Dman

Falling into the trap of trying to shoehorn the best 11 players into the side. It asn't worked in the past, wont in the future.

Did we have 1 eye on relegation when we signed, Tino, Lavia etc. despite being a established lower mid-table PL side? Or do you think that it could possibly be our business model to sign, what they see as, "value for money". Some work, like Tino, Lavia, Fernandes some don't like Bazunu, Archer, BBD. Im not really sure what your point you're trying to make. After wasting big money the last time round, the club were never going to go out and spunk big sums on a couple of players.

Archer - clearly (at least) our second choice behind Delap. Come off the back of a season in the PL and signed for £15. Clearly a bad buy in hindsight, but one we obviously thought had potential. BBD - looked a smart purchase at the time, again off the back of half a season in the PL where he actually done alright, after some time in La Liga. At the time of purchase, not the sort of player who would have gone to a championship club. Edwards - young, potential, cheap. A no brainer. Wood - cheap, knew Martins style of play. Just because the transfers didn't pay off, doesn't mean they were signed because we we intent on going down.. its just bad business. We were probably looking for value for money after spunking £40m on TP and Sulemana only a season before.. once bitten twice shy.

The only one you could maybe argue a case for is Wood. But even then, he was a bargain, Martins mate and one we wanted the season before...

He didn't help himself though. He was just a wedded to a system, much like Martin - All be it, I suspect longer term Juric's would have been more sucessful for us. I can't help but think back in disbelif that we actually persisted with Aribo at CB (scary that he looked one of the better ones) for a good 3/4 game period. Mental. Had he kept things simple and gone back to basics (like he did for the first 2-3 games), I suspect he would have seen out the season. His Man to Man system was just as bad as Martins suicide ball.

He went back to South America for what, 6 months?

Edwards is injured. He was replaced by Hampton, who was absolutly dreadful and subsequently sent home. I don't think Edwards is coming now? I actually hope he isn't - Fuller has done well enough this season for us not to need another all-rounder. We need a top / middle order bat to help us get scores on the board.

Yeah, he'll do alright there. Will probably be able to pick up some half decent players as well, if the new ownership are willing to put their hand in their pocket. He'll be judged on games vs Celtic and in europe. Both of which I think he'll struggle significantly in.

and Armstrong, Fraser, Smallbone,Wood and maybe even Bazunu (if they can see past his Irish connections).... Christmas come early...?

Surely Ramsdale isn't going to want another relegation on his CV....

Sell him. Hopefully makes a career out of it, but it wont be here.

Agreed. However, perhaps its the biterness inside me, but I'd much rather see a solid top 6 than seeing sides like Villa, Brighton, Brentford, Forest, Bournemouth doing well - that just fills me with jeaoulsy.

The best result for all parties (imo of course), would be for us to sell to a top 6 club and to have him back next season on loan. It would give us (hopefully) a decent revenue income to give us a chance to keep someone like Fernandes & I can't see hinm getting a game at a top club so It would give Tyler a season in familar surroundings another year of first team football. Of course, he could be worth 80m in the future, but he could also not develop and be worth nothing (second half of the season has worried me). We simply cannot risk not selling if someone serious comes in.

Must be why a large proportion of Swansea were glad to see the back of him, a large proportion of Saints fans were glad to see the back of him and why neither Leicester or Rangers fans seemingly want him.

snowflake

So basically, they'll score goals and have a solid defence to stop others from scoring goals. Got you.

Opening myself up to the wolves here.... based on their records, Jones was / is a better manager than Martin.

I hate to go all MLG, but what exactly do you want him to say? 😂

yep - Fonte was the mainstay for them both, until he left in the January (and we saw little of VVD post that anyway)

FWIW, I don't disagree that I think he's be perfect for our new system (what I expect it to be). However, Chelsea paid the best part of 30m for him. I can't see them letting him drop down the championship, nor can I expect him to want to. I would say much more likley to return to france... possibly strasbourg, thier sister club.

I like this one. Offers us something different to what we have today, will cover for the countless mistakes whatever others of our useless CB's stay. THB, Stephens, Edwards, Quarshie, Sanda offers us a decent variety of experience (at this level) and youth. Wouldn't mind us replacing one of THB or Stephens with a more traditional, old school CB.

safe to say neither of these will be being used.

I don't know about the finances, but they have a brilliant squad for the championship. I'll be amazed if they don't comfortably walk it next season.

I guess it comes down to where we want to spend our money. For me, Downes has proven to be a top championship player (all be it in 1 system), but not good enough for the PL. Could we do better? probably, but do we need to right now. Personally, I think we have more urgent issues and I'd like to see us replace him next season, rather than this one.

I don't care how much they offer, under no circumstances should we sell Downes to a Martin side who'll be competing against us next season. We saw first hand how we fell apart when he wasn't in the side. It would be madness to give them a player who is so key to his system. They've got Skipp and Winks, both of whom are better than downes anyway.