- Jul 21, 2005
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So when i saw Neville talking about this on Sky recently it made me think of our own business over this timeframe. Coincidentally it chimes with when we spent the Bale money and covers about 10 years of transfers. Thought it could make for an interesting discussion on our recruitment.
Here's what he said about United's business, for context, there are 33 players here vs. our 26.
Now here's looking out ours - This is my very subjective take on things so far and here's a couple of allowances:
New signings - Jury is out - Felt it too early to break those down amongst 10 years of context
Loan to Transfers - Tried to capture when we first brought them in rather than when we spent
Other loany business - Didn't include returning loan players or anything like that, just signings from elsewhere
So here it is:
I've tried to be overly critical on a couple and as such i expect a few pelters but will roll with those.
Another way i wanted to look at this (as i'm procrastinating in my lunch break) is what period did we sign more hits or misses.
Starting with the hits:
Seemed to have a good run of signings once Poch joined in 2014 - in these numbers i counted: Dier, Vorm (mostly for his service/deputising), Alli, Davies. Then the following year we signed: Trippier, Alderweirald & Sonny.
Interesting perhaps a similar phase of good recruitment is kicking off the Conte reign with Bentancur, Kulu & Romero from the last year.
The Misses:
It's worth noting these are much more numerous year on year but context is important. Before Poch came we had the Bale money being spent which was mixed to say the least, here i've included Chiriches, Capoue, Paulinho & Soldado.
The following years under Poch we were a bit less scattergun for a while but still some notable gambles/misses on Yedlin, Stambouli, Fazio in 14/15. Wimmer & N'Jie in 15/16. Lopez, N'Koudou, Janssen in 16/17. I feel like after this we were trying to hone some of what we had which made it a bit mixed (possibly the dawn of not signing 'squad players' and only buying if we felt they would improve the starting line-up, a bit of a miss in itself).
The standout part of the misses in my view is 19/20, the year after we didn't sign anyone. I think the wheels came off here somewhat and signalled the end of an era. Here we brought in Ndombele, Bergwijn, Lo Celso, Clarke and Fernandes on loan. My OK player for that window was Sessegnon due to the fact he's still wanted and here but arguably to date a miss as well (especially if i've called Bergwijn one). Spent a lot of money here for very, very little long-term return.
Anyway, wasted a lot of time and got a lot of pointless thoughts off my chest - so debate away if you see fit. For what it's worth, we deserve a fair bit of criticism for our misses in the above breakdowns (even if you don't think they're misses) but at least we're not United, who i'd agree with Neville have misfired and misspent far far too often.
Here's what he said about United's business, for context, there are 33 players here vs. our 26.
Now here's looking out ours - This is my very subjective take on things so far and here's a couple of allowances:
New signings - Jury is out - Felt it too early to break those down amongst 10 years of context
Loan to Transfers - Tried to capture when we first brought them in rather than when we spent
Other loany business - Didn't include returning loan players or anything like that, just signings from elsewhere
So here it is:
I've tried to be overly critical on a couple and as such i expect a few pelters but will roll with those.
Another way i wanted to look at this (as i'm procrastinating in my lunch break) is what period did we sign more hits or misses.
Starting with the hits:
Seemed to have a good run of signings once Poch joined in 2014 - in these numbers i counted: Dier, Vorm (mostly for his service/deputising), Alli, Davies. Then the following year we signed: Trippier, Alderweirald & Sonny.
Interesting perhaps a similar phase of good recruitment is kicking off the Conte reign with Bentancur, Kulu & Romero from the last year.
The Misses:
It's worth noting these are much more numerous year on year but context is important. Before Poch came we had the Bale money being spent which was mixed to say the least, here i've included Chiriches, Capoue, Paulinho & Soldado.
The following years under Poch we were a bit less scattergun for a while but still some notable gambles/misses on Yedlin, Stambouli, Fazio in 14/15. Wimmer & N'Jie in 15/16. Lopez, N'Koudou, Janssen in 16/17. I feel like after this we were trying to hone some of what we had which made it a bit mixed (possibly the dawn of not signing 'squad players' and only buying if we felt they would improve the starting line-up, a bit of a miss in itself).
The standout part of the misses in my view is 19/20, the year after we didn't sign anyone. I think the wheels came off here somewhat and signalled the end of an era. Here we brought in Ndombele, Bergwijn, Lo Celso, Clarke and Fernandes on loan. My OK player for that window was Sessegnon due to the fact he's still wanted and here but arguably to date a miss as well (especially if i've called Bergwijn one). Spent a lot of money here for very, very little long-term return.
Anyway, wasted a lot of time and got a lot of pointless thoughts off my chest - so debate away if you see fit. For what it's worth, we deserve a fair bit of criticism for our misses in the above breakdowns (even if you don't think they're misses) but at least we're not United, who i'd agree with Neville have misfired and misspent far far too often.
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