I don’t think the defence can really be blamed for our precarious situation, they’ve mostly done well of late even with Kiko and/or Kabesele out and Dawson and Mariappa in the team. It was more collective ****-ups and too much sitting back that cost us the points on Tuesday than any individual errors. When these players have played poorly, it’s due to them being mismanaged under previous managers rather than themselves being poor. The problem is more the lack of strength in depth up front - the board should have been alerted to that last season from Pereyra’s decline and the fact we only had one player hit double figures in the scorers chart, and barely, and one who isn’t a striker.
While I agree we are light up front, that’s quite hard to fix. Mariappa is not good enough to be a regular starter. Teams target him and and when it comes to distribution he regularly shanks the ball out of play. Jury still out on Dawson as well. Holebas is shot, so we are light at full back. Janmaat is a write off (this season and contract expiring). We just don’t have the numbers or quality at the back in my view.
Will be hugely dependant on which league we are in of course. Stay up and we can clear out some of the dross. Relegation and we will lose all our quality players and as we saw last night, we don't have ready made back ups capable of stepping in.
Very much doubt we will be able to get rid of Prodl after contributing zero for 3 years. He will be here suckling at the teat of the final year of the bumper extension we gave him.
I agree we are lacking at full back, where we need at least three able players in each position. We were unlucky with Kiko, but then conversely we are lucky that Masina has proved a worthy successor to Holebas and has stayed fit (if we lose him to injury we could be in serious trouble), and in any case to start the season off with one right back unfit and the other in erratic form was negligent. Mariappa is reliable enough as a centre back but isn’t good enough to be a regular starter at full back at least in an attacking sense. Still maintain though that the problem is more up front than at the back.
Tough balance between improving the squad to stay up whilst not further damaging the club financially if we get relegated. But equally some players may only join while we have PL status.
This is why we can only really do loan deals with an option to sign. Will we stay up with what we have? Possibly, but it’s on a knife edge. If we stay up this season then I’d say we’ve dodged a bullet. We need a little bit extra just to tip those scales back in our favour. Without Sarr it’s going to be very tough to get the results we need. He gives us that little bit extra which makes a big difference. Without him we become very ordinary.
Letting Newcastle get Alcacer and Spurs get Bergwijn, while we sign Udinese rejects and go in again for Rose really does show a lack of ambishun.
It's looking low on serious transfer links. We know that very often signings occur after 2 or 3 days of strong speculation. The fact there are no concrete rumours on Watford is a bit of a concern. I'd say, if there is nothing by lunchtime tomorrow, in terms of strong rumour, we won't be signing any more players in this window.
I suspect we may be in for Rose (and 1 or 2 others) but as is the nature of the window and the situation we are in, we are at the whim of things falling into place for selling clubs. Hence the ‘we may, we may not’ line coming from the club.
I agree and I've not written off hope we'll be signing someone (or more) before Friday, but the rumour mill being the machine it is, there is normally something bubbling along by now. It's extremely quiet on that front.
I also wouldn’t be entirely surprised if we want players out the door before bringing any in. And we have some names who I imagine are hard to shift.
Thankfully I can't see Rose going anywhere this window. He's made his stance and will leave for nothing in the Summer. Would he honestly make our first 11 better? Masina is making that spot his own. I have no doubt one or two will arrive but have to agree with some needing moving on first.
Would he make it better? Masina is certainly in better form but it’s a risk to hope he keeps it up. But I have to say yes, he makes it better. This club should never shirk from improving the squads strength. Rose has played in huge games in the past 18 months (CL Final, regular at World Cup), is an International and has played over 150 games for a team consistently finishing in the Top 4.
Yes you're correct in your analysis of Rose. But this season I believe there has been a drop in standards from him. Anyway I still believe he will be at Spurs until his contract ends.
I personally suspect he’ll go somewhere like Newcastle (to replace Willems or Dummett who are both out for the season) or Bournemouth - neither of those clubs will shirk dropping £18m and £100k p/w.
Can't see us shifting anyone else this window so that probably means no more incomings. Nobody is going to take Prodl or Holebas, not even Udinese now we've unloaded three players onto them this season. I doubt Gray will be going anywhere mainly because he's too expensive for Championship clubs and also we'll need a replacement, which will in turn cost us a hefty amount. Success may go but Pussetto is his replacement.
Playing a lot of the young, fringe first-team players in the U23s today as we try to put them in the shop window for loan deals.
If Quina and Dele-Bashiru go on loan, you’d hope we are looking at bringing in a centre midfielder. Both of them going leaves us very short of cover.
Depends on how much longer Cleverley is expected to be out for really, we should have Hughes back soon. We could probably just pit a recall option in one of their loans, in which case we should be fine, it's not as if we have any more cup competitions to worry about.
Really thought hard before posting this but here goes. SSN are reporting Vydra is available for loan.