If there were no scouting reports (what I find hard to believe) then he had a choice to either give Sancho a run (with Pellistri, Amad, and feckin Elanga as backup) or push for what he knew he was going to get from Antony. I think it's shocking that he was so mistaken about Antony football abilities. We knew spending will be constrained because of how much money we spent for that summer.
I agree, to a degree it is suprising that he potentially overestimated Antonys capabilities. That said, there are factors that go into it. The level of organisation in the squad was significantly higher at Ajax. Also their league is not comparable.
Just to be clear: I am completely with you, we shouldn’t have tried to get him for the money that was alleged even when the rumours initially emerged. The only thing we are disagreeing here is that I don’t consider ETH to be the main protagonist in terms of „who is at fault“.
btw: Elanga was probably already talking about moving away from the club, Pellistri was an unknown with experiences in Uruguay league and a loan in Spain. Sancho wasn’t the type of wing player that typically plays in dutch teams (holding the width) and didn’t ETH use him in that preseason as kind of a 10ish player as well?
Again - not one player who really ticks the boxes and to me, there is just as much likelyhood, that United higher ups wanted to present a transfer success after the very disappointing end of the FDJ tale… Overall a complete shitshow and there is no way, ETH comes out of that untainted.
Obviously he could've asked for some other RW options and I'm pretty sure Olise for example would've been on a shortlist. Do you think we wouldn't have gotten him for somewhere between 50-100m we paid for Antony?
That is a good point. I agree, for that money we could have brought in a higher profile player. But Crystal palace surely would have wanted at least 60 to 70 for Olise and genuine question - would have been in favor of such a transfer? I wouldn’t have been. Not because Olise is a bad player but because the number is too high. I also think, this late in the window, even for 50 to 100 million the number of players that would have helped us wasn’t as big anymore.
That isn't an excuse though. You don't get to replace every player as a coach coming to a new team because "you don't know them" or "you don't know if they are good enough".
I agree again - but the opposite is also not really realistic, you don’t have to evaluate every existing player before you make decisions on bringing in another player. As laid out above, it isn’t like the players you listed were close to being safe bets. Not at all. A transfer made sense, even going for Antony made sense - the pain comes in at the price. But that late in the window, crazy stuff is needed. Again, obviously shit show, everybody tainted. Not just ETH.
What I think happened is someone at the club vetoed Antony earlier in the summer, but then we got into panic mode and ETH was given a free hand to use another 150m. That doesn't make ETH look any better. The fact he's been watching Antony play football for 2 years and then thought he's definitely better than whatever we already have at the club (after spending a few weeks with the team in rather successful pre-season) AND was willing to spend so much of his budget on him is truly shocking.
The veto is a possibility. One of many. Might as well be a situation of „lets focus on FDJ first and see what the budget looks like after“. Thats my point. Many plausible scenarios can be thought of, but we don’t know. And yes, Panic Mode certainly was activated. But not necessarily on ETHs side.
It's possible he was told we have all the money in the world. Possible, but unlikely. Even more unlikely would be he actually believed it.
Yes, I’ll give you that. Only thing I can come up with is that he maybe didn’t care. I mean, who knows, a few other decisions indicate that he was pretty close to hitting the „survival mode“ button from the start on. Maybe he didn’t really think too much about „next summer“, all he wanted was to have an as good as possible 1st season. This is what we have been crying about for so long, haven’t we: it is understandable that managers or 1st team coaches will be shortsighted. It is the club who has to make sure that this sort of thinking is balanced out with long term thinking. Its borderline comical that after 10 years we are still sitting here hoping that the club will get it right eventually.
I don't understand this idea that Hojlund fitted the profile. What profile? Didn't we want Kane who is a completely different type of striker? I have to admit I don't see it with Hojlund, even if he's a good finisher, this isn't enough to make it on the top level, and I really don't see anything else in his game. I could name a few weaknesses but don't want to be too negative. I just don't understand why he was (apparently) the only young striker we went after this summer.
Before you ask me if I know any alternatives - I don't, but I was also not aware of Hojlund existence until we got heavily interested in him.
Not an expert on Hojlund myself but his strength are his physicality, his instinct and his ability to generate a yard to finish. He is also very active and does a great job of keeping defenders occupied. All of this has been confirmed here, the only issue to this day is his lack of killer instinct. BUT in a team were he really is feeding from scraps. But sure, for this amount of money it makes sense to expect more from… But it is what it is, there aren’t many high calibre strikers out there these days. Look at Isaak, did he fulfill the 70 million pricetag yet? Probably also no, but it is what it is, the prices are nuts.
And about Kane: I am more than glad that we didn’t bring him in for the amount that would have been necessary. But I agree with you, that if Kane was the type of striker ETH wanted, than it is weird that we went for Hojlund.
Personal note though, for some reason the 72 million for Hojlund aren’t a problem for me at all. To be honest, in this regard I complain more about the 8 million loan fee for Amrabat, the 60 million for Onana, the 50 million for Martinez. Or the absurd fee for Sancho plus the crazy wages for Martial and Rashford, Casemiro and Varane. The club isn’t doing a good job spending the money but I think, investing in a promising young striker makes sense
