Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £80m
Im hoping Palace may sell Eze or Zaha and they might panic buy him if he fancies a return to London.
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Im hoping Palace may sell Eze or Zaha and they might panic buy him if he fancies a return to London.
....bit of a mixed bag in respect of his signings but there are probably a couple of benchmarks that can be used:
1) Re-sale value of his signings.
2) Comparison of team performance before/after his arrival.
Without listing his transfers, on point one he probably fares quite favourably. Two poor signings come to mind with Iwobi and Delph (Delph a particularly bad deal given his historical injury record).
It’s difficult to equate the moves for Allan & Rodriguez, both contribute when we can get them on the pitch but both are having injury problems. I just think both are short-term when perhaps we should be thinking strategic.
I don’t blame Brands for the loss of Gbamin, that was lots to do with a Manager giving him too much game time when the player himself declared he hadn’t completed pre-season training.
Richarlison and Digne have been terrific & would surely interest higher profile clubs & realise healthy profit. Godfrey & Doucoure look exactly what we needed in terms of athleticism and power. All will contribute long-term and form an aspect of the team going forward. i like Mina, I think he’s an improvement on Keane but it sounds like he might be on the move in a deal that won’t lose us money.
Kean was poor from a playing perspective but Brands could turn that into a good piece of business. Branthwaite looks a good prospect, although he’s currently struggling a bit at Blackburn & Nkounkou hasn’t contributed much since a brilliant start.
A mixed bag, I’m on the fence regarding Brands’ future. i imagine Ancelotti will have a big say in what is happening. My concern with Ancelotti driving deals (Rodriguez/Allan) is they are short-term, but perhaps he wants to bring in a DoF he feels is an improvement.
1) Re-sale value of his signings.
2) Comparison of team performance before/after his arrival.
Without listing his transfers, on point one he probably fares quite favourably. Two poor signings come to mind with Iwobi and Delph (Delph a particularly bad deal given his historical injury record).
It’s difficult to equate the moves for Allan & Rodriguez, both contribute when we can get them on the pitch but both are having injury problems. I just think both are short-term when perhaps we should be thinking strategic.
I don’t blame Brands for the loss of Gbamin, that was lots to do with a Manager giving him too much game time when the player himself declared he hadn’t completed pre-season training.
Richarlison and Digne have been terrific & would surely interest higher profile clubs & realise healthy profit. Godfrey & Doucoure look exactly what we needed in terms of athleticism and power. All will contribute long-term and form an aspect of the team going forward. i like Mina, I think he’s an improvement on Keane but it sounds like he might be on the move in a deal that won’t lose us money.
Kean was poor from a playing perspective but Brands could turn that into a good piece of business. Branthwaite looks a good prospect, although he’s currently struggling a bit at Blackburn & Nkounkou hasn’t contributed much since a brilliant start.
A mixed bag, I’m on the fence regarding Brands’ future. i imagine Ancelotti will have a big say in what is happening. My concern with Ancelotti driving deals (Rodriguez/Allan) is they are short-term, but perhaps he wants to bring in a DoF he feels is an improvement.
Doubt Palace will sell Eze unless they get a crazy bid and no one will pay the money for Zaha that Palace will want
Toff33Blues99
Player Valuation: £15m
Only Digne can be regarded as a successful signing that is truly his decision. The others are either heavily managerial influence, James, Richarlison etc or a promising kid like Godfrey.
The rest which consist of Bernard, Gomes, Mina, Lossl, Sidibe, Delph, Kean, Iwobi and King are all disasters.
There is no visible plan, he leaves us with gaping holes in the squad , centre back last season and right back and a back up striker this year. He has also failed to sell any of the dead wood, which is an important aspect of his job. Giving him a new deal would be criminal on Moshiri part
The rest which consist of Bernard, Gomes, Mina, Lossl, Sidibe, Delph, Kean, Iwobi and King are all disasters.
