Who feels let down again

dreamwaverider said:
Really??? Surely not. Zaha and Wan Bissaka. Then who?
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I have done an extensive list on here before, but I'm running late to meet my niece and her new baby at the moment, so I won't dig it out right now.

If nobody else digs it out I'll get back to you later on today. We have a very long list of graduates as a club.
 
JHB said:
I’ve never felt let down. The club doesn’t owe me anything and we have people at the club all committed to doing the best to make us successful. I’d only feel let down if we had a Reading owner type situation.

I do feel we’ve not really addressed our key needs in the window and have a first eleven that looks weaker than last year. I also feel we’ve now got an imbalanced squad. I am also a bit frustrated we have yet again entered a league season miles behind other clubs in terms of readiness. That’s completely different to being let down though
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What were our key needs? We signed 11 players covering all poisitions barring striker and keeper. We were never going to find another Guehi, Eze, Olise, Wharton, etc. We had a Champions League team back then. It was a glorious few months when we won our last 6 games and seemed unbeatable (4 nil Manure etc), then the vultures started circling and we cant act like City or Chelsea. We did a lot better this window than a lot of teams and with less money. We now have a lot of options and are not reliant on the same dozen players. Some will be pants like BJ, but some might come good.
 
I think overall we did quite well.

There is a huge amount of competition for the same players and considering our financial position isn't the same (48 million on Larsen being a reason) we have improved squad depth, while perhaps without being certain yet where the team is.....but with two of our forwards wanting away it isn't easy.
 
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The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

Tomiyashu is proven quality, so it's really just a case of whether he stays fit.
Khalaili looks exciting, but may take time to adjust fully.
Disasi had a solid season with West Ham, so there's no reason to think he won't do well for us.
Chilwell has clearly come in to add experience and back up for Mitchell.
McNeil, while not an exciting signing, offers a reliable option on the left.
Mingueza brings experience, but time will tell if he fits into our team and the PL.
I'm not really sure what to make of the Ahanor signing. He could be amazing, but do we need another rookie in the backline?
Gozo was supposedly bought for development, not as a starter, so we might not see much of him this season.
Osorio seems like a bit of a wildcard. Do we need another winger? Given our lack of goal threat in the first two games, maybe we do.
Timber is probably my favourite signing of the window. It's telling that Marseille fans are gutted that he's gone. Wharton and Kamada are both technical midfielders and play some great football, but we need someone who's not afraid to do the dirty stuff and who can get up and down the pitch. I think Timber ticks those boxes.

So, overall, we've signed some known quality and experienced pros, while also taking punts on some lesser-known options, all while making a net profit. If Sarr and/or JP leaves to Turkey (or somewhere else) in the next few days, then my outlook shifts somewhat, but as it stands, I have no complaints, and I'm excited to see what our new players can do.
 
martinelliff said:
What were our key needs? We signed 11 players covering all poisitions barring striker and keeper. We were never going to find another Guehi, Eze, Olise, Wharton, etc. We had a Champions League team back then. It was a glorious few months when we won our last 6 games and seemed unbeatable (4 nil Manure etc), then the vultures started circling and we cant act like City or Chelsea. We did a lot better this window than a lot of teams and with less money. We now have a lot of options and are not reliant on the same dozen players. Some will be pants like BJ, but some might come good.
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I never asked for or expected us us to sign the quality of Guehi, Olise, Eze or Wharton. That would have been pie in the sky. What I did hope for was we ended up with a first eleven a bit better than the one that was in relegation form the second half of last season. I am not at all convinced we’ve done that.

Our key needs were at least one if not two starting centre backs, a dynamic ball winner in midfield and a starter on the left side of the attack.

We’ve bought in one centre back in Disasi but also sold a better one in Lacroix. The others could be good but none of them scream first team starter.

In midfield we bought Timber but he’s not a ball winner so we still look lightweight.

On the left we got in McNeil but many on here seem to think he isn’t good enough to start.

The positives are we have a lot of players for some positions now. Certainly more than last year.

