Dusic Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Would probably go with Summer 2024 tbh, largely based on the fact that if Kamaldeen keeps showing a bit we might actually get some cash for him in the summer. Onuachu we massively overpaid for but we got our cash back for Alacaraz, Bree still features and Orsic was at least a cheap flop. Summer 2024, aside from Fernandes was woeful and just seemed so badly organised. Signed a RB to start (Sugawara) and LB cover (Taylor) when we needed the opposite. Went after Delap who was the profile we needed then signed a totally different type of forward in Archer. BBD, Fraser, Cornet all a waste of space. Wood, Edwards not able to help the team now. Lallana I don't mind, the issue is he ended up (under RM at least) being more important on the pitch due to the lack of quality in the squad. Even Ramsdale. Good signing but a.) Why did it take all of pre season and the first few games to see AMC wasnt up to it? and b.) If we had a spare £25 why didnt we use it on an attacking player instead and find a loan keeper better than McCarthy? All round shambles and still IMO the biggest cause of relegation? Have we had a worse window than this?
Football Special Posted February 5 Posted February 5 9 minutes ago, Dusic said: Would probably go with Summer 2024 tbh, largely based on the fact that if Kamaldeen keeps showing a bit we might actually get some cash for him in the summer. Onuachu we massively overpaid for but we got our cash back for Alacaraz, Bree still features and Orsic was at least a cheap flop. Summer 2024, aside from Fernandes was woeful and just seemed so badly organised. Signed a RB to start (Sugawara) and LB cover (Taylor) when we needed the opposite. Went after Delap who was the profile we needed then signed a totally different type of forward in Archer. BBD, Fraser, Cornet all a waste of space. Wood, Edwards not able to help the team now. Lallana I don't mind, the issue is he ended up (under RM at least) being more important on the pitch due to the lack of quality in the squad. Even Ramsdale. Good signing but a.) Why did it take all of pre season and the first few games to see AMC wasnt up to it? and b.) If we had a spare £25 why didnt we use it on an attacking player instead and find a loan keeper better than McCarthy? All round shambles and still IMO the biggest cause of relegation? Have we had a worse window than this? It's a compelling argument and both windows reflect badly on the board. Complete lack of strategy and poor decision making. Selling Alan Shearer for a British record fee and replacing him with Dixon and Speedie was a bad one. 2
Appy Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Could be argued the failings of winter 2023 caused the shambles of summer 2024 to an extent. 3
Saint Mikey Posted February 5 Posted February 5 1 hour ago, Football Special said: It's a compelling argument and both windows reflect badly on the board. Complete lack of strategy and poor decision making. Selling Alan Shearer for a British record fee and replacing him with Dixon and Speedie was a bad one. A bad one, but didn't get relegated. Summer 23 was pretty gash too. Bazunu as 1st choice, Larios, Mara etc. When was the last window we actually had more hits than misses? 1
benali-shorts Posted February 5 Posted February 5 The previous summer of Larios, Aribo, Edozie, Caleta-Car, AB-K, Mara & Bazunu only saved from ignominy of a full-house incapable of strengthening the first team by the Lavia deal. Like kids in a sweet shop. 1
Saint_lambden Posted February 5 Posted February 5 They both scream of a complete lack of strategy. Our 'development' signings (Edwards, Wellington, the lads on loan in Turkey, O'Brien-Whitmarsh etc.) look promising but we're getting 1 or 2/10 right on the senior side of things, not helped by lurching from one style of football to another with each manager change we make. If you look at our signings, they are pretty much all players that cannot get in the first team of their existing clubs, even the 'marquee' ones from this past summer like Fernandes and Ramsdale fall in that bracket. So we're regularly gambling that they might be good enough for the level rather than knowing they are. Of course the latter comes with a £ premium but the likes of Bournemouth; Brentford and Brighton put us to shame with how many 'hits' they have compared to our misses. The new DoF/Sporting Director will hopefully go some way to improving things. 1
Lighthouse Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Summer ‘24 was the worst. Summer ‘22 and January ‘23 I can at least forgive SR for being bold and going with unknowns in the hope that they might work. Last summer though, we just signed a bunch of known Championship quality players and Lallana, who’s absolutely done as a professional footballer. There wasn’t even a sense that I wasn’t sure about our signings in summer, I knew they were no good because they’d already proven it for other clubs. 1
Baird of the land Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Is amusing seeing the change of tune on the summer window as someone who was very down on it at the time mainly for failing to get a true CF.
