A wasted Summer?

So we signed Soares who is now dropped for Yoshida at RB, Martina who is a joke footballer, Juanmi who can't get a game, Clasie who hasn't kicked a ball in anger yet in the premier league, ( but looked like a fish out of water against Vitesse) , Van Dijk who looked like awesome last week against West Brom, but league 1 standard today. Stekelenburg really hasn't done much, and Romeu who seems to be out of favour a bit as he was dropped last week and taken off today. Seem to have wasted a lot of money on very average players which seems to point at a difficult season to come.

The famed black box seems to have developed a virus, and perhaps it needs a full reboot to get it up functioning again.

So we signed Soares who is now dropped for Yoshida at RB, Martina who is a joke footballer, Juanmi who can't get a game, Clasie who hasn't kicked a ball in anger yet in the premier league, ( but looked like a fish out of water against Vitesse) , Van Dijk who looked like awesome last week against West Brom, but league 1 standard today. Stekelenburg really hasn't done much, and Romeu who seems to be out of favour a bit as he was dropped last week and taken off today. Seem to have wasted a lot of money on very average players which seems to point at a difficult season to come.

 

The famed black box seems to have developed a virus, and perhaps it needs a full reboot to get it up functioning again.

I hope not, as this is what led us to relegation last time. The only difference this time is that we have a manager that should see us clear of relegation. The season is so far going as I predicted, a fight to stay up.

We won't go down but 14-17

What can you do? The senior management at the club obviously think selling your best players every summer and replacing with rookies is sustainable. Hopefully they'll start to realise that this doesn't work in the Premier League.

What can you do? The senior management at the club obviously think selling your best players every summer and replacing with rookies is sustainable. Hopefully they'll start to realise that this doesn't work in the Premier League.

What rookies have we signed to replace those that have left?

What can you do? The senior management at the club obviously think selling your best players every summer and replacing with rookies is sustainable. Hopefully they'll start to realise that this doesn't work in the Premier League.

It is inevitable that we will lose some of our top players, but what I find frustrating is that we don't seem to replace them with anywhere near the same quality.

be realistic. This is the third " team " we've had in the last 3 seasons. At that point in time, the majority of the side had been together for min. 2 seasons.

The players who have gone were the best of what we had then. It'll take time to get things up and running. But after 6 games it's not panic time yet, surely ?

Our two defeats were against two of this seasons in-form sides, and t.b.f ...being able to spend £200 million in two years does give you an edge over most opponents.

What rookies have we signed to replace those that have left?

Juanmi

Romeu

Soares

Clasie

Van Dijk

Caulker

Are the club's youngsters in the positions Martina and Yoshida not good enough or has Koeman reversed the philosophy of blooding youth? I'd rather they were given a chance to shine (obviously with the potential for it not to work) than rely on players where it is guaranteed they will not play well and coincide with a defeat.

So we signed Soares who is now dropped for Yoshida at RB, Martina who is a joke footballer, Juanmi who can't get a game, Clasie who hasn't kicked a ball in anger yet in the premier league, ( but looked like a fish out of water against Vitesse) , Van Dijk who looked like awesome last week against West Brom, but league 1 standard today. Stekelenburg really hasn't done much, and Romeu who seems to be out of favour a bit as he was dropped last week and taken off today. Seem to have wasted a lot of money on very average players which seems to point at a difficult season to come.

 

The famed black box seems to have developed a virus, and perhaps it needs a full reboot to get it up functioning again.

A very grim assessment. Too early to judge Virgil and Clasie though.

Juanmi

Romeu

Soares

Clasie

Van Dijk

Caulker

LOL. Okay then.

Are the club's youngsters in the positions Martina and Yoshida not good enough or has Koeman reversed the philosophy of blooding youth? I'd rather they were given a chance to shine (obviously with the potential for it not to work) than rely on players where it is guaranteed they will not play well and coincide with a defeat.

there are several U21's who are very good - at that level. but not more.

Midfielder Jake Hesketh looks quite skilful, but needs to " fill out a bit " as he's very lightweight, and often bullied off the ball and takes a lot of knocks.

Likewise Dominic Gape (captain this season) but he doesn't look better than what we have now.

Lloyd Isgrove looks good in most games, but he won't be able to replace Mané...will he ?

