It might have though
Decision not to buy a DM in January
- Thread starter KeanoMagicHat
- Start date
It might have though
True. It might have made them worse.
Possibly - who knows!!
We might have won the league. We might have been relegated. We don't know
.What i cant understand is that the club has known it has needed a no'6 type of combative agressive defensive midfielder since Keane retired.
Why has the Club not tasked the Academy with producing one? We've only been waiting 17 bloody years.
Why has the Club not tasked the Academy with producing one? We've only been waiting 17 bloody years.
To be fair, I don't see an obvious candidate who was available and would have improved us. The bigger issue is not signing a DM for the last 3 summer windows running.
We clearly didn't need van de Beek, and Ole's first window we splashed 65m combined on AWB and Dan James.
Winter window is notoriously tricky to get good players in, and this season is such a disappointment anyway I don't think a stop-gap signing is making enough of a difference anyway.
We clearly didn't need van de Beek, and Ole's first window we splashed 65m combined on AWB and Dan James.
Winter window is notoriously tricky to get good players in, and this season is such a disappointment anyway I don't think a stop-gap signing is making enough of a difference anyway.
He was never phenomenal, he was a good DM in his time, but never phenomenal. His legs have gone now, which is why mctom plays who is a solid dm but lacks a little bit to be top quality.
To be honest the biggest mistake this season was signing Ronaldo, he just dosent quite fit the plan and it shows by the fact that our two best attacking outlets last season have completely lost there form and confidence. And I think its because Ronaldo is so demanding of the ball being played to him that they too often just try balls to him that don't come off. It causes us to give the ball away too much putting us under too much pressure and causes us to get broken on with alarming regularity.
We need a new DM no doubt but we need an absolutely top class one. The ones we were looking at in Jan very probably aren't the one.
I am not criticising Ronaldo, I am explaining our lack of planning and buying based on nostalgia.
To be honest it was the right thing to do. Ragnick isn’t staying and we’ve wasted so much money on players who regress when they arrive or just sit on the bench. Better to keep the money for whoever comes in as new manager than buy a player who will just end up like VDB did.
I'd like to think this was part of a deliberate decision, knowing how much dead wood there is to clear out with potential "champions league" payment clauses, that it would be more economic to do that outside of the champions league places.
However I'm sure that "massive clusterfeck" is probably closer to the mark.
However I'm sure that "massive clusterfeck" is probably closer to the mark.
I'd rather the new manager bring in player to suit his system than pile on more player who we would want to offload in 2 seasons.
Key thing is I hope the next manager has a system in mind and is allowed to be ruthless with the squad to get the players he wants or does not want. If the board once again vetos his decisions based on accounting BS then its going to be yet another failure
Key thing is I hope the next manager has a system in mind and is allowed to be ruthless with the squad to get the players he wants or does not want. If the board once again vetos his decisions based on accounting BS then its going to be yet another failure
Exactly, rather than having another player for the sake of it. We can all talk about DM, people think signing a DM solves every problem? It wouldn't do anything in a dysfunctional system.
I would assume the new manager will be allowed to be ruthless because Rangnick and Fletcher have now both first hand seen how shit the players are and they are part of the board.
Except it wouldn't have been for the sake of it.
You don't know that. Its well and good signing players but why would the club sign players without a manager just to appease fans ? Isn't this what we criticise the club for in the first place?
There was not really an obvious choice, that you could guarantee would come in, settle and improve the team. Then what if it’s not the type of DM your new manager wants?
In this situation, I can’t say which side is right or wrong. Besides, the only person who was genuinely available was the Swiss player with a poor injury record not so?
In this situation, I can’t say which side is right or wrong. Besides, the only person who was genuinely available was the Swiss player with a poor injury record not so?
We spent a lot of money in the summer despite the pandemic, we don't have a permanent, we have a really big squad and huge wage bill, the CEO of the club was transitioning out, it really not surprising we didn't go into the transfer market this January.
Personally, i'm not angry about that fact, I'm angry about how badly we have spent the reported 1.3 billion on transfers over the last decade, and how badly we have coached those players! That's the real problem, not that we didn't buy 1 player one window.
Personally, i'm not angry about that fact, I'm angry about how badly we have spent the reported 1.3 billion on transfers over the last decade, and how badly we have coached those players! That's the real problem, not that we didn't buy 1 player one window.
They are happy to re sign Pogba without a manager?
Because it wouldn't have been to appease the fans, it would have been to improve the team. Who have we ever signed just to appease fans?
Managers aren't supposed to dictate signings in our new structure. That's what led us here with a mismatch of players rather than fitting into a strategy.
Really? Since when has Pogba re-signed a contract?
Bruno was a signing to appease the fans...
Managers don't dictate but then the new structure was just being formed so makes sense for us not to sign anyone in January.
But we might not have needed to worry about them 3 results, we might have been in a way better position in the first place.
its there on the table for him to accept. The club wanting to keep Pogba has nothing to do with any new manager
So the offer was made when we had no manager?
If the club wanted to keep Pogba, they would have offered him an improved contract after he turned that one down.
Who signed Phil Jones? if no signings are being made due to no manager, that offer should be withdrawn
There has clearly been a change in the structure....
