Almen Abdi joins Sheff Wed

Beleck, Mujangi Bia, Merkel, Reece Brown, Diakite, Tamas, Ranegie.

 

Stop making sense. What in gods name do you think you're playing at ???

 

As from my statement A list of bad signings, I think it's self evident that I'm not denying bad signings have been made, or mistakes. My only point was that quantifying the number of good or bad signings is not the best metric for determining whether a transfer policy is working, IMO.

 

I think it's a bit harsh to include players who were thrown at the new 'project' in the first season.

 

That's 14 "failures" (although i'd count Bia as a bit harsh since he's a winger and we played 3-5-2) in 4 seasons. A lot of those were low risk loan signings (Bia, Merkel, Beleck, Diakite, McEachran, Chu Young, Fanchone etc), in which we had adequate cover and weren't really starting many games, not forcing us with large fees nor lengthy contracts.

Let's do some comparisons:

In the last 4 seasons Utd have bought: Buttner, Henriquez, Nick Powell, Zaha, Varela, Falcao, Di Maria, Shaw, Valdes. And then there's the "maybe failures" like Fellaini, Kagawa, Schweinsteger (looks like Mourinho is forcing him out now, and they'll have to part with £15m to buy out his contract), Depay etc. For the most part on long contracts, big fees.

Chelsea in the last 4 seasons: Marin, Moses, Sch*rrle, Wallace, Filipe Luis, Salah, van Ginkel, Amelia, Cuadrado, Baba, Djilobodji, Hector, Pato, Piazon etc etc.

We're not alone. Even clubs "our level" fail with transfers at the same ratio.

 

That's true but I think the point being made is that none of these clubs' fans regularly boast about having the best scouting network in the world. It's something that is written on here all the time as though it's a unique advantage that we have.

In reality, it's good enough but based on a very high turnover of players. It's an awful lot better than some clubs (Newcastle, Villa) and our owners have been around the block enough times that we are very rarely seen paying significantly over the odds for players. It's not, however, deserving of the mythical status that some fans grant it.

 

Reminds me of a thread I keep meaning to start - about Pozzo family and Gino Pozzo 'myths' which people just repeat repetitively on here. It just goes to show that a quiet chairman, allied with a general uplift in club fortunes, can pretty much have a positive narrative written for him without even having to really try. In the end the mystique becomes so great that most people just accept things as a given.

 

I can't disagree with much of what you said. I said it earlier - it works, and it that regard, it's successful. If you want to consider the financial implications (which was never in the discussion), I have no doubt that the Pozzos scouting/transfer policy has been a huge financial success.

My original point was that the Pozzos scouting, in terms of finding talent, is not as prolific as many like to believe. They get a lot wrong, which of course is absolutely expected and fine. What Chelsea or Man Utd do is irrelevant, although I agree that their respective transfer policies are a travesty. The difference being that they can keep blowing big money without financial meltdown.

 

The fact that they keep/kept three clubs in three major top divisions, whilst still being one of the clubs in each teams' respective leagues to not make a huge loss, suggests it's working nicely. And this is all without the huge marketing income some bigger clubs would get. Along with small attendances for all three clubs. It works.

I think a few of you got a bit over excited about this summer and feel disappointed that it hasn't been as good as you hoped, yet. As has been pointed out, we're fishing in a different pond now and as such, there's bigger competition.

In terms of success relative to size, supporter consideration, long-term stability and profit/loss, we've hit the jackpot with these guys. Wouldn't trade them for anyone. Even with their quirks.

 

Obviously, the last 6-7 years have seen other clubs enhancing their own scouting networks to find these talents. Which is why teams like Chelsea/Man City are hoovering up young talents from all over the world now, when they instead used to join Udinese.

 

Signings are made to achieve objectives.

Under the Pozzos we've nearly got promoted, actually got promoted, narrowly missed out on a title, stayed up in the Premier League and reached a cup semi-final. All of this has been achieved with a unfashionable football club that was most definitely not a "sleeping giant".

I think it's obvious they're actually getting it right. The fact we can name a bunch of players who didn't work out doesn't change that. Every club has a string of names who never made it there; it's an unavoidable reality of football. What's important is that unlike many clubs, our owners are adept at moving surplus players on (and recouping money) when they don't work out.

