Gronbaek, Lallana, Taylor, Cornet, BBD, Wood, Sugawara, Fraser, Archer or Edwards

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

The criteria for SportsRepublic is:

"Can you kick a ball mate?"

[Midfield_General]

8 minutes ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

The criteria for SportsRepublic is:

"Can you kick a ball mate?"

If it was, then that would have disqualified Sugawara. 

Incredibly, the bar is actually lower than that. 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

We’ve done it for years.. our transfers since about 2016 have been a who’s who of how not to buy players. Dozens of average players brought cheaply in the same position costing more when you look at total costs inc wages than buying 2 or 3 decent ones. 
 

I don’t get why we never learn. 5 players for £15m earning £50k a week and hope one or two of them come good or 2 decent players for £35-£40m earning £100k a week. Simple maths tell you which is the better deal along with the fact they’re going to contribute more on the pitch too

But you mustn’t upset the wage structure.

[Gloucester Saint]

I opted for McCarthy extension as that was the most stupid and obviously wasteful of all, any other year it would have been Lallana or Fraser. If the poll had been multiple choice, I’d have ticked every single option. BBD I’ve some empathy for though, he’s never a fucking winger, what a stupid twat that manager was. 

Nathan Wood was 100% Russell Martin’s doing, the club tried signing him the previous year for around double the fee we paid last summer. Clearly, he wasn’t paying attention to Nathan’s abject performance in Swansea’s 5-0 defeat. He’s a Stephens style ball-watcher, albeit with a bit more pace. Might be ok as back up next season given the sheer volume of transfers required but loan him out if promoted with a very modest option to buy.

Edited yesterday at 10:19 by Gloucester Saint

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, SaintNewForest said:

Wasn't the Smallbone extension a year before? 

Yes, my apologies, new 3 year deal until 2026. So at least only a year left.

[Whitey Grandad]

22 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

I opted for McCarthy extension as that was the most stupid and obviously wasteful of all, any other year it would have been Lallana or Fraser. If the poll had been multiple choice, I’d have ticked every single option. BBD I’ve some empathy for though, he’s never a fucking winger, what a stupid twat that manager was. 

Nathan Wood was 100% Russell Martin’s doing, the club tried signing him the previous year for around double the fee we paid last summer. Clearly, he wasn’t paying attention to Nathan’s abject performance in Swansea’s 5-0 defeat. He’s a Stephens style ball-watcher, albeit with a bit more pace. Might be ok as back up next season given the sheer volume of transfers required but loan him out if promoted with a very modest option to buy.

A lot of these sorts of transactions is a case of rewarding one’s mates financially.

[Oisin]

I’ve voted for Taylor as I couldn’t see any logic in signing a left back given the full back options we already had - at least for some of the others we in theory had a requirement for the position.

That said I could have voted for almost any of them, and the equal spread of votes suggest many feel the same.

Which kind of supports the overall assessment that this was an unmitigated fucking disaster. I mean, it couldn’t feasibly have been any worse. I hope everyone associated with this year’s recruitment has gone because they clearly have their head up their arses. 
I’m not a scout but five minutes told me Fraser and BBD didn’t have the legs for this league, Wood didn’t have the ability, Sugawara the defensive capabilities and almost all of the others didn’t manage the five minutes necessary to allow any opinion. Given how bad the players selected ahead of them are, these guys must be truly awful.

I don’t blame the players themselves; the recruitment team and (one has to conclude RM had a say in some of these) the previous manager, however, totally fucked our already slim chances last summer. 
We’re the worst team ever mainly because we’ve combined the worst transfer window ever with two of the worst tactical set-ups I’ve ever seen.

Sport Republic are horrific.

Spors may end up being the long-dreamed of messiah but he needs to be because we need a miracle right now to sort this club out.

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Oisin said:

I’ve voted for Taylor as I couldn’t see any logic in signing a left back given the full back options we already had - at least for some of the others we in theory had a requirement for the position.

That said I could have voted for almost any of them, and the equal spread of votes suggest many feel the same.

Which kind of supports the overall assessment that this was an unmitigated fucking disaster. I mean, it couldn’t feasibly have been any worse. I hope everyone associated with this year’s recruitment has gone because they clearly have their head up their arses. 
I’m not a scout but five minutes told me Fraser and BBD didn’t have the legs for this league, Wood didn’t have the ability, Sugawara the defensive capabilities and almost all of the others didn’t manage the five minutes necessary to allow any opinion. Given how bad the players selected ahead of them are, these guys must be truly awful.

I don’t blame the players themselves; the recruitment team and (one has to conclude RM had a say in some of these) the previous manager, however, totally fucked our already slim chances last summer. 
We’re the worst team ever mainly because we’ve combined the worst transfer window ever with two of the worst tactical set-ups I’ve ever seen.

Sport Republic are horrific.

Spors may end up being the long-dreamed of messiah but he needs to be because we need a miracle right now to sort this club out.

Again though there is logic to it. Taylor is an experienced premier league player. He played 150 times in the premier league for Burnley, most of the time in a relegation battle and was available for nothing. It made sense on paper, what doesn't make sense is to never play him. When he signed i thought it was a decent bit of business as he's player who'd been there and done it unlike a lot of the others we brought in. Maybe at 31 now he was way past his best, but we dont know because we barely saw him play. What we do know is those that play in the same position are no where near the level needed either.

[Baird of the land]

tremendously tough decision. Do you judge it on money spent (Archer / BBD), awful old players we're likely stuck with (Taylor,fraser etc) or epicly bad loans(Cornet)

 

 

[tdmickey3]

Why can`t I vote for all of them ?

Edited 11 hours ago by tdmickey3

[S-Clarke]

An absolute mess of a summer, it doesn't help when the recruitment was spearheaded without any DoF - that was always a massive concern for me, why they didn't feel the need to replace is beyond me. 

They let Martin run riot with his mates, and we managed to build a Championship team for the PL. 

When you look at it last season we had Stu Armstrong, Adams, Brooks, Edozie, Charly - Somehow I think we managed to end this season with a weaker side than we got promoted with, that takes some serious going. Well done to everyone.

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Again though there is logic to it. Taylor is an experienced premier league player. He played 150 times in the premier league for Burnley, most of the time in a relegation battle and was available for nothing. It made sense on paper, what doesn't make sense is to never play him. When he signed i thought it was a decent bit of business as he's player who'd been there and done it unlike a lot of the others we brought in. Maybe at 31 now he was way past his best, but we dont know because we barely saw him play. What we do know is those that play in the same position are no where near the level needed either.

It’s a bizarre one, I assumed they had signed him because they were concerned about Manning defensively in the PL as he hadn’t looked that secure in the Champ. And then they hardly play him despite of all his PL appearances and he’s not that old. Then they sign Wellington in January and Larios suddenly gets fit again playing for the u23s. What an incoherent mess.

[sambosa75]

Voted for Lallana.  Thought when we signed him there may have been a bit left in his legs and his experience may prove to be a master stroke.  How completely and utterly wrong I was.  Total waste of time.

[Badger]

On 06/04/2025 at 11:23, Gloucester Saint said:

Yes, my apologies, new 3 year deal until 2026. So at least only a year left.

Must be due a new one this summer then.

[Galway saint]

Gronbaek

We managed to sign someone who wasn't able to get into one of the worst sides in PL history. 

Who on earth chooses these players