Just had a horrible thought. Less than 7 weeks until the season starts. Not long at all when you consider: * Incoming foreign players will almost certainly have to do 2 weeks isolation on arrival. * Incoming players will need to spend long weeks learning Bielsaball. Even if a player arrived today, it's almost certain that he'd miss our opening game. Hope the social media 'vocal throng' appreciate this when these players aren't starting for a while. FFS, why am I hoping - it'll never happen! It'll be Orta +/or Radz's fault for not signing them in time. Like April. Idiots.
Unless he signs players already in the UK, ready and just need some training. Give yourself a slap, you're getting carried away.
'Some training'. How long is that? No-one there to train them atm & not for a few weeks. Who was the player that took the shortest time from arrival to starting under Bielsa? I don't know personally, but I suspect it was 2-3 months. (White?)
How many weeks did the whole team have in his first season ? I don't actually know but don't think he had a full pre season did he. Looked it up, yes he had 7 weeks
Was it 2018 he called the players in 2 weeks before they were due in? Bit fuzzy. Pre season is usually 5-6 weeks of training the friendlies. Didn't Bamford take forever before he started a game? Tbf, he was one of the later arrivals, I think. Anyhoos, I still think that there will be few, if any new players starting in the first game in the PL.
We gave Arsenal a good game, team will be up and at them, think we will be fine for a couple of games, just don't want Liverpool or City first few weeks, Burnley and Villa will do.
17th or above? Not for me, we aim for the top and put a challenge in. I don't want us to fight relegation, we are here to stay so aim for the best we can be. As underdogs the pressure will be off us and I'm sure we will do well.
Agreed Heidi Less than top 10 is failure and the current squad with a replacement for Ben White are already good enough to achieve that. Getting up is harder than staying up if you arn’t a clogger team.
Consolidating our position and moving onwards and upwards has to be the way forward. O{bviously we need to show the Premier League what they've been missing from our Bielsa ball and our fans. I can't wait to get back to the grounds in person and just want things to get back to normal.....
Not at all Walt, and my post was a bit tongue in cheek needless to say, but I think we’ll need to be on top of our game from the off like the last two seasons.
I think this side will do ok as it is. Fulham and West Brom (and Barnsley!) showed that slick passing sides can cause us trouble - we pick defenders for their footballing ability not defending ability and press them high up the pitch - so no doubt we’ll get some chasings next year ... but equally there’ll be sides that can’t cope with our energy. It’s clear where we need to add quality but WJ is right. The short season turnaround is a disadvantage to us - as it takes players time to learn the system. We need to get business done early... but we say that every year and it never seems to happen!
We can’t do anything till we know if Marcelo is staying though - if not, many of the suggested incoming players wouldn’t entertain joining us.
Here's an interesting one, Stuart Dallas said social media criticism helped make him have his best ever season. Thoughts ?
Whilst I’m sure he’s a ‘pull’ - especially for the argentinians we’re rumoured to be interested in - I think most heads will be turned by cash and contract length. Agree though, MB will be the first and most critical of the signings.
I think we should go back to the likes of Cellinio Wakey, or better still Bates and co ..... cos all Radz has done is fleece us by buying our ground back, TA now cat 1, implemented the best coach around and got us back in the PL the useless penny pinching twat ffs
Bought the ground for himself it's not owned by the club. I was using his stated business model as an example. It was rads who said the club would be run that way. The reason we got promoted is bielsa got the side super fit and in most matches it told. Still seen nothing from our owner to indicate a change in recruitment plans. So i will wait and see if better players are bought.
Good. Social media is a vile place to hang out. If you can use it to enhance your game then great. Well done Stuart. For most people it has a negative effect and can turn them against their own fans. For those people, its probably best they stay away from it completely.
Morning all. The requirement needed from any signing is that he wants to play for the Club. We do not want anyone who is coming for the money.