Summer transfer window 2021

[Delphinho123]

1 minute ago, Peter Griffin said:

I think DS will be safe (but under the microscope) if we are 13/14. If we are 16/17 then he will be replaced imo

Yeh, you could be right. 

[Peter Griffin]

18 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

I'm surprised that we haven't spent any money this window though

We spent 95m on players

[Tommo_b]

1 minute ago, Panto_Villan said:

I'm very aware of this as well. I think there's a huge difference between a player that looks promising during their cameos and a player who can fight their way into a starting role in the best XI for their club. And then there's another step up to being one of the best players on the pitch, and another one again to do all that while just a teenager or in your early twenties.

That said, we've done everything possible to give ourselves the best chance to have a great crop of youngsters coming through, so maybe we'll be lucky and have a golden generation. I'd just be cautious about hyping them up too much; the Academy would more than have justified the investment if it can unearth even one Grealish from the current bunch!

Everything I’ve seen of Carney Chukwuemeka makes me think we have another future international on our hands, kids going to be a star. 

[Delphinho123]

Just now, Tommo_b said:

Everything I’ve seen of Carney Chukwuemeka makes me think we have another future international on our hands, kids going to be a star. 

Unpopular opinion. I think A. Ramsey will be better. 

[Jareth]

Just now, Delphinho123 said:

Unpopular opinion. I think A. Ramsey will be better. 

Shove it up your butt hole - JPB

[Peter Griffin]

15 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Thats the beauty of live sport - anything can happen right?

I miss the good old days when we had female streakers with big tits bouncing their way across the pitch and the camera was always a bit too slow to not show it 

[Delphinho123]

Just now, Peter Griffin said:

I miss the good old days when we had female streakers with big tits bouncing their way across the pitch and the camera was always a bit too slow to not show it 

The glory days. Nowadays they tend to hone in on a cardiac arrest rather than a topless woman. Madness. 

[Peter Griffin]

7 minutes ago, nick76 said:

My point is, if we rely on the kids, it could go very wrong

I agree, but we have bought 3 high quality players this window too

[Peter Griffin]

5 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Yeh, you could be right. 

We could have a healthy conversation about who would replace him in that hypothetical scenario comes true 

[Keener window-cleaner]

16 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Serious question, are you two in a relationship?

[nick76]

6 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

As good as Grealish is… he’s not THAT good, we have signed 3/4, possibly 5 quality players and lost 1, I think it’s safe to say the squad has improved. 
 

 

Maybe but I definitely not convinced our starting XI has improved. Young isn’t improving our defence.

Our front three last season of Grealish, Watkins, Traore.  Is a three combination of any Ings, Watkins, Bailey, Traore better? I’m not sure, it’ll be interesting to see.

Assuming Watkins, Ings, Bailey play front three and Buendia plays behind then he’s a massive upgrade on Barkley.

So I’m not sure if our first XI is worse, same or better, I guess it depends how Buendia and Bailey click and settle. Our squad is marginally better.  I thought we’d do more in the market though to improve the first XI.

[Peter Griffin]

6 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Unpopular opinion. I think A. Ramsey will be better. 

That is testament to the quality of the youth we have coming through

[Phil Silvers]

2 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Shove it up your butt hole - JPB

[Keener window-cleaner]

I'm not sure how much we have improved, we certainly have a more balanced team and a better bench, which of course is good. Question is, which will get us the more points, with Jack or without Jack but rasing the average quality of the squad. It's a tough one for me. I got quite slated on here last summer when I said that it could be a good thing to have a more balanced squad by selling Jack, also that it is disruptive to have one player earning so much more than all the others, also risky to be so dependant on one player. Best would of course have been to keep Jack and continue to improve the rest of the team.

On the whole, granted that the one star player gets injured and will fall out of form, I'd tend to say that the more balanced team would have a higher probability to get us more points. If that's the case we are in line for a better season this season.

[The Fun Factory]

16 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

We spent 95m on players

Please sir can I have some more?

[MWARLEY2]

And now reports Spurs are on the verge of signing Moriba from Barca for 17 mill . 

[Peter Griffin]

2 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Please sir can I have some more?

Does the extra 20m/25m a year on wages for these new players count?

[Delphinho123]

3 minutes ago, Keener window-cleaner said:

I'm not sure how much we have improved, we certainly have a more balanced team and a better bench, which of course is good. Question is, which will get us the more points, with Jack or without Jack but rasing the average quality of the squad. It's a tough one for me. I got quite slated on here last summer when I said that it could be a good thing to have a more balanced squad by selling Jack, also that it is disruptive to have one player earning so much more than all the others, also risky to be so dependant on one player. Best would of course have been to keep Jack and continue to improve the rest of the team.

On the whole, granted that the one star player gets injured and will fall out of form, I'd tend to say that the more balanced team would have a higher probability to get us more points. If that's the case we are in line for a better season this season.

Good post. I lean the other way in thinking our signings have made us a little more unbalanced but you could be right on being overly dependent on one player and changing that for the better. 

We’ll see. Would love us to at least replicate our finish from last season so we can put the whole Grealish thing behind us. If we struggle this season, it’s going to be a nightmare listening to the commentators banging on about Jack every 5 minutes.

[thunderball]

To address some of the general points of issue here:

1. We could definitely do with a more dynamic, progressive central midfielder. Whether they compete with McGinn, Sanson, Luiz or Nakamba is irrelevant, we lack this player and none of those we have have made an unarguable case for themselves as the stand-in candidate, in fact, far from it.

2. We haven’t replaced Grealish on the LHS. Bailey can deputise but he is not the like for like replacement.

3. I think we are short of quality due to international competitions this year. We will lose key players for prolonged periods and that will affect us, but the silver lining is it might give the youngsters a chance.

4. If Wesley is gone, its likely for good. And if he wasn’t good enough then Davis has no place here either, sentiment has no place in that, we need a much better deputy pushing Ings and Ollie, neither neither may with us for too long and we need cover and continuity. 

5. Unless we are a lost cause like Sheffield Utd, I dont think Dean Smith is going anywhere this season, even if results mean we regress. That might change during the summer, but we won’t panic unless we are terrible before Christmas.

 

I also think depending on how we fare this season we go big next summer, we now have the money. I also think we will sign Cantwell in January for >£10m or next Summer on a free - his age and style are right up Dean’s street. 

Edited August 27, 2021 by thunderball

[Delphinho123]

1 minute ago, MWARLEY2 said:

And now reports Spurs are on the verge of signing Moriba from Barca for 17 mill . 

I think both Spurs and Arsenal have improved since last season. We won’t be finishing higher than them this term. Or at least, I’d be very surprised if we did.