Poll - Sherwood - got rid

[silhillvilla]

I imagine it's a doomsday race between Sherwood and McLaren

[Villa in Denmark]

Telegraph are spot on highlighting the pathetic net spend figure.

We've been through this so many times now.
In a year with a windfall like we had it's actually difficult to spend much more.

Would you have rather we had paid £1M per player more to get the figure up?
Or brought in a couple of extra players at the £5-10M mark to get the figure up when the only remote semblance of an excuse Sherwood has got is integrating so many new players?
The alternative was to buy more expensive players, but the chances of getting 12 players from "the next level up" to join us at the moment would have been slim.

So how would you have gone about spending the £40+ million we received in fees plus whatever you feel would have been an acceptable injection of other funds.

Don't worry about the Benteke fee being in instalments, just about all deals are these days so assume like for like (unless our purchases weren't in which case the net spend is somewhat better than otherwise reported.)

As a matter of interest how much more do you think we should have spent.

[silhillvilla]

Well for starters I'd have spent £15m on a Charlie Austin / Danny Ings instead of the same amount on Ayew & Gestede.

[PaulWinch again]

How often do you get quotes before a manager is sacked? Who's actually going to come out and say, 'yeah he's sacked if he doesn't win in the next couple of games'. I hope it's correct though, because if we don't win one of the next two it's been a cataclysmic first quarter of the season.

[Villa in Denmark]

But that's not altering the

pathetic net spend

[villan from luton]

I want Sherwood to succeed but I do have concerns now. I hate the links coming out of he wanted these buys, but had to contend with etc. We all knew it would be awkward at the start of the season but we honestly didn't expect we are now surely. The manager needs to take responsibility, we were being outrun at Leicester but scored a great second goal. He then took Gil off, fair enough as he looked knackered and was just back from injury. Not for Gestede though, should have been Vertout. Also when going three at the back at home, Bacuna ahead of Hutton surely (Hutton did ok)

[silhillvilla]

But that's not altering the

pathetic net spend

Of course it's pathetic .
We needed to spend £5-7m on a decent keeper
£5m odd on a new Vlaar
Westwood needed replacement with a decent DCM such as Nzonzi £8m
We needed a winger - Townsend or Lennon £8-10m

That's a few areas

[Villa in Denmark]

But that's not altering the

pathetic net spend

Of course it's pathetic .
We needed to spend £5-7m on a decent keeper
£5m odd on a new Vlaar
Westwood needed replacement with a decent DCM such as Nzonzi £8m
We needed a winger - Townsend or Lennon £8-10m

That's a few areas

Which takes you back to integrating even more players than we're already struggling to.
And have you seen Lennon this season at all.
Not so much all fart and no shit.
More all gastric bloating and no fart, but definitely shit from the 2 games I've seen him in.
Spurs were never going to let Townsend go and he's another inconsistent 1 good game in 10, looks good on YouTube merchant.

Richards is the new Vlaar for the princely sum of £ bog all.

I think the plan was that Sanchez and Gana would have seen the end of Westwood in that role. However injuries and our fantastic manager have largely put paid to that for now.

Decent keeper for that money, or significantly better than Guzan? Unless you knew where there was one going on a free, which based on your fee suggestion you didn't, you're smoking something not quite legal.

[pauliewalnuts]

Well for starters I'd have spent £15m on a Charlie Austin / Danny Ings instead of the same amount on Ayew & Gestede.

But that's absolutely not the point you are making.

You said 7m is a pathetic net spend (and I probably agree with you on that).

When you get challenged on it, you point out two signings you'd have made differently. So you'd have spent 15m on Charlie or Austin or Danny Ings rather than on Ayew plus Gestede.

How the fuck does that even affect net spend?

[pauliewalnuts]

How often do you get quotes before a manager is sacked? Who's actually going to come out and say, 'yeah he's sacked if he doesn't win in the next couple of games'. I hope it's correct though, because if we don't win one of the next two it's been a cataclysmic first quarter of the season.

Too coincidental for more than one national to be running with this story.

I hope.

A horrendous mistake, let's realise that earlier rather than later this time and move on.

[eamonn]

Richards would be worth between £5m-£10m while contracted for 2+years somewhere (i.e. if we sold him now that's how much we'd likely get) so you could arguably add that on to our net spend too.

[silhillvilla]

Well for starters I'd have spent £15m on a Charlie Austin / Danny Ings instead of the same amount on Ayew & Gestede.

But that's absolutely not the point you are making.

You said 7m is a pathetic net spend (and I probably agree with you on that).

When you get challenged on it, you point out two signings you'd have made differently. So you'd have spent 15m on Charlie or Austin or Danny Ings rather than on Ayew plus Gestede.

How the fuck does that even affect net spend?

Well you apply the same principles . Less players of better quality with a net spend nearer £25m . The club have done it on the cheap again and are now paying for it. Stupidity.

[pauliewalnuts]

Well for starters I'd have spent £15m on a Charlie Austin / Danny Ings instead of the same amount on Ayew & Gestede.

But that's absolutely not the point you are making.

You said 7m is a pathetic net spend (and I probably agree with you on that).

When you get challenged on it, you point out two signings you'd have made differently. So you'd have spent 15m on Charlie or Austin or Danny Ings rather than on Ayew plus Gestede.

How the fuck does that even affect net spend?

Well you apply the same principles . Less players of better quality with a net spend nearer £25m . The club have done it on the cheap again and are now paying for it. Stupidity.

Congratulations, you've utterly ignored the point I made.

You make these arguments and you start out with a bit of relative sense, but then you go off on a tangent and start spouting absolute nonsense.

Net spend 7m. 15m spent on Ayew plus Gestede. 15m spent on Austin. Net spend the same.

It's a totally different point.

[silhillvilla]

Ok I will keep it simple for you. We needed a gross spend minimum of £65m in the summer. That's the budget that should have been set and spent . On quality, proven quality, not gambles and dice throwing,

[MattW]

The Telegraph story reports the meeting as fact and clearly includes Sherwood's response/justification off-the-record. Sherwood is positioning to defend himself by saying these weren't his signings, but I seem to recall him taking credit for them at the time.

Edit: I'd also like to know which summer signings he'll get 'ruthless' with. Which have been given a chance but have underperformed? The issue seems less the underperformance of new signings, and more the lack of continuity in the line-up and strategy.

I agree these stories aren't just coincidental - something is happening. Good.