Vive_La_Villa Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 7 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said: Say what you want. The squad numbers going into preseason are there for all to see Don’t get me wrong mate. I’m also very worried. But we don’t get point for pre season games so I wouldn’t write the management off just yet. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 2 minutes ago, Hobbit Feet said: 100% agree, the USA game is just a exhibition match for brand awareness and probably to appease Wes Eden’s. Real pre season starts when we get back and I’m sure a few things will have been sorted out by then, it’s not panic stations at all yet, chill people chill, we just warming up. A US 'tour' consisting of 1 game. Seems pretty pointless to me, even from a band awareness perspective. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 Nothing wrong with being nervous, folks are entitled to be. I am still chill. I find it difficult to believe the current club leadership that got us promoted are suddenly going to lose the plot. We shall see. If we start against Spurs with this squad then sure, I will be panicked. But we have a ways to go yet. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 We have been the most active premier league team in the transfer market so far. Once the European teams start trading properly then the flood gates will open for transfers in England. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thabucks Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 Happy with the business done to date and fully Trust NSWE, Suso, Purslow, Smith & Co to get things right. Yes I would of liked more by now but football doesn’t work like that in the real world. Sit back and enjoy the sun and have faith. Where were we a year ago ?! And when did we sign McGinn, El Ghazi, Tammy oh and Mings... oh yeah after the pre season started yep the core of our team ... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 Abraham, McGin, Mings and Hause didn't a pre-season to show us that they were part of our spine (the first three mainly). It only took Hause one bad cameo to improve after that (he wasn't playing regular senior football anyway before he came here). It only took McGin 3 days to assist two goals and help us win against Wigan. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderball Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, macandally said: I wish some people would take a breath. People flapping about having players in place for the “US Tour”, it’s one game, it means little in the grand scheme of things, we will use youth players as fillers as needed. The main thing for us is quality over quantity. We all remember windows over the last few years where we have spent for the sake of it and all got giddy about new faces. We didn’t start to compete until we got the RIGHT faces in! There is a moral there! Keep calm, keep faith! One thing is for certain, we won’t have “quantity” [which suggests excessiveness], if we pull out all the stops we will only have a bare bones squad and a first team that will will be lucky to be as effective as the team at Wembley and that finished 5th in the Championship. To get quality you need to spend as it doesn’t come cheap - you can get lucky now and then (McGinn) but not when you need 5-6 new players, you might luck out and get 1 McGinn, but not 5-6 low cost players who are undiscovered diamonds. When you micro-manage a club, adding all the little things just for than extra 0.5% everywhere: training, fitness, conditioning, nutrition, personal plans, drills, set pieces, pacing your pre-season to build up for the opening game to hit the ground running, because every other team does because you can’t afford not to anymore and the bar has been raised by Liverpool and a Man City to another level. Not actually having the players in place to take advantage of this, that is a problem, that is dropping the ball. Maybe that is not as good as it could be when we have substantial backing. Edited July 5, 2019 by thunderball 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfTimePost Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 Most teams' international players aren't back until next week, including our own. Even if we don't sign players until the week after that then they have only missed one additional week of training. One week. And a nothing friendly in America. Chill out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 (edited) Wolves essentially played the same 11 all season (Costa started out early then got dropped. Traore only used as impact sub. Saiss defence cover etc) and have a few less than world beaters like Bennett. Patricio couldn't keep a clean sheet in 18 straight games from FPL memory. We need to make a few signings and will be fine. If we were to start with Jota and Hause I'm totally fine with that Edited July 5, 2019 by Kiwivillan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaVilla Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 18 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said: Wolves essentially played the same 11 all season (Costa started out early then got dropped. Traore only used as impact sub. Saiss defence cover etc) and have a few less than world beaters like Bennett. Patricio couldn't keep a clean sheet in 18 straight games from FPL memory. We need to make a few signings and will be fine. If we were to start with Jota and Hause I'm totally fine with that Jota and Hause in CD?, I mean....sounds a bit risky but would probably see some excitement, would probably be worth the entrance fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 12 minutes ago, MaVilla said: Jota and Hause in CD?, I mean....sounds a bit risky but would probably see some excitement, would probably be worth the entrance fee. Jota RW Hause CB obviously. I'm assuming we eventually sign Mings, a DM, and probably another CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 (edited) 11 hours ago, Rob182 said: Which part of my post is me losing my marbles? The part where I say that I'd be happy for us to sign a keeper on deadline day? Or maybe the part where I say that ideally we need 3-4 of the 'first team' signings in by the US games in 2 weeks time? Apologies, I may have read too much into your post. Not looking for an argument. You obviously have a more nuanced view, but some people in this thread give the strong impression that they see one week of apparent inactivity in the transfer market as major cause for concern. Truth is, for all we know, there could be 5 or 6 transfers all nearing completion at the moment. That's why I find all this panic (not necessarily from you, but certainly from some on this thread) a bit hysterical. It reminds me of all the #SmithOut stuff last season. It's shortsighted and paranoid. There is literally no evidence yet that our transfer policy is naive or suboptimal or whatever. Everything we've heard from Purslow, Suso and Smith suggests we have a clear strategy that will deliver results. People are also massively overweighting the importance of pre-season. Yes it would be great to have a full squad in place for the pre-season friendlies, but our first run of Premier League fixtures is only 4 games, and then there's an international break. It's really not the end of the world if 4 or 5 players join us on deadline day. Edited July 6, 2019 by KentVillan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 @Vive_La_Villa Having reflected on the Cahill suggestion, I was initially reluctant to have any input as I had my reservations about giving a 33 year old a contract. But I would have no complaints about making that signing. Agree with you about everything except the unfinished business at Villa part, as I can't vouch for that. Look at what Terry did for us at age 37. Cahill doesn't strike me as dwindling into lackluster performances like say Lescott did. I think we'd be signing an absolute asset. