Summer transfer madness thread

[Ads]

This season SHOULD be a completely different story. Settled(ish) squad, full pre-season together, cover in most areas, no AFCON. I'm convinced we have the best squad, and there can be no more excuses.

You are missing one major factor

Plan / Method / coaching / players allowed to express themselved

You've listed four!

I presumed the response was deliberately disingenuous for the purposes of the debate. The individual quality of the squad is/was a lot higher than most of the teams in the league.

The wrong choice in RDM to craft a revolution, significant influx of players, the lack of balance, the time it took until a side became settled, the fragile mentality born from the circumstances we found ourselves in the league in the first place, all ultimately hamstrung us.

I'm hopeful this time that the intangible quality that Premier League players and utter winners like Terry will bring, will prove a uniting and significant difference. I suspect Whelan, another Premier League player, and his additional mobility and distribution over Jedinak, will be the key to unlock the talents in our midfield to actually get men further forward, get width to the game and have a player like Hogan receiving the ball facing their goal rather than him having his back to it.

I think we will perhaps go for one more, potentially a Tom Lawrence style player and that will be us done.

I wouldn't swap our squad for anybody else's and its up to the players to prove it.

[boozey182]

I'm not sure promotion through the play-offs would be 'catastrophic failure'.

Maybe if we sneak up it won't be catastrophic, but I think it would still be a failure. So much is at stake this year, I think that going through the lottery that isn't the playoffs will not sit well with the owner. If it looks like that's the best we can hope for, I reckon we'll be looking for another new manager.

[Drummond]

The hope I am clinging to is that Bruce has spent the last 8 months building his squad, but he just did it in the wrong order. In January he added the decorative bits (Lansbury, Hourihane, Hogan) which will provide flair and creativity*, and this summer has added the foundation (Whelan, Samba and Elmo) to provide graft and stability. We desperately needed the foundation in January, and we didn't/couldn't get it, so we were incredibly fragile and had to play in a negative way. Now there are absolutely no excuses for Bruce to fail. He's been backed and he's had time. This is his squad now. It should be enough to get us promoted automatically, and anything else must be seen as a catastrophic failure.

*As much as a Bruce team can have flair and creativity

It's an interesting point, and perhaps he was forced to do it that way round because of the availability of the players. You can imagine Hull not wanting to release Elmo, Stoke not releasing Whelan and Terry of course would never have left Chelsea.

[Drummond]

I'm not sure promotion through the play-offs would be 'catastrophic failure'.

Maybe if we sneak up it won't be catastrophic, but I think it would still be a failure. So much is at stake this year, I think that going through the lottery that isn't the playoffs will not sit well with the owner. If it looks like that's the best we can hope for, I reckon we'll be looking for another new manager.

I'm not sure it could be deemed as failure, after all, we'd earn more from the Play-Off matches and the outcome would be the same, we'd be promoted.

[paul_e]

But if we have the best squad in the league who takes the blame if we fail?  Did we have a bottom half squad last season?

[chrisw1]

I'm not sure promotion through the play-offs would be 'catastrophic failure'.

Maybe if we sneak up it won't be catastrophic, but I think it would still be a failure. So much is at stake this year, I think that going through the lottery that isn't the playoffs will not sit well with the owner. If it looks like that's the best we can hope for, I reckon we'll be looking for another new manager.

I'm not sure it could be deemed as failure, after all, we'd earn more from the Play-Off matches and the outcome would be the same, we'd be promoted.

If you offered anyone promotion by the play offs right now, they'd be mad not to bite your hand off.

[chrisw1]

But if we have the best squad in the league who takes the blame if we fail?  Did we have a bottom half squad last season?

Come on Paul, you know the answer to that.  Last year was shit, but there were mitigating circumstances.  This year there's no excuses.  If we fail Bruce will be out.

[sirlordbaltimore]

It should be enough to get us promoted automatically, and anything else must be seen as a catastrophic failure.

WTF? Offer me promotion via the play offs now and i'd bite yer arm off never mind your hand, as would Tony, Steve or anyone else connected to the club i'm sure

[Drummond]

I'm not sure promotion through the play-offs would be 'catastrophic failure'.

