The squad - pre Martinez

[roydo]

Excellent shout mate, got us Mirallas as well that cash!! Didn't we get 10.8m for Andy Johnson which I thought was insane as he was in a crap run of form at the time. Thought that was decent business. Plus we got a few mill for Jermaine Beckford as well didn't we?

Just checked AJ. That fee is about right, but I was wrong. He played 80+ games for Fulham in 4 seasons, so not as invisible as I thought.

 

[maccavennie]

Just checked AJ. That fee is about right, but I was wrong. He played 80+ games for Fulham in 4 seasons, so not as invisible as I thought.

Sorry mate seen your mention of him whilst o was posting. Think he done o.k at Fulham, then went to QPR and his legs fell off 3 minutes into his debut or something similar.

 

[1966efc]

I don't know if the inherited squads were comparable but I'm pretty certain that the current one is poorly set up to achieve very much - a point I've made ad nauseum here & on another site.

There was little or no chance league results were going to be great when there is such dependence on older players being able turn around quickly from midweek to the weekend - or putting in kids when injuries took their toll.

Injuries & lack of "oomph" are par for the course with older sportspeople when they are asked to give more than their bodies can.

 

[Zatara]

@jinkyali is spot on.

Here's the young core we have at the moment under 25;

LB -- Garbutt (signed by youth team)
CB -- Stones (Moyes)
CB -- Galloway (Martinez)
CB -- Browning (Youth)
CM -- Ledson (Youth)
CM -- Besic (Martinez)
CM -- McCarthy (Martinez)
AM -- Barkley (Youth)
FW -- Lukaku (Martinez)

So, of the under 25 players we have;

1 signed by Moyes
4 youth players coming through
4 players signed by Martinez

The current great hope for me is that Garbutt signs a new contract and Galloway develops as well as Stones,

Great post mate. It's funny how it's forgotten now that most people in the final months of the Moyes era were pointing at the average age of the squad and highlighting it as a ticking timebomb. That's why it was pathetic a few weeks ago when Martinez was getting a bit of stick over having a lot of 30+ starters in the line up - a problem largely inherited apart from Kone and Barry.

And as you correctly identify the real improvement in this current squad is the amount of realistic first teamers there are now. Under Moyes it was a core of, say, 15/16 players who could realistically be seen as in contention for a start.

 

[Zatara]

So, over a 12 month period you feel he should have signed more younger players whilst releasing the older players?

Bar kone and Mcgeady I think hes only spent money on younger players...

I don't know if the inherited squads were comparable but I'm pretty certain that the current one is poorly set up to achieve very much - a point I've made ad nauseum here & on another site.

There was little or no chance league results were going to be great when there is such dependence on older players being able turn around quickly from midweek to the weekend - or putting in kids when injuries took their toll.

Injuries & lack of "oomph" are par for the course with older sportspeople when they are asked to give more than their bodies can.

 

[Brownie]

It's a big test to see what he does next I think. His next couple of signings, whether they're loans or a new player, really need to be good ones. At the moment we've got some old Moyes leftovers as you say, and a few of Martinez's signings that haven't really worked. He always talks about using the window to end up with a stronger squad – now's the time to make sure we do. Another batch of Robles, Atsu and McGeady would tip us the other way again.

 

[roydo]

another site.

*cough, splutter, cough*

 

[Zatara]

@Brownie

He either goes and signs a couple of top players and some short term signings to fill the gaps

OR

He goes at gets 3 top notch kids and puts them into the u25 group we have, gets them all playing together and aims for 2 seasons time to have them all hit potential.

He's got 5 players in the first choice 11 under 22.