 

Bring in 30 players and 5 are bound to work but The Pozzo's have signed a lot of total duds. I'm not saying it's cost us money or actually impacted us in a negative way all but they're no transfer market gods like some on here would have you believe.

 

QPR beg to differ

 

What exactly were you expecting? They were trying to revolutionise the club from top to bottom. It's comparatively easy to get signings mostly right when you're only in the market for 1-2 to improve on an already excellent squad. The Pozzos didn't buy an excellent squad; they inherited a squad with Joe Garner and Mark Yeates in it and tasked themselves with taking that club to promotion. They managed it in 3 years, and very nearly managed it (twice) in 1. That's indicative of an approach which is absolutely working. I strongly doubt any other owners could have done better, and the vast majority would have done worse.

It was inevitable many of the inbound players wouldn't work out because we were trying to replace or improve almost every single player we had. It's the reality of trying to replace an entire squad at a club in short order. You bring in a bunch of likely candidates and see who steps up.

We'll likely continue to see large influxes of potential first team hopefuls for the next couple of seasons before settling down into more evolutionary transfer activity.

 

Last season wasn't too bad with Capoue, Behrami, Ake, Prodl, Britos. In fact Nyom started very well and Berghuis looked as though he could make a difference. Oulare didn't look great but he may come good. Not really that bad to be fair

 

Diamante, Ibarbo, Jurado, Arlauskis...

 

Yeah wasn't too bad, I never said it was but again to counter that:

Berghuis, Diamanti, Ibarbo, Holebas, Suarez, Oulare, Jurado & Arlauskis. Either moved on or didn't get much action (not sure how much is QSF's fault and how much is down to Pozzo's)

 

Berghuis looked decent in the short time we saw him as did Holebas but QSF wasn't keen for some reason. I still think Jurado would have been good had he been in the middle and Suarez was expected to be much much better than he has been so far. Can't argue about Oulare, Ibarbo or Diamanti. Diamanti was a very strange signing

 

where we finished last year (in the Premiership) and how many players who represented the club that season were inherited by the Pozzo's is surely the measure of how successful the owners recruitment has been (players and coaches). Even Fabbrini was sold at a profit.

 

Or what a good job QSF did in making us tough to beat and playing to our strengths despite the generally poor signings last summer ????

 

If you credit the Pozzos for appointing the head coach who kept us up in the premiership, why not for them creating the squad that Flores utilised? I think this disappointment about recent signings is not about the quality of recruitment and success at getting good value through player trading, but really a disconnect between expectation and reality. Would we sign Ibe after 41 top flight games for £15 million, i doubt it. But i am not sure they different policies at Bournemouth and ourselves are particularly important. Deeney is the obvious example of previous regimes success at recruitment compared to the current regime, but overall i dont think we currently have much to complain about. Getting back to Abdi, a free transfer that was player of the year in his first season with us, and a solid contribution last year, has been sold for £4 million at 30 years old (partly at his own request) is IMHO good business. we will see if the squad this year has sufficient depth and talent rto emulate last years performance.

 

Will Buckley joining the Gang at Watford B today....

 

Funny given how far we've come since then that that name already sounds a real blast from the past, but he's still only 26!

 

Christ, I thought he'd be about 30 by now.

 

You know you've made it when you get a tribute band. They'll be playing in one of our old strips next.

 

Watford played in blue between 1927 & 1959. No white stripes though, although their shirt only has white pinstripes this year.

 

Christ is much older than 30. I had definitely heard of him when I was a kid

 

The next goal is to get our own crxppy west end stage show like Abba, Queen etc etc.

 

I seem to remember Oxford Utd (I think) being so in awe of our kit that they threw theirs away and insisted in playing in our away strip for a day.

 

It was because they forgot their kit, or only brought their home kit which clashed or something. Certainly nothing to do with being in awe of it.

 

Yeah you get one of these for that one. :whoosh:

 

Uh huh...of course. Stock reply.

 

should have been made to play in their pants

 

Reputedly 2018, but I haven't seen his birth certificate to substantiate this.