.....most promising are Sam McQueen and Ryan Seager (back from injury). They might be worth a place on the bench, or a game in a Cup - but not more

We've been rather spoilt in recent years with the emerging talents, but too many people seem to think that all Koeman needs to do .....is drive over to Staplewood and bring back the next " new face" .....but on present showings.... we're a long way from that.

Some of them really need "loan outs" to Championship / L1 clubs ....but also they must get real game time.... instead of sitting on someone else's bench.

Reed has always said there is no point buying if the player isn't better than what we already have.

The likes of Juanmi, Clasie, Van Dijk might prove to be quality signings but Martina definitely doesn't fit that bill.

We got a lot of money in for Schneiderlin and he was such a key player so I think we could have replaced his agility and quality in midfield much better.

Without question our first XI is weaker this season than last, and ultimately that will tell in the results.

In addition, we ended todays game with Yoshida and Martina as our full backs which is telling.

This is a pretty knee jerk thread win a couple of games and suddenly all our players are amazing. The time to judge is the end of the season.

Sure, I'm disappointed about today and frustrated at some (quite a few) of Koeman's recent starting line-ups, but the quality is undoubtedly there IMO. Koeman is still assessing how best to fit it together - and having to contend with injuries in key positions while he does so.

To suggest that it was a "wasted summer" is ridiculous in my view, and I have a feeling that this thread might make a reappearance next Spring - not in a flattering way.

This is a pretty knee jerk thread win a couple of games and suddenly all our players are amazing. The time to judge is the end of the season.

Haha. Then in the summer you say the time to judge is at the end of the transfer window. Circular argument.

Football fans will naturally be continuously judging and its definitely a concern we sign a RB who the Manager doesn't trust to defend and a backup RB who is just awful.

Today we had our first and second choice RB fit and chose instead to play a backup central defender there.

I don't need to wait til next summer to know Martina is crap and that we havent improved a single position in the starting XI from last year.

We won't go down but 14-17

15th most expensive side in Europe. Anything less than top 10 is awful.

Martina is absolutely shocking, do not understand the whole deal with Cedric. I would guess he's not good enough defensively so we went with the more steady Yoshida...however if he's not a better RB than Yoshida then what's the point in buying him?!

Full backs are such an important part of the modern game, and ours at the moment would struggle to get In a championship side.

Unsure of the other signings, hopefully Clasie is decent, but I'm not hugely sure we need him. We should have signed a proper RB and some assistance for Pelle who is good enough to get on the pitch.

I look forward to seeing a few of the youth on Wednesday an the fringe players. Juanmi looks promising from the little I've seen of him.

I think we'll have a better idea of our exact state after the Swansea game. Utd are always hard to beat.

Koeman said in the week Juanmi was struggling to adapt to the pace and physicality of English football but has been training well and will get his chance. Hopefully starts on Wednesday.

This is a pretty knee jerk thread win a couple of games and suddenly all our players are amazing. The time to judge is the end of the season.

Okay well lets close the forum untill Sunday the 15th of May 6pm then reopen it?

I'm hoping for us to avoid a relegation battle and get to one of the cup finals - our first team is weaker so we can't expect a repeat of last year & quite a few other teams in our mini league have got notably stronger. Concerned about our squad quality more - I thought the ambition this year as a minimum was a better squad so we don't have dramatic drops when players get injured. At this time our summer activity looks at best erratic - and in some cases (Caulker Martina) bizarre and others (soares juanmi) oddky not fancied by the manager at all. Still think if we continue with Tadic Pelle Mane up front we will beat the weak teams and sail just north of relegation trouble.

Haha. Then in the summer you say the time to judge is at the end of the transfer window. Circular argument.

 

Football fans will naturally be continuously judging and its definitely a concern we sign a RB who the Manager doesn't trust to defend and a backup RB who is just awful.

 

Today we had our first and second choice RB fit and chose instead to play a backup central defender there.

 

I don't need to wait til next summer to know Martina is crap and that we havent improved a single position in the starting XI from last year.

The problem is people judge in black and white from one week to the next. Apparently VVD was quality last week and is now ****e. Most peoples player ratings have no context win a game and our players are **** hot loose one and our players are league 1 standard.

Does anyone want to go back over the Mane thread from last season?

Koeman said in the week Juanmi was struggling to adapt to the pace and physicality of English football but has been training well and will get his chance. Hopefully starts on Wednesday.

It feels like this happens too often with our 'flair'/attacking players, I dont rememeber Bojan or Coutinho, or deulofeu having this problem.

