I've noticed a trend recently, where our signings are being questioned and sometimes even heavily criticised. Why did we sign both Cunha and Mbuemo? Why would we sign an inexperienced Belgian for such a pressure role? Why no midfielder this summer?
I'm not saying these aren't fair or interesting questions, but in recent years of the last terrible decade one of the most frequent demands made by supporters if to rip it all up and rebuild a squad. That has been started in several failed versions under Woodward's Disneyland model and the terrible signings under Ten Hag.
Sometimes I do wonder if we, myself included, have the stomach to go through what a rebuild actually means, and also wonder how long it takes before you can claim to have 'rebuilt'.
As of today, we are in a position where we have Wilcox dictating a lot, and a huge amount of back room changes. I think it's fair to say that they inherited a total mess in terms of overpaid players and deadwood and are so far doing a reasonable job of biting the bullet and getting rid of what we can for what we can get. From a supporter's point of view, it can be very difficult to balance patience with performances (Especially when as bad as last season and at moments this season) but we also simply have to acknowledge that no rebuild can take place in one or two windows.
So lets go back to September 1st 2024, and see what has been achieved in a year.
This day one year ago, Ten Hag presided over us getting absolutely pasted at home by Liverpool. A 3-0 loss, with an infamous Casemiro horror show, that led to Collyer replacing him.
Our line up one year ago was: Onana, Mazraoui, de Ligt, Martinez, Dalot, Casemiro, Mainoo, Rashford, Bruno, Garnacho, Hojlund*
Subs: Altay, Evans, Maguire, Collyer, Eriksen, Amad, Antony, Wheatley, Heaton, Zirkzee
Sancho out of team after fallout, yoro, Lindelof, Mount and Shaw injured. Ugarte signed the day before.
(Ive swapped Zirkzee and Hojlund here to reflect what our actual regular line up was, as Hojlund missed this match.)
Since then, when we all complained about deadwood and poor attitudes and a mismatched squad, we have offloaded or said goodbye to
Rashford, Garnacho, Hojlund, Antony Sancho, Evans, Eriksen, Lindelof, *One of the goalkeepers will surely go.
9 first team starters or squad players.
Fast forward 1 year, to what would likely be our line up if we had a fully fit team this weekend. New signings are highlighted in bold and I would encourage glancing to the departures to make immediate contrasts and comparisons in terms of profiles. To me the difference is pretty stark,
Lammens, Yoro, De Ligt, Martinez - Diallo, Bruno, Casemiro, Dorgu - Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko.
Subs: Gk, Maguire, Shaw, Heaven, Mainoo, Ugarte, Leon, Dalot, Mazraoui, Zirkzee, Chido, Mount (a far stronger bench than the Liverpool game)
So we have signed 5 would be starters, and 3 promising young players. I have put in italics 3 players signed by current regime but for a previous manager that they seemed to accept they got wrong. Whether you include these players in a rebuild depends on your perspective.
In terms of signings, what is clearly left to do regardless of what you think of other positions:
A LCB,
A DM
What is likely to be needed:
A R or L wing back depending how either perform this season.
Another central midfielder assuming Fernandes leaves.
So after next summers transfer window, all going well, we should look to have:
That's 3 more starters to sign before we could say we've rebuilt a first eleven, and also that is on the basis of not seeing any of those named players fail.
In summary, I think it is completely fair for us to expect to see a pattern and style develop, even as we accept plenty of dropped points and ups and downs this season. Without that of course we are rebuilding in the wrong direction. With the optimisitc outlook that we will see some good progress this season I think we have to give credit where it is due in terms of how this process is going in the last 12 months.
+ We have offloaded players who were simply not good enough, or who had lost motivation to be here
+ We have made very promising signings in terms of established players and younger players like Lammens, Yoro, Sesko, Heaven
+ We are changing the profile of the team in terms of signings
Still to do:
We have two goalkeepers that are not good enough, both should leave.
We may lose Fernandes in the next 1-2 years (this is why cunhand AND Mbuemo made sense), Casemiro will go, and Ugarte needs to show a lot to be anything but another inevitable exit, so the essential midfield rebuild has to be succesful. It is an integral but near final part of what I would say is a 'rebuild' and should we add two quality players there we should be close.
I for one, certainly feel better about the way things are going, and accept that other than midfield we may also need an upgrade on CB, or wing back roles depending on how this season goes. If this season goes well, I would expect next season to be much closer to challenging. If this season sees players in key roles fail, then it would be the season after at best.
What should we want from this season in the context of a rebuild progressing well?
Our wish this season as supporters should obviously be to finish as high as possible while improving, but whether you like any of these players or not we should be desperately hoping that all of the following players improve. These are the ones we need to do well to keep a rebuild on track in the most effective way: Lammens, Yoro, De Ligt, Amad, Dorgu, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko.
You may not rate some of these players and may already think we need to move on from them - but they are the ones you should be really hoping kick on and surprise us.
