2019/20 Marcel Brands

[street end]

Then have a plan to SWIFTLY move on away from primary targets to secondary ones. Is that what we did over Zouma? No.

Maybe because he thinks the answer is already at the club? It’s already been stated that Gbamin can play CB and we also have Holgate who I presume will feature at some point in the season. This of course presumes that Keane and Mina are going to be first choice CB.

 

[JLW]

Top 6?

Pffft!

Kean would have to have a Lukaku season from 2016/17 for that.

10-15 for Kean added with a similiar return from Gylfi and Richarlison like last season.
Take out a 1 win in 13 games that we had last season which wont happen this season.

We are right in the mix for top 6 imo, and we can strenghthen in January.

 

[CrustySack]

It's polishing a turd to say this was a window worth having.

Brands, in his own words by the way, stated that he started LAST SEPTEMBER to put this window together. He then stated in April all targets were identified.

To end up, IMO, weakened at the end of the summer having a net spend of about £40M is disgraceful.

Is the squad stronger since Brands took over?

 

[johnjoeefc]

The fact is the quality of players we currently possess is no better than a team capable of finishing 7th-10th. So progression will be Impossible and Silva will unfortunately pay the price probably around December. It's really unfortunate. Zaha was the exact player we needed to go up a level. We didn't get him or a centre back. In about the space of 2 hours this afternoon, Everton's season was literally ruined. You can vault me on this if you like but this current team is now at best equal to last season.

 

[PKwalnuts]

Lot of shouts of failure.. people have short memories and unreasonable expectations... but I guess that's modern football and the modern football fan.

Remember when we didn't have a pot to pee in.
I do.
We had to beg borrow and Everloan out of every window.

Now we have money and clubs know it.

If a target can't be secured, you shouldn't panic buy, you wait to get the right player.
You also shouldn't be held to ransom in a deal for the right target.

Zaha would have improved the team, but he is not twice the player Richarlison is, so their valuations were inflated for us, but right for Palace for what he is worth to them in their squad and for their fanbase
.
So if the price is not right you walk away.

Likewise with Zouma, did well for us, but people didn't want to entertain the idea of him being in our team over Mina last year due to being part of a Stoke team which got relegated.

Chelsea wanted him in the end, and you can't make a club sell, and regardless of 2nd or 3rd targets, you don't invest heavily in someone of not the same calibre just to get the numbers up, you use what you have and manoeuvre for the right player.

The top teams don't get it right in one or two windows, despite Arsenal's, Spurs, United's investments over the years they have had limited relative success compared to their ambition.

Even Klopp and Guardiola needed time.

We have improved massively due to the cash and backing from Moshiri, and Brands know how for the way we target and acquire players, and Marco will coach them all to improve.

After that nothing is guaranteed, seriously some people who support us need to give their heads a wobble.

 

[johnjoeefc]

10-15 for Kean added with a similiar return from Gylfi and Richarlison like last season.
Take out a 1 win in 13 games that we had last season which wont happen this season.

We are right in the mix for top 6 imo, and we can strenghthen in January.

Your in dreamland fella

 

[davek]

I thought Zaha was a real possi

My opinion on the Zouma/CB situation in general is this: We knew since the end of last season that we wanted him perm since the loan overall was successful and he was open to the idea of it, but the situation at Chelsea was always going to be a complicated one. I think we knew we were going to have to wait it out.In the meantime - Silva would've been of the mind that his CB pairing this coming season was always going to be Keane & Mina. Zouma would've definitely been a 'nice to have' to add to this, as was the case last season, but not the end of the world if it ultimately didn't come to pass.
We made the effort for Zouma but, ultimately, nothing could be done. It happens. The next option was to bring a 'senior' player in for additional cover (i.e. Rojo) but only on loan, just as Zouma himself was last season. As it sounded like United wanted it to be a perm we simply moved on.

I think both Silva and Brands would've looked at Holgate and even Gibson in pre-season and decided that they could contribute this season, hence why neither of them were loaned out. If they couldn't agree a sensible loan deal for Rojo (or anyone else for that matter) then I think they would've also accepted that Gbamin could also fill in if push came to shove.

We can always revisit the Zouma situation in January, possibly even beyond that, but in no way do I think this has now presented a 'crisis' at centre back nor is it something that both Brands and Silva wouldn't have been fully prepared for.

Dont follow the reasoning there. Why was the next option to look at a stop gap senior pro like Rojo? Why wasn't there a move to bring forward Plan B - a starting replacement for Zouma?

The continual placing of a low bar for this feller Brands is doing us no good.

He bollocksed this windlow up for our defence and he did the same in his lame attempt to balance out our attack from being heavily reliant on the left side of the team.

 

[JLW]

Your in dreamland fella

Which part is dreamland?

 

[davek]

Maybe because he thinks the answer is already at the club? It’s already been stated that Gbamin can play CB and we also have Holgate who I presume will feature at some point in the season. This of course presumes that Keane and Mina are going to be first choice CB.

Then why pursue Zouma if the answer is here already?

 

[davek]

10-15 for Kean added with a similiar return from Gylfi and Richarlison like last season.
Take out a 1 win in 13 games that we had last season which wont happen this season.

We are right in the mix for top 6 imo, and we can strenghthen in January.

Not with this team. It will leak goals.

 

[Woolverhampton_Blue]

Only thing I would fault him on is failure to get a CB in. Other than that it was a good window. Now it's down to Silva to mould the parts together.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Top 6 went that-a-way ------------------->

Mate if we don't make top 6 that's more down to Silva than Brands as far as I'm concerned.

 

[street end]

Then why pursue Zouma if the answer is here already?

Because if they could have got Zouma then I think Holgate may have gone out on loan again. However the deal couldn’t be done so we stick with what we have. Holgate should have learnt a lot from his loan spell last season.

 

[davek]

Is the squad stronger since Brands took over?

That's starting from a very low base.

 

[davek]

Mate if we don't make top 6 that's more down to Silva than Brands as far as I'm concerned.

I dont expect him to plait sawdust.

Top 8 is our likely target. Hopefully a good cup run and silverware.