The "I know its only February and Mrs Grey is going to scream "Noooooo" but..." transfer thread

whupathman

could be a sully rumour to make him too expensive for others to pay for and pay wages

ASLEFshrugged

"Don't believe everything you read on the Internet" - Abraham Lincoln

Fortuneseeker

alderz said:

I don't think we will sign 7 players, tbh.

alderz, I tend to agree with you but can someone please explain to me how we can continue with a reduced squad next season based on the problems we have had this one? We are losing at least four from our stretched squad with another 2/3 very likely so that is seven replacements needed plus the few extra we haven't signed from the last couple of windows. Are we now seriously stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Bazshuayi

So... I've been thinking about this transfer/buying players thing (literally for seconds).

I'm going to go with a simplistic strategy. There are a lot of footballers in plenty of leagues that are good enough to be in our squad. We've had a lot of time to scout and plan plus we will have plenty of time when the season ends.

An example regarding Jesse Lingard: We call him/his agent.... "Does Jesse fancy playing for West Ham next season, 3-4 year contract' Get a yes or no answer and move on to the next geezer!

Fortuneseeker

I'm going to go with a simplistic strategy. There are a lot of footballers in plenty of leagues that are good enough to be in our squad. We've had a lot of time to scout and plan plus we will have plenty of time when the season ends.

Baz, For a lot of clubs it is that simple but we are talking about West Ham here! I still really believe there is better value around Europe in the likes of Spain, Portugal, Germany & France than buying at a premium in England. Who would we prefer Kamara, Fofana, Bellegarde or Phillips? There are also various cheaper and probably better alternatives for Centre Half, LB/LCH & Striker IMHO. Rob Newman has more than enough time to have done an extensive survey of what is available from around Europe so we should be on the front foot come June 10 shouldn't we?

alderz

Fortuneseeker said:

alderz said:

I don't think we will sign 7 players, tbh.

alderz, I tend to agree with you but can someone please explain to me how we can continue with a reduced squad next season based on the problems we have had this one? We are losing at least four from our stretched squad with another 2/3 very likely so that is seven replacements needed plus the few extra we haven't signed from the last couple of windows. Are we now seriously stuck between a rock and a hard place?

I didn’t say whether I think we do or don’t need 7, I’m just saying I don’t think we will sign that many

buffybegood

alderz said:

I didn’t say whether I think we do or don’t need 7, I’m just saying I don’t think we will sign that many

Yeah, that's the crux of it, we need 7 to replace those who are out of contract, were needed all season (CF) and an upgrade on 2 players who we need out of the door (Masuaku who isn't good enough, and Diop who will only have a year left on his contract so the last real chance to get any money for him). That's assuming Ogbonna adequately returns from his injury. However, like you, I have huge doubts over whether we'll get that many in.

Fortuneseeker

alderz, I just hope we are both surprised with our transfer dealings this Summer in a positive way.

whupathman

we have managed to make the squad smaller for the last few windows, lets hope for a change otherwise Sully jnr may need to get his boots on

alderz

Honestly, I’m not super bothered about squad size. We’ve had our two most successful years in recent memory with smaller squads. I just want the players that come in to improve us. I don’t want anymore Wellington Paulista’s, or Gotham Tote’s or Harvard Nordtveit’s. Quality over quantity, IMO.

Bazshuayi

That's fair but I believe with a bigger (obviously players of a certain calibre) squad especially via the Jan window (even 2-3 players, A CB and Forward for example) wouldve meant we weren't flogging Antonio to death and we'd have covered Ogbonna and subsequent CB injuries like Zouma and Diop. We could've easily been challenging for higher than 6/7th and a win in Europa wasnt out of the question either.

Teams like Villa and Everton had no trouble recruiting recently and I totally believe we couldve added a certain quality of player. We certainly had enough time to scout!

MrsGrey

The CB injury crisis is, imo, a lesson that you can't have a squad to be ready for every eventuality. I would like us to use the kids a bit more, but trust Moyes that he knows when one is good enough to be getting a chance.

Slacker

Everton have spent the GDP of a small country
over the past few years and look where that got them.

Bazshuayi

MrsGrey said:

The CB injury crisis is, imo, a lesson that you can't have a squad to be ready for every eventuality. I would like us to use the kids a bit more, but trust Moyes that he knows when one is good enough to be getting a chance.

