We're a week away or so, for all the talk of strikers, left backs, back up goalies, I think we've sold our two best players and not sure we've adequately replaced them.
Simple question, are we staying up or going down with what we have now?
Up or down
posted on 29/7/22
I was hopeful of a less stressful season when we seemed to get our recruitment sorted quite early and expected the striker and left back issue to have been resolved before we went on our Aussi tour.
Frustratingly the endless clickbait rumours that have proved to be a load of old cobblers and the way we have supposedly wasted time chasing CDK has really infuriated me and has dampened my enthusiasm for us attaining mid table mediocrity.
Therefore unless Orta pulls his finger out and gets us a quality centre forward like Toney or this Terrier bloke who looks exciting plus a decent left back before the window closes I predict a less than comfortable 15th position.
posted on 29/7/22
Not a fact, but, generally at least 1 promoted club survives yet everyone assuming promoted clubs will all go back down.
Pre season results don’t mean anything really but Pre season injuries do and so fingers crossed for calgiari game.
posted on 29/7/22
There are a lot of fears being expressed - quite reasonably - as to our prospects for the coming season, now that Phillips and Raphinha have moved to other clubs.
First, it's worth remembering that both players wanted away. Would we have sold them if they hadn't been pushing for a move?
Second, the club have reinvested in the squad, which is what we were all saying has been necessary since before last season. We've brought in six players and will hopefully sign a LB and a striker before we're done.
The six are not "PL-experienced" and therefore question marks remain as to their adaptability to the PL. However, experienced PL players are stupidly expensive today, so it makes sense to have shopped in Europe. If we'd limited ourselves to buying PL experience, we wouldn't have signed six, it seems to me. Are the six Marsch's mates, signing on for a PL payday? It's a legitimate concern and only time will tell but I'd say that this concern is also coloured by our experience of the recent past.
Third, is Marsch up to the job? Again, only time will tell. We can't make any judgments on last season's great escape because it was literally the last kick of the last game that saved us. He deserves credit for taking on such a difficult job when he did - because we would have criticised him, not Bielsa, if we'd gone down. We can say, therefore, that he's got balls - but having the balls is not enough.
It worries me that: 1. Orta has been involved in the rebuild; 2. Marsch is still an unknown quantity; 3. we might not sign a LB or striker.
Even so, I remain cautiously optimistic - let's hope the new players get up to speed quickly.
posted on 29/7/22
1 week away from the start of the season, do we look ready? IMO, no.
Carrying lots of injury's, our Raphinha replacement is injured, still short in quite a few positions. I know you can sign players until end of Sept, but how many points dropped by then if we don't get players over the line? Those points might be the difference. Chasing a player who doesn't want to come, when we could have looked at some other targets.
Hoping for a signing out of nowhere like Raphinha.
posted on 29/7/22
Been on holiday for last two weeks. Thought I'd come back home and we would have signed a striker and a left back but not to be. I think once we get these in the squad will look stronger. Least we will have some depth then in the squad which was our main issue last season. Still unsure about the signings but got to give them a chance
posted on 29/7/22
The point about chasing targets who are never going to sign for us is valid. I have lost count of the number of transfer windows that have gone this way "we tried very hard to get player xxx in but just could not get the deal over the line...."
There never seems to be a back up plan or alternative planned for. Maybe we will be surprised this time as a lot of business has been done already but as usual we are leaving it very late for the final pieces of the jigsaw.
posted on 30/7/22
Interesting to read a lot of these comments, many of which reflect the same points I raised in my post a few days ago. I’m relieved that some seem to have reflected somewhat and recognised the same concerns.
posted on 30/7/22
Looking through our fixture list for the season. So many winnable looking games each month bar Dec & May. A decent chance to get points back on the board after a defeat or 2. Would be great if we could hit the ground running. So much negativity on here I've got to think twice before looking in.
posted on 30/7/22
comment by werb (U7906)
posted 2 hours, 35 minutes ago
Looking through our fixture list for the season. So many winnable looking games each month bar Dec & May. A decent chance to get points back on the board after a defeat or 2. Would be great if we could hit the ground running. So much negativity on here I've got to think twice before looking in.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No one is turning their back in the club, just expressing valid concerns and having a discussion.
Much of it based on reality and how last season played out, after similar comments about all the winnnable games. Very few say we’ll go down, just that it will be an almighty struggle. My hunch is that Marsch, even if he put points on the board early will soon find that his system being exploited at this level; next season would be the bigger concern. What do we do then with all these players on long contracts?
posted on 30/7/22
Staying up. I think there will be at least four teams below us.