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Toby Alderweireld

StephenH said:
I agree but that was then!
Sadly someone has dropped the ball with the squad! It looks a little shambolic this season!
We could waste all the fine work from Levy unless we buck our ideas up!
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I think @DeanoAustin has it bang on.

This may well be a tough season that we have to get through, and various factors (late WX, early transfer window and listed players not taking wages elsewhere) mean that we are where we are. When you combine it with Levy’s long term planning, he’ll always want to make sure we are on a longer term upward curve rather than risk it all for the current season. And that could mean something like signing another player in the position where we haven’t sold the previous first teamer, because we do that too many times and we get a squad full of worthless bloat. Or it could be offering clubs what they want easily rather than negotiating well, because if we do that too many times, we pay over the odds and we can’t afford to do that when we’re already at a financial disadvantage to our closest rivals. Or it could be many other things.

So I think this could be a tough season. We hopefully still get top 6, but the good thing is we probably won’t do a Chelsea and drop to 10th. And we will be well set to push again next season when the external factors will be more in our favour. And we just have to hope Poch can convince this squad of experienced players that this will be their best chance of winning something together, and maybe we do it.
 
I had us down for 5/6 finish due to lack of signings/money. Not selling the likes GKN and Janssen(still injured?) and Sissoko was strange.
 
StephenH said:
I had us down for 5/6 finish due to lack of signings/money. Not selling the likes GKN and Janssen(still injured?) and Sissoko was strange.
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VJ injured but it looked like a bunch of other players had options and just didn’t take them. GKN had Mainz, Rose had everything from Wolves, to Schalke, to PSG. Dembele had Italy or China. Sissoko is someone that is happy to be here and will do a job if called upon.

I think the players have gotten too comfy, Poch has made their lives too good. But I worry that they lose the actual thing that made them good - a focus on relentless improvement and a focus on the collective. If a bunch of players are just giving it ‘one more year’ I don’t know how that combines with what has gone before.

I don’t blame Levy for this at all. It’s his responsibility to take the long term view and look at the bigger picture. I don’t blame Poch. I don’t even blame the players for wanting to stay - but I do blame the players if they decide to start taking this project less seriously than they have done previously.
 
Sorry this has probably been asked before but did we not know about the World Cup and early transfer window closure well in advance? The other clubs managed to buy and sell players successfully.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Sorry this has probably been asked before but did we not know about the World Cup and early transfer window closure well in advance? The other clubs managed to buy and sell players successfully.
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So what do you suggest if 4 first team players that by all accounts we were willing to sell, and willing to allow negotiations with other clubs, refuse to go?
 
BrainOfLevy said:
So what do you suggest if 4 first team players that by all accounts we were willing to sell, and willing to allow negotiations with other clubs, refuse to go?
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I'm not sure they refused to go. We didnt ever agree terms with other clubs I dont think. What does that say about our asking prices?
 
BrainOfLevy said:
So what do you suggest if 4 first team players that by all accounts we were willing to sell, and willing to allow negotiations with other clubs, refuse to go?
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Take Dembele for example. Did anyone bid for him? Regardless, it looks like we’ve held on to him for at least 1 season too long as even last season he wasn’t quite at his best. He still needed to be replaced whether we managed to sell him or not.
 
AdamB said:
I'm not sure they refused to go. We didnt ever agree terms with other clubs I dont think. What does that say about our asking prices?
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I think we allowed Rose and Dembele to talk with other clubs at the very least. Sissoko and GKN too. Wanyama has had injury problems so maybe it was harder to get real interest on him, and Toby's situation is way more complicated. But I think Rose and Dembele staying really affected things for us.

Maybe we could have taken the risk, maybe we could have signed replacements and told Dembele and Rose to bugger off, but it's a risk. It's a risk we lose good money on them. And it's a risk that we do it this summer rather than next - because how do you measure whether you get the most out of players this year or another year, or whether replacements would do better. It may have been calculated that rather than jerk perfectly good players that have performed well for us and are coming back to fitness, that we see if we can get more out of them. No easy answers.

But I don't think the problem was necessarily Levy charging way over the odds - from all the noises it seemed to be some players that we would have sold choosing to stay on the wages they were on. Ironically in the case of Rose!!!
 
Jurgen the German said:
Far cry from last season. A lot on here were saying Toby was past it and Sanchez had overtaken him.
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Its pretty standard (for all fans tbh) to just believe whatever they read that puts their club in the better light.

So Alderweireld went from best cb in the league and one of the best in the world to past it within a space of about 4 months. And all the players who we end up not signing or who refuse to not sign a contract do so because of 'moved goalposts' from the other side. Looking forward to the same stories about Eriksen and Alli soon enough.

Or Poch actually meant make no signings when he said be brave and that he actually wanted to play lots of youth players, something he has shown absolutely no inclination to do so far this season.

Anyway, was a shame to not see him even in the squad, though all 3 of the cbs have looked shaky so far this season at times.
 
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