Perhaps he would've blooded some youngsters if we weren't fighting in Europe and to get back into Europe? If we were mid table then there would be no reason to not give some of them playing time (especially at CB)

Lukerz

I don’t believe you can state, because we have a head of recruitment, that we should have the queue of players already lined up outside the office with the contracts & pens ready. He has probably spent the last 6 months putting everything he needs in place; scouting, identifying areas to watch in different countries, setting up links, watching players, putting the evaluation systems in place at the club to analyse data & feed that back to Moyes.

We will see the longer term benefits, hopefully, of this appointment but it isn’t a given it is this summer.

Lukerz

buffybegood said:

alderz said:

I didn’t say whether I think we do or don’t need 7, I’m just saying I don’t think we will sign that many

Yeah, that's the crux of it, we need 7 to replace those who are out of contract, were needed all season (CF) and an upgrade on 2 players who we need out of the door (Masuaku who isn't good enough, and Diop who will only have a year left on his contract so the last real chance to get any money for him). That's assuming Ogbonna adequately returns from his injury. However, like you, I have huge doubts over whether we'll get that many in.

The players out of contract who don’t play don’t need replacing, urgently. We have ego be realistic. We don’t have infinite money resources. Kral doesn’t need replacing, he never plays, Noble does. Fredericks doesn’t need replacing, he rarely plays. Same goes for Yarmo. We only urgently need to replace the squad players who contributed regularly off the bench & in the first 11.

Fortuneseeker

Lukerz, Sorry but by your calculations we are ok to carry on with a very small squad which contrary to what some may think has hindered us this season. Of the nine subs named last week four are definitely leaving and another two could well go. I would like to think that someone in the club has recognised the desperate need to bring new players in this window so it should have sharpened their focus to be able to act quickly. We may well not see the full affect Rob Newman is going to have on the team for a while yet but he does need to be seen to bringing in a few top players this summer.

Yeoldhammer

Rob Newman has had several months to get targets and a list for Moyes. He should have an impact.

buffybegood

Lukerz said:

buffybegood said:

alderz said:

I didn’t say whether I think we do or don’t need 7, I’m just saying I don’t think we will sign that many

Yeah, that's the crux of it, we need 7 to replace those who are out of contract, were needed all season (CF) and an upgrade on 2 players who we need out of the door (Masuaku who isn't good enough, and Diop who will only have a year left on his contract so the last real chance to get any money for him). That's assuming Ogbonna adequately returns from his injury. However, like you, I have huge doubts over whether we'll get that many in.

The players out of contract who don’t play don’t need replacing, urgently. We have ego be realistic. We don’t have infinite money resources. Kral doesn’t need replacing, he never plays, Noble does. Fredericks doesn’t need replacing, he rarely plays. Same goes for Yarmo. We only urgently need to replace the squad players who contributed regularly off the bench & in the first 11.

Fredericks I agree, we have 2 RB who are good enough to be part of the first team squad. Yarmalenko was used more often than Vlasic, so unless the latter steps up, we are left with only 4 to fill 3 spots without having to resort to a player deemed worse than Yarmalenko. CM I believe we need a genuine quality player, and a 4th man in there too (could possibly be Coventry if he's progressed); Soucek in particular struggled at times last season, but even at 80% he was better than the cover. That really shouldn't be the case, and, like it or not, I'd rather get a decent CM in this season so we have someone already bedded in when Rice leaves next summer.

A long term injury to either Rice or Soucek (who have both been extremely lucky in that respect for the last 2 seasons) or the new addition, and we're back to having no cover at CM; we definitely need a 4th in there imo. I know we can pull a player (say Lanzini or Fornals) back to cover, but we're not exactly blessed with quality in depth further forward so then things start getting really tight.

We'll be fighting on 2 main fronts again next season, plus the domestic cups. It's certainly grated with me that, having had such a good run in the Europa League this season, that we've basically (likely) had to sacrifice winning entry again to next season's competiton through the PL by fielding under-strength teams through lack of squad depth. A couple of additions, even in January, would most likely have left our Europa League qualification in our own hand tomorrow (unless of course we'd already made it to the CL by winning the EL this season).

Squad depth does matter, especially when fighting on 2 main fronts. I'm amazed we've done as well as we have in the PL this season, as so often a team not used to a proper European campaign really struggles in the PL; we've all seen it happen many times before. However, on the whole we've been (or so it feels) a lot luckier with injuries this season than usual, and so it really worries me that we're going to rely on a small squad again next season (because it worked OK this season), things won't work out as well, and we'll lose all the momentum that back to back good seasons have given us.

