Taking stock for 5pm...

[Danishfurniturelover]

Aurier is still here so the window is a bit of a disaster for me personally.

Would like to have seen the back of Aurier, Rose, Sissoko(I admire he tries but the lad is cack) Llorente(I wanted him but he does not fit our team) also the noky lad but he did get a couple of goals pre season so maybe we will get something from this year.

Like others have said unless we can sign quality not to much point signing anyone for the sake of it.

The big issue for me is over the next 12 months when you will see a few leave and possibly Eriksen is one of them, I would like to see us try and deals with clubs out of the transfer window so that we are ready to announce to the press bang on the first day of the window opening.

In the next 12 months I would love the wishful thinking maybe see us sign, De Ligt, NDombele, Sessegnon/Pulisic, Barrow/Brereton and also get W-P, C-V, Onomah and Skipp more game time in the squad.

Slightly off topic but I might have missed it but have we realised details yet of the mini season tickets where you buy a multi game package at the start of the season, we are away on holiday at the moment but want to book one up.

 

[AdamB]

You're leaving out the fact he also said none/zero - would he have said that if there were key signings he was adamant he required for the season?

I'm not sure that changes anything. He said about adding more quality to help us compete, and we end up with nowt! I still think we have a 50/50 chance of top 4, but I worry about retaining some key players, in particular Eriksen, next summer. Would be nice if we could get him and Vertonghen especially signed up to new deals asap

 

[thfcsteff]

Makes you wonder about when we signed him as seemingly nobody else (at least in the PL) was interested?

All top managers do. Otherwise the whole squad falls apart.

EXACTLY re: Toby, who frankly has ridden ghost rep as “one of our most important players” because he was NOT last season and was hurt the season before.






Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

 

[billyiddo]

I'm not sure that changes anything. He said about adding more quality to help us compete, and we end up with nowt! I still think we have a 50/50 chance of top 4, but I worry about retaining some key players, in particular Eriksen, next summer. Would be nice if we could get him and Vertonghen especially signed up to new deals asap

Agree that new contracts are key but with regards to transfers im starting to feel like there were no real 'must haves' on Pochs want list - if there were and he was let down on attainable players then that will become apparent soon enough i would imagine.

 

[AdamB]

Agree that new contracts are key but with regards to transfers im starting to feel like there were no real 'must haves' on Pochs want list - if there were and he was let down on attainable players then that will become apparent soon enough i would imagine.

I'm not really sure that a 'must-have' is relevant to most clubs though given that it implies that you'd spent whatever it takes. Take Zaha - if Poch wanted him and the price Palace wanted really was £75m, then its rational to walk away. As I've said before, I do worry that there's only a certain number of consecutive poor transfer window you can have before it has an impact

 

[billyiddo]

I'm not really sure that a 'must-have' is relevant to most clubs though given that it implies that you'd spent whatever it takes. Take Zaha - if Poch wanted him and the price Palace wanted really was £75m, then its rational to walk away. As I've said before, I do worry that there's only a certain number of consecutive poor transfer window you can have before it has an impact

I think that example is probably close to the truth - we wanted player X but were prepared to walk away if the deal didnt suit us (with Poch being happy/in agreement on that) and perhaps we have learned from previous windows in that going further down your list in an attempt to make sure you get someone in doesn't really work. Perhaps we really are just prepared to put the 'no signings are better than the wrong signings' approach to the test?

When i say must haves i mean more so in a positional sense rather than player specific - as in 'i must have a CM this window, here's 3-4 in order of preference'

Or maybe we're just skint

 

[harr1984]

Agree that new contracts are key but with regards to transfers im starting to feel like there were no real 'must haves' on Pochs want list - if there were and he was let down on attainable players then that will become apparent soon enough i would imagine.

I think Poch is just very good at not showing his true emotions to the media when it comes to negatives about his club mainly probably due to his close relationship with Levy. I don’t accept that he is happy with no one coming in - he confirmed at start of summer we had our targets, he didn’t get any of them I don’t think he would be human if he wasn’t disappointed with that. Always thought Levy and Pochs close relationship was a good thing and on the whole I’m sure it is but it could be Levy doesn’t feel as much pressure to deliver signings because he knows Poch isn’t going to kick up a fuss about it. Just a thought....

 

[DeleHarry]

we are not skint

the money is there but we dont want to pay the big transfer fees and big salaries for top players . Even with the new stadium i dont think our approach will change. We as fans simply have to accept this

 

[Bullet]

He did so because of the insane amount of injuries we were carrying there, Winks, Dembel and Wanyama out for very long periods.

We would be very unlucky to have that again

In pre-season we got a few injuries before a ball was kicked and then lots of injuries in games, so we ended up playing D and E team, let alone B and C team players

Onomah and Foyth and CCV and others had a huge chance to make an impact and show they are ready, but before you know it, injured. Lamela too. And others I forget. As for Wanyama, sheesh. Injured within milliseconds.

