Our Summer Business

[Millenniumram]

1 minute ago, The Orange Pimpernel said:

I think you may be a little bit prone to dramatic exaggeration.

Not in this case, no. I said similar after January that we had no midfield cover to deal with mounts injury, and low and behold we struggled for weeks until he returned. Two players need to arrive in the next hour or were in trouble

[Andicis]

29 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

I think if the window closed now we’d be in serious trouble, not trying to be overly negative, but we have to be realistic. Without a CM and RW it’s been a disaster,

Not trying to be overly negative, he says whilst being overly negative. How the hell is it a disaster? We did just fine with our midfield against Huddersfield, Josefzoon isn't brilliant, but he can show much more than he has so far. It's hyperbolic nonsense, again. It's not been a disaster, we've signed good players. 

[Sparkle]

3 minutes ago, TibshelfRam said:

I think Holmes is capable of tackling - he put in some crunchers last season.

But surely isn't that Bielik's role? How much tackling do De Bruyne or Silva do? It's down to Fernandinho - you don't need all three to be carbon copies of one another. A holder, a box to box and a playmaker - Bielik, Holmes, Dowell. Suits me.

On a consistent basis 

[Van der MoodHoover]

8 minutes ago, TibshelfRam said:

I think Holmes is capable of tackling - he put in some crunchers last season.

But surely isn't that Bielik's role? How much tackling do De Bruyne or Silva do? It's down to Fernandinho - you don't need all three to be carbon copies of one another. A holder, a box to box and a playmaker - Bielik, Holmes, Dowell. Suits me.

at the end of 2013-2014 that was Thorne, Hughes and Hendrick who when all on song played some great stuff....?

[Millenniumram]

2 minutes ago, Andicis said:

Not trying to be overly negative, he says whilst being overly negative. How the hell is it a disaster? We did just fine with our midfield against Huddersfield, Josefzoon isn't brilliant, but he can show much more than he has so far. It's hyperbolic nonsense, again. It's not been a disaster, we've signed good players. 

I don’t think it’s being overly negative, just telling it how it is. We did well in one game with a makeshift midfield, that isn’t enough evidence to say it’ll be good enough all season. With Holmes and bielik it’s probably not far off, but from what I can tell Holmes could be out for a while longer yet. To not have any cover for him would be a serious problem, given he’s injury prone anyway. Josefzoon isn’t ever gonna make it at Derby I’m fairly sure on that, there’s some ability there but he’s never seemed to fit. So to go into the season expecting him to replace Wilson would be suicide. We have signed some good players, we’ve signed som egrets players, and we’ve signed some more risky players. But what we haven’t done yet, is sign enough good players to make us as strong, or stronger than last season. 

The window ends now, we’re weaker than we were at the start (if you take the loanees etc leaving within the window). That to me is not a good window.

[AdamRam]

5 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Not in this case, no. I said similar after January that we had no midfield cover to deal with mounts injury, and low and behold we struggled for weeks until he returned. Two players need to arrive in the next hour or were in trouble

Whilst I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s a disaster, I agree if we do t add any more in this window it won’t have been a great one.

We finished a long way behind the top 2 last season, and only scraped into the play offs, we have lost some good players and not replaced them, hoping that we will be “close” enough to mount a challenge to the top 6 once Rooney arrives is not good business. Villa had to chance their manager and embark on a club record run to get into the top 6, whilst possible, the aim shouldn’t be to hope his arrival will boost our chances of a play off finish.

There is still an hour left though, Hughes (You heard it hear first) and Sinclair in will do me. 

[Andicis]

1 minute ago, Millenniumram said:

I don’t think it’s being overly negative, just telling it how it is. We did well in one game with a makeshift midfield, that isn’t enough evidence to say it’ll be good enough all season. With Holmes and bielik it’s probably not far off, but from what I can tell Holmes could be out for a while longer yet. To not have any cover for him would be a serious problem, given he’s injury prone anyway. Josefzoon isn’t ever gonna make it at Derby I’m fairly sure on that, there’s some ability there but he’s never seemed to fit. So to go into the season expecting him to replace Wilson would be suicide. We have signed some good players, we’ve signed som egrets players, and we’ve signed some more risky players. But what we haven’t done yet, is sign enough good players to make us as strong, or stronger than last season. 

The window ends now, we’re weaker than we were at the start (if you take the loanees etc leaving within the window). That to me is not a good window.

You described the window as a disaster. We could have done with a few more, but a describing it as a disaster is hugely negative, however you want to dress it up. Nobody is ''replacing Wilson'' we're playing a different style, I'm sure that Flo won't score anywhere like the goals Wilson did, but we're setting our to play for speedy breakaways, and he stretches the play nicely. 

We'll finish higher than we did last year. We've made shrewd signings. 

