Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Ads]

Perhaps we'll be back in for him in the summer, as Leeds continue to fall apart. Again.

[ChicagoLion]

Poor game management when they went down to 10 men.

[SheffieldVillain]

I think Phillips will be worth double that in 2-3 years, so not madness at all. He’d be miles better than Nakamba, and finishing a few places higher in the league offsets FFP a fair bit.

It would have been madness though. We're teetering on the edge of breaking FFP as it is. Spending £30m on him wouldn't have meant just not buying Nakamba for £10m but not buying 3 of the players who we did. If you think there are holes in the squad now, try a midfield where we didn't buy Nakamba, Luiz or Trezeguet (for example). It would have been Lansbury every week.

[SheffieldVillain]

Perhaps we'll be back in for him in the summer, as Leeds continue to fall apart. Again.

Ah, thank you, you've just reminded me I need to wind up a Leeds supporting friend.

[Risso]

I think Phillips will be worth double that in 2-3 years, so not madness at all. He’d be miles better than Nakamba, and finishing a few places higher in the league offsets FFP a fair bit.

It would have been madness though. We're teetering on the edge of breaking FFP as it is. Spending £30m on him wouldn't have meant just not buying Nakamba for £10m but not buying 3 of the players who we did. If you think there are holes in the squad now, try a midfield where we didn't buy Nakamba, Luiz or Trezeguet (for example). It would have been Lansbury every week.

That’s pure guesswork though.

[SheffieldVillain]

I think Phillips will be worth double that in 2-3 years, so not madness at all. He’d be miles better than Nakamba, and finishing a few places higher in the league offsets FFP a fair bit.

It would have been madness though. We're teetering on the edge of breaking FFP as it is. Spending £30m on him wouldn't have meant just not buying Nakamba for £10m but not buying 3 of the players who we did. If you think there are holes in the squad now, try a midfield where we didn't buy Nakamba, Luiz or Trezeguet (for example). It would have been Lansbury every week.

That’s pure guesswork though.

Not really guesswork that the extra £20m spent would have impacted FFP.

Also, whereas Phillips being worth double in 2-3 years wasn't?

[SoccerHQ]

Agree soccer. The parallels with 15/16 are strong. I don’t think any of the signings are actually bad and I’m positive that they have all increased their value this season, and will go onto good things. But they are also all hot and cold, wildly inconsistent, which you would expect of young players adapting to a new, highly competitive league. Luiz and Marvelous both great cases in point. Great players on his their day but have both vanished in really key games and cost us some important goals. Given they were initially thought to be coming into the whelan void, instead of Kalvin Phillips, that’s just not the profile of player you want there at all.

I really think we are a couple of outfield heatons short of a good mid table team and it’s annoying we didn’t get them in.

There are elements of 15/16 in our transfer strategy certainly. As regards the season I think it could be similar to 12/13. Lots of optimism pre season, poor start then we were playing o.k before an awful xmas period.

Then just when we looked down and out we picked up and finished te season comfortably staying up playing some really good football.

We were in a far worse position that February (and indeed the one when Lambert was finally sacked) than now imo but the teams at the bottom are picking up more points.

This time last season I think we'd have been 4-5 points clear of 18th.

[Ads]

The problem with our transfer strategy in 2015 was that we replaced Benteke with a Lampost.

[themossman]

I guess I’m mixing two points, cohesiveness of the transfer strategy and way the limited funds were allocated. What I think ties them together, is that the position where we absolutely should have got it right, and spent what we needed to within reason to get it right, is that CDM role where we had nobody in the squad to fill it. That for me odd the one place you want guaranteed 7/10+ performances every week because otherwise the shape of the team can fall apart, causing problems at both ends.

Our failure to fill that role properly is the reason we failed to get the most out of jack and SJM in those early games where we threw points away for fun.

I’d rather have gone very cheap on the striker and concentrated on supporting those 2 in attack.

[ChicagoLion]

I guess I’m mixing two points, cohesiveness of the transfer strategy and way the limited funds were allocated. What I think ties them together, is that the position where we absolutely should have got it right, and spent what we needed to within reason to get it right, is that CDM role where we had nobody in the squad to fill it. That for me odd the one place you want guaranteed 7/10+ performances every week because otherwise the shape of the team can fall apart, causing problems at both ends.

Our failure to fill that role properly is the reason we failed to get the most out of jack and SJM in those early games where we threw points away for fun.

I’d rather have gone very cheap on the striker and concentrated on supporting those 2 in attack.

Dead right.
You will not win many games if you surrender the midfield.

[PeterWithesShin]

I don't think Phillips was ever an option, his club didn't want to sell, he didn't want to leave. He's their version of Jack and he was always staying for another shot at promotion. If they don't go up this season I think that could be different and he'll probably go, same as it would have been for us and Jack in the summer if we hadn't gone up.

[algy]

I don't get this "which would you prefer, cup final or Premier League survival" thing.

I want both, obviously

I don't. I want to win a cup final, and survival!

[Villafirst]

Smith's after match comments are like a broken record with these type of defeats. All too familiar and seemingly no plan B. Players continually make the same mistakes. The frequency of giving the ball away is unbelievable - you can't give it away cheaply in this League without getting punished.

[OzVilla]

I thought they’d learn and adapt as the season went on and they gained experience. I now know they won’t and can’t because ,right now, too many of them are not good enough. That goes for both management and players.

This is going to go to the wire.

[mr underhill]

it will and i can't see beyond relegation at the moment as we are too inexperienced and thus too inconsistent. A Cup final win and the former might save Dean and Co, but losing badly against City and going down won't.