Summer 2020 Transfer Window (Extended Version)

[Del Woppio]

Jonny is dominant - a 7 or 8/10 every single time. I don't recall many, if any, games where an attacker has had him on toast. Doc is not defensively solid at all, and he has said as much himself. I would take Jonny's level of reliability over Doherty's offensively impactful (but is he?) every single time.

If you're not too fussed about solidity but want offensively impactful, we can whack Traore there as a make do against Sheffield United.

We need some threat and progressive movement to come from somewhere, if its not coming from the other 4 at the back, or literally any of our central midfielders. If we'd have had a jonny clone on the other side too we'd have nothing going forward. It's this little thing called 'balance'.

 

[Wolvensam]

And it's a wild idea, but maybe Doherty wanted to leave for more money and the capital: a move that sets him up for life. Crazy I know....

 

[Del Woppio]

And it's a wild idea, but maybe Doherty wanted to leave for more money and the capital: a move that sets him up for life. Crazy I know....

I said the same thing many pages ago. It's a good move for him - but that doesn't mean it's a good move for us. We've got 14 fucking players! There's this thing called "strength in depth". Crazy, I know...

 

[Wolvensam]

I said the same thing many pages ago. It's a good move for him - but that doesn't mean it's a good move for us. We've got 14 fucking players! There's this thing called "strength in depth". Crazy, I know...

There's also this thing about not wanting to keep unhappy players. He doesn't owe us anything, and we wouldn't be selling him if something wasn't on the horizon.

 

[pavlosmacwolf]

He has been a good servant to the club, but out of neves , moutinho, Adama, Raul, coady, boly etc etc etc who would you rather sell, he is a great lad, but he ain't 23.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Let's look at Matt Upgrade's career history as a RB...

Pre-2013: Wasn't near our team, behind a declining Foley and a terrible Zubar
2013: Got in our team under the worst manager ever, and we got relegated to League One. Looked awful
2013/14: Started in the team, got injured around October, hardly played after that
2014/15: Started in the team, performances dipped after a reasonable start, a big reason why we kept getting thumped in November, lost his place to an untried kid and hardly played after Christmas
2015/16: Played about three games before Christmas. Got shifted to LB as we sold the only one we had. He was shit there too, we had to sign someone to hold his hand
2016/17: Didn't play very much at RB at all, was largely a crap LB who lost his place to George Saville at one point
2017-present: Has never played as a full back at all, other than for Ireland where he looks way out of his depth and isn't first choice

As bad as Aurier is, he has a better CV than that if we're talking about playing in a back four.

I don't think we're selling him then wondering what we'll do about the gap in the team. There'll be a plan.

 

[Wolvensam]

Yup, as Pavlo said - he would be second on my list after Saiss for upgrade. If we were selling Jimenez or Neves I'd be near-suicidal. Doherty is a good lad and it'll be weird as f--- seeing him line up against us, but there is better out there.

 

[BGreenWolf]

we wouldn't be selling him if something wasn't on the horizon.

Wouldn't be the first time.

I thought we'd all grown out of assuming that the club wouldn't sell players in areas we're short in without a replacement back when we finished the 2017 summer window with a single striker.

 

[Nando]

Wouldn't be the first time.

I thought we'd all grown out of assuming that the club wouldn't sell players in areas we're short in without a replacement back when we finished the 2017 summer window with a single striker.

Getting the money we did for Dicko at that time was remarkably good business - look at the state of his career afterwards. Poor bloke.

 

[Wolvensam]

Wouldn't be the first time.

I thought we'd all grown out of assuming that the club wouldn't sell players in areas we're short in without a replacement back when we finished the 2017 summer window with a single striker.

The Cutrone transfer didn't work out: whether that was down to a new country, attitude, not fitting the system, whatever. You'll also be hard pressed to find strikers who want to sign for us knowing they're going to play second fiddle to one of the best No. 9's in the league. Tottenham don't look too good if Kane gets injured, nor do Arsenal with Aubemeyang, nor Leicester with Vardy. They have players to cover the positions as we do, but of course it's not the same.

I'm not making excuses, just playing devil's advocate for the most part.

