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Weakest Squad in the League


Dig Dig

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At this moment in time we probably have one of, it not the worst squad in the division. I know we are all supposed to wait until August and be all super excited about all the brilliant players we will buy with all our money but the type and quality of player we will likely get will be lower than what he have lost/will lose.

 

Absolutely huge re-building job to do with a completely new background team. I know many on here don't like the reality of the situation pointed out but I can't see it any other way. We've gone from being a couple of signings away from breaking into the top 6 to what would today be a nailed on relegation candidate.

 

Who is geniunely confident in the ability of the powers that be to not let us regress dramatically next season?

 

We do seem to have some of the oddest supporters in the PL

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Overreaction.

 

Burnley and Leicester have worse squads currently.

 

Did you just diss your partner in misery Charlie?

 

If Charlie finds you negative Dig you really have plumed new depths don't worry I guess Alps will be along in a minute to back you up diggers.

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Clubs with WC players won't have a pre-season for a few weeks, by that time we should have a few in and be on par. Excited for the new season but not expecting 8th again, we overachieved but having said that did drop some stupid points. Hopefully RK won't snub the cup this time.

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Did you just diss your partner in misery Charlie?

 

If Charlie finds you negative Dig you really have plumed new depths don't worry I guess Alps will be along in a minute to back you up diggers.

 

I think he has overreacted having seen the training video - that squad probably is relegation material, but there are players still to come back and signings to be made.

 

I wouldnt think many would argue the team currently training is not PL ready, but there is obviously a bit of time.

 

Do need additions though, and not just to replace outgoing, but to address the weak areas last season.

 

So far the targets are clear replacements for outgoings rather than addressing the weaker areas - so I will watch with interest how many of those are actually covered.

 

We were a minimum of a GK, CB, Wide midfielder and, without JR, a striker light last season and that has obviously worsened with departures.

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We do seem to have some of the oddest supporters in the PL

 

Absolutely. Early days yet and clearly new players will come in, so why bleat and moan about how bad things are when we have yet to start the rebuilding process? We also have a new decent manager and I for one am excited to see what he can do for us.

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Well, as DigDig is so pessimistic about our chances this coming season, I'll go the other way and predict that we will finish higher than last season. Naturally I have as little to go on as he does two months before the season starts, but I'm encouraged that we have a better manager than Pochettino and although we have lost an ageing striker, a young left back and an over-rated attacking midfielder with a powder-puff shot on him, we have received more cash for them than we could have reasonably expected. If we sign a striker like Pelle, he ought to be better than Lambert. If we sign Tadic, he should be better than Lallana. If we don't get them, they are the calibre of player we have in our sights, which is aiming higher than we ever have before. The sort of money we got for our young defender ought to be sufficient to buy a replacement as good or better than he currently was.

 

The difference between us and any other team below 8th, is that we are awash with dosh to spend on our team at a level that most of them can only dream about, whilst still having the core of a team that is better than most of theirs to begin with.

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If we lose all the players rumoured to be on the way out:

Morgan

Lovren

Ramirez

Rodriguez

Osvaldo

That would leave us very light and forced into playing a lot of the youth team straight away. My feeling is that not all of those will leave and we will buy some top players to replace those who've left already.

 

In recent years, each season we've had a couple more young players establish themselves, so time to step up McQueen and Targett, plus Reed and Gallagher need to get more game time. I'm, not too worried yet and I think there's a lot more positive news to come.

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Perhaps the question should be, do you think we'll spend more than £25-30m in this window? I would be pleasantly surprised if we did

 

I think many fans would just like a bit of good news on the transfer front as, lets face it, the 3 most iconic players from the '13/14 squad have been pilfered. It's as simple as that.

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I think he has overreacted having seen the training video - that squad probably is relegation material, but there are players still to come back and signings to be made.

 

I wouldnt think many would argue the team currently training is not PL ready, but there is obviously a bit of time.

 

Do need additions though, and not just to replace outgoing, but to address the weak areas last season.

 

So far the targets are clear replacements for outgoings rather than addressing the weaker areas - so I will watch with interest how many of those are actually covered.

 

We were a minimum of a GK, CB, Wide midfielder and, without JR, a striker light last season and that has obviously worsened with departures.

