'Best transfer window ever'

[MalmoBlade]

I've had a change of heart over signings and the fact that we couldn't/wouldn't compete for the likes of Benrahma, Watkins, Cash and others, because I just read where Jarrod Bowen is on £96,000 per week!!!!

Feck that with a large knobbly stick. Problem is, just because these clubs can or will pay these ridiculous wages for very ordinary players it sets the bar at a level that clubs like our can't meet, because across the squad the increase in wage bill would be astronomical and unsustainable.

I've put my dummy back in about not competing on wages. No point in wazzing it up against the wall on decent but hardly spectacular players such as the likes of Bowen, we need to bring our own players through OR find gems like Brentford seem to keep doing.

 

[Nah den]

I've had a change of heart over signings and the fact that we couldn't/wouldn't compete for the likes of Benrahma, Watkins, Cash and others, because I just read where Jarrod Bowen is on £96,000 per week!!!!

Feck that with a large knobbly stick. Problem is, just because these clubs can or will pay these ridiculous wages for very ordinary players it sets the bar at a level that clubs like our can't meet, because across the squad the increase in wage bill would be astronomical and unsustainable.

I've put my dummy back in about not competing on wages. No point in wazzing it up against the wall on decent but hardly spectacular players such as the likes of Bowen, we need to bring our own players through OR find gems like Brentford seem to keep doing.

The problem is if we're not competing for the players you mention above then we're always going to struggle. 96k a week for Bowen sounds like an awful lot of money, but that's the name of the game in the PL. Unless we can hope to match (and probably exceed as given a straight choice between us and Villa or West Ham I suspect I know where most are going) the salaries being offered for the likes of Bowen, Watkins, Cash etc then we won't be able to compete at PL level. We might yo-yo a bit but if we do that every other season is going to be a desperate relegation battle.

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Off topic. But I’ve just been watching Ravel Morrison on Rio’s new podcast and it made me think....would we have been better off keeping him instead of Jack Rodwell?

 

[AWetFlannel]

Finishing 9th last season was a real opportunity to add some real quality to the team we failed massively.

Had we not wasted all our money on Brewster and not had our pants pulled down on with Ramsdale we could of got a Benrahma, Eze or a Buendia, who of which was definitely within our reach.

None of the players you've mentioned were in our reach, you clearly don't know what you're talking about.

 

[guancheblade]

So said Wilder in the summer. Had a top half team, added an £18m keeper, £23m striker, highly rated young international player from Chelsea on loan for the season, £10m or so on new squad players where there was little cover last year. And now in mid February with 14 games to go it's already mathematically impossible to even match last season's points total. Fucking pathetic.

Those added in the summer are not the problem.
Ramsdale was good tonight as was Ampadu.
The “squad” players you refer to include Bogle who is becoming one of our best players.
The problem,apart from injuries,revolves around Lundstram,Norwood and Stevens

Exactly, it's the first team players already here that have let us down.

So the question really is... should Wilder have seen this coming?

Were the signs there at project restart? Yes - Enda, Norwood, Fleck
Did Wilder assume they'd continue to be world beaters this season? Probably
If it was a lazy assumption, how much can we blame Wilder for the recruitment policy in the summer? Not sure

 

[guancheblade]

I agree with how you presented that but Brewster has been a massive £23m own goal. We needed a creative midfielder more than anything in the summer, we all know that.

Yeah this is galling. Weren't willing to cough up a couple more million for Jon Swift that Reading were asking for but happy to spunk away a fortune on a U21

 

[wavy-blade]

Some on here just never, ever learn, do they? Not been here for 2 minutes and he’s the worst signing! In fact all 3 are still babies in football terms. Sometimes in life you have to take one step back to move forward? This not only applies to players but management as well.

2 minutes lol , we’re 24 games into the season and relegated, one step back to move forward , fuck me ? We’re going down to the championship like Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Wendy , teams as big as us who have been stuck in that league for ages , He’s not good enough age is irrelevant, he was the wrong signing at the wrong time .

 

[AnstonBlade1]

None of the players you've mentioned were in our reach, you clearly don't know what you're talking about.

If we can’t attract players from Norwich who are in the championship when we had just finished 9th we might aswell pack in

 

[AWetFlannel]

If we can’t attract players from Norwich who are in the championship when we had just finished 9th we might aswell pack in

Neither could Arsenal, who got quoted £60 million for Buendia in January and had to get a loan in instead.

 

[AnstonBlade1]

£60 mil have a day off

 

[Badger Blade]

I think there was an expectation that the same players would be able to reproduce what they did last season, many of whom are (or were) at the peak of their powers and all hit their ceiling last season at the same time, while the teams we were ahead of still had more in the tank, see Everton, West Ham, Southampton - the sort of teams we wished we could float around mid table with season after season and were lulled into thinking that we could.

Expensive investments on Berge, Ramsdale and Brewster seemed to be based on future resale value as a jacked up Brentford-type model, difference being that Brentford will make a ton more profit than we will because they can spot talent far better than we can.

 

[BobblesBlade]

I agree on the midfielder point but I don’t think Brewster was/is a mistake in the long term.

I really don’t get fans like you. You talk long term but that kind of thinking makes no sense if we get relegated.
He is a disastrous signing and will be just as bad in the Championship

 

[Snowflake]

I really don’t get fans like you. You talk long term but that kind of thinking makes no sense if we get relegated.
He is a disastrous signing and will be just as bad in the Championship

If all the signings were in that category I would agree. If the others had performed to their best then he would be fine and we would not be relegated.
You have to invest in the long term in any business as well as looking at the immediacy

 

[BobblesBlade]

If all the signings were in that category I would agree. If the others had performed to their best then he would be fine and we would not be relegated.
You have to invest in the long term in any business as well as looking at the immediacy

If you have a small budget like we do I would never look at Brewster and 23 million as a long term investment. It would be more Brewster for 2/3 million.