Recruitment issues

[Semper aggressus]

I keep saying it and I'm sticking to my belief that if we don't sign top level stars then we'll end up average. Too much penny pinching, or embarrassment almost to really go for it in the transfer market.

We are one of the top 5 richest clubs in the world, with revenue and fantastic commercial deals negotiated by Soriano and co. Regular CL income every season. Yet we seem to refuse to sign players of the caliber to match prime Yaya, prime Fern and Kun and Vinny. Players of KDB's level.

We need to be going for the likes of Sancho and Haaland to provide the next world class core of the first team for the next 5 or even 10 years.

Mahrez, Cancelo, Rodri, etc they're all Spurs/Everton level signings.

Why do we not reach for the real stars? It must be obvious we need players as good as Vinny and Kun and David Silva, not fill the squad with average joes. Just fucking spend on the best or we will endure years of scouse trophies and no CL which I thought is the trophy the board want most? Rodri and Gundog and co won't win us that. It feels like we have no confidence or self-belief to really go out and buy the best. What was the point of winning the CAS appeal if we don't enjoy the fruits of that victory?

Need some real ambition in the market, and fuck ffp, we took uefa to court once, they won't do anything now. Hasn't stopped chelsea or psg why should we be meek and suffer decline because we're hamstrung by a corrupt, rag loving cartel?

 

[I'm With Stupid]

We’ve spent way over £200m on 5 players

Stones £50m
Mahrez £60m
Cancelo £60m
Mendy £54m
Rodri £65m

They should be the spine of the team now, in truth they are much worse than what came before and we are better when they don’t play

The other issue is that seemingly none of them have resale value. If we wanted to get rid, we'd probably loan them out to some cheapskate club for a few years and then let them run down their contracts and get maybe a £10m token payment for them in their last year. £20m for Stones, maybe at a push.

Although it's worth mentioning that the Cancelo figure was clearly bollocks at the time, and that price was based on Juventus paying €37m for Danilo. Obviously some accounting trick, because there's no way we'd really pay £60m for a full back that's not going to play every week.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

I think the problem we have had recently is we arent finding those gems like we used to. Spending 50m on a left back for example doesn’t guarantee a great player.

Zaba and Vincent barely cost anything and turned out to be world class.since the Spanish guys have come in we are reliant on big money signings.

Robertson for Liverpool is the perfect example of someone we’d never have gone for.

better scouting and buying one or two world class players is what we need

Our scouts must be constantly on the piss. We’ve over paid for to many players over the past few years. Stones, Cancelo, Mendy, Rodri, Mahrez. £250m+ worth of players there and neither have proved their worth. If Dias turns out to be a disaster then it’s time for a change somewhere down the line. We can’t keep paying £50m+ for players that don’t fit in. Replacing Aguero is the biggest challenge the board have faced since the takeover. Can’t be fucking about haggling over a few million, just pay top dollar for a class striker.

 

[nmc]

I keep saying it and I'm sticking to my belief that if we don't sign top level stars then we'll end up average. Too much penny pinching, or embarrassment almost to really go for it in the transfer market.

We are one of the top 5 richest clubs in the world, with revenue and fantastic commercial deals negotiated by Soriano and co. Regular CL income every season. Yet we seem to refuse to sign players of the caliber to match prime Yaya, prime Fern and Kun and Vinny. Players of KDB's level.

We need to be going for the likes of Sancho and Haaland to provide the next world class core of the first team for the next 5 or even 10 years.

Mahrez, Cancelo, Rodri, etc they're all Spurs/Everton level signings.

Why do we not reach for the real stars? It must be obvious we need players as good as Vinny and Kun and David Silva, not fill the squad with average joes. Just fucking spend on the best or we will endure years of scouse trophies and no CL which I thought is the trophy the board want most? Rodri and Gundog and co won't win us that. It feels like we have no confidence or self-belief to really go out and buy the best. What was the point of winning the CAS appeal if we don't enjoy the fruits of that victory?

Need some real ambition in the market, and fuck ffp, we took uefa to court once, they won't do anything now. Hasn't stopped chelsea or psg why should we be meek and suffer decline because we're hamstrung by a corrupt, rag loving cartel?

Regardless of fees - the players you bring in generally have to be better than the players you lose. In our case the replacements for Yaya, Silva, Kompany and Sane either don't exist or are nowhere near good enough. We are also at a point where we have a glaring weakness at LB that has not been addressed for 3 seasons and we urgently need understudies to plan for the inevitable decline and departure of both Kun and Fern. For all our talk of succession planning and planning ahead our management of something as strategic as the spine of the team has been woeful. We are presently an injury to KDB away from mid table obscurity.

