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Useful Idiot
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If you are suggesting that part of the reason for signing Hoedt wasn't to try to improve the club's relationship with Van Dijk (who was training alone https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40682751 for a chunk of preseason) and that his presence in the Netherlands national team was no factor in signing Hoedt, then I think you're wrong. The board went after Liverpool for tapping Van Dijk up and every statement was about us changing our strategy on selling players. All the evidence suggests that we were doing everything we could to hold onto Van Dijk for the season and thought that Hoedt was a better defender than we had, and his nationality would help Van Dijk form a partnership with him more quickly. This is even after the sale to Gao went through. When the transfer committee signed off on him, they would have looked at Hoedt's ability first, but we were also trying to get Van Dijk to settle down so we could make a show of standing up to Liverpool. If Van Dijk had totally downed tools he could have lost value when we did have to inevitably sell him, so we were trying our absolute best to keep him happy and clutching at straws. Do I think that's the only reason we signed Hoedt? No. Do I think it swung the transfer committee's decision making into choosing him from a number of other candidates? Yes.
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There was a quote by either Reed or Kruger at the time suggesting that Hoedt and Virgil would be able to strengthen their partnership at both domestic and international level. I can't find it, but it definitely existed. It might be behind a paywall that I no longer subscribe to. We were scrabbling around at any chance to make it look like we weren't trying to sell Van Dijk at that time, due to the fan reaction to selling him to Liverpool. It was clearly stated on more than one occasion that we didn't want to sell Van Dijk that year and we were looking to change strategy. This was even after he handed in a transfer request and the club was sold to Gao. https://talksport.com/football/270469/southampton-chairman-ralph-krueger-insists-virgil-van-dijk-will-not-be-sold-summer-club/ I don't think it was the only reason that we signed Hoedt (partly it was because he was left footed and had decent form for Lazio, a league where we'd just signed Lemina from, who was probably another factor in signing him), but I think they were trying to use anything they could to keep Van Dijk a bit happier for the year and either convince him to either stay for another season or two and drive up his price.
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Woodsaint posted: "Hopefully Delaney signing would convince Vestergaard to extend his contract as well 🤞🏼" To which Lighthouse replied: "It wont have any effect." To which Woodhouse stated: "How do you know #oohdanishfriends" Lighthouse then posted "Because he’s not some teenager from a provincial Peruvian town who needs some familiarity to help settle in. He’s a senior, professional football negotiating a multi-million pound contract. He speaks English. He doesn’t need some other Viking to discuss lusty maidens with over buckets of Tuborg. " To which I replied: "It's a bit like Les Reed's genius move of buying Hoedt to keep Van Dijk company. Worked a charm, that one!" There you go!
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So you mean it's a similar situation to the idea I replied to when I posted the initial message in response to the idea that Delaney might be being signed to keep Vest. company?
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eurosport.com/football/southampton-sign-wesley-hoedt-to-play-alongside-virgil-van-dijk_sto6297565/story-amp.shtml
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Purely hypothetical. For the fanboys too. If Ernesto Valverde came out to the press and declared his undying love for saints and wanted to manage us, who would take it? I would.
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It's a bit like Les Reed's genius move of buying Hoedt to keep Van Dijk company. Worked a charm, that one!
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I think Delaney has also played at CB occasionally, he's around 6' tall so would give our midfield a bit more presence when Romeu is out/rested.
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With the exception of the right back and for half the season, I agree. For the second half it was far worse than we currently have.
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---------------Forster--------------- Cedric---Fonte*---VVD**---Bertrand ---------------Romeu--------------- -----JWP-----------------Davis----- ---------------Tadic---------------- --------Austin--------Redmond-------- Subs: Long, Gabbiadini, Hojbjerg, Clasie, McQueen, Yoshida, McCarthy ----------------Forster-------------- KWP----Bednarek----Vest----Bertrand ----------JWP-------Romeu---------- Armstrong-----------------Redmond ----------Ings--------Che----------- Subs: Tella, Walcott, Djenepo, Diallo, Salisu, Stephens, McCarthy Apart from a younger Bertrand, Tadic, Van Dijk (**out injured for almost half the season), and Fonte (*gone after half a season), I don't think any other player from that season gets into our current best 11. Davis was not as good as Armstrong, Long wasn't as good as Che, Cedric wasn't as good as KWP, Austin wasn't as good as Ings (even if he's been out a fair bit, he's still scored twice as many league goals as Austin this season compared to back then), Redmond is still Redmond (though lacking in confidence), JWP is a far better player now than he was back then, Forster's pretty much the same. As for the benches Gabbiadini over Djenepo, and Hojbjerg over Diallo, possibly a fit McQueen over Stephens as proper LB cover. What they achieved that season was especially impressive considering how lacking the squad was in quality after Koeman left.
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Also strange to think that our squad was probably even worse back then than it is now!
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His decision making is never great, but when he's out of confidence it gets much, much worse. It's like he over thinks things instead of being decisive, then makes the wrong decision anyway. When he's confident, he takes his opponent on and tends to run at them before thinking about it. When he's out of form he just ends up dallying on the ball then giving it away anyway. I think that we're mostly building attacks down the right and that is making that problem even worse as he doesn't have an overlapping fullback supporting him to help him get into 1v1 situations. He's been here five seasons now, and for two of them (the season he arrived and two years back) he was reasonably good. During the times he plays well he trusted Bertrand to back him up and offer an attacking threat on the same wing. This season, that's not happened and Redmond's game has suffered for it. I think this is his worst season by far and he shouldn't be starting at the moment, but I also think he's not really being helped out by the way we're set up.
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I don't hate him, but I do think he should be dropped for the next couple of games. His confidence looks shot and his decision making has completely gone.
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Redmond's completely out of from and confidence. Think he needs some time on the bench and the chance to appear as a sub for the last couple of games.
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This is quite fun. It's sort of like an alternate world mod, it has most of the players from the top divisions in 1990-91 season, but the year is still 2020-21 as they can't alter the start date. Some of the attributes are a bit off, but it's still fun to manage a team with a front 3 of Shearer, Wallace, and Le Tissier. https://www.passion4fm.com/football-manager-1990-91-retro-regens-database/ Managed to win Div 1 in my first season, Rod Wallace managed more than 40 league goals (along with 11 in 10 caps for England) but got unsettled at the beginning of the second season, so I started playing Kevin Phillips instead, who promptly scored 9 in 4 games. It also has 'real' players set to spawn as newgens up until present day, so Bridge, Walcott, Bale etc. will appear in the youth intake eventually.