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2025/26 pre-season

Silly McSilly Face said:
OK, the teams we beat to win the trophy: Elfsborg, Hoffenheim, Ferencvaros, Qarabag , AZ, Frankfurt, Bolo Glimt, Manchester United.

I am just sick and tired of the sort of post I replied to where they're basically saying that Frank doesnt need time and needs to hit the ground running as Ange got us back into the CL after 2 seasons. We finished 17th. We were utter dogsh*t last season and there is a loooooong way back from the total sh*show of the last few seasons which for me includes appointing Ange in the first place.

And one of the biggest fall outs from the Ange era could well be the numbers of players across the squad that will really struggle staying fit. Once you have had a major injury its a case of constantly having to manage it. I myself have a deep deltoid ankle tear thats full of scar tissue and it will cause me issues for the rest of my life. Many in our squad have had major injuries in the last 2 seasons and as we have seen with Maddison you are always vulnerable in that location afterwards. Or less major multiple pulls in the same location. Hamstrings are a notorious example of that where if you pull your HS and then pull it again you'll build up inflammation and scarring to the point where youre basically a ticking time bomb for it going again - its what ruined Sessegnon and VDV will constantly be on the treatment table because of it from now on.

Ange himself says these injuries are part and parcel of how he trains and plays but he has never been at a club more than a couple of seasons in his career so he never deals with the fall out from that where e.g. the club are prioritising a CB because the feeling is that VDV and Romero will no longer be able to play a full season of top level football.

We possibly partly expected Romero to head off this season but interest has never materialised in him and his fitness has got to be a key part of that
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Agree re: your Frank sentiment. Anyone saying Frank doesn't need time is a plum.

Maddison has been injury-prone for much of his career I believe. With regards to VdV, I think you're making too great an assumption; let's see how it pans out there.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
We have destiny, Kulu , Maddison, Solanke and a gap in the left
Fully appreciate you mate not rate them but they are here and cost a fortune
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The positions I mentioned are the positions the squad is lacking. I rate Udogie but we need more than just him considering his fitness levels.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
We have all of those positions covered in the squad
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So. We've always had positions covered with players of some sort. If you're trying argue that we physically have the bodies then sure but that's not new we've always had bodies, we had bodies in the latter Pich era, bodies under Nuno, bodies under Mou and bodies under Ange but who cares about bodies when what matters is quality and that's what we don't have.

If you want to at least challenge for the top 4 this current squad aren't going to cut it.

So what is you're argument exactly, that this squad is good enough? Good enough for what exactly?
 
Bishop said:
So. We've always had positions covered with players of some sort. If you're trying argue that we physically have the bodies then sure but that's not new we've always had bodies, we had bodies in the latter Pich era, bodies under Nuno, bodies under Mou and bodies under Ange but who cares about bodies when what matters is quality and that's what we don't have.

If you want to at least challenge for the top 4 this current squad aren't going to cut it.

So what is you're argument exactly, that this squad is good enough? Good enough for what exactly?
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My issue is we have do get rid of players if we are gonna add players
And that’s harder than buying
When peoples ay we have holes in the squad, at rift back we maybe do
If people say the squad isn’t good enough it’s a different argument
 
Bedfordspurs said:
My issue is we have do get rid of players if we are gonna add players
And that’s harder than buying
When peoples ay we have holes in the squad, at rift back we maybe do
If people say the squad isn’t good enough it’s a different argument
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The squad has holes due to the lack of quality. They are one and the same thing.

Regarding sales It's only as hard as we make it. Induce sales with loans where we pay a portion of the loan, tell the player they won't be included in the squad and we have no use for them etc. There are ways to make sales happen if you really put your mind to it. Yes you might lose out financially but as always just keeping a not in our plans sub standard the player around is just as much of a loss.
 
Bishop said:
The squad has holes due to the lack of quality. They are one and the same thing.