What position do you think we should finish?

Do you think we should have finished above Man U?

You say we were 3 or 4 players short last season. The fact is our squad was exactly right for 8th, so do you mean with those 3 or 4 players we would have been top 4? 6? 7?

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S-Clarke

For god sake, cheers Dig Dig. I had a bet on Alpine posting the first ''WHY HAVE WE NOT SIGNED ANYONE'' thread, at the start of July. I thought that was easy money. Obviously not.

 

F*ck's sake, Diggers. I had Alpine Saint in the who-would-be-the-first-to-post-a-'we're getting relegated with this squad'- thread sweepstake.

 

I'm so very disappointed in you. I wouldn't have even had you down for top 5.

 

For f*ck's sake, S-Clarke. I had The Kraken in the who-would-be-the-first-to-post about having Alpine in a who-would-be-first-to-post sweep-stake. Bang goes my 5p bet.

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Good to see the bookies (who rarely get things wrong by much) still see us as 8th even with the recent outgoings and rumours. Doubt that will change much even with a few new signings but doubt it still seems realistic as the squad stands today.

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For f*ck's sake, S-Clarke. I had The Kraken in the who-would-be-the-first-to-post about having Alpine in a who-would-be-first-to-post sweep-stake. Bang goes my 5p bet.

 

Alpine mentioned it 4 days ago, and Turkish mentioned him mentioning it the day after the season finished, so FFS to you all. :D

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At this moment in time we probably have one of, it not the worst squad in the division. I know we are all supposed to wait until August and be all super excited about all the brilliant players we will buy with all our money but the type and quality of player we will likely get will be lower than what he have lost/will lose.

 

Absolutely huge re-building job to do with a completely new background team. I know many on here don't like the reality of the situation pointed out but I can't see it any other way. We've gone from being a couple of signings away from breaking into the top 6 to what would today be a nailed on relegation candidate.

 

Who is geniunely confident in the ability of the powers that be to not let us regress dramatically next season?

 

For "Huge rebuilding job" - see buy 3 players, something we haven't failed to do for quite a few seasons so far. And that ignores ANY academy graduates making the grade.

 

Jesus chirst but the OP is embarrassing, does Alpine have a second account?

 

We can still field a starting 11 of...

 

Boruc

 

Clyne Fonte Lovren Chambers

 

Spiderman/Cork/Wanyama (2 of 3)

 

Jayrod JWP Davis

 

Gallagher

 

We also have Mayuka, Rowe, Reed, Mcqueen, Target, Yoshida and BIG Jos to add to that (and Sharp and Osvaldo potentially!)

 

Plus we see nailed on to sign Pelle, good chance of Tadic and Ruddy for back up keeper.

 

We have a transfer kitty for the season with a minimum value of £50m, more likely to be around £70m.

 

And signing Tadic and Pelle is going to cost us circa £16m.... Everybody PANIC!!!!! :lol:

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For "Huge rebuilding job" - see buy 3 players, something we haven't failed to do for quite a few seasons so far. And that ignores ANY academy graduates making the grade.

 

Jesus chirst but the OP is embarrassing, does Alpine have a second account?

 

We can still field a starting 11 of...

 

Boruc

 

Clyne Fonte Lovren Chambers

 

Spiderman/Cork/Wanyama (2 of 3)

 

Jayrod JWP Davis

 

Gallagher

 

We also have Mayuka, Rowe, Reed, Mcqueen, Target, Yoshida and BIG Jos to add to that (and Sharp and Osvaldo potentially!)

 

Plus we see nailed on to sign Pelle, good chance of Tadic and Ruddy for back up keeper.

 

We have a transfer kitty for the season with a minimum value of £50m, more likely to be around £70m.

 

And signing Tadic and Pelle is going to cost us circa £16m.... Everybody PANIC!!!!! :lol:

 

Well those three players were among the very best for us last year and replacing those alone won't be easy in itself. There is also a strong possibility that Lovren and Morgan will go as well so that's 5 massive players from our starting 11 gone.

 

We also had key areas to address to make sure we didn't have the likes of Jos and Gazza playing chuncks of games again and we also needed another striker and AM is the first place .