 

[Lycan]

Wouldn't be the first time.

I thought we'd all grown out of assuming that the club wouldn't sell players in areas we're short in without a replacement back when we finished the 2017 summer window with a single striker.

We finished the 2017 summer window with one of the best forward lines the Championship has ever seen...

Sent from my GM1920 using Tapatalk

 

[Wolvensam]

Getting the money we did for Dicko at that time was remarkably good business - look at the state of his career afterwards. Poor bloke.

Sako didn't go on to do very much after us either. There's a lesson to be learned somewhere..

 

[AndyWolves]

If we get Ghoulam and AMN in then we'll be wondering what all the fuss was about

 

[Del Woppio]

Honestly, who gives a fuck that he was shit in 2014? He's been bloody good for successive Premier League seasons and we're selling him for fuck all.

He wasn't agitating, he was happy, talking about another 5 years here. And we've rolled over and had our bellies tickled by Mendes' biggest client.

Our squad was wafer thin 4 weeks ago and we were all saying we'd only expect a maximum of three players to come in. We've since lost 2 of the the first names on the team sheet.

 

[Wolvensam]

He wasn't agitating, he was happy, talking about another 5 years here. And we've rolled over and had our bellies tickled by Mendes' biggest client.

I'm very happy with my current job, but if a bigger company came in and offered to double my wages I wouldn't think twice... I'd be very sad to leave, as I'm sure Doc is, but money talks.

 

[AndyWolves]

Honestly, who gives a fuck that he was shit in 2014? He's been bloody good for successive Premier League seasons and we're selling him for fuck all.

He wasn't agitating, he was happy, talking about another 5 years here. And we've rolled over and had our bellies tickled by Mendes' biggest client.

Our squad was wafer thin 4 weeks ago and we were all saying we'd only expect a maximum of three players to come in. We've since lost 2 of the the first names on the team sheet.

You think Mourinho ran the rule over our squad and picked Doc as the one he wanted? If we were getting our bellies tickled wouldn't it be be Neves, Neto, Raul, Adama or someone of that ilk we'd be selling?

 

[prawnking]

No need for insults.

Since we've got to the Premier League we've upgraded the keeper, have cover for centre backs (and one of the best defensive records in the league btw), bought in a wing back who was an upgrade and can cover both sides, bought in an international midfield maestro, upgraded the wide forward positions and have one of the best all round centre forwards in the league. You stated that we've struggled to recruit.

The only failure so far that I'd see is not having a decent back up to Jimenez although games with the likes of Jota/Neto up front have proven that we can make do although I'd admit that this scenario isn't ideal.

I haven't once mentioned that initial splurge of recruitment during the first summer, that's obviously formed a solid 1/3 of our team over the past couple of years, my point is that since summer 2018 no one else has had any impact, aside from a couple of wide forward squad players.

 

[AndyWolves]

I haven't once mentioned that initial splurge of recruitment during the first summer, that's obviously formed a solid 1/3 of our team over the past couple of years, my point is that since summer 2018 no one else has had any impact, aside from a couple of wide forward squad players.

Go through our team, front to back and tell me who we can get that's better than what we have

 

[BGreenWolf]

We finished the 2017 summer window with one of the best forward lines the Championship has ever seen...

Sent from my GM1920 using Tapatalk

That'll be why we were still desperate to get a striker over the line on deadline day, only for PSV to pull the plug on Locadia, then.

If we get Ghoulam and AMN in then we'll be wondering what all the fuss was about

Isn't Ghoulam so crocked that the rumour was that Napoli were going to cancel his contract if we didn't bite?

 

[prawnking]

Go through our team, front to back and tell me who we can get that's better than what we have

Wind your neck in with your ordering about. And how much time do you think I have? I've already wasted enough arguing with people who want to be cool and contrary about everything.

We're a decent top half team playing out of our skins to stay in and around the top 7 or 8, if our recruitment team can't improve on any of those players successfully, or even have more than a couple of viable squad options, that's not the end of the world, but it certainly doesn't deserve blind faith that this summer will be anything other than another frustratingly wasted opportunity