dn1982

Why do all the pundits keep writing us of saying we are pants and tipping us for relegation?

Seriously? We’ve lost our Captain and best midfielder, our most senior and when fit best defender and our leading & almost only goal scorer. We have signed players with potential who are, to be fair to them, far from the finished article. Our manager falls into the same category. Our owner has been trying to sell up and our fans are another relegation fight away from cracking up. Our best young player was pictured unconscious in the street on his jollies and our predominantly English academy didn’t manage to get a plyer in the England U21s squad. A squad which didn’t get out of their group! Without an in-depth and optimistic view of our signings and the ability of our squad you too I’m sure would be predicting another relegation dog fight. Out of interest who do you think will go down?

This.

We've rolled the dice this summer. We need 2/3 more quality signings in order to improve.

If only we'd spent money replacing these we wouldn't be doomed! I will miss the kiddy heights of 16th when we had those 3 legends saving us every year.

New first teamers to start tomorrow

 

Richards, Amavi, Gueye, Veretout, Ayew, Gestede - that's 6.

I think you could put Sinclair and Gil into that aswell really one because he's actually signed and the other cause he'll be trusted to play this year.

Would be a mistake to pick Kozak over him IMO.

Why? Kozak has looked good so far and I've not seen a jot of him to judge. I think he'll get the nod if he is fully fit but can see Kozak scoring from the bench.

Unfortunately you can't just add players all the time as we have a squad limit. It'd be stupid to buy more players then be left with 4/5 players not in the 25 and be ending towards £750k a month on wages for players that can't play. Would you throw away £7.5m a year? Sherwood is working hard to get rid of the deadwood and I still think more will leave and we will get another couple in. Kozak will score goals but I've not seen enough of Guestede or Ayew to say the same but every signing TS has done so fat that I've watched properly looks good. I'd still like another CF though aswell as a CM and a RB.

TS got Benteke scoring because he committed more men to attack and got the ball in the box. I may be wrong but I don't remember any individual efforts by Benteke under TS most were team goals unlike the few he'd got under PL last year where a lot like Palace were all down to Benteke. This is why I think replacing Bentekes goals will be easy as we will have more players contributing and creating compared to under PL. Benteke as a player in a like for like would be hard to replace but if he never scored last year we were knackered. I can see a lot more goals coming from the midfield and Bentekes being split between Kozak and Guestede. I'll bet with anyone Veretout and Gueye outscore Cleverley and the Snake aswell.

Our 1st 4 league games are quite a decent test for our new players so I'd hold off signing anyone until we see how they fare. If the attackers perform I wouldn't consider Adebayor and I'd rather go for an up and coming prospect. It'll show how veretout and gueye will fair initially if they struggled a bit I'd try to add experience there the same goes for the defence and I'd still want a RB regardless.

I think we are in a good position at the minute. Alongside this summers new signings we have the bonus of Gil and Sinclair having a pre season at the club. We still need a few players but our attacking options are a lot better than last year. We may have lost Benteke but I think we have enough players with creativity to cover that. We were over reliant on him and that isn't healthy we are a far more balanced team and squad now. I'd still like a RB and a winger by the end of the window though.

We are infinitely weaker in terms of goals: Benteke > Gestede.

There's no way we are infinitely weaker than our worst goal scoring season in the entire 100+ years of the football club. That is complete nonsense.

There's no way you can argue a point with the '100+' years line.

We were shite last season and relied massively on Benteke for goals. We have lost Benteke and the only direct replacement I can see is Gestede. This for me isn't great business and makes us massively weak up front.

We are still a poor side, highlighted in our poor pre-season performances.

As soon as Sherwood came in our goal scoring improved just because the way we approached games. I think you've forgot how bad Lambert was. We've lost benteke but added Ayew and Gestede and look to be adding another striker. I'm very confident that those 3 will score more than benteke did last season. We've also got Sinclair and Gil for the whole season, Grealish improving and I'm confident Veretout and Gueye will chip in with more than delph and cleverly did. Amavi has the potential to chip in with a couple and I can see Richards getting 4/5 goals.

Your attitude is like a neutral who has just seen benteke leave and looked at no other factors. You've ignored an awful lot to think we're so much weaker than our worst season in our entire history.

We've scored a lot more with a lot worse strikers. As pointed out its the way you set up to attack.

If we want this guy and he ends up at Stoke, Randy needs to take a long hard look in the mirror as this is a tangible measure of how far we have fallen.

 

This....and our league position in recent seasons, falling attendances, the squad of players, and every news article about us since MON left!

Does Micah Richards joining us mean Man City have fallen? Players join clubs for loads of different reasons. We've signed a lot of players this summer that seem to make your statement seem silly.

I think bringing in a load of new players in the first summer isn't that bad as all the players new and old will be getting a new message from the coach. Bringing in loads every summer can't be good though especially the higher up you go. I think Liverpool will struggle because of this whereas we should get a decent improvement. Then after this summer we will only need 2/3 improvements year on year. I still don't think we are quite finished buying though.

I think were a quality CB short of a comfortable top 10 side now

As someone (who I think is on VT) said on twitter earlier. Now imagine this squad if it still contained Delph, Benteke and Vlaar. Hypothetically the only difference is about £40m quid which in the grand scheme of things isn't actually a huge amount. Just goes to show you what could be achieved if you had a chairman who really opened the NET chequebook. We'd be challenging for Europa League IMHO.