 

Pelle and Tadic will be unknown quantities in the prem (if we sign them both) and the fact that we are spending 16M to replace players who have gone for 30M shouldn't necessarily be celebrated.

 

Ultimately, we could need around 8 players brought in which is around 1 a week until

now and the end of the season. They also need to be of the right qaulity and able to settle in fairly quick.

 

Let's see how we get on.

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We can still field a starting 11 of...

 

Boruc

 

Clyne Fonte Lovren Chambers

 

Spiderman/Cork/Wanyama (2 of 3)

 

Jayrod JWP Davis

 

Gallagher

 

:

 

God's sake man we don't have Morgan or Lovren. This is the heart of the problem - if we had those two things would be looking fien, but we don't - so things are looking very flakey indeed.

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God's sake man we don't have Morgan or Lovren. This is the heart of the problem - if we had those two things would be looking fien, but we don't - so things are looking very flakey indeed.

 

I still think a midfield of Cork, Victor and Davis with JWP, Gaston and Reed as options is more than acceptable for the PL. We need replacements at the back and front

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I still think a midfield of Cork, Victor and Davis with JWP, Gaston and Reed as options is more than acceptable for the PL. We need replacements at the back and front

 

Add the odd injury in and that isnt enough. It wouldnt create enough chances and wouldnt score enough goals putting a lot of pressure on our strikers (Gallagher at the current moment).

 

Obviously we will add so the question is a bit flawed, but as we stand of the players training at Staplewood it is more a Championship looking squad, centre mid aside.

 

Of course, we will add.

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Add the odd injury in and that isnt enough. It wouldnt create enough chances and wouldnt score enough goals putting a lot of pressure on our strikers (Gallagher at the current moment).

 

Obviously we will add so the question is a bit flawed, but as we stand of the players training at Staplewood it is more a Championship looking squad, centre mid aside.

 

Of course, we will add.

 

Really? it's the same midfield as last season minus Morgan who wasn't a prolific scorer of goals or asists either. All the pressure was on the strikers to score last season(counting Lallana as an attacker rather than a midfielder seeing as played most of the time as part of a front three) and we did ok. Like I said we need attacking options but I think our midfield even without Morgan is decent for the PL .

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Really? it's the same midfield as last season minus Morgan who wasn't a prolific scorer of goals or asists either. All the pressure was on the strikers to score last season(counting Lallana as an attacker rather than a midfielder seeing as played most of the time as part of a front three) and we did ok. Like I said we need attacking options but I think our midfield even without Morgan is decent for the PL .

 

Its a team without Rodriguez, Lambert and Lallana ( a midfielder ) thats the problem.

 

Our centre midfield is ok but out wide is terrible and we have no attack to speak of currently.

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Its a team without Rodriguez, Lambert and Lallana ( a midfielder ) thats the problem.

 

Our centre midfield is ok but out wide is terrible and we have no attack to speak of currently.

 

Well clearly but I was talking about the centre midfield being good enough for the PL.

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Current first team with players who are currently still here is (i.e. including the "not yet lefts")

 

Boruc; Chambers, Fonte, Lovren, Clyne; Schneiderlin, Cork; Ward-Prowse, S Davis, Ramirez; Osvaldo

Subs: K Davis, Hooiveld, Yoshida, Wanyama, Reed, Sims/Targett, Gallagher/Mayuka/Sharp.

 

That's a top half first XI, provided we don't get any injuries, ever and no-one else leaves. Take Lovren out and we look like relegation candidates. Take Osvaldo out and you wonder where the goals will come from. Schneiderlin at least is covered by Wanyama, but there's no depth at all then if we lose anyone else. Rodriguez would be back in there if fit, obviously.

Edited by The9
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If out wide and in attack we are terrible then the OP is probably about right. Certainly with the players currently at Staplewood its a relegation candidate team.

 

Pretty sure Man City would struggle with their team that's training at the moment too. Probably half of them are still playing in the World Cup or having an extended break due to it. :mcinnes:

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Pretty sure Man City would struggle with their team that's training at the moment too. Probably half of them are still playing in the World Cup or having an extended break due to it. :mcinnes:

 

Who is coming back to make it all better for us though? :facepalm:

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