It worrying when your record signing isn’t thought of as an automatic starter
Quote from: wittonwarrior on September 26, 2021, 09:35:40 AMIt worrying when your record signing isn’t thought of as an automatic starterReally isn't. It shows how strong the rest of the squad is. In any case though, despite Emi B costing £40m-ish ... how many of our players would you turn down that money for? I'd argue we've for a number of players above that price bracket:- Martinez- Mings- McGinn- Watkins- KonsaAll of those, I'd be particularly unhappy if we accepted a £40m bid for. We've also got a second batch of players who are approaching that level:- Emi B (obvs)- Ings is about £30m- Dougie Luiz must be over £30m now surely?- Bailey is around that figure too- Sanson would've been £35m ish until the French League had a car crash- Traore is in a similar boat, would've been £25m+- Cash & Targett must be approaching that £30m-£40m bracket, if they're not already in it- Jacob Ramsey isn't there yet, but could realistically be approaching that bracket come the end of the season if he maintains his formWe're in a weird place, for ourselves anyway, that we've got a number of players in the squad who we couldn't afford if they were playing for another Premier League club. Credit to the coaching & scouting staff for putting us there.
A nice problem to have but it is hard to see where/how we can improve next as there’s few obvious weaknesses and the next level of player is unlikely to consider us (yet).
Quote from: Dante Lavelli on September 26, 2021, 12:13:43 PMA nice problem to have but it is hard to see where/how we can improve next as there’s few obvious weaknesses and the next level of player is unlikely to consider us (yet). Which is precisely why Smith's telling the players that we can beat anyone in the league. If this group gel the way it looks like they might be able to, top 6 is absolutely realistic. And if we qualify for Europe then a whole different level of player will take an interest in us.
Quote from: Ad@m on September 26, 2021, 12:16:39 PMQuote from: Dante Lavelli on September 26, 2021, 12:13:43 PMA nice problem to have but it is hard to see where/how we can improve next as there’s few obvious weaknesses and the next level of player is unlikely to consider us (yet). Which is precisely why Smith's telling the players that we can beat anyone in the league. If this group gel the way it looks like they might be able to, top 6 is absolutely realistic. And if we qualify for Europe then a whole different level of player will take an interest in us. Which then begs the question, surely, that we already have top 6 players, why do we need new ones?