Steve Walsh - no longer our Director of Football

[MACCA75]

Last time I was on here everyone way going crazy about what a great job he was doing, now people are having a meltdown because you dared to lose to Chelsea and Man City.

You've made a load of signings, it could take a year before everything clicks into place. On top of that you've lost one of the best strikers in the league. It was always going to be an almost impossible job to replace him and his goals.

I'm sure things will be fine in time, but it's probably going to take a lot more money to break the top 6 monopoly and actually stay there though.

We didn't lose to Man City

 

[Eggs]

...good signings so far. Walsh was lauded at the start of the window; Pickford, Keane, Klaassen were the early big money signings (if £25m is big money these days) and I would say all have looked decent acquisitions. Pickford and Keane in particular are better than we had. Rooney looks good business and Sandro is low risk at £5m. It could be argued that all would already fetch more than we paid.

We got a flavour of Sigurdsson in Split but need time to really judge.

All in all, Walsh seems to be doing what he was brought in to do, and that's without considering Gueye, Schneiderlin, Calvert-Lewin and Lookman.

 

[formerly manx toffee]

...good signings so far. Walsh was lauded at the start of the window; Pickford, Keane, Klaassen were the early big money signings (if £25m is big money these days) and I would say all have looked decent acquisitions. Pickford and Keane in particular are better than we had. Rooney looks good business and Sandro is low risk at £5m. It could be argued that all would already fetch more than we paid.

We got a flavour of Sigurdsson in Split but need time to really judge.

All in all, Walsh seems to be doing what he was brought in to do, and that's without considering Gueye, Schneiderlin, Calvert-Lewin and Lookman.

Don't be trying to bring rationality into the debate.

BURN HIM!!

 

[Titus Bramble]

Last time I was on here everyone way going crazy about what a great job he was doing, now people are having a meltdown because you dared to lose to Chelsea and Man City.

You've made a load of signings, it could take a year before everything clicks into place. On top of that you've lost one of the best strikers in the league. It was always going to be an almost impossible job to replace him and his goals.

I'm sure things will be fine in time, but it's probably going to take a lot more money to break the top 6 monopoly and actually stay there though.

And we didn't even lose to city

 

[Eggs]

Don't be trying to bring rationality into the debate.

BURN HIM!!

...seriously, though, the aim is to build a team and the real challenge is to get the right system and blend. X1 good players doesn't necessarily make a good team. Walsh can continue to bring good players in but the bottom line is translating that to performance on the pitch.

A massive transition is taking place, it might take time before we see any rewards.

 

[formerly manx toffee]

...seriously, though, the aim is to build a team and the real challenge is to get the right system and blend. X1 good players doesn't necessarily make a good team. Walsh can continue to bring good players in but the bottom line is translating that to performance on the pitch.

A massive transition is taking place, it might take time before we see any rewards.

I totally agree with you. I am impressed with our transfer dealings under Walsh, not just this summer. I have said all along this will take 5 or so windows before we are in a place we want to be and hopefully we are seeing the youth teams come through to supplement.

 

[Titus Bramble]

I totally agree with you. I am impressed with our transfer dealings under Walsh, not just this summer. I have said all along this will take 5 or so windows before we are in a place we want to be and hopefully we are seeing the youth teams come through to supplement.

Not everyone is that patient though, as you can see in this thread...

 

[formerly manx toffee]

Not everyone is that patient though, as you can see in this thread...

Yep, but the bullocks want to sprint down the field to hump a cow, the bulls want to stroll down and hump them all.

Seagulls, Cantona and stuff

 

[AsiaAsia82]

Transition is fine, but we're now depending on an ageing Rooney as our main attacking and goal scoring threat, one injury to him and were struggling this season
if at the beginning of the transfer window we would of looked at the squad we needed 2 centre halves, a goalie, attacking midfielder and a replacement forward line to replace the Rom goal machine.

I think weve only got a goalie and 1 centre half, (both of which I could of picked for a quarter of Walsh salary).