Regarding sales It's only as hard as we make it. Induce sales with loans where we pay a portion of the loan, tell the player they won't be included in the squad and we have no use for them etc. There are ways to make sales happen if you really put your mind to it. Yes you might lose out financially but as always just keeping a not in our plans sub standard the player around is just as much of a loss.
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I think selling our players is always hard because they are paid so well
I agree we have quality gaps but the whole discussion earlier was we had holes in the squad and that’s harder than is always an opinion piece rather than factual
We need to shift the brick
It’s that simple but so hard
 
Bedfordspurs said:
I think selling our players is always hard because they are paid so well
I agree we have quality gaps but the whole discussion earlier was we had holes in the squad and that’s harder than is always an opinion piece rather than factual
We need to shift the brick
It’s that simple but so hard
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I think it's hard in part because of the reputation Levy has built as being a tough negotiator. I think teams just see buying from us as being unnecessarily difficult. Sure the players earn decent wages but a way around that is to contribute some of their wages to induce them to join other sides.
 
Bishop said:
I think it's hard in part because of the reputation Levy has built as being a tough negotiator. I think teams just see buying from us as being unnecessarily difficult. Sure the players earn decent wages but a way around that is to contribute some of their wages to induce them to join other sides.
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I think it’s always wages
None of the players were happy to sell will be going to a bigger, richer club
So you then have the issue that someone’s like Girona (as an example) won’t pay the ages Gil is on to activate the clause
 
Bedfordspurs said:
I think it’s always wages
None of the players were happy to sell will be going to a bigger, richer club
So you then have the issue that someone’s like Girona (as an example) won’t pay the ages Gil is on to activate the clause
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Do what clubs do when they are trying to sell higher paid player to lower paying clubs; contribute to some of the wages.
 
Silly McSilly Face said:
Becoming rarer in age of PSR. As if you do that several times suddenly you've got £150-300k tinkling up the wall every week on absolutely gonads all.
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Makes sense
I only really remember it with city when they were throwing money around
Now the bigger issue is there isn’t even an up and coming side willing to buy because of psr
 
thfcsteff said:
As per a promise I sort of made to myself, I'll refrain from comment on the previous for reasons previously discussed. On Frank...he does not really have a set system as he tends to flex it to suit the opposition but within a general 'philosophy'. I think he is essentially a defense-tight-first coach who looks to score goals via fast transitions and waves of high pressure as opposed to a constant high-line pressurizing.

If you look at what we've generally done pre-season, Frank also appears to be absolutely fine with Vicario and Romero looking to tempt the opposition on and try to break quickly through an (invited) press. The main difference is he won't commit both FBs forward and he won't invert them; routinely we've seen one 'go' and one hold. I wonder if Pahlinha (when match fit) will be the insurance offered to allow more adventure from both FBs?
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The big difference from Ange to Frank is the focus on detail. I hope we don’t completely lose the focus on passings and attacking. But first and foremost we’ll have some pragmatism and focus on all the details from Frank. With Ange we didn’t work on any of the small stuff it seemed. Throw ins weren’t contested. Our shape was crude. And our press wasn’t sophisticated - a school yard press isn’t an exaggeration. If left attackers unable to play after the first quarter of the game. Ange needed marathon runners for forwards.

Frank will start with defensive solidity and build on that foundation. I really really hope he retains a strong focus on our passing game, and moving the ball quickly. I think we did improve as a passing side under Ange. Just none of the nuance and detail was there from him. He wasn’t hands on, Frank is.

You can’t be lamenting that school yard press and lack of sophistication can you? It left us broken.
 
The other biggie is now the coaching team will put place plans for players and help them to develop. Ange was great on mentality. But lacking on detail and we didn’t see players advance bar maybe Bergvail.
 
Lemonade Money said:
Wow, that is some statement, based on the diddly squat you know about what Ange did behind closed doors, and the square root of zero you know about the future!
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If Ange focused heavily on detail oriented coaching he was bloody terrible at it as evidenced by the results on the pitch.
 
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