hypochondriac

I don't mind the young lb if we get him because he's a backup. My issue is we've replaced Bertrand with someone who may be of similar quality, we've probably got a CB that is not the clear immediate improvement over vestergaard, we are weak in cm, we've never replaced tadic and Armstrong will have to be seriously impressive to do better than ings so overall we're worse than last year when we were absolutely terrible since January.

Was that portvliet? I remember people wanking themselves silly at the start of that season about how we were going to take the league by storm with this fresh new approach of playing the youngsters. Didn't take long for reality to dawn.

I'm almost certain that the reason we haven't got a keeper in is because Forster is on a ridiculous amount of money and we can't afford another load of wages spaffed up the wall in that position. Not getting a keeper in makes no sense otherwise.

Indeed. I bet that manual that Ralph supposedly wrote just says all about the press tactic in detail without alternatives.

What makes me sad is that we've lost the ability to keep replacing players with comparable or better quality. We had a great knack for that and now it seems like we are settling for players that are sometimes decent but are an overall downgrade on the last couple of seasons. I'd say the one big player we got right was kwp but in other key areas our team has got significantly weaker without tadic, vvd, ings, never replacing wanyama properly etc. I'm totally fine with buying decent prospects but you need that core of experience and quality to allow those young exciting players time to bed in. I'm worried this year by the way things have gone.

I think it's more a case that the opposing team changes tactics during the game and we just do the exact same thing without changing anything regardless of the circumstances. Sometimes we okay well for slightly more than half a game and I think we may have cracked it but we never manage to sustain those performances.

He hasn't really stood out for me. He's only played a handful of games in a year which is a problem regardless of performance.

Not sure why our CB recruitment has fallen off a cliff. We were superb with the likes of fonte, alderweireld and vvd. What happened?

Indeed. At least have the pretence that you're aspiring for something better otherwise it's like you've given up.

The thing is there's still a chance he could be really good. It's just he would have to confound his price tag and the Torino fans and we can't afford him to take too much time to find his feet like Salisu last year (who still doesn't look great if we're honest.). Like you say it's a huge risk and the scouts must have seen something in him that others haven't seen that makes them think he can hit the ground running and be a success. I hope so.

Kindly explain what's fickle about my post:

You've not really read any of this thread then have you.

Different regime now though innit. I'm just hoping Crocker knows what he's doing because the other signings look pretty good this summer.

I'll be interested to hear the clubs justification. Hopefully they've been scouting him for ages and know all about him.

It's a cunning plan!

See things like this are not a good sign. I'd be alright with it and more prepared to take a pint if he was take Jack Stephens role or something but we need this bloke to be our best centre back and a nailed on starter.

Of course it could but you're just stating the obvious. I don't think anyone is discounting the possibility that he could be good and we may have nabbed a bargain. Most people are simply saying that on the balance of probabilities and without having seen him play yet, this seems like quite a gamble of a signing and less of a sure thing than some other signings we could have made. Our backup rb doesn't really matter that much if he's pretty bad but given how absolutely vital it is to our season that our centre back signing is decent and can hit the ground running straight away, on the face of it it does seem curious that we've gone for this option given the factors I've already outlined. We splashed out big for the ings replacement and got in an exciting player and we spent the money because we recognised the importance of getting in some quality to the team in that area. Imo we should have done similar for the defence or got in someone like this alongside a more experienced name like Cahill. Doesn't mean he won't be good, doesn't mean he didn't have a tough time at Torino and will actually be decent but it does mean that that is less probable than some other names that would probably cost more.

I'd be delighted with a dm but I don't think we will. A really competent dm would provide greater protection for the cbs and their competence will be slightly less of an issue.

TBF he said it has not been a costly mission since 2014.

I think mostly the fact that he couldn't get in a poor team that finished way down the league, their fans are happy to see him go, he's cheap and doesn't seem to be the dominant and experienced type that we really need in that back line. Obviously it could be wrong but I'd be more comfortable if we were signing someone exciting from another club that I think would be more of a sure thing.

Exactly we agree. Not sure why people get so annoyed at stating the obvious. He could tur the put to be decent just like Livramento could turn out to be rubbish but it's more likely than not to be the opposite.

I think we tend to concede too many and can't adapt our game enough to counter tactics from the opposition. I think we have probably the worst keeper in the league, an inexperienced and young back line without much height, we lack depth in cm and so are relying on romeu and jwp too much. We have average wide men but our attack should be above average on paper although Armstrong is still unproven in the prem. For the first time since we got promoted I think I'm going to predict relegation if reports are true that our transfer activity is done and we are bringing in a cheap CB option that most reports suggest isn't up to much and lacks experience.

Where was this reported?

Yep. This would have made sense if we had also got Cahill in on a short term contract.

You aren't allowed to say that apparently. You were allowed to say the opposite for Armstrong and Livramento though.