What are Pace & The Board thinking now?

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

The gaffer made a clear mistake on Saturday with not bringing on Ekdal to shore it up - He knows that and will learn and we will be better for it.

How exactly does Vk know he made a mistake, has he talked about it somewhere or have you just made that up?

[alwaysaclaret]

I was posting about the guy you replied to saying VK will know he made a mistake and would have brought Ekdal on , daftest thing I’ve read on here recently including the troll stuff.

As I say don't pretend to read minds, but at a guess I'd say ekdal was probably the furthest thing from he's mind, although I dare say there would have been plenty willing him on there on Saturday.

[Blatherwickstattoo]

He deserves a chance to take us back up as dyche did the first promotion /relegation. He’s still learning the ropes in the toughest league in world football.

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

As I say don't pretend to read minds, but at a guess I'd say ekdal was probably the furthest thing from he's mind, although I dare say there would have been plenty willing him on there on Saturday.

Criminally overlooked player especially with O’Shea in front of him, mind boggling, there’s a few like that at the moment though.

[Westleigh]

Criminally overlooked player especially with O’Shea in front of him, mind boggling, there’s a few like that at the moment though.

He’s happen doing a Mick McCarthy and saving his best team for Sheffield Utd .

[JohnMcGreal]

Sigh
People just don’t get it

Players are mostly young and will improve
Players are mostly on long contracts, this makes a big difference
Several players were held in high regard/ones to watch, across Europe before coming here - Tresor and Amdouni being examples

More often than not the transfer fees being thrown around will I include add-ons and we had this confusion with Gibson and we only paid just over half the claimed total of £15 million

Just because some of you don’t rate our players, it doesn’t mean scouts/coaches/managers have the same opinion as you

Ramsdale was relegated twice and went for more money after each one - this is being ignored in regards to Trafford
Pope had one year left on his deal, wanted to move and wasn’t a young player

How often do players get sold for a lot less than they were signed for?
We made money on Chris Wood after he’d had a torrid first half of the season and he’s never rediscovered his early form

I get what you're saying and it's still far too early to be writing any of these lads off, but the one issue I think we might have is that we paid a very high price for a lot of these players, and that inevitably comes with more risk attached if they don't work out.

Koleosho is obviously the exception and is probably the type of profile and fee we should have been aiming for a bit more than we ended up doing. They're much lower risk in that if they don't really work out, we haven't really lost much on them, but there's also a huge margin for reward if they develop quickly. The profit could end up being massive.

Quite simply, the bigger the fee the more pressure there is on that player to perfom well. Which is fairly obvious, really.

[Jamesy]

No I don’t think you are “telling porkies”

But I do think that you are wrong.

And I’d be happy to place a charity bet for a decent amount that we did not spend £120m (we’ll find out when we see the relevant accounts published)

In the meantime feel free to show your workings - and then I’ll let everyone else pick it apart

You are welcome to think I am wrong. I’m just going off figures which were widely quoted on here and in the media. It was around 100 million before we paid for Tresor who was I think 18 million Euros? If I am 5 million out I apologise. But I did say circa 120 million not precisely 120 million.

[Big Vinny K]

Would like to see the stats on how long VAR decisions are taking for the non televised games which do not involve the big clubs.
They were very quick to come to a decision on ours on Saturday whereas how many times in the last few weeks have we seen them taking 3 minutes on the TV games ?

As said it’s not really VAR that is the biggest issue. It’s the inconsistency in how they are applying it and the idiots involved in running it.

[Vegas Claret]

https://x.com/JJWatt/status/1729137456459694317?s=20

[Big Vinny K]

You are welcome to think I am wrong. I’m just going off figures which were widely quoted on here and in the media. It was around 100 million before we paid for Tresor who was I think 18 million Euros? If I am 5 million out I apologise. But I did say circa 120 million not precisely 120 million.

Provide a link - should be easy since it was widely quoted in the media.
Even better provide the breakdown of the £120m you have quoted.

[alwaysaclaret]

Criminally overlooked player especially with O’Shea in front of him, mind boggling, there’s a few like that at the moment though.