If we go as we are, I am very concerned he's not all he's cracked up to be.

 

[Titus Bramble]

Transition is fine, but we're now depending on an ageing Rooney as our main attacking and goal scoring threat, one injury to him and were struggling this season
if at the beginning of the transfer window we would of looked at the squad we needed 2 centre halves, a goalie, attacking midfielder and a replacement forward line to replace the Rom goal machine.

I think weve only got a goalie and 1 centre half, (both of which I could of picked for a quarter of Walsh salary).

If we go as we are, I am very concerned he's not all he's cracked up to be.

We have 3 centre forwards and are after another - let's wait and see on that one

We've strengthened in goal, defence, midfield and the youth set up.

Not sure why you're very concerned

 

[yakublue]

...good signings so far. Walsh was lauded at the start of the window; Pickford, Keane, Klaassen were the early big money signings (if £25m is big money these days) and I would say all have looked decent acquisitions. Pickford and Keane in particular are better than we had. Rooney looks good business and Sandro is low risk at £5m. It could be argued that all would already fetch more than we paid.

We got a flavour of Sigurdsson in Split but need time to really judge.

All in all, Walsh seems to be doing what he was brought in to do, and that's without considering Gueye, Schneiderlin, Calvert-Lewin and Lookman.

I agree with all of this. I think what's difficult is that despite this we don't look better than last season. I think this might be just because we've got significantly better defensively while getting worse going forward.

The reality is that Pickford and Keane could we worth 10-15 points between them over the course of the season, but that they have the kind of impact that's less easy to identify than what a player like Lukaku brings. Solving our GK problem is actually a huge win given that it's been hanging over us for years. Similarly having a very strong CB who will be with us for a long period is of massive value.

Maybe we'll just be less enjoyable to watch, but will end up getting more points over the course of the season, in which case you could definitely argue that Walsh has done his job.

 

[AsiaAsia82]

We have 3 centre forwards and are after another - let's wait and see on that one

We've strengthened in goal, defence, midfield and the youth set up.

Not sure why you're very concerned

Rom = lots of goals

(No Rom + (Rooney+Sandro+Gylfi) - Barkely) X increasingly aged centre halves and left back - attacking right back) = less points

That's why I'm concerned.

Im sorry but I am.

 

[Lanolin]

...seriously, though, the aim is to build a team and the real challenge is to get the right system and blend. X1 good players doesn't necessarily make a good team. Walsh can continue to bring good players in but the bottom line is translating that to performance on the pitch.

A massive transition is taking place, it might take time before we see any rewards.

I think the transition argument holds a lot of weight in Walsh's case, as many of the signings - Lookman, DCL, Vlasic, even Pickford - may not show their true value for another couple of years. We need to make sure that is balanced by clear and measurable progress in the short term though. We've had exciting crops of young players before, but without clear evidence of us going places, they will all move on at the first opportunity, just like all the others did.

 

[foxedup]

We didn't lose to Man City

What you all moaning at then

 

[foxedup]

His MO at Vardy FC was cheap punts from overseas, I think Ronny 9 Iron has had a major impact on our "targets" the last 18months or so, Ronny wants to hit the ground running and cares not for net spend.

His MO here was to always keep a core of players who had experience of the English leagues and a good number of British players, mixed with a few older heads and a few punts on untapped prospects from abroad. Our team was always mostly people with English league experience.

Seems to me he's following the same pattern at yours, just with a bigger budget. Buying players from our leagues is ridiculously expensive, but if part of the plan is to keep that core of premier league experience, then you are going to have to overpay.

You are never going to be able to match the big boys in terms of spending power unless your owner puts in £500m+. So you have to go about it another way, by getting the right blend, a brilliant team spirit and picking up some bloody good players that others deem not quite good enough for them along the way.

This worked in both spells he spent here. The obvious issue is whether it works with Koeman, can he foster the spirit that Pearson did with Walsh's signings. That spirit was almost as important as the signings Walsh made.