Steve Walsh - no longer our Director of Football

[Goat]

Bingo.

I think it worked relatively simply. Koeman said I need a striker, left sided defender. Walsh drew up a list based on his scout reports and his data analytics lark for Koeman to "yay or nay" and the board went to work.

I maintain, we havent yet signed a bad player, IMO, sure we might have overpaid for a few @davek, but I consider all the players bought in the last 18months fairly decent/very able players, yes even Klaassen @orly.

Others like to point fingers and say "yeah hes Koemans and hes Walshs", but the fact is, as a team THEY BOTH signed the players and THEY BOTH failed to replace Lukaku, so both should be sacked IMO.

 

[orly]

I maintain, we havent yet signed a bad player, IMO, sure we might have overpaid for a few @davek, but I consider all the players bought in the last 18months fairly decent/very able players, yes even Klaassen @orly.

Others like to point fingers and say "yeah hes Koemans and hes Walshs", but the fact is, as a team THEY BOTH signed the players and THEY BOTH failed to replace Lukaku, so both should be sacked IMO.

Both is right mein frandel

 

[Efcjake]

I maintain, we havent yet signed a bad player, IMO, sure we might have overpaid for a few @davek, but I consider all the players bought in the last 18months fairly decent/very able players, yes even Klaassen @orly.

Others like to point fingers and say "yeah hes Koemans and hes Walshs", but the fact is, as a team THEY BOTH signed the players and THEY BOTH failed to replace Lukaku, so both should be sacked IMO.

Nah sorry like but Williams goes firmly in the gash pile. He had a handful or so good games last year but I have to say he is turgid.

I don't think Lookman was someone Koeman wanted, he screams a Walsh passion project to me based off of how little Koeman used him.

Ultimately though I agree that they're both responsible. I am expecting the players to all look better when they are playing with a plan as I don't believe that Walsh and Koeman had a proper one, or if they did then they couldn't make it work.

 

[Brownie]

I maintain, we havent yet signed a bad player, IMO, sure we might have overpaid for a few @davek, but I consider all the players bought in the last 18months fairly decent/very able players, yes even Klaassen @orly.

Others like to point fingers and say "yeah hes Koemans and hes Walshs", but the fact is, as a team THEY BOTH signed the players and THEY BOTH failed to replace Lukaku, so both should be sacked IMO.

The transfer strategy as a whole was the wrong way round for me. The players that take you up a level on and off the pitch are attackers. We had Lukaku, qualified for Europe, had some money to spend. If you want to sell Lukaku, sign his direct replacement for similar money right then when you're a good proposition. The example I always use is Atletico Madrid. Torres > Falcao > Costa > Griezmann. Keep doing it until it's not even a question that your club will have a top striker. Plenty of good players would have accepted coming in to be Lukaku's replacement at the start of the summer – now we're just another indistinct Premier League club scrabbling around for a striker like all the other midtable dirtbags. STEVE. WHY.

 

[Billy Dean]

The transfer strategy as a whole was the wrong way round for me. The players that take you up a level on and off the pitch are attackers. We had Lukaku, qualified for Europe, had some money to spend. If you want to sell Lukaku, sign his direct replacement for similar money right then when you're a good proposition. The example I always use is Atletico Madrid. Torres > Falcao > Costa > Griezmann. Keep doing it until it's not even a question that your club will have a top striker. Plenty of good players would have accepted coming in to be Lukaku's replacement at the start of the summer – now we're just another indistinct Premier League club scrabbling around for a striker like all the other midtable dirtbags. STEVE. WHY.

I disagree. They were after Giroud who pulled out very late and they both judged the backups to be too expensive. There is still a squad there good enough to get a tune out of and the failure to get that rests purely with RK imo

 

[sportset]

I disagree. They were after Giroud who pulled out very late and they both judged the backups to be too expensive. There is still a squad there good enough to get a tune out of and the failure to get that rests purely with RK imo

It will be very interesting to see if a new manager can get a tune out of that squad? I hold my breath!

 

[Eggs]

I maintain, we havent yet signed a bad player, IMO, sure we might have overpaid for a few @davek, but I consider all the players bought in the last 18months fairly decent/very able players, yes even Klaassen @orly.