There is no visible plan, he leaves us with gaping holes in the squad , centre back last season and right back and a back up striker this year. He has also failed to sell any of the dead wood, which is an important aspect of his job. Giving him a new deal would be criminal on Moshiri part
Agree though tbf I think if you bring in a midfielder who can hold onto the ball, but also has that ability to create and stuff, then it gives Allan/Docuoure more freedom to play to their strengths.
That also comes back to Ancelotti a bit, tbf.
I'd say the player that is most suited currently (forgetting Gbamin altogether now) to playing as a 6 is Davies. We saw that while Allan was out. Yet in the few games Allan was back, alongside Davies, it was Allan sitting and Davies being pushed into a role that didn't suit him but would probably have suited Allan better.
It's just a proper mess at the moment and the injuries aren't helping us. What I will say is that signing the quality of player that we did last summer will help because, generally, good players can play in multiple ways pretty well - but we need them to stay fit. Allan, it might be an age thing, but we've been so reliant on him to come back when fit, it's no surprise to see him keep getting little niggles (again, no pre-season will play into this, but that's the same for every team). Doucoure, he's brilliant engine wise, but we've run him into the ground because we literally have nobody else at all who can even offer something similar (and that to me shows up the poor recruitment in the past). And we just end up in a situation with these injuries (and the medical department HAVE to be questioned here, because it's their job to prevent these injuries as much as possible; we can't have 24 players out at different points in this season and just shrug it off as bad luck).
Bit of a ramble, but to me the issues are across the board and while there's been progress in terms of our league position (as it stands, though we need wins very, very quickly or we could well end up 10th/11th), Brands, Ancelotti, the lot of them, all aren't really doing as well as they should, but I do take into account all of the caveats.
Carlito
Player Valuation: £40m
If the plan is to continue with Allan and Doucoure, the third midfielder is going to have to be sitting playmaker.
I haven't seen much evidence to suggest that Brands is the man to source this young Pirlo.
AsiaAsia82
Player Valuation: £35m
Brands has not delivered, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about this.
Look at the bench v Brighton.
And why we persist winning the PL2 when it delivers zero benefit to the first team is mind blowing.
Brands is supposed to be in charge of all things football, yet have we moved on in relative terms (eg league position, trophies etc) compared to before he came?
He is about as dynamic as the midfield that he bought for us.
Look at the bench v Brighton.
And why we persist winning the PL2 when it delivers zero benefit to the first team is mind blowing.
Brands is supposed to be in charge of all things football, yet have we moved on in relative terms (eg league position, trophies etc) compared to before he came?
He is about as dynamic as the midfield that he bought for us.
The dead wood was unsellable. It’s part of the reason there are holes in the squad.
Not getting transfer fees combined with paying ridiculous wages for non performing players has crippled us.
Brands has made errors too. Iwobi and Delph being the biggest.
Kean will generate a profit, but hasn't helped on the field, but not a disaster. Mina is not a disaster either and we will get a good fee if sold. Lossl and Sidebe were cheap squad fillers so no problem with them. Bernard wax quite good in his first season but has dropped away. He will still command a fee so not the end of the world. Gomes was good first season, and the common feeling was keep him. His form dropped off when we lost Guey. He has been used in roles he is not suited for because of squad injuries.
Brands has been miles better than Walsh and had far more constraints and problems to deal with. He is not perfect, bet certainly better than his predecessor. Whether that’s enough to keep him on, I don’t know.
Toff33Blues99
Player Valuation: £15m
I mean you say they are unsellable, he could have sold them for a lot less than market value. I don't believe for a second we haven't had reasonable offers for them.
Kean is a disaster regardless of if we make a profit, in fact its his insistence that he gets game time that we might make a profit, nothing to do with Brands.
Mina is never on the pitch and when he is, there is a mistake round the corner. Font get the love for him myself, he is big galut.