I don't think there's much to pick between them, but I feel ekdal could possibly have the edge in terms of composure and physically, not least height wise not sure on their stats but ekdal looks the bigger of the 2 and more imposing. O'shea I feel recently has a few mistakes in him, although all round not much to pick.

[Chester Perry]

£120m ?
Holy sh-it….it’s almost like for some posters the amount is increasing after every defeat.

depends on how many windows are being counted in - over the three transfer windows that the manager has presided that would be in a reasonable ball park figure of estimation, a number of add on payments would have had to be paid with last years promotion - possibly few less this season, certainly so, if we are relegated

[GodIsADeeJay81]

I get what you're saying and it's still far too early to be writing any of these lads off, but the one issue I think we might have is that we paid a very high price for a lot of these players, and that inevitably comes with more risk attached if they don't work out.

Koleosho is obviously the exception and is probably the type of profile and fee we should have been aiming for a bit more than we ended up doing. They're much lower risk in that if they don't really work out, we haven't really lost much on them, but there's also a huge margin for reward if they develop quickly. The profit could end up being massive.

Quite simply, the bigger the fee the more pressure there is on that player to perfom well. Which is fairly obvious, really.

We paid a very high price?
No we didn’t
We’re paying average to low prices for these players, you’re behind the times in regards to transfer fees

These are not big fees, none of them, they’re just more common now for Burnley and that’s where the issue lies with some of you it would appear.

[Jamesy]

Provide a link - should be easy since it was widely quoted in the media.
Even better provide the breakdown of the £120m you have quoted.

I can’t be arsed to troll through it pal and have no wish to split hairs with you over a few million. My point remains the same though. We will get nothing like what we paid for these players if we were to sell them after relegation.

[Big Vinny K]

depends on how many windows are being counted in - over the three transfer windows that the manager has presided that would be in a reasonable ball park figure of estimation, a number of add on payments would have had to be paid with last years promotion - possibly few less this season, certainly so, if we are relegated

If it’s over the 3 transfer windows I agree.
I believe we spent about £30m before this summer.
But if you are looking at the 3 windows then net spend and what we brought in from the sales in his first summer is even more relevant

[boyyanno]

Can anyone explain to me why Saints aren't top of the league in the Championship?

I keep seeing the same points being strung out time and time again to make excuses for crap results. Mainly: We've bought a load of young players and they will come good in time and we will walk the championship.

Saints did similar to us recruitment wise in the PL before they went down, if its as easy as everyone is making out then why aren't they top of the league?

[RVclaret]

Can anyone explain to me why Saints aren't top of the league in the Championship?

I keep seeing the same points being strung out time and time again to make excuses for crap results. Mainly: We've bought a load of young players and they will come good in time and we will walk the championship.

Saints did similar to us recruitment wise in the PL before they went down, if its as easy as everyone is making out then why aren't they top of the league?

Manager isn’t as good as Vincent? Big change in play style so started slow compared to Ipswich / Leicester breaking records for the fastest ever starts to the Championship?

Luckily for us next season, Leicester and hopefully Leeds & Saints will go straight back up, meaning the Champ becomes worse again with us, Sheff and Luton back.

[Vegas Claret]

Can anyone explain to me why Saints aren't top of the league in the Championship?

I keep seeing the same points being strung out time and time again to make excuses for crap results. Mainly: We've bought a load of young players and they will come good in time and we will walk the championship.

Saints did similar to us recruitment wise in the PL before they went down, if its as easy as everyone is making out then why aren't they top of the league?

distinctly average manager

[JohnMcGreal]

We paid a very high price?
No we didn’t
We’re paying average to low prices for these players, you’re behind the times in regards to transfer fees

These are not big fees, none of them, they’re just more common now for Burnley and that’s where the issue lies with some of you it would appear.

We'll have to disagree. The only player we paid a low price for was Koloesho, who is probably (at this stage) our joint most successful signing along with Berge, who we probably paid around market value for.

