saiz and Douglas are also there), thats a minimum of 10 players we need, at £10mil per player, that's £100 million spent like that. Alternatively we get less but higher quality players, say 5 at £20mil a pop, thats still £100 mil minimum that I think we need to spend. Now maybe the number of players required is higher than most would agree to, but is £10mil for a player the right amount or deemed to low. If I'm honest I think £10 mil is on the low side, and whilst I have no issue with Bielsa being able to convince players to join us, any selling club will still want a premium for a player joining the richest league in the world. Ponce is potentially one we could get cheaper or around that mark, given he is playing in the Greek league, and Lille didnt pay anything for him before sending him out on loan. Gomez is also a possibility given that he's out of contract, and maybe with Bielsa we may get a small discount on his own signing fee and wages, but he wont be cheap.
I can see why you get depressed about achievements and hence the name if you are getting concerned about spending in the premiership and relegation after one year and then bouncing back again. There are 1001 things to get right between now and the next game, let alone the end of this season. Enjoy the moment, well not the last game, but I'm sure you see what I mean, and welcome onboard. I think you are correct though £10 million for a premiership players isn't a lot and so if we are really interested in top premiership players we need way over £100 million investment in the team. Will that amount of investment be available if we get promoted, I don't know, will it be needed, I don't know. At the end of last season there are those who said £10's of millions were needed to be spent on the team to get us into the top six or to even stay in the championship. This didn't happen and we are now third. So what seems like a solution only 6 months ago doesn't seem so necessary now.
One biggy most miss is that Orta did some great work last season with players who might just be awesome, if they can step up. Clarke, Edmondson, Stevens, Dalby, Halme, Miazek. Bryce Hossanah is supposed to be the best baller at the club, a right back who’s injured, but try factoring some of these players into the future