Turkish Posted February 5 Posted February 5 2 hours ago, Football Special said: It's a compelling argument and both windows reflect badly on the board. Complete lack of strategy and poor decision making. Selling Alan Shearer for a British record fee and replacing him with Dixon and Speedie was a bad one. Peter Shilton and Mark Wright replaced by John Burridge and Kevin Moore was a pretty big downgrade too Pelle, Mane and Wanyama followed by Fonte in the January replaced by Boufal, Redmond, Austin (signed in January) and Stephens will forever be in my mind the 6 months that started our decline. 2
Chez Posted February 5 Posted February 5 39 minutes ago, Baird of the land said: Is amusing seeing the change of tune on the summer window as someone who was very down on it at the time mainly for failing to get a true CF. Is Archer not a centre forward then?
Baird of the land Posted February 5 Posted February 5 27 minutes ago, Chez said: Is Archer not a centre forward then? A poorer one and without any needed physicality to the one we lost who had helped get us promoted.
Colinjb Posted February 5 Posted February 5 It's cause and effect. We were hampered this summer by our previous excesses. So January 2023 was worse. 2
HarvSFC Posted February 5 Posted February 5 (edited) The summer was directionless, had no strategy and put too much faith in play-off winning, not title, individuals, whereas in January 2023 we at least tried something. Sulemana's was signed because of his pace and World Cup appearances, Onuachu's height and a semi-decent goalscoring record in Europe, Orsic had a good rep, Bree was a Jones favourite and Alcaraz was a decent punt. Contrast that with the summer - Lallana wouldn't have got a contract at any other Premier League club. His legs are gone. Taylor wouldn't have got a contract at another Premier League club, a perfect example of why Les Reed would once say he would only sign players capable of improving the first 11, not squad players. Edwards and Wood were unnecessary signings. Cement yourself in the league first, focussing on the short term and then look to the future. Sugawara's been a poor signing. Didn't need him with KWP staying either. He's not good enough to be KWP's replacement and that's probably why we signed him for £5.9m. Downes - £20m would have been better going elsewhere, although that is a big hindsight comment as I loved his signing early in the summer. Brereton-Diaz and Archer. Two of the Sheffield United front three. I believe we went cheap on these two as Martin and the club had faith that Armstrong would continue last season's form and bag at least 5-10 goals a season and then BBD and Archer alongside those goals would be sufficient in keeping us up. Of course, Southampton fans would've told you that Armstrong would have flopped up here again and we'd have needed more, and he/we did. But, instead he got a new contract. Fraser, again wouldn't have got a contract at another Premier League club. Barely good enough for us as a promotion chasing Championship side. Then two of our loan spots used on Cornet, a player who had been plagued by injury for years and Ugochukwu, who didn't fit the manager's style, but is since looking serviceable, but not great. Add all the youth and Goztepe signings to these for now pointless signings, as as we've seen with Meghoma and SAA there's no guarantee the youngsters will even stay with us before breaking through. Two good summer signings. Fernandes, who definitely won't be here next season, but credit him as he has always stuck at it in every game despite playing with the crap around him and Ramsdale, who was a panic signing as the club thought they could go into the season with McCarthy while Bazunu recovered. So, to sum up. From January 2023, Alcaraz contributed, Sulemana and Onuachu are now contributing two years later. Whereas, from the summer, while we've got Fernandes and Ramsdale, they'll both be gone after one season and then who has a long-term future here, I don't think any of them if we actually want to be a competitive Premier League side. Edwards and Wood the closest, but again they're hardly Lundekvam, Svennson, Lovren, Alderweireld or Van Dijk. Some saying January 2023 hampered us in the summer. But we were still capable of spending over £100m in the summer. We just chose to spend it on a load of crap. Rather than highlighting key positions - goalkeeper, centre-back, centre-mid-winger-striker and going from there. Edited February 5 by HarvSFC 6
Gloucester Saint Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Good post HarvSFC. The summer 2024 window was indicative of zero top level football experience at the club and nobody to reign in a manager horrifically out of his depth. The blizzard of new contracts for McCarthy, Smallbone and others was another symptom.
Football Special Posted February 5 Posted February 5 2 hours ago, Turkish said: Peter Shilton and Mark Wright replaced by John Burridge and Kevin Moore was a pretty big downgrade too Pelle, Mane and Wanyama followed by Fonte in the January replaced by Boufal, Redmond, Austin (signed in January) and Stephens will forever be in my mind the 6 months that started our decline. The January when we signed Pellegrino's mate Guido Carillo before shortly after sacking Pellegrino was another odd one. Monaco really did laugh all the way to the bank 3
suewhistle Posted February 5 Posted February 5 4 minutes ago, Football Special said: Monaco really did laugh all the way to the bank I suspect Les Reed did as well..
