2025/26 Merlin Röhl

[MikeH72]

Yeah amazingly all those top targets that were miraculously going to become available later in the window didn’t happen. Still will hear the exact same thing from the exact same people next summer though.

An age old, tried and trusted coping mechanism. The great thing is you can just ignore every piece of historical evidence and continue using it too.

 

[pfim]

We need to take risks in our position at the moment, but this wasn't a risk given his history. It was just a bad decision.

 

[Efcjake]

The summer window was a joke. We wasted weeks and weeks pursuing ridiculous pie in the sky targets like Malick Fofana before we’d even constructed the basic skeleton of a squad. Despite being told it was better to wait until the end of the window to secure our top targets numerous times on here, we ended up getting to the end of the window and committing £20m of next summer’s budget on this crock out of sheer panic and desperation. Who could’ve possibly saw that one coming.

I've just made a post in the Kinnear thread going over this.

He said he was aiming for the signings to play over 50% of the matches in order to deem them a success, how many are doing that?

 

[Bebeto]

Terrible piece of business so far.

More than terrible...but no surprise really, his injury record is really bad for somebody so young. It shows how bad really the recruitment team has done over the summer. Him not available until early January essentially rules us out of realistically challenging for europe...we dont really have options in cm, and with the afcon, it means that we will be also missing 2 key players for too many games.

 

[hetion]

It's not like Soungoutou Magassa was better, cheaper, more suited to what we need and has literally only ever been injured from having his jaw fractured. Oh wait.

I want Rohl to turn out to be good for us more than just about anyone because I'll be so insanely annoyed if I was right lol

 

[Zatara]

We need to take risks in our position at the moment, but this wasn't a risk given his history. It was just a bad decision.

Sorry? This was a major risk given his history.

He's not played half a season worth of mins in the Bundesliga.

More than terrible...but no surprise really, his injury record is really bad for somebody so young. It shows how bad really the recruitment team has done over the summer. Him not available until early January essentially rules us out of realistically challenging for europe...we dont really have options in cm, and with the afcon, it means that we will be also missing 2 key players for too many games.

It was madness.

It's not like Soungoutou Magassa was better, cheaper, more suited to what we need and has literally only ever been injured from having his jaw fractured. Oh wait.

I want Rohl to turn out to be good for us more than just about anyone because I'll be so insanely annoyed if I was right lol

People are focused on Dibling and Anzou.

I'm more concerned with signing Rohl (and Travers).

That £17.5mil could have been used on a right back or a young u21 prospect.

 

[Efcjake]

Sorry? This was a major risk given his history.

He's not played half a season worth of mins in the Bundesliga.





It was madness.



People are focused on Dibling and Anzou.

I'm more concerned with signing Rohl (and Travers).

That £17.5mil could have been used on a right back or a young u21 prospect.

None of the three of them have had any impact yet.

 

[pfim]

Sorry? This was a major risk given his history.

He's not played half a season worth of mins in the Bundesliga.





It was madness.



People are focused on Dibling and Anzou.

I'm more concerned with signing Rohl (and Travers).

That £17.5mil could have been used on a right back or a young u21 prospect.

Zat, risk implies there's a possibility he would not be injury prone going forward.

There was no risk, it was a certainty. It's the only reason he was available to us, but that doesn't mean we should have signed him.

 

[Zatara]

None of the three of them have had any impact yet.

Not worried about Aznou or Dibling.

Travers at £4mil seems a waste and i dont think he looks good at all.

I think if youre frustrated with any signings of the summer it should be this one.

Zat, risk implies there's a possibility he would not be injury prone going forward.

There was no risk, it was a certainty. It's the only reason he was available to us, but that doesn't mean we should have signed him.

Ahh I see, you had me turned around there

An utter mad signing.

I'm fine with this as a loan and option to see if he is over his past injuries but not with an obligation.

 

[Marcus Kendall]

Sorry? This was a major risk given his history.

He's not played half a season worth of mins in the Bundesliga.





It was madness.



People are focused on Dibling and Anzou.

I'm more concerned with signing Rohl (and Travers).

That £17.5mil could have been used on a right back or a young u21 prospect.

Travers is a back up keeper, kinda need one of those!

 

[Eggs]

….i’m a believer that injury record has to be part of the transfer strategy so I get the views that this wasn’t the smartest piece of business.

Saying that, for some reason I’m a little less concerned with this one. From what I can see, there’s not a series of the same repetitive injury (hamstring, knee etc), he’ll have now gone through his growth spurt and I’d be hopeful his body can settle into demands of being a professional athlete.

Given his profile, I’d imagine injuries have been factored into the price.

 

[MikeH72]

Travers is a back up keeper, kinda need one of those!

Should never spend actual money on one though, not in our position when we had 13 contracted players to the club at the start of the window. There were plenty of keepers available for free who could’ve warmed the bench and played in 2 cup games.

 

[Marcus Kendall]

Should never spend actual money on one though, not in our position when we had 13 contracted players to the club at the start of the window. There were plenty of keepers available for free who could’ve warmed the bench and played in 2 cup games.

Name me a free agent goalkeeper who would be good enough then?

 

[MikeH72]

Name me a free agent goalkeeper who would be good enough then?

Good enough to do what, sit on his arse for 2 years? Joao Virginia was good enough to do that for us. Tom King on his own would’ve probably been fine.

 

[Marcus Kendall]

Good enough to do what, sit on his arse for 2 years? Joao Virginia was good enough to do that for us. Tom King on his own would’ve probably been fine.

So if Pickford got an injury like he nearly did on international duty you'd be comfortable with Tom King deputising? Travers was a small outlay and he's at least got recent premier league experience. Virginia wanted to go so not much we could of done there