The lack of coherency in our recruitment strategy

[smallsnc]

My thoughts.

We have to learn out to integrate younger players that have the drive and legs required in the PL.
When recruiting, we need to understand the value of speed of play (foot speed, ability to control the ball quickly and ability to make the next play quickly) and the value of having that engine that keeps going are as or more valuable than being able to do great things with the ball when you are given time and space to do it. The fact is, the players we have recruited recently (minus probably PEH) are missing either the ability to play fast or do not have the engine required in the PL. We continually have opposing midfielders just run right around us and go through our midfield especially late in matches.

Under Poch, especially early, we brought in the younger players and they would run through walls but as we have gotten older, our pace of play and especially our ability to recover have greatly decreased. Yes, we will have to live with some growing pains as younger players will make more mistakes but we are living with the mistakes and lack of recovery ability now.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

We haven’t had a good or even decent transfer window since 2015!!!!

SIX YEARS AGO

Alderweireld
Son
Alli

What chance have you got If you haven’t at least brought in 1 or 2 consistently successful players for 6 years…. 11 or 12 windows!

Unbelievable

 

[al_pacino]

Maybe but you could see a clear strategy for this past summer. Trying to bring in younger players as the squad was getting older while clearly not having much money to do it. Not all the deals that needed to happen did but it was never going to happen in one (Euros filled) window.

 

[shelfboy68]

We haven’t had a good or even decent transfer window since 2015!!!!

SIX YEARS AGO

Alderweireld
Son
Alli

What chance have you got If you haven’t at least brought in 1 or 2 consistently successful players for 6 years…. 11 or 12 windows!

Unbelievable

And yet we are supposed to be a top four or six club but both west ham and Leicester are better than us with the latter actually capable of winning things.

 

[cliff jones]

We were obviously at least 1 probably 2 light up top after departures bearing in mind four competitions and the burgeoning international programme.

We lost goals and assists, and didn’t replace them.

Incoherence.

 

[onthetwo]

We were obviously at least 1 probably 2 light up top after departures bearing in mind four competitions and the burgeoning international programme.

We lost goals and assists, and didn’t replace them.

Incoherence.

IMO thats the main reason that fans are impatient already; The Chairman tried to tell us he lost sight of the clubs attacking DNA....only to bring in a coach renowned for pragmatism whilst letting 2 on-loan strikers return to their parent clubs and managing to piss off the only remaining out-and-out striker that we have!
Hope im wrong but feels like another example of being taken for mugs which, when we're asked to pay the ticket prices that we do, means goodwill is in very short supply.

 

[cookiemonster]

There is no coherency

Its just the little goblin taking one punt after another hoping to make a profit

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

IMO thats the main reason that fans are impatient already; The Chairman tried to tell us he lost sight of the clubs attacking DNA....only to bring in a coach renowned for pragmatism whilst letting 2 on-loan strikers return to their parent clubs and managing to piss off the only remaining out-and-out striker that we have!
Hope im wrong but feels like another example of being taken for mugs which, when we're asked to pay the ticket prices that we do, means goodwill is in very short supply.

Tbf it was Paratici who brought Nuno in

 

[danielneeds]

My hot take which a lot of fans won’t like is that the main thing that we should be looking to do is sell one of of our top players every couple of summers and then reinvest that money on three or four young wonderkids. Dortmund, Leicester, the RB clubs all do this and keep the their teams competitive.

 

[harrmaud]

My hot take which a lot of fans won’t like is that the main thing that we should be looking to do is sell one of of our top players every couple of summers and then reinvest that money on three or four young wonderkids. Dortmund, Leicester, the RB clubs all do this and keep the their teams competitive.

Agree here. I actually think this is the main reason for our downfall from the prime Poch years. We had so many players who we could have sold for so much, and replaced with younger players with big upside.

Rose and Dier we could have sold for the thick end of £50m each in those years, and we let Rose go on a free, while we'd struggle to get £20m for Dier now.

Eriksen could have been sold for around £70m, we eventually let him go for around £20m with six months remaining on his contract. Dele could have been sold for £100m in his prime, who would pay £30m for him now?

Obviously I'm cherry picking the players who we've missed out on big fees for, but if any of these players were sold at their prime, everyone would have cried no ambition at Levy and Enic. If you look at the strides Liverpool made with the Coutinho money, imagine how different our squad could look now if we'd cashed in on some of those players when their value was highest.

 

[onthetwo]

Tbf it was Paratici who brought Nuno in

but having gone on record with the 'lost sight of the club DNA' statement he cant then hide behind the FIRST (and most important) decision made by the man chosen by Levy to run the football side of things if it doesnt fit with that statement!

 

[worcestersauce]

This last window we bought in
Romero
Gil
Pape Sarr
Royal
Gollini
We didn't buy a striker because we didn't sell Kane
We let go a few of the players we needed to let go.

I'm not sure why we would think that is incoherent.

 

[Stuart Leathercock]

I think our demise is 100% linked to our lack of net spend.

In the PL you have to improve the squad every year just to stand still, as every team in the league is trying to get better. Teams tend to be built over a 4 or 5 year period (especially if the club are buying mainly young players instead of the finished articles).