[admira]

This week has been so bad. We've signed hardly anyone (except England's all-time top goal scorer) hehe ....

[Rammy03]

All very quiet.... Something tells me we're in for a signing or two

[Wolfie20]

10 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

I don’t think it’s being overly negative, just telling it how it is. We did well in one game with a makeshift midfield, that isn’t enough evidence to say it’ll be good enough all season. With Holmes and bielik it’s probably not far off, but from what I can tell Holmes could be out for a while longer yet. To not have any cover for him would be a serious problem, given he’s injury prone anyway. Josefzoon isn’t ever gonna make it at Derby I’m fairly sure on that, there’s some ability there but he’s never seemed to fit. So to go into the season expecting him to replace Wilson would be suicide. We have signed some good players, we’ve signed som egrets players, and we’ve signed some more risky players. But what we haven’t done yet, is sign enough good players to make us as strong, or stronger than last season. 

The window ends now, we’re weaker than we were at the start (if you take the loanees etc leaving within the window). That to me is not a good window.

Not "how it is" but how you see it and in this latest example they're poles apart.

I admire your enthusiasm, i really do but there are times when I'm sure you're not in the real football world.

[Marriot Ram99]

Whilst I am confident we will sign a new player or 2 , so far I think we have had good window. We have signed a top quality holding Midfielder with a lot of potential that was linked with Ac Milan, Signed Wayne ducking Rooney, a rock solid CB in Clarke who IMO looks better than Tomori, Shinnie we have not seen much of but the fact he was captain of Aberdeen and sorely missed shows hes a decent player, and Dowell who is a good player at this level and will improve with game time. To say that we have a disastrous window so far is a joke TBH, yes our Right wing position looks not that great but Jozefoon has the potential to prove people wrong  he definitely has ability, and there is the possibility that Mitchel-Lawson could be given a chance as well.  We could do with a creative midfielder, but we do have Holmes and Sibley and Rooney to come in January so it is not looking too bad.

[Millenniumram]

12 minutes ago, AdamRam said:

Whilst I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s a disaster, I agree if we do t add any more in this window it won’t have been a great one.

We finished a long way behind the top 2 last season, and only scraped into the play offs, we have lost some good players and not replaced them, hoping that we will be “close” enough to mount a challenge to the top 6 once Rooney arrives is not good business. Villa had to chance their manager and embark on a club record run to get into the top 6, whilst possible, the aim shouldn’t be to hope his arrival will boost our chances of a play off finish.

There is still an hour left though, Hughes (You heard it hear first) and Sinclair in will do me. 

Exactly. The signing of Rooney is unbelievable and incredible, don’t get me wrong. But he can’t fix all of our problems, nor should we assume he can save us in January if we’re not in a decent position by then. I think Rooney could tear this league apart and really boost us, but we’ve gotta have the rest of the team sorted as well- and he’s not here for a few months, we need to get in the mix for promotion in that time! At the moment we haven’t replaced Wilson or fully replaced mount for me. We need to sort that out in the next half an hour or we could struggle imo to get into a decent position by January, and will have a weaker team than last year overall, even if Rooney will boost it. Rooney won’t magic us from 12th to second imo, we need to be in and around the top six when he arrives.

I don’t particularly rate Sinclair, but someone like Hughes would be magical and exactly what we need in midfield.

[1977 Ram Raider]

25 minutes to go I think that’s our summer transfers done.

[Millenniumram]

16 minutes ago, Andicis said:

You described the window as a disaster. We could have done with a few more, but a describing it as a disaster is hugely negative, however you want to dress it up. Nobody is ''replacing Wilson'' we're playing a different style, I'm sure that Flo won't score anywhere like the goals Wilson did, but we're setting our to play for speedy breakaways, and he stretches the play nicely. 

We'll finish higher than we did last year. We've made shrewd signings. 

We’re playing a different style? I thought the whole point of cocu was he was similar in style to Lampard. Sure there’ll be tactical differences, but we’re still playing 433 as a base. And thus we need to replace Wilson’s quality, as Josefzoon isn’t anywhere near the mark for me. And whichever way up we need to replace his goals as well, somewhere in the team even if it’s not RW, and with our current squad I think we’ll struggle to make the 18 goals up from elsewhere.

As things stand, the window shuts now with no signings, we don’t make top six. That for me, is not a good window. Call me negative all you want, but that’s what I see. We’ve made some decent signings, but not enough to get us up there again, after all we only scraped in last year with a better squad.

[ossieram]

1 important bit of business has been done at the club today.

The beer tent has gone up and it is bigger than last season and has been moved.

I am also ITK because I know that the club have actually purchased the tent from Crockers instead of hiring it and Marstons have had their name added to the roof in a sponsorship deal.