I don't think it's unfair to suggest there is more risk attached to a few other signings we've made. The claim that they'll all automatically be sold for at least what we paid for can be challenged. There's no guarantee of that.

[NewClaret]

We'll have to disagree. The only player we paid a low price for was Koloesho, who is probably (at this stage) our joint most successful signing along with Berge, who we probably paid around market value for.

I don't think it's unfair to suggest there is more risk attached to a few other signings we've made. The claim that they'll all automatically be sold for at least what we paid for them can be challenged. There's no guarantee of that.

With respect, do you know exactly what we paid for all of our undisclosed signings? Or the terms attached?

I think you have to give our ownership and management (Matt Williams is hugely experienced) that they’ll have protected the club sufficiently.

The reported fee is often not what you end up paying. GIADJ has already highlighted Gibson as a case in point.

[Chester Perry]

If it’s over the 3 transfer windows I agree.
I believe we spent about £30m before this summer.
But if you are looking at the 3 windows then net spend and what we brought in from the sales in his first summer is even more relevant

Re net spend - people overlook the fact that there was an enforced £20m repayment to MSD, for which we have repeatedly been told players had to be sold to meet, Do we consider that, in this very specific context a contributor to the net spend calculation or just an operational cost like wages? conventional argument would go to the latter, but the circumstances of the 2022 summer window were not conventional.

I have deliberately not include the loan repayment (and likely penalty probably over £14m) of August 2022 or the loan replacement with penalty cost (over £39m including the circa £7m penalty payment) of November 2022 in that consideration, which are clearly operational costs for these discussion context purposes

[ChorltonCharlie]

I'm pretty much on the fence when it comes to VK. Delighted with what he did last season and it was a breath of fresh air. We deservedly won the league, but the overall points total masked that we won a lot of points with individual brilliance. Anyone in football knows that's not sustainable unless you're a club like Man City that has the very best players year in, year out. As a supporter I'm happy to be loyal.

This topic though is about what Pace/ALK are thinking. As has been pointed out by other posters there seems to be a lot of mind reading going on to suit arguments. What I would say though, is if they're not seriously concerned they should be. The cold hard fact is we're currently one of of the worst teams in Premier League history. Whilst finding that kind of data pre-PL is pretty difficult, chances are there's not that many in top flight history full stop. Sheffield United picked up just 2 points from the first 17 games 3 years ago, which is the current record for worst start to a PL season. They still finished with over 20 points and didn't get rid of Wilder until March, which shows a manager can turn around to some degree this kind of situation.

We're not talking here about an underwhelming season. We're talking about a season so bad that it will be talked about for years by neutrals unless it improves. We're only just on course to beat Derby's record low total. This is after giving the manager in the region of £100m to spend. Even if you think the money was spent badly, there's an argument we should still be more competitive and at least around where Luton are. If we're giving kudos to VK for last season, then he also needs to bear a lot of criticism for what's going on this year and point out that it's a shambles. If he truly is the top manager some people think he is, then he needs to be much more adaptable and show he can gain points in adversity. The idea that he's learning lessons for 2 years time is bonkers. He needs to show he's learning them now. We've supposedly seen an upturn in performances, but across two home games against mediocre opposition we've created one decent chance and scored only one goal, and that was a penalty. He's running out of time, because as businessman I don't think the idea of under-performing so much is acceptable to Pace/ALK and I think they'll be having serious reservations of any more money being spent on his watch.

[CoolClaret]

It’s frustrating on here at times.

There’s people obviously on windups / complete doom and gloom merchants then there’s those that pretend like there’s not been a hit of element of risk to our approach and like magic everyone that we’ve purchased is gonna either get a move for profit or simply rip the Championship up whilst conveniently forgetting that there’s players we’ve signed barely playing, a very big squad now meaning a lot of wages and also a lot of outstanding transfer fees / whatever else… not to mention somehow expecting players that have barely had a kick or been on loan to miraculously get into a team to rip the championship up as though football is as simple as plonking 11 on a pitch and expect it to work.