Turkish Posted February 5 Posted February 5 6 minutes ago, Football Special said: The January when we signed Pellegrino's mate Guido Carillo before shortly after sacking Pellegrino was another odd one. Monaco really did laugh all the way to the bank that was a joke. Signed him for £20m on the managers say so, then sack the manager 4 weeks later. Admit that we had been consider sacking him for a while. The way people on here tried to make out he'd averaged a goal every two games was hilarious as was the way Les Reed made out it was a really hard deal to get done. I expect the only reason for that was because Monaco assumed it was a wind up. 2
Badger Posted February 5 Posted February 5 A common factor is that both windows started with having managers out of their depth for the EPL. Winter 2023 was a desperate throw of the dice to try and retrieve a dire situation. ( Partly brought about by failures in the market 2022. No striker for Ralph). Summer 2024 was a different thing as it gave an opportunity to set the club up and build on the momentum and success of the previous season. But we totally ballsed it up. 2024 is the more damning of the two. (Been pretty crap every year since Koeman left really) 1
Badger Posted February 5 Posted February 5 21 minutes ago, Turkish said: that was a joke. Signed him for £20m on the managers say so, then sack the manager 4 weeks later. Admit that we had been consider sacking him for a while. The way people on here tried to make out he'd averaged a goal every two games was hilarious as was the way Les Reed made out it was a really hard deal to get done. I expect the only reason for that was because Monaco assumed it was a wind up. Only player I recall who even looked shit in his YouTube highlights 3
pimpin4rizeal Posted February 5 Posted February 5 1 hour ago, HarvSFC said: The summer was directionless, had no strategy and put too much faith in play-off winning, not title, individuals, whereas in January 2023 we at least tried something. Sulemana's was signed because of his pace and World Cup appearances, Onuachu's height and a semi-decent goalscoring record in Europe, Orsic had a good rep, Bree was a Jones favourite and Alcaraz was a decent punt. Contrast that with the summer - Lallana wouldn't have got a contract at any other Premier League club. His legs are gone. Taylor wouldn't have got a contract at another Premier League club, a perfect example of why Les Reed would once say he would only sign players capable of improving the first 11, not squad players. Edwards and Wood were unnecessary signings. Cement yourself in the league first, focussing on the short term and then look to the future. Sugawara's been a poor signing. Didn't need him with KWP staying either. He's not good enough to be KWP's replacement and that's probably why we signed him for £5.9m. Downes - £20m would have been better going elsewhere, although that is a big hindsight comment as I loved his signing early in the summer. Brereton-Diaz and Archer. Two of the Sheffield United front three. I believe we went cheap on these two as Martin and the club had faith that Armstrong would continue last season's form and bag at least 5-10 goals a season and then BBD and Archer alongside those goals would be sufficient in keeping us up. Of course, Southampton fans would've told you that Armstrong would have flopped up here again and we'd have needed more, and he/we did. But, instead he got a new contract. Fraser, again wouldn't have got a contract at another Premier League club. Barely good enough for us as a promotion chasing Championship side. Then two of our loan spots used on Cornet, a player who had been plagued by injury for years and Ugochukwu, who didn't fit the manager's style, but is since looking serviceable, but not great. Add all the youth and Goztepe signings to these for now pointless signings, as as we've seen with Meghoma and SAA there's no guarantee the youngsters will even stay with us before breaking through. Two good summer signings. Fernandes, who definitely won't be here next season, but credit him as he has always stuck at it in every game despite playing with the crap around him and Ramsdale, who was a panic signing as the club thought they could go into the season with McCarthy while Bazunu recovered. So, to sum up. From January 2023, Alcaraz contributed, Sulemana and Onuachu are now contributing two years later. Whereas, from the summer, while we've got Fernandes and Ramsdale, they'll both be gone after one season and then who has a long-term future here, I don't think any of them if we actually want to be a competitive Premier League side. Edwards and Wood the closest, but again they're hardly Lundekvam, Svennson, Lovren, Alderweireld or Van Dijk. Some saying January 2023 hampered us in the summer. But we were still capable of spending over £100m in the summer. We just chose to spend it on a load of crap. Rather than highlighting key positions - goalkeeper, centre-back, centre-mid-winger-striker and going from there. I still think it’s a case of we just are not ambitious enough most of the summer signings where championship like players we hoped would come good the only ambitious signing was ramsdale who let’s face it only came here as he didn’t get other offers . We don’t really fight with other clubs for players we want we usually just give up and the other club will offer better terms.. so we are left with the scraps other clubs don’t want .. we are basically turning into a Sheffield utd bottom of the league in ambition terms and that needs to change with less mediocre signings and more quality 1
Gloucester Saint Posted February 5 Posted February 5 1 hour ago, Football Special said: The January when we signed Pellegrino's mate Guido Carillo before shortly after sacking Pellegrino was another odd one. Monaco really did laugh all the way to the bank Pure senility that transfer and the joke will-they won’t they on sacking Pellegrino, when the guy was clearly having a nervous breakdown on the touch line by November 2017. Pathetic from the club to keep him in post until March 2018.