Others like to point fingers and say "yeah hes Koemans and hes Walshs", but the fact is, as a team THEY BOTH signed the players and THEY BOTH failed to replace Lukaku, so both should be sacked IMO.

..I don’t disagree about them all being good players but building a team is about acquiring different types to fit your system and footballers who compliment each other. Looking at the group of signings it’s difficult to see how they would fit into a unit.

 

[Goat]

..I don’t disagree about them all being good players but building a team is about acquiring different types to fit your system and footballers who compliment each other. Looking at the group of signings it’s difficult to see how they would fit into a unit.

The lack of a focal point up top is glaring, for everybody to see, its mismanagement on a scale ive never seen.

 

[Eggs]

The lack of a focal point up top is glaring, for everybody to see, its mismanagement on a scale ive never seen.

..it’s even more glaring when he picks DCL out wide or on the bench.

 

[Brownie]

I disagree. They were after Giroud who pulled out very late and they both judged the backups to be too expensive. There is still a squad there good enough to get a tune out of and the failure to get that rests purely with RK imo

Giroud being our #1 choice is poor for a start. That we allowed it to drag on was also poor. Not getting it done at all was poor. Not being able to afford the backups is poor. Having backups who we're not prepared to break the bank for, given we're replacing our best and most important player, is poor. Poor all round.

 

[Efcjake]

..I don’t disagree about them all being good players but building a team is about acquiring different types to fit your system and footballers who compliment each other. Looking at the group of signings it’s difficult to see how they would fit into a unit.

The signs were there in preseason. There was no shape to the team, no overriding sense of identity to how we wanted to play the game and how these specific players were going to be the right ones to help us achieve that.

We went from 4-3-3 to 3-5-2 and back again but it was widely apparent that either the players didn't fit the plan or the plan wasn't being adopted by them.

 

[Wayno]

I agree with the post above that we haven’t really signed any bad players.

Even Williams was pretty much what we needed at the time.

I think the thing is with Walsh, is if he brings in an unknown player that goes on to be a top player for us then he’s done his job, but the manager is a big part of that too. Lashing £45m on Gylfi is Koeman’s fault. Not Walsh’s. He wasn’t a hidden gem and Koeman (should) know everything he needed to know about him without Walsh’s input.

Hopefully when the players actually turn up, these signings will look good. I think it’s a much bigger task to get the players playing for the fans at the moment than the manager though.

Genuinely wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Koeman’s overwhelming feeling about all this is that the fans have caused the performance levels of the players to be beyond mediocre. Williams’ celebration vs Lyon hinted at this too.

 

[Axlswhk]

I maintain, we havent yet signed a bad player, IMO, sure we might have overpaid for a few @davek, but I consider all the players bought in the last 18months fairly decent/very able players, yes even Klaassen @orly.

Others like to point fingers and say "yeah hes Koemans and hes Walshs", but the fact is, as a team THEY BOTH signed the players and THEY BOTH failed to replace Lukaku, so both should be sacked IMO.

Wait till you see onyekuro

Defo Walsh signing

 

[Yankfootball1]

The lack of a focal point up top is glaring, for everybody to see, its mismanagement on a scale ive never seen.

Agreed - Don't mind the players signed but missed the two most critical ones (Striker and LCB). Agreed with @davek and his pop-gun attack thread. Giroud would have made a massive difference. I was dreading the start of the season without a striker. Now RK may have been a bad fit, and he may be an a$$, but essentially if you gear your whole system around a target man and you don't get one (AND) don't even have one on the roster, your f'ed. Plus I think it killed the morale. If you're in the squad an know you need a striker and LCB and nothing comes in, hard not to hang your head.

 

[Goat]

Agreed - Don't mind the players signed but missed the two most critical ones (Striker and LCB). Agreed with @davek and his pop-gun attack thread. Giroud would have made a massive difference. I was dreading the start of the season without a striker. Now RK may have been a bad fit, and he may be an a$$, but essentially if you gear your whole system around a target man and you don't get one (AND) don't even have one on the roster, your f'ed. Plus I think it killed the morale. If you're in the squad an know you need a striker and LCB and nothing comes in, hard not to hang your head.

The team has lacked direction and a focal point all season and I think it will still struggle till the January window, hopefully a fresh set of eyes with a new Manager will paper over the cracks for the next few months.