The difference between staying up and going down .... our own fault for p******g around trying to save a few quid instead of backing BS’ judgement
What might of happened if we’d of got our January business done at the start of the month instead of the end !!!!!!
The difference between staying up and going down .... our own fault for p******g around trying to save a few quid instead of backing BS’ judgement
I am no fan of the board at all but we have no evidence that they delayed to save a few quid.
If I was as good as Okay especially I would have only signed for us when it was apparent that no one else better was coming in for me and I wouldn’t have signed for us until the last minute. The power is with the player nowadays not the club and the club did at least back BS judgement in signing the players in the January window.
Can’t believe I have just defended our hierarchy. Must be the euphoria of some lessening of the Covid restrictions and getting my haircut yesterday.
Maybe fair point on Yokuslu who knows. But the Diagne transfer went back and forth for weeks as we looked at a bunch of options instead of getting it done. Maitland-Niles was last minute as well - although I suspect we were the last chance saloon. Recall he had other clubs wanting him - but he wanted to play midfield not RB. To be honest after a slow start at the club he has been a revelation in midfield past two games.
It’s just a bit frustrating that if we still had say 12 games left my money would be on us surviving. The real transfer mistakes were earlier in the season in signing Grant and Diangana neither of whom have had any impact nor are anywhere near the first 11 at the moment. Maybe they will come good in the Championship.
Totally agree with you about the problem being the transfers we did in the summer.
Never been a fan of Grant and he was in my opinion an awful buy and I said it at the time. I don’t even think he is good enough for a top 2 team in the Championship to be honest. I still cannot believe we paid that much for him and I hope you are right that maybe he will come good in the Championship. Happy to admit I am wrong if that is how it turns out but can’t see it.
As to Diangana I think that was at least excusable. He did so well on loan and he looked as if he could be better at a higher level but it hasn’t proved that way. West Ham fans in the main were really annoyed that the club let him go and so were some of the players who expressed concerns. Maybe he is just a good Championship player and if so we will probably at least see the benefit next year.
I think that Diangana is a player who shines when we play on the front foot. This season we have had to adopt a more negative approach to our games because of the stronger opposition we have faced. I would love to see Diangana get a run out with the team playing far more positive football at the moment. Assuming that we do goi down, I think that Diangana will be one of our key players next season.
I don't think you can blame the board for January, we only had one more domestic loan slot and I'm pretty sure AMN only became available on the final day of the window. Yokuslu was also looking for other options, I remember reading that he was concerned to come to us because of where we were in the table - you can't blame him. We got the right players in, probably just a little too late. We could have got the wrong players in too early. Maybe they were in a no win situation.
The summer window was different, we had a finite amount of budget and we seemed to blow it all on two players. We didn't strengthen the weakest areas of the squad, in my opinion which was full back and central midfield. And it says a lot that Diangana and Grant aren't getting a sniff in our first XI.
The positive is they are both still young to come good. I remember being delighted we had signed Diangana and I thought Grant was pretty good after the first couple of games. They haven't just become bad players. I felt a bit differently to when we had signed Burke for example, I could see straight away he was technically poor with the ball, despite his young age. These players have got something about them, and they might show us next season in the Championship. The Prem might have come too soon for them.
Question is will we have any players with any cash value left at the club after Lai finishes his closing down sale....
Wouldn’t it be nice if our esteemed owner had the courtesy to communicate with the supporters as regard to his plans for the future? Although if his intention is just an asset stripping exercise then I don’t suppose he would tell us, would he? I’ll be happy when the horrible little runt is gone along with all his Chinese buddies. Unfortunately, I fear that a lot of damage will have been done by then.