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackbauer24 Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Still relatively calm as stated previously but nerves are kicking in. The squad is tissue paper thin at the moment! The departures we've had, good or not, played significant roles in our season - so they must be largely better than what's still here! Several need replacing somewhat urgently; Tuanzebe (24 + 1 appearances) - No clear replacement yet Hutton (33 appearances) - replaced by Guilbert? (33 + 1 appearances for Caen) Elphick (11 appearances) - replaced by Targett? (13 + 3 appearances for Southampton) Mings (15 appearances) - hopefully coming back but who knows Whelan (23 +12 appearances) - no clear replacement Jedinak (12 + 5 appearances) - no clear replacement Adomah (22 + 14 appearances) - replaced by Jota (33 + 7 appearances for Blose) Abraham (37 appearances) - replaced by Wesley (27 + 1 appearances for Club Brugge) There's so much to do. Defence and midfield are significantly weaker. Add in 28 games for Chester he's unlikely to match again too. We don't simply need depth, we need first team players - that's not easy. At the very least we need 4 signings assuming each of the above is replaced and we don't try to improve keeper etc. So I'm giving it two more weeks before I start to panic!! Think we need a CB and defensive midfielder in within the next two weeks - anything else is a bonus. Butland, a striker (Maupay), even wingers are a luxury as it stands. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 14 minutes ago, jackbauer24 said: Still relatively calm as stated previously but nerves are kicking in. The squad is tissue paper thin at the moment! The departures we've had, good or not, played significant roles in our season - so they must be largely better than what's still here! Several need replacing somewhat urgently; Tuanzebe (24 + 1 appearances) - No clear replacement yet Hutton (33 appearances) - replaced by Guilbert? (33 + 1 appearances for Caen) Elphick (11 appearances) - replaced by Targett? (13 + 3 appearances for Southampton) Mings (15 appearances) - hopefully coming back but who knows Whelan (23 +12 appearances) - no clear replacement Jedinak (12 + 5 appearances) - no clear replacement Adomah (22 + 14 appearances) - replaced by Jota (33 + 7 appearances for Blose) Abraham (37 appearances) - replaced by Wesley (27 + 1 appearances for Club Brugge) There's so much to do. Defence and midfield are significantly weaker. Add in 28 games for Chester he's unlikely to match again too. We don't simply need depth, we need first team players - that's not easy. At the very least we need 4 signings assuming each of the above is replaced and we don't try to improve keeper etc. So I'm giving it two more weeks before I start to panic!! Think we need a CB and defensive midfielder in within the next two weeks - anything else is a bonus. Butland, a striker (Maupay), even wingers are a luxury as it stands. Whelan and Jedinak are basically one player. So we need: 1 replacement for Whelan/Jedinak 1 replacement for Tuanzebe 1 Mings or Mings replacement That's 3 signings in 5 weeks. Fairly sure we'll manage this without any sweat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Elphick I never really rated you can say is replaced by Hause. Targett is LB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monsieur Hazdazler Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 1 hour ago, KentVillan said: That's why I find all this panic (not necessarily from you, but certainly from some on this thread) a bit hysterical. It reminds me of all the #SmithOut stuff last season. It's shortsighted and paranoid. This kinda thing concerns me for the window but the season ahead, Smith has plenty of support, but I’ve seen a lot of people saying they expect us to finish mid table or some have said even top half. I think there needs to be something of a realistic removal of the rose tinted specs... 1) we came up through the playoffs so statistically are the most likely side to go back down 2) we went up with a lot of loan players, many aren’t still with the club 3) we are having a significant squad turnover this summer We are clearly doing some well thought out work in the market, not scatter gun, focused around a preferred playing style which is a huge plus. However given where we finished and squad turnover we have a long way to go to survive in the league this season. We could do really well, but there’s an awful lot of variables at the moment. My biggest concern is opinion turns against Smith if we start poorly, I hope we are better than that, but judging on people’s expectations I am somewhat concerned some fans will end up making things really tough it it starts badly. Even if we went down I’d want to seen Smith continue, no question, I think people are underestimating how challenging it is going to be this year given the situation we are in. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSteveUK Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 5 hours ago, Made In Aston said: A US 'tour' consisting of 1 game. Seems pretty pointless to me, even from a band awareness perspective. Equal to a training camp in say Portugal - and not playing any games. It's not just the game we are going for. Also brand awareness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSteveUK Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Apologies all round if this has been posted - but to illustrate the point on squad turnover that many are making, this shows the %age of last seasons minutes played by players STILL at each club. Obv this may change through the window. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, SirSteveUK said: Apologies all round if this has been posted - but to illustrate the point on squad turnover that many are making, this shows the %age of last seasons minutes played by players STILL at each club. Obv this may change through the window. That’s an interesting and useful graphic, however it’s likely to change over the next 4 or 5 weeks as players leave other clubs. Ours looks particularly light because we released a lot of players very early, but many of them were never going to play next season. However some of them may yet return, in fact I’m not sure when this was done, or if it includes El Ghazi or Hause? It does highlight that we have plenty of work to do, but we knew that anyway. Looking at the graphs again I’m not too sure how it’s been worked out. Taking Watford for example, they have apparently lost 0.5% of their playing staff, which must mean they have a playing staff of 200. Unless they have say 50 and they’ve chopped someone’s arm off? If it’s just first team squad of 25 then there’s been a blood bath at clubs all over the country! Perhaps it includes all the junior teams, in which case it’s somewhat misleading. Edit: I’ve just noticed, it’s minutes played. What a doughnut I am! Edited July 6, 2019 by DaveAV1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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