One of the reasons we improved so much under Pochettino was that an exceptional run of good signings gelled together into a team that was better than the sum of its parts: Lloris Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose Dier, Dembele Eriksen, Dele, Son Kane Only Son cost more than £20m, five cost 12m between them and the other five around 70m. At its peak that team was worth >500m and we didn't have 500m to replace it so its hardly surprising that we've regressed. That is nobody's fault. The issue currently is that we've spent money on players who are actually no better than the ones we already had. We should have signed 2 or 3 expensive players not nine cheap ones.
Brace yourselves, everyone, here's the pass map please log in to view this image Sadly, we need to start somewhere * Bergwijn playing far too centrally, leaving Davies exposed at LB and reducing our width * Sanchez playing deeper than Rodon and Toby, which isn't skewed by his being subbed * Hojbjerg and Ndombele stepping on each others toes in the middle of the pitch instead of being more spaced out * Ndombele playing deeper than Hojbjerg * Vini carrying the ball better than anyone, in spite having half as much time on the pitch than most of the front libe * Son having more passes backwards to Bergwijn than he's receiving from any of Bale, Bergwijn or Ndombele * As many passes from Bergwijn to Hojbjerg as there are from Hojbjerg to Bergwijn * Davies barely getting the ball to Hojbjerg
Mourinho's making this all far more complicated than it needs to be. He's making unnecessary changes to personnel, formations and tactics and ****ing up team selections and substitutions. Go back to what worked. 4-2-3-1 with Hojbjerg and Sissoko in midfield and two wingers and an attacking midfielder playing behind a striker. We lost Lo Celso to injury during the win over Arsenal and we haven't stopped pissing about and dropping points since. It's nonsense.
It's gone beyond anything that Mourinho can save. Yesterday will serve as testament to that. One can only imagine what's going on inside the club when the players are fighting amongst themselves at half time and Mourinho's supposed to be the voice of reason... I'm fed up with this ****...get the ****er out of my club!
Perhaps I’ve misunderstood you in the past, but I thought you were against making big investments/ spending heavy on fees because it doesn’t necessarily equate to a better incoming player?
If we'd signed Super Jack Grealish in 18/19 we wouldn't be in such a mess as he'd have sorted everything out... Because he's Super Jack Grealish. Just sayin'
Our list of record transfers reads like a Benny Hill sketch... Ferdinand - already on the decline when we signed him. Rebrov - misused and frozen out Bent - signed at a time when we had 48 better strikers already at the club. Also - if he wasn't on this list, Modric would be. That alone is enough of a crime. Paulinho - no comment Soldado - no comment Lamela - switch his fee with Eriksen's and I'd have no issue Sissoko - no comment Sanchez - no comment Lo Celso - see 'Lamela' N'Dombele - TBC
Has there ever been a club with such a terrible record of record signings as us? It's so bad it's funny.
There is no option but to spend to improve even if it will likely be a waste of money. There is no guarantee of success but when you already have a squad of decent players buying fewer more expensive players must be better in principle than buying lots of cheap ones. Apart from anything else, bringing 7 players in causes too much disruption. I do think we ought to trust youth more as well though. If Skipp and KWP had played most of last season we would likely already have players better than Doherty or Hojbjerg
It's even the same with managers come to think of it, the bigger name ones (and likely more expensive options at the time) ended up failing to deliver: Santini - big name manager, left after 13 games. Jol - technically a nobody who done wonders and got us back into European spots. Ramos - big name manager, won a trophy with most of Jol's squad but was dreadful in the league. Redknapp - old school manager that had been around the block at lower clubs, got us into the CL for the first time. AVB - touted as the next special one, turned out he weren't very special. Poch - seemed second choice target after LVG, proved to be our best manager in years albeit a sad decline in the end. Jose - biggest manager in the game, churning out utter tripe, not improved us. We are so ****ed up
Again, everyone one else is just as bad. Running a football club is not easy. Since ENIC started, us, Man City and Leicester have got better, everyone else who matters has stagnated or got worse.
There are many clubs with terrible signings, but we don't dwell on them because they're not ours. Liverpool had plenty of bad signings before they got a couple of stellar ones - and even then nobody knew quite how stellar they would be. You can't just say we're bad because I don't think most signings work in most clubs, at least not to the extent you seem to want. For example you may not like Lamela but we've had a hell of a lot of games out of him despite the number of injuries, and quite a lot of good games too. This is not so much as a glass half full list as a glass with no water at all list.
Defensively he is bro. 2 years time he'll be off to Bayern for £75m. Grealish however would've solved world poverty had he joined us, let alone improving our whole team. It's what Super Jack does.
He does some good things but he is also in the wrong place a lot of the time. Last night's goal for example.