Look it isn’t a terrible window but I don’t think it is a great one either as we still don’t know who our best defence or left sided attacker is and both positions look short of quality if not depth. I really don’t get why we signed so many right sided attackers (at least three this window) but left some key needs at best partially addressed
 
We have to remember that we have at least 10 matches on top of our EPL commitments. Managers have complained that there was no depth to the squad so Sage is lucky that he now has choices. Tonight our U21s play against one of the best youth setups in World. It’s an opportunity for them to remind Sage he also has young talent a available.
 
JHB said:
I never asked for or expected us us to sign the quality of Guehi, Olise, Eze or Wharton. That would have been pie in the sky. What I did hope for was we ended up with a first eleven a bit better than the one that was in relegation form the second half of last season. I am not at all convinced we’ve done that.

Our key needs were at least one if not two starting centre backs, a dynamic ball winner in midfield and a starter on the left side of the attack.

We’ve bought in one centre back in Disasi but also sold a better one in Lacroix. The others could be good but none of them scream first team starter.

In midfield we bought Timber but he’s not a ball winner so we still look lightweight.

On the left we got in McNeil but many on here seem to think he isn’t good enough to start.

The positives are we have a lot of players for some positions now. Certainly more than last year.

Look it isn’t a terrible window but I don’t think it is a great one either as we still don’t know who our best defence or left sided attacker is and both positions look short of quality if not depth. I really don’t get why we signed so many right sided attackers (at least three this window) but left some key needs at best partially addressed
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Maybe some like playing on the left , Olise left footed likes coming from the right
 
JHB said:
I never asked for or expected us us to sign the quality of Guehi, Olise, Eze or Wharton. That would have been pie in the sky. What I did hope for was we ended up with a first eleven a bit better than the one that was in relegation form the second half of last season. I am not at all convinced we’ve done that.

Our key needs were at least one if not two starting centre backs, a dynamic ball winner in midfield and a starter on the left side of the attack.

We’ve bought in one centre back in Disasi but also sold a better one in Lacroix. The others could be good but none of them scream first team starter.

In midfield we bought Timber but he’s not a ball winner so we still look lightweight.

On the left we got in McNeil but many on here seem to think he isn’t good enough to start.

The positives are we have a lot of players for some positions now. Certainly more than last year.

Look it isn’t a terrible window but I don’t think it is a great one either as we still don’t know who our best defence or left sided attacker is and both positions look short of quality if not depth. I really don’t get why we signed so many right sided attackers (at least three this window) but left some key needs at best partially addressed
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Who knows...maybe we have? When we signed them originally I'm not sure we all thought at the start how well they would turn out?
 
taylors lovechild said:
The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

Tomiyashu is proven quality, so it's really just a case of whether he stays fit.
Khalaili looks exciting, but may take time to adjust fully.
Disasi had a solid season with West Ham, so there's no reason to think he won't do well for us.
Chilwell has clearly come in to add experience and back up for Mitchell.
McNeil, while not an exciting signing, offers a reliable option on the left.
Mingueza brings experience, but time will tell if he fits into our team and the PL.
I'm not really sure what to make of the Ahanor signing. He could be amazing, but do we need another rookie in the backline?
Gozo was supposedly bought for development, not as a starter, so we might not see much of him this season.
Osorio seems like a bit of a wildcard. Do we need another winger? Given our lack of goal threat in the first two games, maybe we do.
Timber is probably my favourite signing of the window. It's telling that Marseille fans are gutted that he's gone. Wharton and Kamada are both technical midfielders and play some great football, but we need someone who's not afraid to do the dirty stuff and who can get up and down the pitch. I think Timber ticks those boxes.

So, overall, we've signed some known quality and experienced pros, while also taking punts on some lesser-known options, all while making a net profit. If Sarr and/or JP leaves to Turkey (or somewhere else) in the next few days, then my outlook shifts somewhat, but as it stands, I have no complaints, and I'm excited to see what our new players can do.
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A reasonable summary tl. What's more we made £47.61m on the deals which can't be a bad thing.

Only Villa made more at £51.51m and three other clubs made a smaller surplus. The other 15 spent £1,237.7m more than they received with Liverpool top with a net loss of £201.25m*

We all know that money talks in this game and unfortunately we can only mumble so we have to hope the team can play above it's value, as indeed is usually the case.

