18 Apr 2022 09:02:10
Think we all need to remember we haven't won jack since 1995 so why would players come to us to win trophies what we need a to draw a line and start again giving FL all the help possible and start buying young talented players who want to improve so they then have a higher sell on value or they flourish at us unfortunately we are not part of the greedy 6 and currently we can not compete with them for silverware. I will never forget our history it's something we should be proud of and cherish but moving forward we need to remember players starting to today don't care about our history.
18 Apr 2022 11:34:43
Agree our recruitment should change.
We need to forget about these overpriced overpaid players and as you say concentrate on young hungry up and coming players.
There’s no way we’ll get it right everytime with that way of recruiting, however if we do get it wrong we hopefully won’t have someone on £80k+ per week.
18 Apr 2022 11:37:33
''Think we all need to remember we haven't won jack since 1995 '' It's difficult not to Ltm ?.
18 Apr 2022 14:19:59
We’re going to have to go back to the era where we bought players like Cahill, Arteta and made massive profits on players like Stones, Lescott and reinvesting.
This season very much reminds me of Rooney’s breakthrough season on the edge of relegation. Although he was a star player he was sold and the players bought gave us a much stronger team. Think it may be time for Richarlison and DCL and reinvest (intelligently) to fix the problems elsewhere, almost like hitting the reset button.
18 Apr 2022 17:17:22
Richy will go and I wish him all the best for the future get as much as we can and as gibboEFC said and reinvest hopefully wisely I also feel Pickford will go and again if he does I wish him all the best he like Richy has never come out during breaks talking up moves away and if Pickford does go I have three keepers in mind Pope, Henderson or my joker card Kepe who hasn't had the best of times at Chelsea but you don't spend 70 million on a poor player and maybe a move would do him good anyway fingers crossed this group of players can keep us up and we restart UTFT KAGS.
18 Apr 2022 16:19:21
Totally agree Gibbo. Whilst don’t want to see our best players leave think if we avoid relegation it’s what will happen anyway - they’ll want to go and we need to improve our finances.
I can easily see Richarlison and DCL being sold.
However a recent rumour is branthwaite to Utd - now unless ridiculous fee then we shouldn’t sell. He should be one of our starting centrebacks next season.
Hopefully we can find some cut price gems in the transfer market as well as making good use of the loan market.
Will also hope Frank gives some of our youngsters a chance.
19 Apr 2022 05:44:48
Agree with you Gibbo. I see the likes of Richy, DCL, Pickford, even Gray being sold in order to strengthen the squad elsewhere. It's no different in many ways with Coutinho at Liverpool, Ronaldo at Man Utd, Bale at Spurs and so many others
Word of caution though. You said reinvest 'intelligently'. After our experience over the last 5-6 years (maybe longer) why would you think there's any intelligence in our management/ decision takers?
19 Apr 2022 12:05:02
It's the wrong time to sell DCL. He has been injured for a hefty spell and has been awful since coming back which means it will be the lowest price period of time for him. He is a great player and will return to form, so keep him for another year and then cash in. Now is just the wrong time. It is all good and well selling players to reinvest but unless we completely reinvent our recruitment process then it will be futile. We have had the worst transfer approach under Moshiri and that is the main thing that needs to be looked at. Our scouting has been dreadful but also lazy. Very lazy. We have just gone after well known players. Look at Liverpool, they bought players that were good and turned them into world class players. Salah, Mane, Jota, Firmino, Wijnaldum, Robertson, Henderson are such examples. That's an example of great scouting. Right now the prospect of selling players to reinvest gives me nightmares. The prospect of buying young players is great but managers need to give them time and our managers have not done that. Gordon was held back and is only getting play time because he has been our best player and the rest have been shocking. Players need time and trust.
19 Apr 2022 13:12:37
Henderson is a plodder a million miles away from World Class. What he is, is a leader surrounded by excellent players.