Back down to earth article

[AndyC]

No point spending money for the sake of it though is there? In central defence, for instance, we have three really promising young players, so maybe Martinez has decided that it's right to go with them as back up rather than buy-in a short term stop gap. Lets face it, Galloway did no worse than Distin or Alcaraz last season. Browning looked ever inch as capable as Hibbert in his cameo appearances.

Lets at least give the lads a chance before we throw the bathwater out.

The big question though has to be... will Martinez blood the youngsters and give them a run in the team?

The fear has to be that he will stick by the likes of Naismith for his work ethic, and Kone cos he knows him... a kind of safety first policy as against being daring, brave, innovative, trusting, encouraging, progressive, proactive and trying to prove that you don't need to spend oligarch monies to compete.

 

[blueblue]

I think RM should leave right now, having no points at this stage of the season is a disgrace.

 

[Nashtbs]

If Lukaku gets injured, this season will be a lonnnnnng one.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

This I can accept actually, especially in the case of Browning and Galloway. Though an injury to Stones or Jags and you are asking a kid to come into a run of fixtures which includes City, Spurs, Chelsea etc...It's a massive gamble and one which could seriously backfire.

Here's my thing. We aren't ever going to compete with Chelsea, Man City, United et al by outspending them. That'll never happen. Heck, we aren't even going to compete with Liverpool or Spurs on that footing. Not until we get a new stadium, and to be honest, probably not even then.

So, the only way we're likely to progress and have a shot at the top four is to either buy low/sell high, which is probably the strategy we've used for the past decade, in the hope that we're better in the market than our peers OR have a fantastic crop of young players coming through at the same time.

It's probably fair to say that for much of Moyes tenure that second option wasn't an option, so we did the best we could with the buy low/sell high strategy. Now though, it seems as though we do have a fantastic crop of youngsters coming through so lets give them a chance.

 

[barneygumble]

No point spending money for the sake of it though is there? In central defence, for instance, we have three really promising young players, so maybe Martinez has decided that it's right to go with them as back up rather than buy-in a short term stop gap. Lets face it, Galloway did no worse than Distin or Alcaraz last season. Browning looked ever inch as capable as Hibbert in his cameo appearances.

Lets at least give the lads a chance before we throw the bathwater out.

Whilst i don't actually disagree with you, my point is the squad is paper thin, should Lukaku get injured we have a striker who looked less effective than a 10-year retired Duncan on Sunday, in Kone, then we have Naismith, who doesn't appear to be firing on all cylinders at all this year. Regardless of that, Lukaku is still young, and we found out the hard way last year, that he can't play every minute of every match, he just suffers!

Whilst Browning, Galloway and Pennington may be ready to step up, it's still alarming that we've spent £4m, when there are still major talks of McCarthy and Stones still leaving, we moaned consistently about Moyes having bad starts to the season due to the vast disruption due to transfers i.e. Arteta and Lescott, yet here we are again, except we're thinner than we've ever been and have a possible injury list including Lukaku, Mirallas, Stones, Gibson, Deulofeu and Besic before we've even kicked a ball!

For what it's worth, I thought Galloway got caught out a few times when he played, however, he is young, and he is definitely will improve, however, to suggest he is ready to start week in week out should Jagielka or Stones get injured, i'm not sure.

 

[Raino85]

Whilst i don't actually disagree with you, my point is the squad is paper thin, should Lukaku get injured we have a striker who looked less effective than a 10-year retired Duncan on Sunday, in Kone, then we have Naismith, who doesn't appear to be firing on all cylinders at all this year. Regardless of that, Lukaku is still young, and we found out the hard way last year, that he can't play every minute of every match, he just suffers!

Whilst Browning, Galloway and Pennington may be ready to step up, it's still alarming that we've spent £4m, when there are still major talks of McCarthy and Stones still leaving, we moaned consistently about Moyes having bad starts to the season due to the vast disruption due to transfers i.e. Arteta and Lescott, yet here we are again, except we're thinner than we've ever been and have a possible injury list including Lukaku, Mirallas, Stones, Gibson, Deulofeu and Besic before we've even kicked a ball!

For what it's worth, I thought Galloway got caught out a few times when he played, however, he is young, and he is definitely will improve, however, to suggest he is ready to start week in week out should Jagielka or Stones get injured, i'm not sure.