Bazshuayi

small squad and doing well for a chunk of the season invariably leads to fatigue, injuries and understandably lower quality and intensity of performance

jay_in_cpt

Bazshuayi said:

small squad and doing well for a chunk of the season invariably leads to fatigue, injuries and understandably lower quality and intensity of performance

Sounds a bit like us towards the end of this season ( I'm not moaning ) just does sound a bit familiar.

IronHerb

Bazshuayi said:

small squad and doing well for a chunk of the season invariably leads to fatigue, injuries and understandably lower quality and intensity of performance

Intensity against City was shocking. Oh wait....

Lukerz

buffybegood said:

Lukerz said:

buffybegood said:

alderz said:

I didn’t say whether I think we do or don’t need 7, I’m just saying I don’t think we will sign that many

Yeah, that's the crux of it, we need 7 to replace those who are out of contract, were needed all season (CF) and an upgrade on 2 players who we need out of the door (Masuaku who isn't good enough, and Diop who will only have a year left on his contract so the last real chance to get any money for him). That's assuming Ogbonna adequately returns from his injury. However, like you, I have huge doubts over whether we'll get that many in.

The players out of contract who don’t play don’t need replacing, urgently. We have ego be realistic. We don’t have infinite money resources. Kral doesn’t need replacing, he never plays, Noble does. Fredericks doesn’t need replacing, he rarely plays. Same goes for Yarmo. We only urgently need to replace the squad players who contributed regularly off the bench & in the first 11.

Fredericks I agree, we have 2 RB who are good enough to be part of the first team squad. Yarmalenko was used more often than Vlasic, so unless the latter steps up, we are left with only 4 to fill 3 spots without having to resort to a player deemed worse than Yarmalenko. CM I believe we need a genuine quality player, and a 4th man in there too (could possibly be Coventry if he's progressed); Soucek in particular struggled at times last season, but even at 80% he was better than the cover. That really shouldn't be the case, and, like it or not, I'd rather get a decent CM in this season so we have someone already bedded in when Rice leaves next summer.

A long term injury to either Rice or Soucek (who have both been extremely lucky in that respect for the last 2 seasons) or the new addition, and we're back to having no cover at CM; we definitely need a 4th in there imo. I know we can pull a player (say Lanzini or Fornals) back to cover, but we're not exactly blessed with quality in depth further forward so then things start getting really tight.

We'll be fighting on 2 main fronts again next season, plus the domestic cups. It's certainly grated with me that, having had such a good run in the Europa League this season, that we've basically (likely) had to sacrifice winning entry again to next season's competiton through the PL by fielding under-strength teams through lack of squad depth. A couple of additions, even in January, would most likely have left our Europa League qualification in our own hand tomorrow (unless of course we'd already made it to the CL by winning the EL this season).

Squad depth does matter, especially when fighting on 2 main fronts. I'm amazed we've done as well as we have in the PL this season, as so often a team not used to a proper European campaign really struggles in the PL; we've all seen it happen many times before. However, on the whole we've been (or so it feels) a lot luckier with injuries this season than usual, and so it really worries me that we're going to rely on a small squad again next season (because it worked OK this season), things won't work out as well, and we'll lose all the momentum that back to back good seasons have given us.

Maybe we’re just good, with good players? It doesn’t really matter how good your squad is if you have 11 very good players who all regularly stay fit.

buffybegood

Lukerz said:

Maybe we’re just good, with good players? It doesn’t really matter how good your squad is if you have 11 very good players who all regularly stay fit.

That's one very big risk to take; we were lucky with injuries by and large this season, there's no guarantee that will happen again next season.

Slacker

I reckon he’ll get a couple ( a few?) in this summer but I won’t get into a knot if he doesn’t.

buffybegood

We'll struggle hugely to replicate the performances of the last 2 seasons if we don't get at least 5 in imo (although that will include Areola if he stays on).

IronHerb

Five will do it. GK / LB / CB / DM / 2x ST

Fortuneseeker

IronHerb, Depending who they are that would be a decent amount of signings although I am still not saying it's enough.

buffybegood

IronHerb said:

Five will do it. GK / LB / CB / DM / 2x ST

Isn't that 6?

IronHerb

So it is. 😬

I was counting Areola on loan as a given for next season but added GK to the list. 🤦‍♂️