If we'd have bought one last summer no doubt. Not January though.
Losing Greenwood has been the biggest impact of the January window personnel wise.
It’s either buy the right player or don’t sign anyone. No need to sign random players just to fill positions. No realistic target was available
Was a stupid decision because it didn't have to involve spending a fortune on one
There were players we could've got on loan or for good prices, though. I watch a lot of football from all over the world and there are so many press resistant midfielders we could've got without breaking the bank for. Just one of those midfielders of that ilk would've improved us so much.
I'd say more than 4, mate. In my opinion, the only midfielder we have capable of playing as the deepest midfielder to a good enough standard is Matic, and he can only play an hour every month. It's been that way since Herrera left.
Our last proper central midfielder signing was Fred. How many transfer windows ago was that? The January window just gone would've been a better option to strengthen there instead of waiting for yet another window; writing another season off in the process.
A loan would've been good if possible- at least it wouldn't have been money down the drain if the new manager didn't want the player. I'm sceptical about how many decent options were out there and we're assuming they automatically fit right into the team and improve it, which obviously isn't always the case.
I can see both sides here. I agree that a short term compromise isn't the type of signing that well run clubs should be making. Signings should be made and assimilated with long term squad building in mind. That said, it's not beyond the realms of possibility (particularly now we likely won't be able to offer CL) that we'll actually spend all summer chasing Bellingham and Rice, only to see them go elsewhere at which point we have two options: throw our hands up and say "well, that's it, we tried for the calibre of player we need but guess we'll have to wait another year" or panic buy. The former does nobody any good and the latter begs the question 'well why didn't we sign that January stop-gap?' A question for you: if we don't end up signing a DM in the summer will you agree that we should have brought in someone like Kamara in Jan?
15mil euro?
I suspect that our next choice after Rice and Bellingham were probably not available in January either. And even if they were, we shouldn’t have been pursuing them ahead of our first choices before we have even pursued our first choices in the summer.
If we don’t end up signing a midfielder in the summer, which is extremely unlikely, then the sequencing doesn’t fit with your question. Because if we had signed Kamara in January, that would have then been us deciding from January that we were not going to sign a DM in the summer (because we have already decided to buy one in January). And if we did that, that would simply mean that we have chosen Kamara as the man we want, rendering the summer market irrelevant for a DM. What is more likely to happen is that if we cannot get Rice in the summer, we will then sign our second choice IN THE SUMMER, because we will then be able to move on to our second choice having actually had the opportunity to pursue our first.
We haven't bought one since Mourinho so I just don't get why anyone thought we would buy one.
What if, for sake of argument. Kamara was our second choice? Still right to met him go elsewhere so we can focus on our long shot first choice in the summer? All the while, not signing a DM made CL football less likely which, in turn, makes signing top tier players (our presumed first choice) more difficult. I absolutely think there's a decent argument to be made for signing someone like Kamara for a reasonable fee in Jan. You're speaking as though the club's list is entirely inflexible and we just work doggedly down it, one by one, as if it's an FF draft.
To be honest, I think the ‘not signing a DM means difficult to make top 4 which means difficult to get 1st choice’ is a bit more FF than anything. Not sure why it has been repeated over and over in this thread that not signing a defensive midfielder, no less, not even a striker - halfway through the season has somehow derailed our bid for the top 4. A DM that we currently don’t even line up with in existing formation. A DM that would require a change of tactics midway through the season, be required to settle in and adapt immediately in order to seemingly ‘drive us to the CL’ all while only being some sort of stop-gap level that we brought in because he was available in January. It’s all very unlikely.
If McTominay and Fred were both injured for a considerable period, then I’m almost certain that we’d have brought in cover in January. As it stands, it is not as if we are complaining that we are in a situation where we have to play Jones and Lindelöf in midfield or anything. We are playing the same midfielders we have always played, and we are advocating for players that have not established themselves as significant upgrades halfway through the season as if it were supposed to have some sort of transformative effect. What is the urgency in needing to buy Kamara of all people in January when we have no injury crisis?
To answer your question, if for the sake of argument, Kamara was our second choice, then logically, I would not expect us to go for him until we either go for our first, or have significant reason to believe, through actual communication, that we have no chance of getting our first. Significant reason, to me, isn’t onliners declaring ‘if we don’t make the top 4 we have no chance’. You don’t know that at all, and the club is more likely to know that. And even if that were true, then try and make the top 4 so that you can get the player you actually want. Especially in January, when you are actually in the top 4!
People actually still think our problems will be marvelously solved by buying one player or hiring a manager ?
People just love complaining for the sake of it don't they!
What midfielders were actually available January? Hardly any that would have improved us in the long term.
What midfielders were actually available January? Hardly any that would have improved us in the long term.
Bruno Guimãres. We likely won't sign a better midfielder in the summer.
Really? That's the best we could have done?
That there is the reason why we didn't buy anyone!
He's an average premiership midfielder, and not a number 6 either!!
Was going to ask how Zakaria is doing at Juventus but according to Transfermarkt he is injured with a tear in the abductor muscle and only played a few games before that.