Maybe if we sneak up it won't be catastrophic, but I think it would still be a failure. So much is at stake this year, I think that going through the lottery that isn't the playoffs will not sit well with the owner. If it looks like that's the best we can hope for, I reckon we'll be looking for another new manager.

I'm not sure it could be deemed as failure, after all, we'd earn more from the Play-Off matches and the outcome would be the same, we'd be promoted.

If you offered anyone promotion by the play offs right now, they'd be mad not to bite your hand off.

And it would mean a win at Wembley!

[tomd2103]

I'm not sure promotion through the play-offs would be 'catastrophic failure'.

Maybe if we sneak up it won't be catastrophic, but I think it would still be a failure. So much is at stake this year, I think that going through the lottery that isn't the playoffs will not sit well with the owner. If it looks like that's the best we can hope for, I reckon we'll be looking for another new manager.

I'm not sure it could be deemed as failure, after all, we'd earn more from the Play-Off matches and the outcome would be the same, we'd be promoted.

If you offered anyone promotion by the play offs right now, they'd be mad not to bite your hand off.

To be honest, if we were guaranteed to win the Play Off Final, I would take it as well, probably even over automatic promotion (even though it gives you less time to prepare for the following season).  A great day out at Wembley would be just the lift the club has needed for some time. 

[old man villa fan]

The point is that our aim has to be top two, not top six.  There would still be a lot to do to go up via the play-offs and a chance we should not see as a guarantee.

Promotion by any way would be a success but scraping through would not set us up well for next season. Teams that go up and do well have belief in the football they play.

[Toronto Villa]

I don't think my heart could take the somewhat lottery of a play off run and finals. We need to go up automatically.

[AVH87]

I think we need a bit more quality and creativity in the final third for automatic promotion.

Tom Lawrence mentioned above I think by Ads would be a good shout on a season-loan or permanent if possible. Scored 9 in 34 from AM for Ipswich last season.

[Brend'Watkins]

Yes, that's why they finished above us. If we were better than them, we'd have finished above them.

Correct I agree

You're confusing squad and performances.

They're also ignoring any transfer-business or squad development that's happened since the end of the season. Not to mention confusing past and present tense.

Quite.  Our squad last season was as good as most squads.  This season we will have an improved squad which will be better than all in the division.  Getting the best out of it is the challenge.

[Mister E]

This season SHOULD be a completely different story. Settled(ish) squad, full pre-season together, cover in most areas, no AFCON. I'm convinced we have the best squad, and there can be no more excuses.

You are missing one major factor

Plan / Method / coaching / players allowed to express themselved

You've listed four!

I presumed the response was deliberately disingenuous for the purposes of the debate. The individual quality of the squad is/was a lot higher than most of the teams in the league.

The wrong choice in RDM to craft a revolution, significant influx of players, the lack of balance, the time it took until a side became settled, the fragile mentality born from the circumstances we found ourselves in the league in the first place, all ultimately hamstrung us.

I'm hopeful this time that the intangible quality that Premier League players and utter winners like Terry will bring, will prove a uniting and significant difference. I suspect Whelan, another Premier League player, and his additional mobility and distribution over Jedinak, will be the key to unlock the talents in our midfield to actually get men further forward, get width to the game and have a player like Hogan receiving the ball facing their goal rather than him having his back to it.

I think we will perhaps go for one more, potentially a Tom Lawrence style player and that will be us done.

I wouldn't swap our squad for anybody else's and its up to the players to prove it.

I didn't read Hookey's response as disengenuous. As I said above, looking at player-for-player comparisons is only half the story, it's as important to look at the way in which squads gell, the way that individuals' talent blends with the complementary talents of others and the way in which teams learn from defeats. And, the way in which teams exploit set pieces and operate to an agreed winning gameplan. The quality of the manager, coaches and support staff comes into this equation.
Last season, many people questioned Bruce's capability, his coaches' effectiveness and the tactics and gameplan. That's the real point.