I'm not saying these aren't fair or interesting questions, but in recent years of the last terrible decade one of the most frequent demands made by supporters if to rip it all up and rebuild a squad. That has been started in several failed versions under Woodward's Disneyland model and the terrible signings under Ten Hag.
Sometimes I do wonder if we, myself included, have the stomach to go through what a rebuild actually means, and also wonder how long it takes before you can claim to have 'rebuilt'.
As of today, we are in a position where we have Wilcox dictating a lot, and a huge amount of back room changes. I think it's fair to say that they inherited a total mess in terms of overpaid players and deadwood and are so far doing a reasonable job of biting the bullet and getting rid of what we can for what we can get. From a supporter's point of view, it can be very difficult to balance patience with performances (Especially when as bad as last season and at moments this season) but we also simply have to acknowledge that no rebuild can take place in one or two windows.
So lets go back to September 1st 2024, and see what has been achieved in a year.
This day one year ago, Ten Hag presided over us getting absolutely pasted at home by Liverpool. A 3-0 loss, with an infamous Casemiro horror show, that led to Collyer replacing him.
Our line up one year ago was: Onana, Mazraoui, de Ligt, Martinez, Dalot, Casemiro, Mainoo, Rashford, Bruno, Garnacho, Hojlund*
Subs: Altay, Evans, Maguire, Collyer, Eriksen, Amad, Antony, Wheatley, Heaton, Zirkzee
Sancho out of team after fallout, yoro, Lindelof, Mount and Shaw injured. Ugarte signed the day before.
(Ive swapped Zirkzee and Hojlund here to reflect what our actual regular line up was, as Hojlund missed this match.)
Since then, when we all complained about deadwood and poor attitudes and a mismatched squad, we have offloaded or said goodbye to
Rashford, Garnacho, Hojlund, Antony Sancho, Evans, Eriksen, Lindelof, *One of the goalkeepers will surely go.
9 first team starters or squad players.
Fast forward 1 year, to what would likely be our line up if we had a fully fit team this weekend. New signings are highlighted in bold and I would encourage glancing to the departures to make immediate contrasts and comparisons in terms of profiles. To me the difference is pretty stark,
Lammens, Yoro, De Ligt, Martinez - Diallo, Bruno, Casemiro, Dorgu - Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko.
Subs: Gk, Maguire, Shaw, Heaven, Mainoo, Ugarte, Leon, Dalot, Mazraoui, Zirkzee, Chido, Mount (a far stronger bench than the Liverpool game)
So we have signed 5 would be starters, and 3 promising young players. I have put in italics 3 players signed by current regime but for a previous manager that they seemed to accept they got wrong. Whether you include these players in a rebuild depends on your perspective.
In terms of signings, what is clearly left to do regardless of what you think of other positions:
A LCB,
A DM
What is likely to be needed:
A R or L wing back depending how either perform this season.
Another central midfielder assuming Fernandes leaves.
So after next summers transfer window, all going well, we should look to have:
Lammens, Yoro, De Ligt, LCB, Diallo, CM, CM, Dorgu, Mbuemo, Cunha, Sesko.
That's 3 more starters to sign before we could say we've rebuilt a first eleven, and also that is on the basis of not seeing any of those named players fail.
In summary, I think it is completely fair for us to expect to see a pattern and style develop, even as we accept plenty of dropped points and ups and downs this season. Without that of course we are rebuilding in the wrong direction. With the optimisitc outlook that we will see some good progress this season I think we have to give credit where it is due in terms of how this process is going in the last 12 months.
+ We have offloaded players who were simply not good enough, or who had lost motivation to be here
+ We have made very promising signings in terms of established players and younger players like Lammens, Yoro, Sesko, Heaven
+ We are changing the profile of the team in terms of signings
Still to do:
We have two goalkeepers that are not good enough, both should leave.
We may lose Fernandes in the next 1-2 years (this is why cunhand AND Mbuemo made sense), Casemiro will go, and Ugarte needs to show a lot to be anything but another inevitable exit, so the essential midfield rebuild has to be succesful. It is an integral but near final part of what I would say is a 'rebuild' and should we add two quality players there we should be close.
I for one, certainly feel better about the way things are going, and accept that other than midfield we may also need an upgrade on CB, or wing back roles depending on how this season goes. If this season goes well, I would expect next season to be much closer to challenging. If this season sees players in key roles fail, then it would be the season after at best.
What should we want from this season in the context of a rebuild progressing well?
Our wish this season as supporters should obviously be to finish as high as possible while improving, but whether you like any of these players or not we should be desperately hoping that all of the following players improve. These are the ones we need to do well to keep a rebuild on track in the most effective way: Lammens, Yoro, De Ligt, Amad, Dorgu, Cunha, Mbuemo, Sesko.
You may not rate some of these players and may already think we need to move on from them - but they are the ones you should be really hoping kick on and surprise us.
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