Donyell Malen (Gone)

[PeterWithesShin]

But there is no way Roma were waiting while he played for us. We as fans may not like it, but it's not how transfers tend to go. And if Roma somehow were prepared to wait, if Malen knew he was signing for Roma tomorrow do you really think he'd have been committed to our cause today? And think of the shit he'd get if he had a stinker like everyone else did when everyone knew he was off anyway.

[cdbearsfan]

I think he would absolutely have been committed to the cause, he's a good lad, and I have no idea what you're basing your theory that Roma wouldn't have waited on. Got a quote for that?

Also, you've criticised Smirker for his Watkins obsession but seem to be running round the forum desperately trying to find any positive posts about Malen so you can say how shit he is.

He was, quite clearly, a better option than literally anyone we had on the bench today.

[PaulWinch again]

If Roma really wanted him they’d wait. On the commitment point, who knows - but he still offers us something we just did not have. Also the fact he’s not a regular starter is kind of the point, he was a good option to help change games and give us something different. You get the same points for beating poor teams, and today is a desperately poor result - the midfield we couldn’t help, the lack of options we could.

[ChicagoLion]

It is not our responsibility to worry about how Roma might react to holding on to Malen, we desperately needed an option today because Watkins was useless. But we had no other forward options.

[Ads]

We have to sell before we can buy.

Do we have to sell before we’ve identified a replacement?

We already have otherwise why would we have sold him. If you don't need to fund anything, you dont get rid.

[ChicagoLion]

We have to sell before we can buy.

Do we have to sell before we’ve identified a replacement?

We already have otherwise why would we have sold him. If you don't need to fund anything, you dont get rid.

But the replacement was not available, so it was a shit decision.

[Ads]

This is the position we're in and its not via choice, while the team we're level on points with but not level in the game we play on, strengthen with abandon.

[PeterWithesShin]

It's rare a club waits. 1 because of the injury risk and 2 they want him themselves. That he won them the game today is the perfect example. Why on earth would Roma weaken themselves by waiting just to help us. If we had everything agreed with a player tomorrow I wouldn't expect us to wait another week and miss game/s for us so as he can play for them. And what if he did that and then did ACL in the game, I highly doubt many would be praising us for waiting.

My point with Malen is that some are acting as though we got rid of someone outstanding, when it was more a case he was a very useful sub. In an ideal world we'd have had him today, the PL and football isn't an ideal world though, it's every man for himself at this level. So i'm waiting to see what happens over the rest of the window before deciding if it was good or bad long term.

[PaulWinch again]

Of course, but we do have a choice around selling and buying. We’re choosing to replace Malen, it’s possibly cost a game today. We better hope whoever our replacements are, better Malen’s contribution this season,

[cdbearsfan]

It's rare a club waits.

Yeah, I can't think of a single team that desperately needed a first team level attacker that would wait until this far into the transfer window without signing one...

[PaulWinch again]

It's rare a club waits.

Yeah, I can't think of a single team that desperately needed a first team level attacker that would wait until this far into the transfer window without signing one...

In fairness we haven’t waited we’ve spent decent money on a 16 year old (+ a young winger). Priorities and all that…

[ChicagoLion]

It's rare a club waits.

Yeah, I can't think of a single team that desperately needed a first team level attacker that would wait until this far into the transfer window without signing one...

In fairness we haven’t waited we’ve spent decent money on a 16 year old (+ a young winger). Priorities and all that…

That really helped the team today.

[Olneythelonely]

We have to sell before we can buy.

Do we have to sell before we’ve identified a replacement?

We already have otherwise why would we have sold him. If you don't need to fund anything, you dont get rid.

Hopefully we’ll have them in place soon then. And that they’re better than Malen.

[PaulWinch again]

To get a more useful option off the bench who can offer us different things, they’re going to have to be pretty good.

[SamTheMouse]

It's January and we are in the top three. The very last thing we should be doing is getting rid of anyone in the middle of the season, unless they haven't been contributing at all, or because it will enable us to bring in a better player immediately.