BuzzKillington
Full Member
I think EtH deserves credit for what he seems to have managed to do with the playing side. We look sharper, able to pass a ball and we seem to have discovered how to effectively press (at least when “the king” isn’t playing). In short we actually look like a football team with a competent manager, who are capable of playing decent football for the first time in about 8 years.I'm not sure it's been a great pre-season off the pitch.
I try to be realistic about transfers. I appreciate we're not playing Football Manager and these are real people we're dealing with but still....I cannot for the life of me work out why it takes us soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long to do anything!
Most people agreed going into this Summer that we needed a CF, a CM and a RB. What have we got? An AM, a CB and a LB! I'd argue none of the players we have signed improve our XI much, if at all.
At the same time, who have we sold? We have released a few players who should have been gone 2/3 seasons ago...but how many players have we received a fee for? I can only think of Pereira. Why is Jones still here? Why is Tuanzebe still here? Why is Bailly still here? Why is Telles still here? What are we doing with Amad, Garner, Pellistri, Chong, Brandon Williams...if they're not going to be playing, what are they doing at the club still?
I try to see the logic in what the club do and give them the benefit of the doubt but...if we're being really honest...let's say our results under ETH are not fantastic next season and we finish 5th/6th. Then again the year after, they're not great again and we limp into 4th. Then 3rd season, we're 7th at Christmas and ETH is sacked. Could we HONESTLY look back at the business we have conducted and say we did everything to give the manager the best chance of success again? I'd argue based on the early evidence...not really.
Our signings so far have been the usual "players the manager knows" targets we've gone for under Moyes, LvG and Jose. What do our team of 100s of Scouts globally do? How many players have moved on a free this Summer that would have improved our squad? I bet 20+ easily. Where are the £15/20m gems from South America or Eastern Europe that every other team seems capable of uncovering? Why have we once again seemingly based our entire transfer strategy around one player?
Again, I'm trying to be positive but IF this season doesn't go well, I think we'll view this pre-season poorly in hindsight.
But EtH deserves the criticism for the transfer side of things. There’s no way the club have made a decision to only sign Ajax or former Ajax players, so that is on him.
We’re an injury to Fred away from not actually having a single passable senior midfielder. Our squad is ridiculously thin in certain areas. 18 year olds fresh out of the youth setup are good for experimenting with when the pressure is off. They shouldn’t be your bench and who you’re looking at to bring on and change a game when it’s not going well.