The only things that Leventhal mentioned in his article (which I have not seen already reported elsewhere) are that João Ferreira has already arrived in Hertfordshire and that both Juventus and Lille have tried unsuccessfully to sign him in the past.
Pozzo to do the V sign in Edwards' face when this guy scores the play-off winner at Wembley against the scummers
The Fotmob app does player ratings, and this lad has been absolutely ***** so far this season. £2m is an outrageous waste. That sort of money would get you a decent player from League 1 who would actually have a chance of helping us this season
It could well be a massive waste but he’s played 158 League mins this season and Fotmob ratings are famously bad anyway.
Anyone in particular? Maybe you will be right but let’s see how he does. Poor bloke hasn’t even officially signed yet !
We desperately need a right back, and I doubt there is anyone better playing in league one that we could get for £2 million or less. You may have more knowledge about league one as I rarely watch football at that level, and if that is the case, who do you have in mind from league one?
Nope, that was 32 year-old Andre Almeida. Joao Ferreira was completely missed as a possibility - presumably because he was out on loan from Benfica.
Yes. Tripped over on his way into the training ground this morning - estimated to be out for 5 months.
Ben Manga in but it's the same old sh!t. How hard is it to sign players that the head coach actually wants? This is 100% a Pozzo signing, I'm not having it that Manga would sign a player without the head coach indicating that he'd use the player.
That is how a lot of clubs work I feel at the higher level of the game . Gone are the days of a manager scouting players themselves. True - we all know they just get told to get on with it .
Maybe our high profile new sporting director, whose job it is to scout talent and who has a five year contract, may be better at finding new players than our coach, who as much as we respect him is no recruitment expert and is likely to leave in 6-18 months.
Think it depends how we finish the season. He has had a uniquely bad injury crisis which will be mitigating if we end the season well but fall short.
I'm not asking Bilic to find players, I don't think it's unreasonable for the club ask whether the head coach wants the player in the first place. Bilic didn't even know who Ferreira was until he turned up for training by the sound of it!
No doubt the club need to choose a philosophy and then recruit players and head coaches to suit it. Even Manga has said that the constant head coaches have been crazy but who knows, maybe they're planning on replacing Bilic before the month is over? I don't see the problem with Manga and Bilic working together to see what positions need addressing, Manga then does his thing and at least lets Bilic know he's getting these players in positions X, Y and Z. Signing players without the head coach knowing won't ever work.
At least Bilic is honest and/or shrewd enough to keep clean hands, unlike Call Me Rob who tried to blag he’d seen Bayo extensively and was happy with his signing.
Also see 'yeah, really pleased with Mario Gaspar. Ummm... errrr... he's not exactly a flying machine but umm... he'll bring other qualities'.
Brilliant timing today. Manga in an interview (with foreign media obvs): I'm here to bring in young, cheap, good players. Bilic in a press conference: can't just be signing prospects for the future, need to be signing players that can make an impact now. Also, no idea who this Ferreira guy that's just turned up is. What could possibly go wrong?
The total opposite to Giaretta’s first statement “I’m here to deliver old, expensive, crap players.” But to be fair to him, he did deliver in that.
Both those things can overlap though. Young doesnt have to mean the next Asprilla or Joao Pedro. It just means trying not to build a squad of Gaspars and Kucka. Kolo Muani was 24, Santos Borre was 26 etc. This is also exactly why you need a sporting director, and a large part of the reason our squad is such a ******* mess. It is obviously in Bilic's interest to sign a squad of experienced players that offer him the best chance of getting up this season because his personal job is tied to that success. Manga has to take a longer term view and bring in a more balanced squad so that if we don't go up we aren't left with a worthless squad and needing another rebuild.
Well, it was a light-hearted comment based on the timings of the two quotes. The second paragraph is only true if promotion isn't absolutely essential from a financial point of view though.
