Quote from: SoccerHQ on October 10, 2022, 11:24:41 AMQuote from: chrisw1 on October 10, 2022, 09:32:39 AMI think the Buendia signing was excellent, and probably as close to replacing Grealish's flair as we could have hoped. Bailey was a bit of a punt that on papaer looked very exciting. In reality it looked like we massively overpaid for him.Ings was clearly a panic buy. On the face of it it was exciting, we definitely needed more firepower up front and the excitiment on here and elsewhere was tangible that we'd signed him. Ultimately though he was signed with no plan. Trying to appease him and Watkins cost Smith his job and Gerrard hasn't made it work either. We needed a striker to compete with Watkins, not necessarily to play along side him, although in theory I would have expected Watkins to make a better fist of playing wide whereas instead if felt like he just sulked. Missing out on Tammy was the huge mistake that summer. I don't think we massively overpaid for Bailey. He was hitting double figures in Bundesliga for top 6 club and had decent stats in europa league aswell so given his age I'd actually say under 30m in these times is actually a bargain, Buendia cost more and he had far less top level experience.Ings was the signing that made little sense, age and totally the wrong profile for forward we needed. We were tentatively linked with Alvarez who went to Man. City so that was type we needed, someone who could play out left or also CF if required. Most of the top teams have that sort of versatile forward.I agree, I was saying all along that summer (even when the hope was that Grealish was staying) that I wanted someone who could primarily play out wide but would be an option upfront if needed (Amine Gouiri and Marcus Thuram were my 2 picks at the time).
Quote from: chrisw1 on October 10, 2022, 09:32:39 AMI think the Buendia signing was excellent, and probably as close to replacing Grealish's flair as we could have hoped. Bailey was a bit of a punt that on papaer looked very exciting. In reality it looked like we massively overpaid for him.Ings was clearly a panic buy. On the face of it it was exciting, we definitely needed more firepower up front and the excitiment on here and elsewhere was tangible that we'd signed him. Ultimately though he was signed with no plan. Trying to appease him and Watkins cost Smith his job and Gerrard hasn't made it work either. We needed a striker to compete with Watkins, not necessarily to play along side him, although in theory I would have expected Watkins to make a better fist of playing wide whereas instead if felt like he just sulked. Missing out on Tammy was the huge mistake that summer. I don't think we massively overpaid for Bailey. He was hitting double figures in Bundesliga for top 6 club and had decent stats in europa league aswell so given his age I'd actually say under 30m in these times is actually a bargain, Buendia cost more and he had far less top level experience.Ings was the signing that made little sense, age and totally the wrong profile for forward we needed. We were tentatively linked with Alvarez who went to Man. City so that was type we needed, someone who could play out left or also CF if required. Most of the top teams have that sort of versatile forward.
I think the Buendia signing was excellent, and probably as close to replacing Grealish's flair as we could have hoped. Bailey was a bit of a punt that on papaer looked very exciting. In reality it looked like we massively overpaid for him.Ings was clearly a panic buy. On the face of it it was exciting, we definitely needed more firepower up front and the excitiment on here and elsewhere was tangible that we'd signed him. Ultimately though he was signed with no plan. Trying to appease him and Watkins cost Smith his job and Gerrard hasn't made it work either. We needed a striker to compete with Watkins, not necessarily to play along side him, although in theory I would have expected Watkins to make a better fist of playing wide whereas instead if felt like he just sulked. Missing out on Tammy was the huge mistake that summer.
Quote from: paul_e on October 10, 2022, 11:35:58 AMQuote from: SoccerHQ on October 10, 2022, 11:24:41 AMQuote from: chrisw1 on October 10, 2022, 09:32:39 AMI think the Buendia signing was excellent, and probably as close to replacing Grealish's flair as we could have hoped. Bailey was a bit of a punt that on papaer looked very exciting. In reality it looked like we massively overpaid for him.Ings was clearly a panic buy. On the face of it it was exciting, we definitely needed more firepower up front and the excitiment on here and elsewhere was tangible that we'd signed him. Ultimately though he was signed with no plan. Trying to appease him and Watkins cost Smith his job and Gerrard hasn't made it work either. We needed a striker to compete with Watkins, not necessarily to play along side him, although in theory I would have expected Watkins to make a better fist of playing wide whereas instead if felt like he just sulked. Missing out on Tammy was the huge mistake that summer. I don't think we massively overpaid for Bailey. He was hitting double figures in Bundesliga for top 6 club and had decent stats in europa league aswell so given his age I'd actually say under 30m in these times is actually a bargain, Buendia cost more and he had far less top level experience.Ings was the signing that made little sense, age and totally the wrong profile for forward we needed. We were tentatively linked with Alvarez who went to Man. City so that was type we needed, someone who could play out left or also CF if required. Most of the top teams have that sort of versatile forward.I agree, I was saying all along that summer (even when the hope was that Grealish was staying) that I wanted someone who could primarily play out wide but would be an option upfront if needed (Amine Gouiri and Marcus Thuram were my 2 picks at the time).Gone off the Donall Malen hype train I see (wink).Bemuses me we never signed Bowen in summer 2019 given our transfer policy that summer. Although I suspect DS would've just looked at his goal record and constantly played him at CF so he may not have been as effective for us as he has been for West Ham.That's exactly the type of final third forward we need in the squad eventually.
Quote from: LeeB on October 10, 2022, 09:32:00 AMQuote from: PeterWithesShin on October 10, 2022, 02:51:19 AMThe basic principle is creating Grealish in the aggregate. Yes, and as was pointed out at the time you can't play 13 men.You don't create the aggregate with 13 players.
Quote from: PeterWithesShin on October 10, 2022, 02:51:19 AMThe basic principle is creating Grealish in the aggregate. Yes, and as was pointed out at the time you can't play 13 men.
The basic principle is creating Grealish in the aggregate.
It's a principle used in baseball, it's mentioned in Moneyball. I think it's a shit one when applied to football and doesn't work but it's what Purslow was talking about. The basic idea is you don't replace just Grealish, you try and replicate his goals and assists across, in this case, 3 players. Player 1 replacing Grealish will obviously be a downgrade, players 2 and 3 replace two players that were starting the previous season, and are upgrades on those 2 players. Thus creating the aggregate. The 3 new players give you the same, or more, goals and assists than Grealish and the 2 previous players did.
The reason I think it's a shit idea, maybe a strong term, is that you get definites in baseball, every single game. 27 outs, a minimum of 27 at bats, it never changes, 162 games a season. The idea was to recreate Giambi by taking the aggregate OBP of him and 2 other players that left. You don't get those definites in football. The improving the team thing is just what every club does anyway, or at least tries to do. I think trying to recreate Grealish in the aggregate is a 'shit' idea because of that, and because Grealish gave us much more than just the number of goals/assists.
I agree with PWS, a lot of what made Grealish so valuable to us wasn’t just measured in goals and assists, it was how he seemingly made everyone around him look better. Even in just getting three players in who could slot in and improve the team without replacing Grealish the recruitment team did a woeful job and we haven’t recovered from it yet.