Did Remi influence our summer spending?

[Lucky Eddie]

I said this to my mate on Saturday night and to my surprise he thought it was out of the question.

Is it being discussed anywhere else that our new man instigated the French spending spree and caused the odd Sherwood and Spurs away team selections?

[Somniloquism]

No.

I would say the reverse where getting someone in who can get the best out of the current squad and new signings influenced getting Remi.

[PeterWithe]

I'd be amazed if our commitment to expensive transfer fees and contracts would have had anything to do with an outsider at the time.  The presence of so many French players in the squad may have made him more attractive to the board after Sherwood was sacked mind.

[nigel]

Personally, I doubt it.
If they were going down that road why would they keep Sherwood on?
Why not go the whole hog and get rid of him before the season and get Garde in from the first game?

[Lucky Eddie]

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

[john e]

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

McDonald lost a fair bit of the fans goodwill that night sad to say

[Lucky Eddie]

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

McDonald lost a fair bit of the fans goodwill that night sad to say

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

McDonald lost a fair bit of the fans goodwill that night sad to say

In hindsight it looks like a protest from him.

If it wasn't Remi - who exactly steered us towards a completely new market and reinvented our spending policy?

[Somniloquism]

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

Not really. Garde was appointed just before the Spurs game. He could have influenced the line up yes, but as it wasn't that different to the cup game and the ones that cost Sherwood the job. So I would say he left the team to it so he can see the issues ( and any good points) before he took the first training session. Sherwood did the same as he was appointed to late before a match as well.

And to expand on my earlier answer to the original point, the original transfer policy in the summer was probably an attempt to emulate Newcastle's original success with cheap (in comparison) transfers on unknown young French players. I don't see why they would have asked Remi who he wanted and then waited three months plus an additional 9 days before they got him in.

[john e]

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

McDonald lost a fair bit of the fans goodwill that night sad to say

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

McDonald lost a fair bit of the fans goodwill that night sad to say

In hindsight it looks like a protest from him.

If it wasn't Remi - who exactly steered us towards a completely new market and reinvented our spending policy?

Well I'm presuming that committee that everyone been talking about

[Dante Lavelli]

My guess is that Reilly and the other scouts had identified that the French market offered the best value and therefore had research it/the players most thoroughly.  Hence we end up with lots of French players. 

Remi probably made sense for a number of reasons.  One being that the 'committee' approach to transfers not being unusual. 

[Lucky Eddie]

I'm surprised it hasn't been questioned as a possibility - it certainly explains the Spurs line up.

Not really. Garde was appointed just before the Spurs game. He could have influenced the line up yes, but as it wasn't that different to the cup game and the ones that cost Sherwood the job. So I would say he left the team to it so he can see the issues ( and any good points) before he took the first training session. Sherwood did the same as he was appointed to late before a match as well.

And to expand on my earlier answer to the original point, the original transfer policy in the summer was probably an attempt to emulate Newcastle's original success with cheap (in comparison) transfers on unknown young French players. I don't see why they would have asked Remi who he wanted and then waited three months plus an additional 9 days before they got him in.

I'd be surprised if anybody's using Newcastle as a model to follow.

Remi came from nowhere to be the only fella under consideration - I'm just not having it that he wasn't influencing summer spends. We'd never bought French before - Six and Ginola aside - this all seems like more than a coincidence to me.

Maybe Randy deserves a bit more credit for actually having a strategy after all?

[Dante Lavelli]

I think Fox has initiated a strategy (with Randy's wishes) whereby we follow a more european model of how the club is run with less emphasis on the importance of the manager i.e. the MON model.  I think the selection of manager being foreign is the connection - or a logical hunch - and the fact he is french purely coincidence.

[Percy McCarthy]

Nah. Too far-fetched. Why wait so long to sack Sherwood? The Stoke game would have been ideal before a two-week break. We could have been even quicker on the draw if we were just waiting for an excuse.

What if Sherwood had got off to flier?

[PeterWithesShin]

Carew, Sylla and Makoun were all signed from French clubs. It's hardly some alien country we've never signed anyone from before.

[adrenachrome]

Carew, Sylla and Makoun were all signed from French clubs. It's hardly some alien country we've never signed anyone from before.

Not  to mention this chappy.