The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 11 August 2011

[mill]

What I saw was indeed a young striker with bags of potential, but whose end product wasn't great and would not have complimented our system particularly well. Would he have been better than the dross we had/still have, yes. But you are kidding yourself if you think he would have been the answer to all our prayers. He would arguably have improved us, but it was not a cockup of epic proportions.

We're not gonna get that anyway so an upgrade would be a good start

 

[bgoldie]

Archie on SO re: Serdar Tasci

bid in but playing off with other targets at the moment

and ez14ginola on him

we were looking at him a few months back - wouldn't be surprised if we did end up with him
highly rated

 

[gilzeantheking]

Can't believe that we have not made any real signings so far. I say 'so far' as I am sure that come the 1st September we will have a couple of major signings.

Completely understand where we are as a club - we need to lose some of the squad, we need to recoup some money and then we can look to purchase (just a shame no-one is buying up our fringe players), but it is frustrating as a fan to see the likes of Liverpool, Man U and even Sunderland strengthening. On the other side of the coin, they are the only clubs who have really spent in the market this summer.

Trying to keep positive as I believe in the club - I am sure that we are working hard to make things happen. Problem being that Levy as a businessman needs to ensure that he gets the best deal for the club, whereas I am sure that Harry just wants the players in, but nevertheless I still believe that we will be in a strong position come the end of the window.

Shame that things have gone quiet on Diarra. I hope this happens. To have him and Sandro would give us a world class defensive midfield pairing and would provide a superb platform for our more attack minded players to cause chaos for the opposition.

In terms of strikers, I would love to have Ade, but again it has gone a bit quiet on that front. We all know this is where we need to upgrade. Harry knows this, I just think it is a matter of time. I believe in POTL, and believe that something major will happen - unfortunately we all have to bide our time.

Couldn't have put it better :clap::clap::clap:

 

[dsmoove]

PSG sporting director Leonardo isn’t expecting too much more transfer activity this month. "Our market is closed, but if an interesting opportunity comes up we will welcome it," he said in La Gazzetta dello Sport.

 

[C0YS]

Archie on SO re: Serdar Tasci



and ez14ginola on him

good player, would be a great signing.

 

[AJW]

Archie on SO re: Serdar Tasci



and ez14ginola on him

Never seen him. Would always imagine Harry would play it safe with Cahill, Samba or Dann

 

[dsmoove]

a front three of HULK-Llorente-bale in a 4-3-3 is scary. The speed and power combination with the finesse of modric and vdv is perfect. then put sandro back there protecting the CBs..and have walker attacking the wings.

CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!!!!!

 

[mill]

the thing that makes it even more frustrating is the last day of the Jan window the multi million pound bids that so far look like nothing has been followed up.

Another thing I don't get is the pienaar signing, good player but never gonna be first choice and looks increasingly stupid now that we have a massively bloated squad, seems a case of sign him 'cos he's cheap

 

[mill]

a front three of HULK-Llorente-bale in a 4-3-3 is scary. The speed and power combination with the finesse of modric and vdv is perfect. then put sandro back there protecting the CBs..and have walker attacking the wings.

CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!!!!!

Then you wake up

 

[haslemereyid]

german player targeted sounds like the Journo is on the ball

 

[frazer]

exactly we raise our game vs the top teams but struggle to break down teams who sit back vs us, which is why i feel it is imperative we are able to secure the signature of a 'deadly striker' or certainly an upgrade on what we have.

If a striker doesn't become available then perhaps another creative midfielder, but hey we have loads of them.

How about we change tactics and play two upfront against these teams. Just a thought

 

[beats1]

Regarding this latest ITK, I can't understand why we would go for another CB, I would like us give bas song another chance, this time last year the whole board thought we found the successor to ledley king

 

[Torsan]

Dont forget that Leandro is joining in january, just in time as Ade is having a surgery...
Hulk, Llorente and Damiao is getting us to the first .......?

