No, what I meant was similar type of players but known experience of the championship. But if you wanted to be argumentative, you could argue that Big Sam has managed something Bielsa hasn't and that's got a team promoted from this division.
London Leeds’ point is a fair one jammy. Our new boy obviously has talent. But it’s new country, new league, he hasn’t had a lot of game time for a while and therefore hasn’t been scoring. Obviously if he had game time and was scoring he wouldn’t be coming, but it’s more of a punt than Adams would have been... (even though he has limited game time and no goals either!) ...adams knows the league and scored in it consistently for an average team last year. That’s obviously what bielsa thought too, hence why Adams was first choice.
Personally I think Orta probably thought he was in for an easy January. Clarke and Nketiah however had other ideas and put him under severe pressure to deliver. My big question mark is who wanted/requested Costa ?
Never quite understood the need for a Clarke replacement. He barely ever made the match day squad from memory (which aint what it used to be).
Apols for being a bit contrary...just trying to get some cheap shots in as haven't done my quota for this week. Big Sam's brand of football is something I detest with a passion. Leeds v WHU Which at that time was also; Warnock v Big Sam Worst football I've seen at ER in decades...an absolute abomination of a game.
I have been critical of orta’s scattergun approach in the past, and the Seville model we didn’t have the resources to justify. Since bielsa came vic no longer rules the roost so he sniffs our deals he thinks can be done and bielsa says yay or nay. So the success/failure of transfer windows is a shared responsibility. Squad size is obviously bielsa’s choice... so I don’t think orta is responsible for our success/failure - however it pans out... with the caveat of that first season that has impacted us financially since. His biggest achievement.. and it was a great achievement... was to get bielsa at the club, not least because he gave up a lot of influence to do it.
Bielsa said the 10 days break since our last game has been good for us, in his words... "It was important for us - also the incorporation of Poveda, it allowed us to have more time with him. And also we had time to recover the players Tyler Roberts and Jamie Shackleton who needed more time. So this time allows us to have three more players: Roberts, Shackleton and Poveda." I wonder if he is planning to have Poveda on the bench? I’d be pleasantly surprised if he does
It’s working exactly as it should do now. Bielsa said Orta presented him with three strikers that were all acceptable, we all know deep down Augustin was probably third on Bielsas list. Any of the three might have been a big hit or miss, all three might be a hit or miss and it mattered not which one we got.
I think poveda is a bit of a punt... one you’d be very happy taking if we also had some quality experience to choose from. Right now, I’m more excited to hear that Roberts and shack are available... but clearly we still have to get them to the ground, in and out of the changing rooms and onto the pitch without them slipping on some soap or tripping over mb’s bucket and twatting themselves
He did adapt to our system and was picked to start as well as featuring in nearly every game he was fit for. Can you not see that he just chose to f*** off back to Arsenal...no one at Leeds wished him gone. Left us when top of the league and left us with only one striker...not classy and damn selfish in my opinion.
The way I look at it, Poveda is the replacement for Clarke who was bang out of form and who earned us £10m a punt but a very good one to take. Norwich got Pukki on a free, there are some gems out there, I’m happy we’ve gone for the two we have as I really didn’t want Gray or Adams for the fees being branded about. We have Costa, Pablo, Harrison, Dallas and Alioski who can play out wide, if Poveda dislodges one and earns a place it’s a big bonus, I’m more excited about Augustin, having him able to come on from the bench and replace Bamford has got to be better than having nobody
Im as excited as the next guy to see average sized Kev in action. dont agree that because Clarke was out of form it doesn’t matter who you replace him with... I agree it means we haven’t weakened the squad, but have we taken the opportunity to strengthen it? Guess we’ll find out.
We could have signed Bowen and everyone would have said we’re much stronger and he could have turned out to have been useless for us. Sometimes players should never leave their clubs. I thought we were much better and stronger with the signing of Nketiah and Costa but their performances for us and the contribution they made was miles behind my own expectation.