Summer transfer madness thread

[cdbearsfan]

I don't think you can thrive in this division without a midfield that runs all game every game and never gives the opposition any peace on the ball. I can't see how signing another old git is going to help this.

Bruce seems to be fucking up our present and our future. Lumbering us with a load of players on huge wages and no resale value for if the shit hits the fan.

[Gareth]

See Leeds are selling Wood to Burnley for 15m, wouldn't they like to send 5-6m our way for McCormack :-)

[ozzjim]

I don't think you can thrive in this division without a midfield that runs all game every game and never gives the opposition any peace on the ball. I can't see how signing another old git is going to help this.

Bruce seems to be fucking up our present and our future. Lumbering us with a load of players on huge wages and no resale value for if the shit hits the fan.

Which is why I think Lyden needs to be starting games. Him and Onamah might give enough legs to compete.

[tomd2103]

I think Bruce concluded that promotion teams almost always play two up, or one up and one behind. The 433 worked, but we lacked goal threat apart from Kodjia

I can see why he reaches that conclusion and he's probably right. But the problem remains the same as it's been for years. We don't seem able to put together a two man central midfield that is strong enough. I thought Whelan might solve that and maybe it will. But it really hasn't so far.

Agree Matt and I think he wanted to get Hogan and Kodjia up front together after signing the former in January.  I think one of the problems with the 4-3-3 we played last season was that the lack of a forward who could hold the up meant we couldn't really get on the front foot.  I think that type of forward would have allowed the two more advanced midfielders push on a bit more and become more of an attacking presence. 

Agree about central midfield and Whelan is struggling in a two because he looks like he no longer has the legs.  I think if you are going to play a two man midfield, they have to be pretty mobile.

[cdbearsfan]

See Leeds are selling Wood to Burnley for 15m, wouldn't they like to send 5-6m our way for McCormack :-)

Selling the talented Gray and replacing him with one-dimensional Wood, doesn't seem the best plan to me. Fancy Burnley to drop this year.

[SoccerHQ]

And this is Bruce's last defence

We've basically replaced the core of a side three times in 18 months, up to the last winter window

Maybe it just will take a while to bed that in. I guess Watford are an example of a side who have managed that transition, and you'd definitely want there to be much more signs of progress - if anything we've been regressing for the last dozen games - but it does mean that some of the "we've spent x money" claims are unfair. Not least because a lot of it wa spent badly last summer

I was listening to Dan Bardell on the villa view say that he just doesn't know any more. That's how I feel. I'm definitely fed up with Bruce but is there really a credible candidate who looks a better bet on paper and is available? Maybe jokanovic.

I'm of the same thinking.

We tried a bit of a left field appointment in RDM and it didn't work out.

Bruce was a banker bet, a very logical choice to me as manager and tbh he was one I actually didn't think would go wrong. Last season was hit and miss but I thought we'd come out firing and it just hasn't happened. We certainly don't look like a team that will win 20 + games this season.

There are some good managers out there of course but I dunno I'm a bit unnerved now someone as experienced as SB can't do anything with this club.

Big fear is we're going to be stuck in this division for years. If you look at things if we don't go up next summer, parachute payments will start drying up, decent players like Kodjia and Chester will both want to move back up to the prem and we'll then be left with a whole host of 30 + year olds.

It really won't be a great state of affairs especially with the reduced budget due to FFP. Players at the club have to wake up to this and start putting a bit more effort on the pitch particularly when we go one down in games.

[achilles]

See Leeds are selling Wood to Burnley for 15m, wouldn't they like to send 5-6m our way for McCormack :-)

Apparently that is what is happening except Leeds want McCormack on loan!!!

[curiousorange]

I still think Bruce is making a mistake trying to push McCormack out of the exit door. We won't know if the guy is really shot while he's dealing with long ball after long ball.

[olaftab]

I still think Bruce is making a mistake trying to push McCormack out of the exit door.

If he is he's going to have to open the door for him.

[nigel]

I still think Bruce is making a mistake trying to push McCormack out of the exit door. We won't know if the guy is really shot while he's dealing with long ball after long ball.

Which is exactly why Hogan is struggling, too.

Buy an almost guaranteed 20 goal a season striker and play him in an alien role and wonder why he struggles, hmmm

[Steve67]

It's so massively frustrating. We can all see it, why can't the people who run the club?  I'm all for giving Bruce a chance but the football is shit, the coaching dire and the explanation unfathomable.  Xia has to wake up.

[ASHTONVILLA]

I still think McCormack is a talented player, and has looked good at times for us. He needs to played in the right position and have the right tactics but you could say that about most strikers.

The system we play does not suit McCormack, Hogan or Kodjia - it takes a special kind of idiot to find a system that fails to find form from three strikers that have all been prolific recently elsewhere.

[curiousorange]

It's no surprise we were linked with Crouch and Abel Hernandez this year.

[DB]

I still think Bruce is making a mistake trying to push McCormack out of the exit door.

If he is he's going to have to open the door for him.

Chortle

[villabear]

Might be rubbish but link on Twitter to Dutch born midfielder Edwin Gyasi who plays for Aalesund FK in Norway.