In the period from 10 years ago to 5 years ago we were up in and around the top 6 for net spend and combined that with some very good young players coming through and a brilliant manager in Poch.

Levy made a big mistake in not properly backing Pochettino when he had us right up there and proper;y challenging for the big trophies. That confirmed to me that the aim of our chairman (and/or majority owner) is not to win trophies but to simply get in the top 4 and on the CL gravy train.

If we then look at the last 5 years as the next period of building a team we are well down there for net spend and therefore naturally we’re not improving as much as other PL teams and hence going backwards in comparison.

In a couple of years time we’ll get to the end of this next 5 year window and if we’re up there amongst the bigger spenders in that period and find another brilliant manager then we’ll likely get up amongst the top 4 again. Then we can see whether our owners are happy with their ‘top 4 trophy’ or actually want to push on to try to win things.

 

[dontcallme]

I think our demise is 100% linked to our lack of net spend.

In the PL you have to improve the squad every year just to stand still, as every team in the league is trying to get better. Teams tend to be built over a 4 or 5 year period (especially if the club are buying mainly young players instead of the finished articles).

In the period from 10 years ago to 5 years ago we were up in and around the top 6 for net spend and combined that with some very good young players coming through and a brilliant manager in Poch.

Levy made a big mistake in not properly backing Pochettino when he had us right up there and proper;y challenging for the big trophies. That confirmed to me that the aim of our chairman (and/or majority owner) is not to win trophies but to simply get in the top 4 and on the CL gravy train.

If we then look at the last 5 years as the next period of building a team we are well down there for net spend and therefore naturally we’re not improving as much as other PL teams and hence going backwards in comparison.

In a couple of years time we’ll get to the end of this next 5 year window and if we’re up there amongst the bigger spenders in that period and find another brilliant manager then we’ll likely get up amongst the top 4 again. Then we can see whether our owners are happy with their ‘top 4 trophy’ or actually want to push on to try to win things.

I agree that we made a mistake with not continuously buying. But this isn’t all on Levy. Poch regularly spoke of wanting to keep players for a long time and there are numerous reports of Poch turning down targets

Net spend isn’t the issue. There are numerous players we could have sold at a profit and reinvested but chose not to.

 

[thelak]

My hot take which a lot of fans won’t like is that the main thing that we should be looking to do is sell one of of our top players every couple of summers and then reinvest that money on three or four young wonderkids. Dortmund, Leicester, the RB clubs all do this and keep the their teams competitive.

I agree with this but I think those clubs - especially Dortmund already know who they want to replace player X when the time comes to sell

Ateletico another club that is fantastic at selling players and reinvesting

Work on a buy low sell high principal with excellent scouting to replenish the funnel and a clear playing style so it’s clear what is needed when player x leaves

Requires the culture top to bottom to be set up that way and then executed on consistently year after year which we are clearly not organised to as can be seen in how our playing style and recruitment of managers and players have shifted around so much

 

[NEVILLEB]

It’s a shambles and has been for 5 years.

 

[NEVILLEB]

I agree that we made a mistake with not continuously buying. But this isn’t all on Levy. Poch regularly spoke of wanting to keep players for a long time and there are numerous reports of Poch turning down targets

Net spend isn’t the issue. There are numerous players we could have sold at a profit and reinvested but chose not to.

Wasn’t Poch publicly begging for quality players in his final few seasons.

 

[mr ashley]

This last window we bought in
Romero
Gil
Pape Sarr
Royal
Gollini
We didn't buy a striker because we didn't sell Kane
We let go a few of the players we needed to let go.

I'm not sure why we would think that is incoherent.

The problem isn’t the rationale behind these signings. They all fit a plan and take us back to our approach of signing players on the up and with high potential

the problem is (and always will be) that levy can’t help but get involved in footballing decisions.
1. last January he overruled the plans to sell dele. Now we are stuck with him again
2. This summer overruling the decision to sign traore (think what you like about his end product- against Chelsea we yet again looked clueless going forward with no pace and no threat.
3. the idea that not selling Kane meant we didn’t need another striker. (Ok I’ve got no evidence this was a levy decision but it’s equally inexplicable).
All summer there was criticism of the various snippets of ITK. The only one that is clear bullshit was the story that we could only be focussed on qualifying for champions league, and that nothing else would do.
Absolutely none of our transfer actions that followed that news showed any sign that we had any intention of aiming for that level.
we’ll do well to qualify for the Europa this season.

 

[Drink!Drink!]

Remember when we used to debate if current players or potential signings were top 4 quality?

now today there are several players who are getting game time I am not even sure are good enough for the premier league.

add to this we have no sporting identity or philosophy. No connection in football philosophy between the youth teams and the senior squad.

for me all roads here lead to Daniel Levy’s office. We have become a very, very badly managed football operation. I can’t see how we get out of this. Very pessimistic, sorry everyone

 

[sidford]

We lost 3 players from last season who contributed 31 goals in all competitions & we replaced them with Gil. Sure he might turn out to be quality but that is just complete and utter joke and is one of the worst examples of squad building you are likely to see at any club.