DakotaVilla

JWP would be a cheat code in a team with grealish and buendia. It’s absolutely ridiculous to say you should ignore his set pieces when assessing what his contribution would be.

I had the same view but then watched him against Romania in what was a very turgid team performance. In his wider game (exc set pieces) I’d say he is at the very least the same as McGinn. Maybe McGinn would give you more driving runs from deep. Then you add the set pieces and you basically get a minimum from him of between 5-10 goals and 10-15 assists in a team where jack and buendia would draw free kicks around the box for fun. you also get the intangible with JWP which will be that defenders will have to consciously decide whether to foul jack/buendia/Watkins and give away the free kick to JWP or let the runners through. The more I think about it the more this would be a perfect signing but unfortunately I can’t see It happening.

The impact of the worst COVID outbreak in the league should also not be underestimated. I think that had more to do with our tail off than any “burn out” hypothesis. I was also very pleased to see smith say in his end of season interview that everyone - himself included - had to get better if we want to achieve our objectives for this forthcoming season. Give him a more balanced squad with genuine options on the bench and I’m convinced he’ll show more flexibility etc. I think we started to see that with the kids being blooded at the end of the season.

It depends if we are in Europe next year. If we are a large part of the youth team could be given significant game time in the Europa league and domestic cups with domestic loans only really being needed for specific cases - e.g. to toughen a player up, build confidence, bring an ego back to ground etc.

The sooner we qualify for European football the better. It’s absolutely essential to rebuild our brand at the highest level and to be able to attract a higher calibre of player that in turn will allow us to attack the top four on a more consistent basis.

The issue with Mings is that whilst every other player in the XI/first 15 has either developed or been a significant upgrade he is probably the only one that is at the same level as last year. Another way of looking at it is who else in the league would make us an offer to buy Mings as a starting CB? West Ham? Leeds? Palace? Newcastle and probably the rest of the relegation threatened teams. He played a key role in getting us up but he’s more than likely going to be fighting for his place in the summer v a new arrival.

Tyrone has been one of our best players for the last two years before this season and probably by some distance. In the last season though we’ve made some high quality acquisitions and ALL other first team players appear to have improved. If anything Tyrone’s development appears to have stalled. That could be for a number of reasons but only he knows what’s preventing him from really pushing on. He probably only has until the summer because no doubt if he doesn’t prove himself as a top 4/6 calibre defender we should then go and buy one (look what Leicester did with Fofana) and he can fight Hause for the spot on the bench.

Some of the comments on this thread are ridiculous. We’ve kept Jack and Luiz. We’ve significantly upgraded four first team positions with probably two more to come. Again, we’ve spent more than anyone near our size as a club in the world despite the pandemic and loss of revenue etc. Let’s see where we are in two weeks with probably another left forward and all action midfielder onboard.

Samatta will not score regular goals at this level- for anyone. Google “smarter scout” and their analysis on Samatta when we signed him and it will tell you everything you need to know. I wish I could say that he did his job by keeping us up but he didn’t even do that.

Surely we can’t be fortunate enough to generate some cash and sabotage two of our local rivals by giving them Hogan and Samatta? Samatta is a lovely guy but is no where near the quality needed.

He’s a grafter and has earned the right to be considered in the squad. Many have crumbled for us under far less pressure and he’s the one that stood up - with Luiz - when we needed him the most. AEG out of the door well before Trez.

An average championship striker at best who poses no real threat at this level. I’d say he played his part but he didn’t really. Let’s just try and get back as much of our money back as possible to help fund the incomings who we hope can make a difference.

So does anyone have an inkling re who the number 8 will be? Surprisingly we’ve had zero links considering the importance of the position.

Asked 5 Arsenal season ticket holders and they are gutted. They think he should start for them but they’re desperate for the cash to reinvest elsewhere.

Of course the defence can be improved In multiple positions but are you really going to prioritise signing a cb over a striker, winger, GK etc? Those positions have much more of a pressing need for this window.

You’re statistically incorrect. In the majority of games we played after lockdown we outperformed our opponents in terms of expected goals conceded and expected goals scored. The difference was that we didn’t have anything approaching a goal scorer and grealish wasn’t up to speed until the final few games.

The signing of Samatta showed real desperation, the huge issues in our analytics department and was basically a roll of the dice. We managed to stay up despite this signing and appear to have fundamentally reviewed our approach to identifying players. His historical stats (see smarterscout) show that he was never good enough and will never be good enough for this league - no amount of application on his part or goodwill on ours will fix that unfortunately. He’s basically an average championship level striker. Lets get most of our money back on him if we can and throw it into the Budget for the quality striker we need.

The real question is what is the true ambition of our owners? If it is truly to compete at the highest levels then we would have an opportunity to attract a Pochettino, Benitez, Allegri etc. If any of those managers are Potentially interested We would be absolute idiots to not replace Smith and that’s regardless of whether we were comfortably in mid table. If the owners ambition is more realistic then we have three options. The middle road of sticking with dean and not backing him in January would seem to guarantee relegation as there is not much evidence to suggest that he or we are adapting to the tactical requirements of the league. This leaves us the gamble of a big Sam type or another untested manager or backing dean to the absolute hilt in January. Unless we have a clear upgrade available and interested my gut tells me that our most realistic option is to back Dean and go big in bringing at least three experienced first team players in as quickly as possible in January.

Is that why he’s going to Anderlecht?

Unfortunately football just reflects wider society and it’s clear that racism is now back stronger than at any point since the 80’s. Politicians have a lot of blame to take for the lies about the reasons for the erosion of living standards for all working class folk.

It’s been a good pre season but fearing the worst versus spurs. They were a Champions League finalist and have strengthened again. It’s a real baptism of fire. I just hope that it’s competitive and we come out of the game with something to build on. I’d be ecstatic with a point.

Because they have two or three very good players and the rest are ok or bedding in for next year....when they sell their best two or three players again.

He’s clearly worked hard over the summer. It’s his shirt to lose - simple as that.

Only reason he didn’t change the formation was due to how lopsided the squad was and the run we eventually went on. He specifically said after we bought one of the centre halves a few weeks ago that we need the option of going three at the back.

Would you rather have Maguire or McGinn? Utd would have to bid a stupid amount to get him.