roversfan99

Its being done because of cost cutting. We have historically had squads that have been unable to sustain performance over a season due to a lack of depth. Versatility is a useful tool but you cant compromise on numbers. Say if Carter and Alebiosu get injured. You then need a natural right back at centre back, a midfielder at right back and then you are potentially short in midfield. 23 registered players, including one injured for an unknown period. Adam Forshaw who shouldnt be starting games and is injured. Other players with bad injury history. Makhtar Gueye. Its a long old season, now that versatility is a tool we can use, when you get months into the season and youve got more injuries, its very thin and you have 2 spare spaces.

My point is that versatility is good but not instead of signing players for each position. You cant sign one player to cover 2 positions INSTEAD of signing 2 players. It wouldnt take a "massive influx" of injuries for us to be badly short. We have had bigger squads in recent years and have still not had enough to avoid a massive second half of the season dip.

What was wrong with the old system?

But versatility doesnt compensate for having less numbers. One of 4 centre backs is actually a right back and cant play both at the same time. TGH cant play right back and in midfield at the same time. Neither can Montgomery although I suspect he cant do either to a satisfactory level at this stage. Even before quality, we dont have enough numbers. Before also considering injury records.

Ismael is very comfy on his long deal and very much trotting out the company line in his interview. Not convinced that hes truthfully so happy about business. He keeps talking about versatility. Yes its very useful but it doesnt compensate for a lack of numbers. For example, we are short in midfield with Travis gone, Tavares (who Ismael seems to think has done well in every game which is far from true) and us signing someone who is nowhere near fitness. So Taylor Gardner Hickman should be needed there. But he cant play there and right back at the same time and our right back cover is now considered a full time centre back. And if we are so well covered, Hyam wouldnt have been one of the first names on the team sheet. Theres a continued batting off about the contract situation. No reassurance that anything is going to change and those with 2 years on their deals will be proactively approached.

It was only "time for them to leave" because we are incapable of sorting new deals at competitive rates.

Really? Based on?

I keep saying suggestions as if we have purposefully traded our supposedly limited Championship players in tactically in favour of more exotic upgrades. We wanted to keep all of the key players that left. All 6 of them. We didnt intend to have such a high turnover of players, theyve admitted that. Its only happened because we are totally incapable of sorting contracts out or paying competitive Championship wages. I can only imagine that its people deluding themselves into thinking its a clever plan.

Wont somebody think of the stakeholders.

Surely suggesting to go and support Burnley is equally as unnecessary.

The plan will be different next season. Unless something dramatically changes, Tronstad, Cantwell, Carter, Wharton etc will have to leave.

They also said that they think that the squad is stronger. So why wouldnt they commit to saying that the aim is the play offs seeing as we finished 7th with a weaker squad, in their eyes?

Theres a lot here but you say that some of the players that have left werent giving 100%. What makes you say that?

The video is as everyone expected. A heavily sanitised pile of shit. Hand picked questions, the 3 of them sat comfortably knowing they wouldnt be pulled up on anyone. I dont think any of them come across well, I would love to know what Ismael really thinks about the window. Gestede in particular is not a likeable figurehead and again reverted back to the crap about a minority spreading division. Some take away points to mention are again the painting of players as just wanted to move without any probing. Why are no players willing to sign here? Is our wage budget really that restrictive? Where the offers put to them in writing as it feels like we happily got rid of players earning competitive Championship wages? The contract record or lack of over an extended period of time cant just be ignored. Ismael also said that this was a summer of transition that wont happen again. Why not? Loads of other players are out of contract in 1 or 2 seasons, what will change? Will players finally start signing up here? It also seems that we wont be signing another defender. Love how they are pushing that Miller is one of 4 centre backs now based partly on a cup game, and it seems like TGH is going to cover right back. Which only leaves Tavares who has been very questionable to partner Tronstad. They also mentioned how much pace we have now. In attack, have we? None of the attackers we signed seem quick. They also kept pushing Montgomery, I havent seen this development that they have seen. Also, whats going on with Pears? When is Baradji back fit?

They arent top class. Guehi is the better of the 2, but hes not a top class defender. Konsa is a good Premier League player. Left back is possibly the biggest concern. Ultimately they werent tested too much against a very defensive Serbian side. Wharton has played 1 international friendly. We know he has potentiala nd ability but he has to prove that he is "made for international football." Anderson has more to prove too. And left wing. Grealish has been out in the cold for years, has started well at Everton but its 2 games. Gordon very hit and miss for me. Madueke better on the right. The problem is, you always will say that England players are better than they are. Obviously we do have some very good players, and ultimately its subjective. But I think the current set of England players is down a level from previous tournaments due to key defensive players aging/being past their best and out in the cold, and there are imbalances. Wouldnt have us as a serious contender to win it personally.

Defence, left wing, holding midfield. Question marks across all those positions, both in terms of quality and who will play. Tonight was an excellent performance against a limited side, we blew them away, but its important to not get too carried away, same as on the flip side where we call for a change of manager after scraping past minnows in Andorra. We will learn very little from such a poor group in which weve essentially already qualified.

Even for us. What an absolutely ridiculous signing.

You are just making up random figures and suggesting that players are wanting wage structure shattering amounts based on nothing, purely to defend the club. The concept of a wage structure does not invalidate the point that it is extremely damaging to be in a position where we cant keep any of our main players on new deals. It depends what that wage structure is and the ceiling to ours is clearly not competitive enough. You keep saying fixating because you are underappreciating the fact that as expected, the issue has totally undermined the whole summer window. The overhaul has been more than anyone including the manager would have wanted because instead of topping up a solid core of players with a few additions, we have had to blow apart that core and replace it with cheaper replacements from abroad, all at the same time. Your last jibe is just totally out of context and is not specific to our club. If the TV money for everyone goes up, and wages across the board go up, yet ours keep going down, that doesnt keep us competitive.

Yes I am yearning for something that isnt happening. I am also desperate for Venkys to sell up, that isnt happening either but it doesnt dampen that desire at all. My and many other peoples point is that it is a huge problem that we are unable to get any contracts sorted with current important players. Its not the odd one which would be understandable. Us being able to sign new players from abroad at a fraction of the cost of wages of those leaving doesnt disprove that. I dont get why you are being so pedantic about whether its an inability or a choice as the end result is the same either way. You could argue it is an inability within the very low budget set under the owners. We certainly have been unable to sort contracts out, that is a fact.

Obviously it is choice. They are choosing not to pay competitive Championship wages. Hence why nearly all of our signings are from smaller leagues abroad, often players relegated so their wage demands will be comparatively tiny. You make it sound like the likes of Travis and Hyam in particular just werent very good and we chose to discard them.

I dont get why people correlate it with potential transfer funds. They have to cover losses every year. It is in their best interests obviously to not have to have that guarantee in place purely to do that.

We will see. Assuming they become established and their value goes up and they want better money, I am sure we wont agree with that either. Just to clarify. You dont have any worries at all with our inability to get new contracts sorted for current players?

I dont think the rules are different but their window closed ever so slightly after ours. For example, they were selling Idah and wanted a striker called Dolberg who in the end chose against joining. So they went for Iheanacho very late before the deadline. To get the deal done, he agreed to rip up his contract at (I think) Sevilla so that he was a free agent when the Scottish window closed to allow him to then sign for free.

We have gone one step further and literally signed a replacement for our captain who is injured right now with an unknown return date.

Exactly this. Its an excellent deflection tactic to start going off on tangents about individuals. Its the pattern. The indefensible pattern.