*Numbers from today's Times.
 
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dreamwaverider said:
Really??? Surely not. Zaha and Wan Bissaka. Then who?
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Wilf single handily earned us many points in many games and got us a profit with the Man U switch. AWB got us a huge profit which kept the academy going for years I’m sure. I know it’s not all about the money but if you want positives there are two. I’m not sure the number but I reckon academy wise a tiny % ever make it to the top level let alone championship or L1 or L2 and that’s from all clubs.
Rarely will you get beckhams, Rooneys and wilfs at such a young age.
 
Like I said earlier in the thread, the way we navigate transfer windows is terrible but our player recruitment is really good.
Our squad is much stronger but first 11 is probably weaker. The only signing im not happy with is Ahanor, what's the point, he's 18 so already a risk and all we're doing is developing him for Chelsea.
 
rikz said:
Like I said earlier in the thread, the way we navigate transfer windows is terrible but our player recruitment is really good.
Our squad is much stronger but first 11 is probably weaker. The only signing im not happy with is Ahanor, what's the point, he's 18 so already a risk and all we're doing is developing him for Chelsea.
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Sure he is young but he has more appearances than Canvot did when he joined us and also is an Italian international at 18. Chelsea are not going to spend £40m on a player who is not good and people in Italy rate him really highly. After Riads injury an extra CB will be very useful for the squad and this seems like a good option for 1 year. At the end of the day we need extra players this year to compete in europe and were in a tough financial spot having spent a lot in january so getting in an extra loan seems like a no brainer to me.
 
Palace Old Geezer said:
A reasonable summary tl. What's more we made £47.61m on the deals which can't be a bad thing.

Only Villa made more at £51.51m and three other clubs made a smaller surplus. The other 15 spent £1,237.7m more than they received with Liverpool top with a net loss of £201.25m*

We all know that money talks in this game and unfortunately we can only mumble so we have to hope the team can play above it's value, as indeed is usually the case.

*Numbers from today's Times.
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Given we were already in trouble with the European SCR I’m sure this was Parish’s strategy. The Lacroix deal was always going to be our one big sale in this window. The Munoz sale was a bonus we couldn’t afford to refuse at £22 million for a 30 year old. Beyond that our aim was greater depth to the squad to compete in Europe with the kids and squad players being sold to give us some kind of kitty.

We have a squad that is valued at £591 million by transfermkt so they should be up to the job. Sarr will be our next sale, hopefully in January after a successful few months to maintain his value. That will give us a healthy balance to buy Ordonez assuming his foot has healed or Ezalzoui if a left sided attacker is a priority.
 
Dumademption said:
Sure he is young but he has more appearances than Canvot did when he joined us and also is an Italian international at 18. Chelsea are not going to spend £40m on a player who is not good and people in Italy rate him really highly. After Riads injury an extra CB will be very useful for the squad and this seems like a good option for 1 year. At the end of the day we need extra players this year to compete in europe and were in a tough financial spot having spent a lot in january so getting in an extra loan seems like a no brainer to me.
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I take your points but you have seen Chelsea’s transfer business in the last few years haven’t you. If so you know the above is far from the truth
 
Linford said:
Unfortunately that is a down side to success as a club.

Historically we have relied a lot on our academy, and it's one of the most productive in the country.

But even under Oli we were only using them when he wanted to make a point to the board, the rest of the time they were firmly shut out and that was with a much smaller squad than this one. Part of that is the fact we are operating on a higher level than before.

We are going to see somewhat less first team opportunity for our graduates for a while, that's a fact of life, but there is a good reason for it. Hopefully those who can't break through here will be allowed to find a place they do... and any elite few who demand it on ability will still be recognised by our staff and allowed to break through.
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Are you sure? Spread out over this current stint in the Premiership there's Zaha and AWB, with Mitchell coming from Brentford I think. Yesterday I trawled back through the squads that Hodgson had - a few regulars padded out with loans and cheapo signings mainly. Makes me appreciate Roy's achievement more. I think the team of the 80s was more homegrown, but that was last century...
 
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