He opened it before but lost control of the wages. It seems this time we are trying to do it with a long term plan. All purchases will have a sell on and none on massive wages. If we get Veretout would Delph get in the team? Would Vlaar on last seasons form? Only big miss is Benteke for me. If they all gel we could have a cracking season we should be aiming for Stoke to start with.

I think we are buying for profit more than success. Its obvious we will never be top 4 now with the big boys so may as well aim as high as we can and make some money on the way, as we know of any of these players become top quality they could be gone in a season.

You can never say never! Liverpool, Spurs and Everton have all finished top four in the last 10 years or so and Man City were no where not so long ago. If we build properly who knows where we can go. By buying potential and selling down the line we can grow the club. Players are a commodity to get us where we want to be. The more successful we are the more appealing purchase we'll be down the line. This is a cracking window let's hope that translates to the pitch.

Clark and Okore were solid last year. It's a brand new defence just settling in so they'll be mistakes. Clark has also been out for quite a while if you remember so will be rusty and like any player needs game time to get his form back.

Concerned about Amavi as a left back ........ okay going forward but defensively all over the place and too often off his man or wrong side of his man. 

Hope he learns fast or he will leave us horribly exposed !!!

I think you may be in the minority on this! I thought he had another good game. He never got beat and the reason you may think he's the wrong side is he loves to intercept the ball. This can be risky but will also help us set up counter attacks.

Doubt very much anybody needs to recommend Berbatov it's not like he's an unknown quantity.

For U21 what date is the cut off? Amavi is only just 21 I thought it started at the beginning of the year so he'd be ok this season. Also we won't have 4 lb's in final squad. We many have over age players it doesn't mean they'll be in the squad.

Some spurs itk is claiming that we are gonna pay a loan fee of £2.5m and spurs are gonna give that to Adebayor to make up for us paying him reduced wages of £50k per week. Probably bs but it seems this one is close anyway.

 

So if we paid him the 100k a week it would be the exact same.

Not to an accountant it's not

Am I missing something. A loan fee of £2.5m and 50k wages is about £5m so is 100k a week going on a years loan. As mentioned doing it that way also helps keep him in our wage structure.

Allegedly refusing to do media after friendly games according to the Mirror, saying it's a time for action instead of words. Basically he's completely pissed off.

TBF I don't blame him. This summer the media have jumped on every bit of news and spun it negatively. Bemteke photoshopped in a Liverpool top. Calling Delph a bottler. Sky not reporting our signing only our departures. Even picking us out of 3 teams that have gone to xxxxl shirt sizes anything to give us a dig. We've won 2 friendly games and every question would've been about how we are falling apart. I for one hope he doesn't play the media games this season. Just do good interviews on AVTV and I'll be happy. The press don't do anything for us so don't do anything for them.

Adebayors goal scoring record is good. If you looked purely on his record I doubt anybody would say no to him. The only thing that'd stop me having him is the finances but I'm sure if we do sign him it'll be for decent money. So what are the reasons people don't want to sign him? Surely gambling on a 31 yo with his record is worth it especially if it enabled us to buy another young striker to compliment him.

Didnt know where to post but can somebody give me a quick tldr on how we have looked so far preseason? I know a lot of it is about fitness but still interesting to know

formations? Whos played bad, whos played good? Possession or direct or both? Any youth players?

I think every week until September is a huge week for us. We need to improve the squad if we are to avoid another relegation scrap so every day every week is huge.

How about letting have a run of games to see if he can step up? He grew into the game last night and had some decent touches he even hit the post from 25 yards. He's lost 2 years through injury and that'll have held him back massively. He's got the attributes to be a good player now he just needs a bit of luck.

There's an article linking Newcastle from June with the figure of £4m so €18m is a massive leap for Rolan.

It seems Sherwood is getting held to a higher standard by some than for pervious managers.......

Seen this a few times.  That's because they are different people and different times.  It's very similar to when I get told I cant compare Ellis to Lerner[/quote

What more could Sherwood have done last season? He did everything and more that was asked of him. He took a team that was on the floor and looking like certain relegation candidates and kept them up. Why should Sherwood be held to a higher standard than say Lambert for example? Seeing as it was his players Sherwood kept us up with.

It seems Sherwood is getting held to a higher standard by some than for pervious managers. Sherwood so far hasn't put a foot wrong for me. He's kept us up got us playing exciting football and even got us to win an FA Cup semi final. I've blotted out the remainder of that competition. Then this summer he's brought in Wilkins to help with the stuff he isn't good at. A sign of a good manager is knowing your weaknesses. On the transfer front he's got rid of a load of deadwood and brought in 2 highly rated French players one of which impressed last night. He's convinced Richards to come which as a symbol is good and time will tell if he's a good player still. We are linked with Adebayor who's record on the pitch and particulary under TS is very good but some who don't know him would rather judge on reports of his attitude rather than ability and use this to bash TS. Sherwood has also had to deal with a prolonged Benteke transfer and Delph shambles in his 1st preseason which would test even the most experienced manager but we will end up with nearly £40m from them so its np not all bad and if he can spend that on the level of player he's signed so far we will be in a good position Hong into the season.