Cristiano Giaretta - Director Of Football

Everybody just calm down, Giaretta has spoken.

"...we have to do little. We already have an excellent team for the Championship. We are already competitive. And we want to go up.”

http://sportwitness.co.uk/always-lo...r-plans-wanting-react-immediately-relegation/

Enjoy your days until the new season everyone.

 

Incredible. They genuinely think a spine of Cathcart/Kaba and Cleverly/Gosling is a cut above the championship don't they? What a mug I am renewing my season ticket.

 

Has he actually seen any of our matches?

 

He's not going to publicly come out and say all our players are crap and we have to sign a dozen new ones though is he?!

 

Well he should because some of them are

 

Ha-ha! No, I agree.

I'll be honest, I highlighted the quote as I knew it would garner a bit of a reaction and, in a way, I kind of agree with him too.

As wfc4ever says, we're not going to be clearing the whole squad out and bringing in upwards of 20-odd new players.
It just isn't feasible to ship out a huge number, bring in a similar amount and expect a head coach of any ability to gel them together quickly, let alone one in his first year at Championship level.

We'll sell those who don't want to be here and any who have bids which are too good to turn down.
Those left did well in the Championship before and 2 years on isn't going to make a great deal of difference to the majority in terms of ability or fitness degradation. I'm more concerned with the mental aptitude of some and whether they'll take on Edwards' way of playing and the need for bloody hard graft over an EFL season.

A little rejig with the likes of Dele-Bashiru, Asprilla, Hungbo & possibly a couple of others becoming squad players with, hopefully, replacements for those sold coming in along with several free agents & 'freebies' from Udinese is what I expect this window. See where we are come the World Cup and the January window and we'll either top up for a promotion push or worst case scenario, prepare for another season in our current league with a couple of sales and make do replacements.

 

What good would that do though?

It'd just piss off lots of the squad and potentially ward off any potential suitors.

 

So we sell the players who want to go and those we can get decent money for, and coast through the division with the dross nobody else wants. Hope that works!

 

A bit of honesty should do the world of good for some of these mugs

 

We won’t be able to suddenly shift lots of players, even if we want to. The rebuild will take time, so need to panic. I still think we will bring in 3 or 4 players. Assuming we lose Sarr and Dennis we will need to bring in some quality to replace. Pretty sure we will keep Pedro and Cucho, both of which are on an upward trajectory.

 

This season is going to be another absolutely horrific train wreck.

 

The club can do it behind the scenes if they wish.

In a published interview would seem silly if we're trying to get rid of them.

 

I wish it was. Cathcart, Gosling and Cleverly are all quality on FM!

 

You appear to have disregarded completely where I said;

"...replacements for those sold coming in along with several free agents & 'freebies' from Udinese is what I expect this window."

ie. transfers in with some of the money gained by transferring players out ALONG with several free agents etc.

So no, absolutely not "..coast through the division with the dross nobody else wants..." and hope it works.

 

If competitive means mid-table obscurity I would agree with him. Not been impressed by Giaretta at all since he has come in. Bring back Giraldi all is forgiven... almost.

 

Yeah, I'm sure clubs were scouting WTE, Catchart and Cleverley thinking they were Prem quality and this statement from Giaretta will affirm that, despite our shameful season.

We may not be able to ship out 20 players and replace them with better, but unfortunately we need to, such has been the absolute neglect of the squad for seasons.

This is not a promotion squad as it stands. Take out 3 or 4 of our forward players and it's barely mid table.

And it's ageing so it's getting worse.

 

The squad we have now (minus Dennis who of course is going some point soon) is noticeably worse than the one we had in the Championship last time, plus there's absolutely no way that the division will be as bad next season as it was in 20/21, wake the **** up Giaretta!

 

Are you being serious? With our age and ability profiles? It's already been literally made clear that that is exactly what has already happened - players like Cleverley can barely move at this point, let alone what they do when they have the ball.

 

2020/21 vs 2022/23

GK:
Bachmann vs Okoye
RB:
20/21 Kiko vs 22/23 Kiko
CB:
20/21 Ekong vs 22/23 Ekong
CB:
20/21 Sierralta vs 22/23 Sierralta
LB:
Masina vs Kamara
CM:
Hughes vs Kayembe
CM:
20/21 Cleverley vs 22/23 Cleverley
CM:
Chalobah vs Louza
Att:
Sarr vs Kalu
Att:
20/21 JP vs 22/23 JP
Att:
Sema vs Cucho

Obviously depends on keeping JP/Cucho/Kamara and additions coming in but I'd say they're fairly evenly matched at this point.

 

That's why I said majority and not all.

With the players who are likely to stay, only Elliot (36) out of the current crop of keepers is over 30 and let's face it, he won't be playing. In defence only Cathcart (33) & Kabasele (31) will be in their 30's. In midfield it's only Gosling & Cleverley (both 32) likely to be here while up front, if King (30) leaves as is expected, there'll be no players 30 or above.

So it's not an old squad. It may not be a brilliant or even a promotion challenging squad but it has little to do with their age.

It's obvious we need to make a lot of changes but it won't happen in one transfer window, not even two. And unless the club chuck money around - they won't - then it's going to take time or a lot of luck to have a squad capable of getting promotion and competing to stay in the Premier League.

 

The difference is that Hughes and Sarr were solidly mid-table Prem level and wouldn't have had any business in the Championship if not for circumstances beyond their control, I wouldn't say that's the case of any of this lot yet, and they certainly don't all look like fitting into what Edwards wants

 

Hughes just made 16 appearances for a mid table side, and Sarr largely stunk the place out in his second relegation in 3 years. They're both decent players but it wasn't like we had a Mitrovic or a Taarabt.

If transfer value was put aside and you gave me a choice between JP/Louza or Sarr/Hughes going into this season I think I probably choose the former. Same if you replace JP with Cucho.

 

The 2012 version ?

 

You can't beat experience. You win nothing with kids.

 

Ultimately Sarr's career has been mostly just flashes of brilliance, but to be quite honest, you could say the same of JP right now, just to a lesser extent, and in terms of quality if not necessarily role, Louza isn't much different from Hughes (who's looked fine whenever he played for Palace, it's not like he wasn't getting into the team because he's massively sub-standard). Anyway, regardless of who's better, we still have a lot of old players who played a big part in our initial relegation, and who will almost certainly look like massive squares in round holes (meanwhile, if we are to play like Forest Green, JP might be competing with Cucho for a spot in the team)

 

So our centre backs for this season should be a frozen out player and a player who hasn't played for 6 months.

 

Did I say that?

 

If he feels he has ‘little to do’, maybe we can get him off the payroll?

 

Our DOF essentially did

 

Tell him then? As others have pointed out, he's not exactly going to say we need an entire new squad and all our players our *****, however true that may be.

 

OK I will ask and let you know.

 

Giaretta's position is redundant, it's more wasted wages from Gino. I believe we've allowed Bayat to work himself into a position where he now controls our transfer business, just like he's done at Nantes due to his influence over Waldemar Kita.