 

[Marriot Ram99]

6 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Exactly. The signing of Rooney is unbelievable and incredible, don’t get me wrong. But he can’t fix all of our problems, nor should we assume he can save us in January if we’re not in a decent position by then. I think Rooney could tear this league apart and really boost us, but we’ve gotta have the rest of the team sorted as well- and he’s not here for a few months, we need to get in the mix for promotion in that time! At the moment we haven’t replaced Wilson or fully replaced mount for me. We need to sort that out in the next half an hour or we could struggle imo to get into a decent position by January, and will have a weaker team than last year overall, even if Rooney will boost it. Rooney won’t magic us from 12th to second imo, we need to be in and around the top six when he arrives.

I don’t particularly rate Sinclair, but someone like Hughes would be magical and exactly what we need in midfield.

Beilik= Much better than Huddlestone Clarke= over the course of the season will be better than Tomori becuase for the first 60% of games Tomori was not that great but improved towards the end. Dowell= slightly worse than Mount but considering Mount was injured and played poorly for 2-3 months as well it shouldn't make a significant difference.  Then Bogle will be better this year with more experience the same with Roos and you would expect slightly more output from Waghorn too , plus we have a more proven manager and a better system can equate to an extra 10-15 points so really as it stands I expect better than last season , and then with Rooney to come in January that will help us push for Top 2 never mind playoffs. Wilson got us goals but was never that great an all round player , If Lawrence steps up and hit over 10 goals this season he won't be missed.

[Millenniumram]

13 minutes ago, Wolfie20 said:

Not "how it is" but how you see it and in this latest example they're poles apart.

I admire your enthusiasm, i really do but there are times when I'm sure you're not in the real football world.

Fine it’s calling it how I see it, but that’s what this forum is for. 

I really can’t see how if the transfer window shuts now people can be happy with it, looking past the obvious elation over Rooney (which I’m totally with, of course). Maybe I’m just overly harsh, but I’m pretty sure I said similar in January that we would struggle having not cover in for mount- and we really struggled until he was back. Nearly cost us.

[Wolfie20]

This afternoon has been hilarious. Not sure who's been the most hyper, some of our posters or all those loonies on SKY, especially the idiot with the yellow tie.

[Andicis]

2 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

We’re playing a different style? I thought the whole point of cocu was he was similar in style to Lampard. Sure there’ll be tactical differences, but we’re still playing 433 as a base. And thus we need to replace Wilson’s quality, as Josefzoon isn’t anywhere near the mark for me. And whichever way up we need to replace his goals as well, somewhere in the team even if it’s not RW, and with our current squad I think we’ll struggle to make the 18 goals up from elsewhere.

As things stand, the window shuts now with no signings, we don’t make top six. That for me, is not a good window. Call me negative all you want, but that’s what I see. We’ve made some decent signings, but not enough to get us up there again, after all we only scraped in last year with a better squad.

Not all 4-3-3 formations play the same. Lampard never really played possession football like Cocu does, I'd imagine we'll have a lot more of the ball this year and play differently. Looks like more of a Mac 4-3-3 to me than a Lampard one. We don't make top 6? ? I think you objectively are a negative poster, you're writing our season off, when we just signed England's highest goal scorer, our record signing, loaned a colossus at the back, and brought in a world class coach. 

[Millenniumram]

4 minutes ago, Marriott Ram99 said:

Beilik= Much better than Huddlestone Clarke= over the course of the season will be better than Tomori becuase for the first 60% of games Tomori was not that great but improved towards the end. Dowell= slightly worse than Mount but considering Mount was injured and played poorly for 2-3 months as well it shouldn't make a significant difference.  Then Bogle will be better this year with more experience the same with Roos and you would expect slightly more output from Waghorn too , plus we have a more proven manager and a better system can equate to an extra 10-15 points so really as it stands I expect better than last season , and then with Rooney to come in January that will help us push for Top 2 never mind playoffs. 

Agree that bielik will be better, in our system, than Huddlestone. Clarke imo will be on a par with Tomori over the course of the season, because Tomori was unreal at the end and we’d never get someone that good. Dowell is half the player mount is imo, and I think people are kidding themselves if they think he’ll replace mounts output. That’s not a huge slight on dowell, as Mount was ridiculously good and we could never replace him with any single player. Imo he needs two players to replace him, and that’s why we still need a CM. To say mount was poor for 2-3 months is laughable, some people just can’t see the things players do in the background that are less noticeable but vital. The form we showed when he was out emphasises how important he was last year.

Yes some players will get better hopefully, like bogle and Roos and Waghorn/Marriott playing more often. But none of that is guaranteed and you can’t just assume it will be the case. You’d hope cocu is better than Lampard tactically and that helps too, but he’s not a miracle worker, he needs the players. Without players to help replace mount and Wilson, imo were much weaker than last year and could struggle to be in a good enough position for Rooney to boost us to promotion from- which with his quality he could well do if we have a good enough team elsewhere.