It feels like this happens too often with our 'flair'/attacking players, I dont rememeber Bojan or Coutinho, or deulofeu having this problem.

Deulofeu barely starts to be honest and rarely did last time he was with Everton. Bojan took a few months at Stoke too.

It does take time.

I have hope for Soares and Clasie but I'm not sure what Martina brings to the team. No problem with Romeu, does a good job.

Van Dyjk needs time and support but I think there's a quality defender in there, perhaps Koeman will get the best out of him?

The utter snivelling crap posted on this forum after a defeat is incredible but expected at the same time with

some of the idiots we have on here.

Clueless and not worth the time to argue with

The utter snivelling crap posted on this forum after a defeat is incredible but expected at the same time with

some of the idiots we have on here.

 

Clueless and not worth the time to argue with

Then best you don't post ....but I do agree some players are getting written off too early. Thought Martina did OK actually but we played with 10 men today as Tadic (out of position did not help) was invisible.

Then best you don't post ....but I do agree some players are getting written off too early. Thought Martina did OK actually but we played with 10 men today as Tadic (out of position did not help) was invisible.

I thought so too. There were a couple of occasions when I forgot Tadic was playing.

The stand out concerns are that we replaced Cylne with a RB who is defensively frail so we're playing people out of position to compensate. That seldom works out well. In addition, we have replaced Schneiderlin with Romeu who, whilst decent, looks like he'll be in and out of the side so we've lost a main stay in the centre of the park with is important IMO.

We really should expect to have signed proven quality for these positions, especially with the money we've made recently.

The stand out concerns are that we replaced Cylne with a RB who is defensively frail so we're playing people out of position to compensate. That seldom works out well. In addition, we have replaced Schneiderlin with Romeu who, whilst decent, looks like he'll be in and out of the side so we've lost a main stay in the centre of the park with is important IMO.

 

We really should expect to have signed proven quality for these positions, especially with the money we've made recently.

Name "proven quality" we could have signed to replace Morgan and Clyne? One of the best DMs and the best RB in this league. Who else would you have signed?

Name "proven quality" we could have signed to replace Morgan and Clyne? One of the best DMs and the best RB in this league. Who else would you have signed?

Doesn't really matter who I would have signed. With hindsight, would you have been happy to know that the replacement RB for a player as good as Clyne is constantly dropped for important games (for Yoshida or Martina) due to Koeman not trusting him defensively?

Then best you don't post ....but I do agree some players are getting written off too early. Thought Martina did OK actually but we played with 10 men today as Tadic (out of position did not help) was invisible.

Interesting LVG said they took off Darmian and brought on Valencia purely to try and reduce the influence Tadic was having on the game.

Tailed off second half as did the rest but was one of the reasons for our good start.

Why the f()ck are people laying into Cedric about being defensively frail when he's 20, come to a completely new league and standard of football and from what I've seen, hasn't done a lot wrong in the games he has played in?

Everything I've seen him of him has suggested that he's streets ahead of Martina and Yoshida at RB...

Name "proven quality" we could have signed to replace Morgan and Clyne? One of the best DMs and the best RB in this league. Who else would you have signed?

Well perhaps a similar buying and loaning strategy to that of West Ham may have been more advantageous than purchasing players that are seemingly not good enough to get into an already depleted first team.

Why the f()ck are people laying into Cedric about being defensively frail when he's 20, come to a completely new league and standard of football and from what I've seen, hasn't done a lot wrong in the games he has played in?

 

Everything I've seen him of him has suggested that he's streets ahead of Martina and Yoshida at RB...

Who the duck is laying in to him? Pretty sure people are complaining how Koeman isn't picking him.

Doesn't really matter who I would have signed. With hindsight, would you have been happy to know that the replacement RB for a player as good as Clyne is constantly dropped for important games (for Yoshida or Martina) due to Koeman not trusting him defensively?

Name an alternative (of 'proven quality') you would have signed? It's not a difficult question.

Why the f()ck are people laying into Cedric about being defensively frail when he's 20, come to a completely new league and standard of football and from what I've seen, hasn't done a lot wrong in the games he has played in?

 

Everything I've seen him of him has suggested that he's streets ahead of Martina and Yoshida at RB...

They arent knocking him. More the process of buying a replacement for Clyne who doesnt have the confidence of the Manager in games where defending is needed. Its bizarre. We need a settled back four, should play him every game to adjust him quicker as obviously is a good player.

