20 May 2022 06:36:04
Now we are safe, we need to have a good look at how we got ourselves into this mess so we can avoid it in the future. Many people on here will blame Rafa; others players; some the owners…
Moving forward, we have to sort out the squad and get some sort of decent football going again. We can’t change the ownership, we can’t pick the manager and we can’t pick the signings. However, who do you think we should look to keep, sell and areas to strengthen?
For me, we need to sort out CB. We’ve missed a leader and strength at the back. Too many goals have come this year from comical errors which should never of happened.
We also need to sort out a striker to play second fiddle to Richy and DCL (if they stay) . We can’t go as long as we did this year without a credible threat. Rondon just didn’t live up to that billing.
There are several players who will leave and have been deadweights for a while like Tuson and Sigs. I’m sure there are plenty more we need to get off the books in order to sort out the wages mess.
As for Lampard - he’s got the team playing for each other again and he probably deserves another season (or half… let’s hope he’s not another Mike Walker)
20 May 2022 07:09:04
The recruitment has been terrible. The scouting has been lazy and unimaginative. We need to change our transfer approach. Going after known and name players has mostly brought us overpaid, overvalued and overrated players. We need to be more ruthless with players who just don't make the grade. Gomes should have played his last game ages ago as an example. He is so bad, just don't okay him and try a young lad there if needs be (Onayango) as he can't do any worse. Need to have a clear plan in what areas to strengthen and how as many transfer windows as seen some areas neglected some some areas bought too much in one area, for example collecting Left wingers, having loads of no.10s or loaning a winger who won't actually okay when we have terrible issues elsewhere in the pitch. Smart scouting to unearth talent, not name picking is a big one imo.
20 May 2022 09:21:57
Is it the scouting or is it being controlled by certain agents I'm not sure either way it needs fixing. I personally think all players are over valued and over paid the most significant thing we could do to keep the costs down is develop Academy players into first team players. If we can get that right then we would be in a great place. IMO we need a partnership with a feeder club that we can send our youth players to get more experience playing against adults. It would speed their development and provide greater insight into whether they are good enough or not.