S-Clarke Posted February 5 Posted February 5 (edited) Both of those windows were directionless as others have said, no real plan on what we were doing. What do they both have in common? We oversaw both of those windows without a proper DoF in place. It's obviously well documented that Rasmus stepped in during Jan 03, but Summer 2024 by all accounts was lead by Martin as we decided to not replace Wilcox, which was dangerous really. I keep harping back on about it, but without a footballing structure we're broken - you can tell our struggles because of our constant flip flopping between styles. I don't know at this stage if we'll have a proper DoF in place for Summer 25 which makes me nervous, as we'll have lots of big footballing decisions to make - and we need footballing people to lead that, not businessmen. Edited February 5 by S-Clarke 1
Badger Posted February 5 Posted February 5 7 hours ago, Football Special said: Selling Alan Shearer for a British record fee and replacing him with Dixon and Speedie was a bad one. Guaranteed to score more goals. 5 hours ago, Turkish said: Peter Shilton and Mark Wright replaced by John Burridge and Kevin Moore was a pretty big downgrade too I also remember the summer when people thought Phil Boyer couldn’t replace Mike Channon. That didn’t turn out so bad.
Turkish Posted February 5 Posted February 5 38 minutes ago, S-Clarke said: Both of those windows were directionless as others have said, no real plan on what we were doing. What do they both have in common? We oversaw both of those windows without a proper DoF in place. It's obviously well documented that Rasmus stepped in during Jan 03, but Summer 2024 by all accounts was lead by Martin as we decided to not replace Wilcox, which was dangerous really. I keep harping back on about it, but without a footballing structure we're broken - you can tell our struggles because of our constant flip flopping between styles. I don't know at this stage if we'll have a proper DoF in place for Summer 25 which makes me nervous, as we'll have lots of big footballing decisions to make - and we need footballing people to lead that, not businessmen. Not just transfer windows either. Management appointments too. Ralph’s high press to Jones stats based long ball game, Selles who was just a stop gap, Martin and his sideways backwards philosophy now Juric is different again with a squad Solak admits isn’t one to play the style he wants. No strategy, no direction, accumulating average to poor players and appointment managers with playing styles completely different. It’s a shambles 2
Galway saint Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Summer2024 for me - the forward recruitment was lamentable and it seemed obvious to anyone with any football nouse that a forward line of BBD, Archer, TP, Armstrong and a crocked Ross Stewart was totally inadequate for the PL. Fuck knows who singed off on all that but it was completely negligent and effectively meant we were down before we started. I don't know what they were thinking but it's symptomatic of the way the club has been run in the past few years with poor recruitment save for the odd exception. What's the strike rate - one decent player in every 5 ? I seem to recall we only scored one or maybe two in our principal pre-season games and that forward line allied to the painfully slow build up play was a total car crash.
woodsaint1 Posted February 6 Posted February 6 Summer 24 for me. January 23 we were in desperation mode in an attempt to rescue our season and were frantically trying to recruit players to suit NJ's needs. Plus the January window is always more difficult to do business. Hence why it was a shit show. Summer 24 we can have no excuses. We were riding a high from the previous season and had a settled management. Also for most of the Championship season, we were more likely than not going to get promoted, therefore we should have had a range of suitable targets identifed months in advance of the window opening. Imo it wasnt an awful window.....we were committed to signing THB and Downes, plus Ramsdale was essential. Fernandes has turned out a great signing, but theres £75m spent already. It just felt that we were leaving ourselves short in terms of a budget for a striker (not for the first time). Hence why we ended up signing Archer and BBD for £24m combined. Thats just not going to cut it at PL level 2
Farmer Saint Posted February 6 Posted February 6 January '23 because it hamstrung us for this Summer's transfer window and pushed us towards cheap, low wage Championship players (Ramsdale aside who clearly had a recoverable end of season transfer fee - think of it as a loan). 1
Gloucester Saint Posted February 8 Posted February 8 On 05/02/2025 at 23:46, Galway saint said: Fuck knows who singed off on all that but it was completely negligent and effectively meant we were down before we started Bitcon was singing 🎵 We’re going down with the Leicester 🎵 as his pen hit the paper. And probably missed.
die Mannyschaft Posted Monday at 20:53 Posted Monday at 20:53 The fire sale will be one of the best though. Should be a cap of £3m max on any player next season
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now