07 Aug 2021 17:47:23
I sometimes wonder if out biggest recruitment issue is that we so often sign players who failed elsewhere.

Now I am not saying all the below players are bad, but

Digne/ Mina/ Gomes - not good enough for Barca
James - not good enough for real.
Iwobi - not good enough for Arsenal
Townsend/ Sigurdson - not good enough for Spurs
Delph - not good enough for Man City
Grey - not good enough for Leicester

And that's just in the current squad. Again not all bad players, but that is a lot of players who have not met the grade at a high level to be in one squad with aspersions to get to that level. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure many of the clubs above or around us have the same transfer strategy.

1.) 07 Aug 2021
07 Aug 2021 18:59:20
Totally agree with you EFCONE i'm just wondering where all our young talent are and what unsworth is actually doing with these u23's.

2.) 07 Aug 2021
07 Aug 2021 19:50:04
Get real!
All the teams u mention are light years above us!
My issue is when we buy their older cast offs eg Gascogne, Ginola, etc when they r past their best. Younger bits like Digne r worth a punt whilst we can’t atteact the best players from the sides u say.

3.) 07 Aug 2021
07 Aug 2021 21:32:30
Do you want to go through all the players we deemed not good enough who went elsewhere and did well?
Similarly to what Honcho says, would have some of those teams cast offs, just because it doesn’t work there doesn’t mean they are rubbish or do we not sing Digne’s praises?
Like when some slate a relegated player, doesn’t make them a bad player, just need to be in the right team/ system

We all know things are going to be tough so either support the team through thick and thing while the ship is steadied or go be a glory hunter at Man City or Chelsea.

4.) 08 Aug 2021
08 Aug 2021 08:22:40
I never said they were all bad players, and to your point ST I can't think of any players we have sold that weren't good enough who have gone on to reach a level where I'd have them back so I'm not sure what your point is there?

My worry is more about desire/ hunger than talent. Are these players who have already had a shot at the big time and failed, hungry enough anymore? What is their aspiration with us, because I think most would agree it appears to be they aspire for a decent pay day. More often than not we are paying these players more than they were earning when they were at these bigger clubs.