Not surprised people are flipping out sadly. The way of it these days. I think people are forgetting that shifting players is very important. If CMs or CBs look and see Toby and Dembele still with is, they will be more reluctant to arrive. It is NOT just about money, it is about maintaining a manageable squad size and showing genuine room for plAyers to play. I think Liverpool’s spending has been both funny and necessary in so much as they needed a goalkeeper and needed a Milner bridge. West Ham too needed pretty much an entire side. We shall see what they do. And bear in mind, agents will continue to use us as leverage for players we may never have taken a sniff at. But I really wish our supporters could
1) wait until the end of the window and
2) see at least some of the wood for the trees
As for the Poch-doom...why even go there? I GENUINELY don’t get it...
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I think this is an important point and is key when discussing the media narrative around a lack of signings and Poch supposedly being unhappy, Levy needing to 'get the chequebook out', 'is that a coded message from Poch to Levy?' etc. I think it's all nonsense personally.
Does Poch want us to continually improve? I'm sure as hell he does. Does he want to provide appropriate competition to make sure that all players are pushing themselves - at the right level of tension whereby they all feel they have a fair shot, but know they need to work hard to earn their place? Of course he does.
But if we read his comments without the media narrative layered on to them, it's clear he sees the early closure of the window as an issue for the club and our plans, and this would suggest he is more in line with the club that we have been lead to think. I see all these comments of 'we'll be screwed if Toby and Rose leave because we haven't signed anyone' - completely ignoring the fact that the fact that they haven't left yet, and that we aren't in late state discussions with players in their position as probably linked to a significant degree.
Quite simply, we can't sign a left back for big money while Rose is still here. Because we'll either be left with 3 left backs for the season, or we'd be hoping that a European club with a longer transfer window can come along, pull our pants down and offer a pittance because they know we'd want to shift one, both for reasons of squad harmony and for money. Similarly with Toby, I can see us holding on to him for another year simply because it isn't worth our while to accept 35/40 or whatever clubs want to pay when we will get 25 next year. We may as well keep him. And Sess getting promoted with Fulham put paid to that deal, and may well have brought Rose another year.
So is Poch slightly frustrated that we can't make the moved we want to make to get the squad entirely in his image, to get the bad apples out and to get everyone he wants? I'm sure he is. But I don't think that frustration is towards the club, or Levy being tight, I think he's smart enough to recognize the difficulty of this transfer window and because he thinks about the long-term, I'm sure he doesn't mind biding his time, particularly when he can still count on Rose and Toby putting the effort in for another year, because for all the disappointing elements of how their sagas have unfolded, they do have professional pride, and they do have friends in the squad. They haven't burned bridges, so I think we'll be ok.
So maybe this isn't the season where we make that final push and have the entire squad 150% behind Poch's plan. But we'll still be up there. We'll still have a quality squad, and we'll still have everything that makes us successful. We've done well because we've thought about the long term implications of everything we do, and don't make any rash decisions. The absolute dream would be Martial / Pulisic and a top class Dembele replacement, Rose out for Sess and maybe Toby out, Maguire in (for example). If that doesn't happen, and we sign Grealish and Cook, or Grealish and no-one else, I'm still going to be bloody comfortable with our squad, and have a lot of belief for the season.
I'm certainly not going to get my knickers in a twist over a lack of signings. The Bale money summer put paid to be caring, quite honestly, about new players. Particularly if I can see we have a quality team that improves year over year by virtue of playing together. Everton last season reconfirmed it. And that isn't to say we don't need to improve, or that we don't need to plug obvious gaps when they appear, it's just I think people have been a bit spooked by Liverpool going on a spree at the same time as us going on a tour with a lot of injuries and a lot of players still on holiday. But really, when you think it through, we've got a great first 11, and good depth in a lot of areas. And a lot of good young players we shouldn't really be blocking the pathway for too. I'm really ok with where our club is at. We're about to enter a new stadium, and have the best squad of my lifetime. Let's bloody enjoy this season and trust the Manager, and the Chairman, because they have gotten us this far ahead of the odds.