Lossl and Sidibe, Sidibe especially was a total waste of wages
Gomes was always average , people have short memories. He has scored 1 and 2 assists in his time which is pathetic . He is also responsible for one of the worst performance i have seen in long time vs Villa (which was pre excuse, sorry injury)
I would put Brands on a par with Walsh, both equally inept
AussieToffee11
Player Valuation: £8m
Brands has clearly had the same conversations with Delph and Bernard, that he had with Schneiderlin. Both not in Carlo's plans, so to avoid injury there is no point playing them. I would be very surprised if deals had already been agreed with other clubs for both players.
On another note. Saw a great tweet, which has probably been posted about our record with DCL, Allan, Doucoure, Richarlison, Digne and James all playing starting in the same team, only happened 6 times this season, for 5 wins and a draw and a goal diff of 19-7.
Brands had actually built a solid starting XI capable of playing football and competing, but we have been cruelled by injury and we still haven't been able to get depth in the squad due to the massive wages that he has had to deal with from before he got here.
Another window, getting 2-3 more starting players and therefore improving our depth, and we will be ok.
Be calm, in Carlo we trust.
On another note. Saw a great tweet, which has probably been posted about our record with DCL, Allan, Doucoure, Richarlison, Digne and James all playing starting in the same team, only happened 6 times this season, for 5 wins and a draw and a goal diff of 19-7.
Brands had actually built a solid starting XI capable of playing football and competing, but we have been cruelled by injury and we still haven't been able to get depth in the squad due to the massive wages that he has had to deal with from before he got here.
Another window, getting 2-3 more starting players and therefore improving our depth, and we will be ok.
Be calm, in Carlo we trust.
They are unsellable because their wages are miles too high. The price doesn’t matter if the player wont move. Tosun won’t go anywhere. Niasse sat out his contrace and ended up without a club. Bolasie turned down Middlesbrough in summer. They were completely unshiftable.
Sidebe actually played, and I would argue was better than JJK. He was a one year loan that fulfilled a purpose. No big transfer fee lost. Now Martina was a disaster.
Lossle was cheap cover, that’s all. He saved us having to buy a backup keeper.
Kean is not a disaster and is proving to be a good player. We have had a succession of managers that can’t develop youth. Ancelotti included. This season, Kean has shown he is a good player, away from the monotonous awfulness of Everton. By comparison, Tosun was a disaster.
Mina is a good player with an injury record. He hasn’t hit the heights, but he is nowhere near a disaster. To compare, Williams was a disaster.
Walshes disasters were long term drag anchors on us That destroyed our transfer cash flow and salary System. His signings were a magnitude poorer. Sandro, Schniderlin, Bolasie, Tosun, Martina and Walcott. All well recover for them is about £2m For a £100m plus outlay. Shocking.
Martin Alvito
Player Valuation: £50m
I would disagree with you on most of those being 'disasters'. Delph and Iwobi are the moves that have a strong case for qualifying for that label. Gomes has largely been poor since becoming permanent, which seems to be because he requires enormous cover from the rest of the squad for his defensive liabilities in order for his positive qualities. That wasn't fully apparent until Gana moved on.
It seems to me that you want to blame Brands for being at a club with moderate appeal at best to players until Ancelotti arrived, for making some low-budget moves due to limited resources that were more likely to produce zero to modest returns rather than succeed wildly due to being budget moves, and compare him to a standard of perfection rather than the standard set by his peers in the transfer market.
Even the biggest clubs committing the most resources have moves fail spectacularly. Barca replaced Neymar with Coutinho and Dembele. Chelsea bought Kepa and Werner. United's transfer record is a horror show. Even Pep and Klopp have made expensive mistakes in recent years.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Brands is a vital part of the project that we can ill-afford to lose, but in context his record is much better than you would suggest. He's not irreplaceable, and he certainly had a God-awful window in 2019, but he's also done more to be part of the solution than be part of the problem.
Iwobi, though.
Wow.
Wow.
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