 

[billyiddo]

I think Poch is just very good at not showing his true emotions to the media when it comes to negatives about his club mainly probably due to his close relationship with Levy. I don’t accept that he is happy with no one coming in - he confirmed at start of summer we had our targets, he didn’t get any of them I don’t think he would be human if he wasn’t disappointed with that. Always thought Levy and Pochs close relationship was a good thing and on the whole I’m sure it is but it could be Levy doesn’t feel as much pressure to deliver signings because he knows Poch isn’t going to kick up a fuss about it. Just a thought....

I don't think he's 'happy' as such with no players coming in or our surplus players not being moved on, more so that he is understanding of the situation and willing to work under these constraints without thinking he has been mistreated.

 

[billyiddo]

we are not skint

the money is there but we dont want to pay the big transfer fees and big salaries for top players . Even with the new stadium i dont think our approach will change. We as fans simply have to accept this

The club tends to break even more or less as a whole, that's generally been a consistent throughout Levy and Lewis' ownership and id be surprised if we didnt adjust our spending to suit our rise in revenue, but that doesn't mean we'll over pay on what we think is the right price for players.

 

[Jordinho]

we are not skint

the money is there but we dont want to pay the big transfer fees and big salaries for top players . Even with the new stadium i dont think our approach will change. We as fans simply have to accept this

Or we don't want to spend for the sake of spending. Maybe the players we wanted simply weren't available. We shouldn't be paying 30 or 40 million for what are basically punts (ie. Grealish).

 

[harr1984]

I don't think he's 'happy' as such with no players coming in or our surplus players not being moved on, more so that he is understanding of the situation and willing to work under these constraints without thinking he has been mistreated.

It’s all guesswork as to his levels of dissatisfaction but I’ve no doubt he will get on with it. What’s more concerning is for how many windows is he going to be dissatisfied because an ambitious guy like this isnt going to put up with this for too long....

 

[billyiddo]

It’s all guesswork as to his levels of dissatisfaction but I’ve no doubt he will get on with it. What’s more concerning is for how many windows is he going to be dissatisfied because an ambitious guy like this isnt going to put up with this for too long....

The only reason i see Poch being upset is if he thinks Levy is not doing right by him...

Everything he ever says with regards to the club and its transfer policy paints a picture of a man.who knows the club and it's position in the food chain - how many times has he spoken of having to find another way to compete with rivals and that we have to think differently (to others)

 

[DeleHarry]

Or we don't want to spend for the sake of spending. Maybe the players we wanted simply weren't available. We shouldn't be paying 30 or 40 million for what are basically punts (ie. Grealish).

the majority of players are available for the right price.....but for the top ones they are prices we dont want to pay

im not talking about Grealish and the like....yes they are punts and punts should be cheap

nothing will change whilst Levy is here. Thats not a dig at him its just that he runs the club in a very efficient and safe way. In Poch he has found the perfect manager not to kick up a fuss by having to work with these constraints and when Poch goes Levy will just find someone similar

 

[Parklaner81]

Or we don't want to spend for the sake of spending. Maybe the players we wanted simply weren't available. We shouldn't be paying 30 or 40 million for what are basically punts (ie. Grealish).

Or maybe we have good reason to believe that top level targets will become available in the not too distant future. Levy & Poch will be party to all this kind of information that we simply don't (and won't ever) have. Whatever the TRUE reasons for what's happened this window, one thing is for certain; Poch will be far better informed than any of us...

 

[Parklaner81]

the majority of players are available for the right price.....but for the top ones they are prices we dont want to pay

im not talking about Grealish and the like....yes they are punts and punts should be cheap

nothing will change whilst Levy is here. Thats not a dig at him its just that he runs the club in a very efficient and safe way. In Poch he has found the perfect manager not to kick up a fuss by having to work with these constraints and when Poch goes Levy will just find someone similar

Weren't people saying similar about our wage structure/ceiling not very long ago?

 

[Jordinho]

Or maybe we have good reason to believe that top level targets will become available in the not too distant future. Levy & Poch will be party to all this kind of information that we simply don't (and won't ever) have. Whatever the TRUE reasons for what's happened this window, one thing is for certain; Poch will be far better informed than any of us...

Most definitely. All this talk about him about being unhappy and about to leave is really people projecting their own feelings onto him.

None of us knows anything about which players we really wanted, what they would have cost or how much we can afford to spend.

We haven't lost anyone important and it's far too early to say everyone else has improved.

 

[Jordinho]

I think we probably didn't have that many targets for players to go straight into the first team and in the end they simply weren't gettable. Most of the names we've seen in recent days/weeks would have been backup options in case we managed to shift some deadwood.

 

[DeleHarry]

Weren't people saying similar about our wage structure/ceiling not very long ago?

he has done the bare minimum and what was expected with the income from the new stadium starting to come in from this season. He got Harry to sign a 200k a week contract and for a player of his talent and status that is a bargain and comfortably affordable to us.

we will offer increases to other players too and at the end of it still have an overall wage to turnover ratio of less than 50%. Very safe, sensible and efficient