I do really see your point. However - has they paid £250m for Mings, would you still argue the same? He’s worth it because they paid it?
Surely Ming is worth more than £25million in the Chinese market. So he Has sell on value unlike Daws son
Not unless there has been hyperinflation and all other centrebacks are going for 150m-500m. Whatever the fee you need to observe the other transfers for context.
No because there would be better options available for the price I’m sure. You need to compare the price with the price for other players in that approx position eg Maguire, Dawson etc. We get overly hung up on the fee as we know we have a very limited budget. Others don’t. Eg it seems they have bid £7m for Heaton who is 33. A lot for a keeper at 33 and we probably wouldn’t pay that. However for them he’s a great keeper and will really strengthen their 11. The key thing in any transfer is will the player strengthen our peers, not whether in our perception they have overpaid.
Yep. We are operating in a different world to Villa, West Ham, Everton and Leicester. Even Brighton and Bournemouth out muscle us. We are in a group with Burnley, Sheff Utd, Norwich and (currently) Newcastle. Realistically any finish above the bottom 6 needs to be seen as a job well done, whether that be achieved by the recruitment team identifying a value purchase or Gracia working wonders with a substandard defence.
Absolutely right. One day our luck in swimming against the tide will run out - let's enjoy it while we can.
I can’t believe there are people who spend their lives arguing about Tyrone Mings. Has there ever been anyone who has put on their bucket list “ 27- Argue about Tyrone Mings”
Excellent signing. Very pleased about this. £5.5m is at a good price too. A strong, dependable, solid Premier League defender. Exactly what we need.
Dawson is fine, same as Cathcart, but he's just another budget Pozzo option. Pozzo is simply unwilling to invest in CBs in the same way as he invests in midfielders/wingers.
Although it can work for sides like Brighton (Duffy and Dunk), my concern is that Cathcart and Dawson are far too similar. And that’s not good when the ability level is average as well. Yesterday showed that any striker with pace is just going to exploits the gaps between them. I think clubs like Brighton have realised that and hence play with 3 CB’s to close the gaps and minimise the risk of their limitations being exposed. The mix of our own bag average CB’s, and Javi’s formation is a recipe for disaster.
I agree, but it's intensified by having Championship standard defenders along with Championship standard strikers, when you're playing in the Premier League. Unless we regain this iron-will mentality, these shortcomings are going to be our downfall. Of course we can do something about the strike force, with our yet to see two new players. There is hope we could become a potent attacking force, which will somehow help our flagging defence. We can do very little about improving the defence directly, as we're stuck with the players we have. All we can try to do is keep the ball away from our defence for as much as possible during matches.
Yep. We can go more than skin-deep about every aspect of things but for me it keeps coming back to the same thing - why on earth have we not done the responsible recruitment in defence over the last 18 months. I’d have loved Danny Rose. But there is an argument to say we can get by with Holebas/Masina for a year - if we are willing to drop £14m on Rose, why has the money not been available for a CB all summer? I just dont think Giraldi knows how to get the scouting drilled to find CB’s.
I think in this window in particular, there is a fashion for central defenders. In the past it was always wingers and strikers. For some reason, central defenders have become the most important aspect of a team. Look at some of the ridiculous transfer fees going round. £80m for Maguire. Tarkowski quoted at £50m and Duffy something similar. These are the type of players that could easily have been at Watford, but we've missed the boat in this area. I think it's fair to criticise the recruitment team for their lack of investment in the defence in the past, but now prices for good defenders is so inflated that we cannot afford to improve it very easily. As far as Dawson goes, I think he was worth signing as he gives us something from set pieces going forward, but defensively, he doesn't offer any improvement, from what I've seen, which is disappointing.
I am assuming very much that the Pozzos have been trying to sign a centre back or two but have been unsuccessful. What’s the point in signing someone who’s no better than what we’ve got ( though the jury is out over Dawson ) If I thought they weren’t even trying that that would seem very foolish
Aston Villa signed 4 CBs in the summer, including the Belgian lad Engels for about £7mil. It's early days but he looked pretty good. I won't mention the guy who played next to him again. Brighton also appear to have accrued 4 CBs who could all be better than any of ours.
I would disagree slightly in that I would expect us to concede fewer goals directly from set pieces with Dawson in the team, but I don’t think he represents any improvement in defending against mobile attackers in open play.