 

[Mr Pink]

I don't think the wages from the extra players are as big a deal as people are making them out to be. Even with them we are running at a very healthy wage to revenue ratio. I am contemplating paying the 600 pounds to get the D&T report, but if go back to school I can get it for 60 pounds. So the numbers that I last remember are a few years old and we were around 42% then (that could be wrong and stand to be corrected) and I would imagine we are still 50% or under even now. Although without CL next year that might start dipping over the 50% mark if we don't clear some. Overall, you should be under 60% and we are well under that.

The big thing is that we have a 28 man squad (I believe that Livermore, Walker and Rose are U21, but correct me if I am wrong). So we have to get rid of 3 by season's end no matter what, whether an actual sale or a loan (although with those we might be forced to pay some of the wages). Add to that, we want to add at least one forward and are pursuing a midfielder and we have to move up to 5. I don't know who allowed Bale and GDS to age a year, but they really hurt us with that one :wink:

Now logically, we can see that Hutton, Keane and GDS are the most likely to go. Bentley will probably have to be a loan (with us picking up some wages), would be my guess. I hope I am wrong. So of those, only Keane is really saving us a large chunk on wages (unless we can move Bentley outright), but that will still help some. So if we get rid of them, we have room for a forward. But if we add anybody else, it becomes tricky. We get rid of Bassong as he seems to want, then we are deceptively short at center-half with our injury record to CB's. Niko is another option, as he deserves to be a starter for someone, but if he goes, having just noted Bentley and GDS as most-likey exits, we become thin on the flanks (especially as we won't have Pienaar back until October possibly). But since we have brought in a forward under this scenario, we have 5 and we need to get rid of 1 of them as we can't have 5.

So this is just me thinking as I type, but you see how much more complicated it is for management than simply switching Palacios for Diarra. In fact, CM and FB are the two spots we don't need another player. So adding one there, really does throw things into an even more complicated situation.

I think we all feel frustrated that nothing has happened. That's natural, and I don't begrudge anybody feeling it. And I realize (and agree) that some of these outs should have taken place earlier. But as it stands, they didn't. And this fact makes transfers more complicated at the moment. We want to pare the squad, but we don't want to risk being thin in any area or overstaffed in another. So let's try to understand that's the squad size is an issue that does cause us problems. Hopefully these ITK are right and we move 3 by tomorrow and can start thinking of actually having space for someone.

Good post DP, agree with the thrust of that.

 

[dsmoove]

Then you wake up

or i sign them on FIFA 11

 

[Dan Ashcroft]

Never seen him. Would always imagine Harry would play it safe with Cahill, Samba or Dann

Tasci would certainly make sense as he's much more cultured than the likes of Samba and Cahill, and quicker too.

Would be a much more natural long term partner for Dawson.

 

[shaqTHFC]

Tasci would certainly make sense as he's much more cultured than the likes of Samba and Cahill, and quicker too.

Would be a much more natural long term partner for Dawson.

Good to hear, I don't really want Samba. We need one cb who's more comfortable on the ball, and can bring it out of defence. Someone a bit more technical.

 

[Berglad]

german player targeted sounds like the Journo is on the ball

I think the Journalist did say we were targeting a german CB who could cover at LB too, and doesn't Tasci play at LB sometimes? I never seem to catch Stuttgart games lately but I feel like he played at LB for Germany a couple times.

 

[kdspur]

I think the Journalist did say we were targeting a german CB who could cover at LB too, and doesn't Tasci play at LB sometimes? I never seem to catch Stuttgart games lately but I feel like he played at LB for Germany a couple times.

yeah they finished mid table i think last season but i always worry about players who play waiting game for offers if that is a bid has gone in. but bottom line for me is teh fact that samba and cahill are probably too expensive and going for cheaper version in tasci.

 

[danielneeds]

Another sad night on here. Just to cheer us up, think about this. We could be in a position where we are selling Fabregas and Nasri and using the money to buy Scott Dann!!