The Squad planning thread

[decmancity]

Is that because gundo has been in great form ?

No, it's because Pep wouldn't drop Gundogan unless he had broken both his legs.

I'm hoping Gundo leaves in Jan, just in case you think my allegiances are elsewhere.

 

[Gabriel]

Palmer, Porro and Lavia are gone more than a season and we seemed to be ok without them.
The start of this season is a little different in that we looked short on numbers.
We sold/ loaned several players that might not be top level but would have added strength to our squad.
Some of Callum Doyle, Couto and Kabore would be beneficial, all young and capable of running for 90 minutes.
Its the riddle of how to retain one or two younger players and providing them with game time.
I see Gittens scored for Dortmund yesterday and Chelsea are supposedly interested in Delap.

One can always look back over last season and say ‘well, we won the league’ and be fine with that. It was a great achievement, no doubt, but it was ‘all’ we could win last year because the squad had not been developed further in the previous windows. We entered into this season already knowing that 4 players were highly likely to be incapable of meeting its physical demands (Stones, Ake, de Bruyne, and Grealish), 2 players had been overtaken by Father Time (Gundogan, Walker), and two were so crucial as to have no direct replacement (Rodri, Haaland), meaning a prolonged injury to either would be catastrophic. The current problems are not a real surprise, since they have been developing for a couple of seasons, and the amber light was flashing in the spring.

As we go forward, however, I think there has to be a greater appreciation that the amount of football is taking its physical and psychological toll, perhaps earlier with some than expected, and that we cannot afford to carry players in the squad who are no longer up to the rigours. Viana has his work cut out.

 

[JewelZee]

Easy to say that with hindsight.

No doubt both are top players but there was not a chance they were going to get the game time they needed with us.

Same issue now with McAtee, I have no doubt in a couple of seasons we will be saying what a player we let go.

But the fact remains that Pep for whatever reason did not rate or trust them and will his record , how can we argue?

Hindsight is a reflection on poor foresight...Pep's handling of our academy products needs to be questioned. He could have easily bedded in at least SOME of these players while still winning league titles. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Because of the team's successes in terms of trophies the continual exodus of serious young talents has been completely overlooked or chalked off consistently as "good business". I'm calling bullshit on that as IMO this has led to an overreliance on purchasing players and in recent times the players we are purchasing are levels below those we've sold off. The arguments that who knew these players would become so good or that they wouldn't have gotten a chance here may be true, but they are also not valid. It's the club's job to accurately assess the potential of young players. Pep's inability or simply his refusal to develop these players for OUR squad is a big negative and a big part of us finding ourselves where we are now....JMO

 

[JewelZee]

No, it's because Pep wouldn't drop Gundogan unless he had broken both his legs.

I'm hoping Gundo leaves in Jan, just in case you think my allegiances are elsewhere.

I'm hoping he leaves in December...

 

[WallyA]

Players Id like to see come in over the next 2 windows:

Liam Delap (Haaland back up)
Florian Wirtz (Future Kev replacement)
Martin Zubimendi (Gundogan replacement)
Bruno Guimaraes (Bernie/Kova replacement)
Tino Livramento (Walker replacement)
Antonee Robinson (LB with pace)
New Young Fast CB (high potential)

Play More:
Jacob Wright
Nico O Reilly
James McAtee

Leave Soon:
John Stones (love him, but made of glass and getting older)
Kyle Walker (obviously)
Gundogan (his time has already passed)
1 of Kovacic or Bernie? (Im not sure we need both controllers)
....
Kevin? (saddest and most difficult, but I imagine he has like 1 more year at this level before his body cant keep up)

 

[nellyonthewing]

I move that this thread be renamed ' The Squad lack of planning Thread".

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Two players for every position and guaranteed minutes for every kid in the academy (just in case they ballin' for a midtable team in 3 years).

Easy.

 

[Elliot houghton]

Do we have a buy back on delap he would be a decent squad player

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Do we have a buy back on delap he would be a decent squad player

yh, rumoured 20m. (think its a bit higher though)

 

[SomeMightSay]

Why would Ipswich sell Delap? And why would he want to come back and sit on the bench behind Haaland?