He is actually 24.

So we signed Soares who is now dropped for Yoshida at RB, Martina who is a joke footballer, Juanmi who can't get a game, Clasie who hasn't kicked a ball in anger yet in the premier league, ( but looked like a fish out of water against Vitesse) , Van Dijk who looked like awesome last week against West Brom, but league 1 standard today. Stekelenburg really hasn't done much, and Romeu who seems to be out of favour a bit as he was dropped last week and taken off today. Seem to have wasted a lot of money on very average players which seems to point at a difficult season to come.

 

The famed black box seems to have developed a virus, and perhaps it needs a full reboot to get it up functioning again.

OK. I'll bite. In what way was Van Dijk "League 1 standard" or did you just type that for effect? ?Didn't do much wrong for me. Comfortable on the ball, calm assured. What do you want?

I think the reason for Soares being dropped a while back was because he wasn't strong enough physically to play against the opponents we were facing. Fair enough...but which teams will we be playing who he IS strong enough to face then? And why did we sign someone who we werent going to use 80% of the time?

Why the f()ck are people laying into Cedric about being defensively frail when he's 20, come to a completely new league and standard of football and from what I've seen, hasn't done a lot wrong in the games he has played in?

 

Everything I've seen him of him has suggested that he's streets ahead of Martina and Yoshida at RB...

I'm not laying into him. It's the principle of having a replacement RB for one of the best in the league who loses their place to Yoshida. It's an example of how we are compensating for others and losing too much shape and identity as a team.

Name an alternative (of 'proven quality') you would have signed? It's not a difficult question.

It is a difficult question as I don't have the wealth of knowledge snd resources that our scouting team have. But if signing RB who can't defend is the best they can do then I'd give it a shot with some time. Not sure why you're getting hung up on names though. Do you think it's good that Yoshida is playing games at RB with the money we have made and spent?

So far in 6 league games we have used Fonte, Van Dijk, Yoshida, Targett, Cedric, Caulker and Martina each for at least 45mins. Thats 7 players and will be 8 when Bertrand comes back in (thank God).

No wonder we look shaky because we probably have barely fielded the same back 4 twice yet.

At some stages last year we played the same defence for many games in a row and it makes a huge difference.

It is a difficult question as I don't have the wealth of knowledge snd resources that our scouting team have. But if signing RB who can't defend is the best they can do then I'd give it a shot with some time. Not sure why you're getting hung up on names though. Do you think it's good that Yoshida is playing games at RB with the money we have made and spent?

So you're *****ing and moaning without substance. God I hate these forums.

You said "We really should expect to have signed proven quality for these positions, especially with the money we've made recently."

Suggesting that you think the club did a bad job and you could do better. If you can't do better with a suggestion, then why made such a stupid statement? Do you think the club went "oh we know, let's sign this guy who isn't the best we can get, he'll have a sh*t future and be terrible, we should buy him and ignore someone better"?

FFS.

Name an alternative (of 'proven quality') you would have signed? It's not a difficult question.

That's the job of the transfer committee not fans on a forum. That's why they're in their jobs. But they didn't do it.

I'm not laying into him. It's the principle of having a replacement RB for one of the best in the league who loses their place to Yoshida. It's an example of how we are compensating for others and losing too much shape and identity as a team.

Fair do's. Was probably reacting to stuff said on other threads too.

Emboldened bit... that I do agree about.

That's the job of the transfer committee not fans on a forum. That's why they're in their jobs. But they didn't do it.

But everyone on this forum is so much better qualified than those in the club ... we keep being told that.

So you're *****ing and moaning without substance. God I hate these forums.

 

You said "We really should expect to have signed proven quality for these positions, especially with the money we've made recently."

 

Suggesting that you think the club did a bad job and you could do better. If you can't do better with a suggestion, then why made such a stupid statement? Do you think the club went "oh we know, let's sign this guy who isn't the best we can get, he'll have a sh*t future and be terrible, we should buy him and ignore someone better"?

 

FFS.

I've thought about it and you're right actually, Cedric was the one and only option in world football.

I've thought about it and you're right actually, Cedric was the one and only option in world football.

But everyone on this forum is so much better qualified than those in the club ... we keep being told that.

Well there is that

I think it's just a case of frustration from some that we knew Clyne was most likely going to be leaving and our efforts at replacing him seem a little underwhelming right now.