We were thinner a few years ago when we started the season with a 17 year old rodwell and a 16 year old jose baxter in the team

 

[MichaelEFC96]

Reality is even if we have a poor start and Martinez fails to bring anyone in Bill won't sack him this early on, I have no idea when he would, but he's not a sacking person in my opinion.

Only way he'll leave early on is if he resigns, due to the demand of the fans.

 

[RFUS]

Given the problems of last season and the fixture list at the start of this, you'd think Martinez would have realised how badly things could get, and you know? Maybe make a key signing or three in time for the season.

As much as I am pleased with the good value of the Deulofeu and Cleverley signings, they are not going to save the day for us. An injury to Lukaku, Jags or Stones and we're utterly screwed. But even with all them, our only creativity comes from the directness of Kev and Deulofeu, who are both at the mercy of Bobby's hamstring-snapping regimen.

 

[EFC78]

I would like to argue against the article but I think it's pretty accurate to be honest. I'm fairly optimistic about our future to an extent because we have a lot of talented players, who if they do get sold, will command big fees. With the TV money we should always be able to strengthen. I don't think our players are that keen on moving on either. Just look at Baines etc.

But the disappointing thing for me is how it's all turned so negative since signing Lukaku. I thought things were about to improve for the better but we went backwards last season and we seem to always get bad luck with injuries. I'd love to be optimistic about our start to the season, and we can definitely beat Watford with any team we put out, but whether we will is a different matter.

We have big problems in certain areas and the manager hasn't helped that in a lot of ways. Kone just isn't a suitable back up for Lukaku. We have then brought in Cleverly who has looked good in pre season but we all know that it's likely to be the aging Gareth Barry who starts any game he is fit. Tim Howard is another risk after last season but he hasn't addressed that either.

The positives for me are the younger players coming through like Browning. It could save us some money if we don't have to spend on more centre half cover and can spend in other areas.

Some of our fans need to wait and see what happens with the rest of the transfer window though before writing us off and Martinez. There is still time yet to bring in players. He did all of his transfers late 2 seasons ago and we did great that season.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Whilst i don't actually disagree with you, my point is the squad is paper thin, should Lukaku get injured we have a striker who looked less effective than a 10-year retired Duncan on Sunday, in Kone, then we have Naismith, who doesn't appear to be firing on all cylinders at all this year. Regardless of that, Lukaku is still young, and we found out the hard way last year, that he can't play every minute of every match, he just suffers!

Whilst Browning, Galloway and Pennington may be ready to step up, it's still alarming that we've spent £4m, when there are still major talks of McCarthy and Stones still leaving, we moaned consistently about Moyes having bad starts to the season due to the vast disruption due to transfers i.e. Arteta and Lescott, yet here we are again, except we're thinner than we've ever been and have a possible injury list including Lukaku, Mirallas, Stones, Gibson, Deulofeu and Besic before we've even kicked a ball!

For what it's worth, I thought Galloway got caught out a few times when he played, however, he is young, and he is definitely will improve, however, to suggest he is ready to start week in week out should Jagielka or Stones get injured, i'm not sure.

McAleny and Dowell will be this years Harry Kane. Mark my word *taps nose*

 

[Brownie86]

Been very impressed with McAleny in pre-season, I hope he gets in before Kone.

I still think the squad would benefit from getting in a few players before the end of the transfer window as a few injuries would seriously jeopardise our season

 

[ianefc]

Indeed. We have the same group of players that finished 5th therefore must be doomed.

Are you saying that our squad has not progressed for 2 years and that that is a good thing?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Are you saying that our squad has not progressed for 2 years and that that is a good thing?

No, I'm saying that the squad hasn't kicked a ball in anger yet this season so maybe the postmortems are a bit premature.

 

[ianefc]

No, I'm saying that the squad hasn't kicked a ball in anger yet this season so maybe the postmortems are a bit premature.

No you didn't, you said that the squad/team that finished 5th 24 months ago should do well this season.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

No you didn't, you said that the squad/team that finished 5th 24 months ago should do well this season.

Maybe sarcasm didn't come over that well then. Pretty much this exact same squad did very well in the league the season before last. Whilst some players will have declined with age, you would like to think that the likes of Stones, Barkley, Lukaku, Deulofeu might well have improved as they gained experience.

Either way, there is clearly talent in the squad, so why on earth can we not let them play a few games before we start drinking bleach and proclaiming a crisis is afoot?