AndyJ1985
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- Apr 11, 2016
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Half our squad is dross, and we can't replace half a squad in one transfer window. I'd expect top 4 again, but to be closer to 1st and 2nd
Depends if we spunk that 200mil up the wall on shit signings, as we've done for the last 5 years.Can this be a poll? 200M 1) Title challenge 2) Top 4 ambitions
Of course there are various factors but we've not gone for out-of-the-blue signings we've scouted on the sly in ages, so we'll likely be competing for the known talent with a host of other clubs. And we've got a recent history of paying premium and using the press in a very counter-productive way.
I'm curious to know if people think the rumoured "biggest transfer spend the club's history" (200m) is enough for a title challenge or if it's just enough for a top 4 challenge.
Those players cost 200m at a time when 200m bought you a helluva lot more too. It really boils down to making the right transfers and employing them in the right way. Which is not easy, but entirely possible. It's not that hard to imagine us being transformed into a much more consistent unit by buying two players that fit the bill perfectly (whilst also adding a couple of good squad players)Fred, di Maria, Schneiderlin, Mata and Bailly cost us roughly £200 million combined. If that's how we spend it this summer we're going to be stuck in the same mess as the last six years. Woodward has a lot to answer for considering how grotesquely he's failed at hiring managers and signing players since he took the job. He's the biggest reason we're currently so far behind where we should be, imo.
But City very much might:Sounds about right. We'd still be well short of City.
I don't think we will spend anything like that amount, though.
How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signingsIs this net spend? That will be title challenge. At least have decent period of time challenging the title.
One summer? How do you work that out? That's like saying I built a house in 15 minutes because that's how long it took my to lay the last row of bricks. City and Liverpool have been 'building their houses' for years.Liverpool improved massively from one summer of big transfers. Pep did with City too.
Not sure why we suddenly can't.
Laughable? Have a look at the league table...not sure you'll be laughing then! You don't fluke a season like Liverpool are having they are miles and miles ahead of usLiverpool are a good team who are having great season but the notion we or other teams like Tottenham , Chelsea are miles away from them is simply laughable they are more likely to come back into mix then have similar season like this one we can certainly catch them with some smart additions.
How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signings
One summer? How do you work that out? That's like saying I built a house in 15 minutes because that's how long it took my to lay the last row of bricks. City and Liverpool have been 'building their houses' for years.
Laughable? Have a look at the league table...not sure you'll be laughing then! You don't fluke a season like Liverpool are having they are miles and miles ahead of us
Our league is littered with some really poor teams not so great teams can get points total beyond their actual strength, Chelsea won the league with record points total not so long with Conte so you already have an example of team who weren't that great getting ridiculous point total ,Liverpool for me looks closer to that then real deal who would continue to challenge regularly I may be wrong but I will wait before putting Liverpool in category of teams who can't be reeled in next season.How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signings
One summer? How do you work that out? That's like saying I built a house in 15 minutes because that's how long it took my to lay the last row of bricks. City and Liverpool have been 'building their houses' for years.
Laughable? Have a look at the league table...not sure you'll be laughing then! You don't fluke a season like Liverpool are having they are miles and miles ahead of us
Maybe its 200 billion which would be much more realistic considering the crap at the club currently .We need more than 200mil to get the quality players that is needed to replace the dross in the team chrrently.
Yep - I genuinely believe that this Liverpool team is going to be a title contender for at least three seasons without major overhaul - I also expect us to be at that position within 2 seasons.Do you genuinely believe this current Liverpool team is capable of regularly breaching 90 points barrier because thats what they are on course for this season, combined 11 would always favour teams who are doing well currently we finished ahead of scousers last season. I concede that they are a good team but with our resources and some good coaching it's not that unreasonable to expect us to finish ahead of them even if they strengthen in Summer.
Easily?Easily title challenge, if spent wisely. Our issues are mainly due to coaching and not players .
Take for e.g. todays line up - 3 CBs, 1 B2B, 3 attacking mid, 2 strikers and 1 wing back.
Talk about having a balance!
City has a squad of winning the title not title challenge. Liverpool’s squad is only title challenge. You also need to consider that we finished 2nd last season, while this season the big gaps was created by Mourinho’s disaster job. This also depends on what players we sign, we need to sign players in the position that we need the most to improve or upgrade.How will spending £200m lead to a title-challenge when City/Liverpool are 20pts ahead of us and will probably spend £100m+ themselves? £200m will get you four players top and even the best-run clubs would struggle to get 100% success rate on signings
How much did Leicester spend when they won the league?Liverpool improved massively from one summer of big transfers. Pep did with City too.
Not sure why we suddenly can't.
Surely this can't be right? Unless you mean comfortably top 4 but I'm not sure there is such a thing given how tight top 4 is the last few yearsTop 4, no chance of a serious title challenge.
Good Post...I know its too much to fix everything in one window but I wouldn't mind shipping out Sanchez and Lukaku if we get good offers and also replacementsLooking at the way things are going I don't think we can hope to mount a serious challenge. Before signings, what is needed is work on our style of play. Our passing, movement, pressing, forward play, ideas in the final third - all need to improve from what we have seen so far. These things take time as we have seen with Liverpool & City. It took Pep one season to get used the league, develop City's style of play & get the squad he wants (He had three transfer windows before his second season begin). At Liverpool it has taken almost 3 seasons. I would say that our squad is in a much better shape than Liverpool's was when Klopp joined, so Ole should be able to do it in one season.
At time of joining, Ole and Klopp's mandates were different too. Ole is under pressure to get us a top 4 from what was a near impossible position. With games coming in quick succession & injuries he hasn't had the chance to fully implement his vision. He tried in the beginning but the players started dropping like flies after a few games. A few like Herrera and Matic, who were essential to our early form under Ole, have been on and off. These six months is basically an assessment period to judge which of squad is up for it.
I know we all want, me included, for us to drop £300m-£350m and improve the squad in one go to mount a title challenge. Thinking about it, it may be an unrealistic expectation. £200m + money from sales should be a good starting point for Ole to start improving the squad. Getting four players - a top CB, a top RB, a dominant midfielder & a versatile attacker - would be a fine start. Four is a good number of players to integrate in the first team and get going.
This is my expectation from the summer window:
Sold/Let go - Valencia, Mata, Herrera, Darmian, Rojo & Bailly.
In - CB, RB, CM & AM (preferably someone who can play on the right)
Squad -
De Gea/ Romero / GrantFor me the most essential signing for us is getting a dominant midfielder who can free up Pogba to play in attack. Pogba does well in the midfield but he is at his best when he has freedom to join the attack and get in the box at regular intervals. It's not a coincidence that our uptick in goals and assists has dropped off since he has had to move deeper.
RB/Dalot Smalling/Lindelof CB/Jones Shaw/Young
Fred/McTommy CM/Matic
RW/Lingard Pogba/Pereira Martial/Sanchez
Rashford/Lukaku
That squad should be good enough for a top three position and a good run in the cups, imo. If we are lucky Rashford and Martial will have breakout seasons and we will be able to achieve more.