Agree. Center Forward aside, I quite like the first XI - looks top half. But when we have our usual 6 mix of medium and long term injuries, some of the line ups this season are going to be relegation standard with players out of position.
The club remain quietly relaxed about a likely quiet deadline day with most of the outgoings and incomings already completed fitting to the reframed club strategy of being a quietly proud Championship club. I’m told head coach Valerian Ismael is quietly delighted with his options and quietly thinks the need for more reinforcements, especially with Sierralta appearing natural at the DM role, is a low priority. There have been some quietly said rumours quietly pointing to a potential signing or two from sister club Udinese, with a romantic return quietly suggested for former striker Isaac Success. This may be something to quietly keep an eye on.
Unpopular opinion, but I think this is the best squad we've ever had. Thoughts? Tune in to tonight's pod.
Guys calm down, this is a five year project. Sometimes you've just got to take a relegation to League One to start a rebuild. Or something like that.
No signings. Heavily reliant on everyone being fit for 46 games, which is never going to happen. I'll give this a P for Pollocks since he'll be getting plenty of game time.
This is absolutely laughable: We have ONE centre back backup; essentially a youth player that's played 3 games ever above Scottish Premiership/League One level, and our starting defensive midfielder is an injury-prone repurposed no-nonsense centre back with a tugboat's turning circle. His only backup is a player who was over the hill 5 years ago and has demonstrated for us already that there has been no magic soul-selling in aid of changing that over the summer. To carry on the chuntering that we deliberately 'want a small squad' is one thing, but this is insultingly crass spin. Leaving aside even the other issues we still have to fix, like the total lack of goal threat from the wide players or our inability to feed our poacher forwards, we literally can't claim to have a full defensive cohort that can reasonably be expected to withstand the rigours of a 46-game Championship season. That's the bottom line, and it's the same old gaslighting to pretend otherwise. We've been forced into pointing this out for 5 straight years now; I feel like I'm going insane.
Can someone edit Gino and Val into the Simpsons picture of Tom Jones with Smithers holding the gun to his back
It’s clear, for whatever reason, Ismaël is fronting up as saying it’s all his decision. Only a couple of weeks ago he was saying he felt he needed 2 or 3 more players. Only the striker came in, so I suspect the hierarchy have suggested to take the undoubted heat off to claim it’s what he wanted. It’s all BS and spin. No coach on the planet wants a small squad of crap players. He’s tasked with getting us fighting for a playoff place. This is another disaster in the making. I’ve said all along, we’ll be fighting to stay up if we don’t increase our numbers. Once injuries kick in, we’re totally fooked. Ismaël is a naive fool. If he thinks he’s really going to get 2 or 3 windows to fully rebuild, what planet is he on? He’ll be gone in the October international break if results do not sufficiently improve. Surely he must know that. It’s just bonkers.
I think this is the worst window of the Pozzo era. Absolutely laughable if we don't bring anyone in. Strikers: Rhys Healey - Alright seems to be surplus to requirements. Rajovic - Looked poor on his debut, and the signing on paper looks a strange one too. Midfield: Livermore - Would have been a decent signing at this level 5 years ago. Long since past it now though. Ince - The rest of our window has been so bad that he looks alright as an option on this list. Short-term signing though, papering over cracks. Chakvetadze - Looks like the kind of player who will end up with a nice YouTube montage. Haven't seen him add much yet though, and he's another one with a poor injury record. Defence: Lewis - Happy with this on paper but his injury/fitness problems have resulted in him not even making a squad yet. No improvements at CB. No depth at LB/RB (Don't rate Ngakia & Morris). Awful options at GK. No support in DM. Poor wing options. No decent goalscorer. It is going to be a very long season.
I'm fully in favour of a rebuild because god knows this squad needed it. However, we've begun the rebuild by signing players on loan, players who are pushing 30 and players who are well over the hill. Surely invest in some young players who will be here for a few years? Pick up players released by the big clubs, offer them first team football under a decent head coach. We're going to be back to square one trying to find replacements for Lewis, Chakvetadze, Martins, Livermore and Ince next summer.
This is not a rebuild. Of the players we’ve signed only Ince and Rajovic are likely to be here next year. It’s just a cost-cutting exercise. If it’s described as anything else it’s just BS and spin.
This year's need 4-5 more is last years RWB. Next year under Gino we could well start with just Bachmann
Absolutely, to rebuild you need to have a decent foundation to start with, one that can survive through the "rebuilding phase". What we've done is left ourselves is a very precarious position now that could actually lead to us dropping out of the Championship altogether. Maybe that's being somewhat sensationalist, but given we've retained and added players with histories of longterm injuries, we don't need a crisis as deep as we faced last year to be calling on youth players
Have seen murmurs on twitter that Healey isn't happy with the lack of football, and it's the kind of thing you'd go along with as he was playing towards the end of last season and given he isn't really the same sort of striker as Bayo and Rajovic. Rajovic on paper seems like the kind of player we should be signing, young with the potential to improve, but for £1m we need players to hit the ground running, I'm not sure he'll even be an upgrade on Bayo this season. Midfield looks lightweight, content with our wing options, there's enough depth there even if they won't be overly prolific. Livermore obviously is a disaster waiting to happen, Kayembe isn't a suitable replacement, Sierralta looks OK in that role but will probably be needed in his natural position (not entirely happy with our CB depth but it's definitely not the biggest issue we have). I'm sure we will see Lewis soon, but even so Morris and possibly Sema are passable options at this level, Andrews has fantastic potential, Ngakia less so. Bachmann is Bachmann, a decent shot-stopper who we have to hope won't cost us in other ways.
Though I will say with Healey that if there's an injury crisis or if Ismael goes, he's got every chance of being a regular, and I fancy he'll do well if given that chance
The crazy thing is, we’re only a second year relegated EPL club, with parachute payments, but are acting like we’ve just had back-to-back promotions from League Two. We just should not be in this state where we can’t afford a squad and having to rely on youth……and that’s the youth that lose all their U23 fixtures!! There’s only one person to blame for it. Gino Pozzo.
It's simple to see that small squad = lower wage bill = happier Gino. Val won't have had much of a say, if any.
Mismanagement of money though, surely can be no other reason. They put all their cards on us getting promoted last season (hence the loans against the future monies) and it went **** up. Really bad financial planning, which after hearing the filibuster and nonsense coming from both Gino and the club accountant at the forum (who BTW seemed genuinely amateur when being picked apart by members of the audience) really isn't that surprising.
This is why these jokers have got to go. If they remain I believe the club will continue its downward trend.
I don’t have faith that the Pozzos have the ability to replicate their previous achievements. Covid, finances, others overtaking our recruitment ability and truly poor decision making are some of the causes of that but I struggle to see who would want to buy us. Too small for a Saudi/US investor and those who are interested will have probably as much funding as Gino does. All irrelevant unless they want to sell
This. Relegation to League one will be more likely in the future than promotion to the prem. No-one who buys us can expect to make money from owning us. Constantly asset strip to extract money like Petchey/Baz and we will drop further. To get us into the prem would take massive investment and we won't make profits whilst up there because the cost of staying in the prem exceeds the additional income. Why would anyone buy us, unless they want to own and bankroll a "London club" into the prem and then continue to lose money every year we are up there ?
Don't worry about the next buyer/consortium. You can guarantee there would be someone willing to buy a decent looking Championship club, with our recent history. I just hope Gino doesn’t leave it too long, as in once we’re in League One.