 

[blueswede21]

If you think the problem with our recruitment strategy is that we aren't (seemingly) interested in the "big names", you only have to look at Manchester United to see why that simply isn't a winning formula either. Football transfers in general are difficult to get right. There are so many things that can go wrong, and I feel people are overreacting and forgetting that this season, so far, and last season have been played under extraordinary circumstances, and therefore our assessment should be adjusted somewhat. Our squad, when fully fit, is still the best in the league in terms of starting quality, depth and winning experience. We've not had a pre-season, players like Silva and Laporte are not in the team yet, and both Kun and Jesus were out yesterday. Surely some extenuation is allowed here?

 

[Keeper!]

If you think the problem with our recruitment strategy is that we aren't (seemingly) interested in the "big names", you only have to look at Manchester United to see why that simply isn't a winning formula either. Football transfers in general are difficult to get right. There are so many things that can go wrong, and I feel people are overreacting and forgetting that this season, so far, and last season have been played under extraordinary circumstances, and therefore our assessment should be adjusted somewhat. Our squad, when fully fit, is still the best in the league in terms of starting quality, depth and winning experience. We've not had a pre-season, players like Silva and Laporte are not in the team yet, and both Kun and Jesus were out yesterday. Surely some extenuation is allowed here?

United under Fergusson always bought quality, the best players available, not always worked out but the vast majority did.

The United of today have bought badly, players coming for money, ego, past their best, hence why the rags have slumped.

City under this owner at the start bought the best available, sometimes weakening their opponents , buying early and quickly.

We now no longer do that, especially under Tixki's command, overpaying , buying mediocrity, not getting our primary targets.

Our scouting is now second rate, paying 50 million for poor fullbacks, CB's and MF, what is going on?

This club had a reputation of always buying the very best, no longer. We are happy to buy mediocrity, until that changes we won't get that title back.

 

[Northernstorirs]

I did wonder is recruitment an issue but as posters have mentioned, buying big isn't the answer. You only have to look at the swamp and possibly Chelsea to see that spending the cash doesn't guarantee an improvement in form.

We are also looking at replacing the likes of Kompany and Silva and soon Aguero and Fernandinho. These are all top quality players who can't easily be replaced in one window.

 

[Del_Bosque]

Read the other day we’ve only signed 1 left back in 9 years and he did his cruciate after 3 weeks

Compare that to the amount of wingers we’ve signed and it’s crazy

 

[brummie blue]

Our scouts must be constantly on the piss. We’ve over paid for to many players over the past few years. Stones, Cancelo, Mendy, Rodri, Mahrez. £250m+ worth of players there and neither have proved their worth. If Dias turns out to be a disaster then it’s time for a change somewhere down the line. We can’t keep paying £50m+ for players that don’t fit in. Replacing Aguero is the biggest challenge the board have faced since the takeover. Can’t be fucking about haggling over a few million, just pay top dollar for a class striker.

Spot on, you start to wonder how much Pep is having to do with transfers, or if he's getting players he actually wants. Stones, Mendy, Rodri and Mahrez haven't particularly improved since arriving (I'd excuse Cancelo as he's hardly played). It seems to be like Watford, players arrive and the coach is told that's what he's got, get on with it. The incestuous relationship Pep has with the Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain is all nice and cosy but I don't see helping matters with the inadequacy of the squad.

Pep inherited the best players in the squad, Kompany, Fernandinho, Silva, Aguero, KDB, Sterling, Yaya. Now this group have started to break up the replacements have been poor/cheaper options and it's not worked. Other than Gundogun I can't remember any reference to us signing a player because that's who Pep wanted. Of course credit has to be given for getting players like Sane, Bernie Silva, Walker and Jesus, but we've had really poor transfer windows for 2 seasons now, maybe more I'd love to know if it was the board saying to Pep we can't replace Kompany, or Pep thinking he could convert Fernandinho into and centre half. The board seem to under instruction to buy average cheaper players.

We should have been buying Sergio's replacement this season, he's in his final year, more injury prone than ever, but I fear we will wait until next summer or even the summer after, and buy average again.

 

[Keeper!]

Read the other day we’ve only signed 1 left back in 9 years and he did his cruciate after 3 weeks

Compare that to the amount of wingers we’ve signed and it’s crazy

And the RB's we sign, Walker has proved his worth, but Danilo and Cancelo crazy, lazy poor buys.