Far more to building a team than just having decent players plucked from here there and everywhere. The collective is more important than the individual.

It’s hard to have any straight conversation with even an element of nuance with some on here.

[kenyon6923]

Large amount of people quite rightly are mentioning how much we miss Foster but if people are being totally honest nobody would have blinked a eyelid if we sold Foster in the summer after last season where a lot questioned if he was going to be good enough and also because he had a bout of the condition he unfortunately has now.

So bearing that in mind and also the fact we did not sign a guy in Tella that scored around 18 goals - where did the management actually think the goals were going to come from this season ??

[Jamesy]

He cost £13.9m by the way.

He probably did after the exchange rate was worked out. He was 18 million Euros wasn’t he?

[CoolClaret]

For me I just can’t fathom how we go into a season with one left back whilst leaving 25ish million in Tresor/Odobert/which ever pair of wingers/attackers sat in the stands/at home. It’s just **** poor.

If the argument is we couldn’t get a LB to suit our style I still don’t think it means load the squad with wingers/attackers that’s always gonna miss out. I’d prefer to hold the cash and go in again another time. It’s just really bizarre.

(Not to mention I don’t buy that there isn’t a fullback/centre half/striker out there that we couldn’t have acquired that would have elevated the first XI/bench)

[NewClaret]

He probably did after the exchange rate was worked out. He was 18 million Euros wasn’t he?

Not sure but I saw a Belgian journalist quote £13.9m.

Which is absolute peanuts for PL players when you consider we were playing a €45m winger on Sat. With a £38m JWP. Oh and our best attacking player last time we were in the prem at £17.5m on the bench alongside £20m plus Benrahma.

The levels, even with these more average prem teams, are crazy.

[CoolClaret]

Not sure but I saw a Belgian journalist quote £13.9m.

Which is absolute peanuts for PL players when you consider we were playing a €45m winger on Sat. With a £38m JWP. Oh and our best attacking player last time we were in the prem at £17.5m on the bench alongside £20m plus Benrahma.

The levels, even with these more average prem teams, are crazy.

Irrespective of scratting over what the fee actually was (not to mention I guarantee the fees you listed aren’t what West Ham actually paid), the more important point is whatever it was, it could most certainly have been put to better use to improve our matchday team.

We’re nowhere near the level to have relative big money signings (for us) not in the matchday squad, at all.

[Jamesy]

Not sure but I saw a Belgian journalist quote £13.9m.

Which is absolute peanuts for PL players when you consider we were playing a €45m winger on Sat. With a £38m JWP. Oh and our best attacking player last time we were in the prem at £17.5m on the bench alongside £20m plus Benrahma.

The levels, even with these more average prem teams, are crazy.

I agree with you. We do seem to be overloaded though with similar type players, however much they cost.

[Big Vinny K]

Re net spend - people overlook the fact that there was an enforced £20m repayment to MSD, for which we have repeatedly been told players had to be sold to meet, Do we consider that, in this very specific context a contributor to the net spend calculation or just an operational cost like wages? conventional argument would go to the latter, but the circumstances of the 2022 summer window were not conventional.

I have deliberately not include the loan repayment (and likely penalty probably over £14m) of August 2022 or the loan replacement with penalty cost (over £39m including the circa £7m penalty payment) of November 2022 in that consideration, which are clearly operational costs for these discussion context purposes

Doesn’t really matter how you look at it really.
We can over over complicate things with accounting treatment and going into the detail of our debt structure and commitments but think that’s probably best left for the financial threads.

Simplistically speaking we had a wide variety of things that we had to pay for and selling the players we did last summer was part of the way we paid for all these commitments.

The reason I and others raise this is that it makes no sense to look at certain things (like one transfer window) in isolation. And I know that is not something you do either.

Without a number of different things happening there is no way we spend what we did last summer. And without question our transfer activity and reduction of our wage bill which took place last season is one of the most relevant reasons we were able to spend the money we did (as of course was promotion and the increased TV revenue, advertising income, and other things too)

[Chester Perry]

Doesn’t really matter how you look at it really.
We can over over complicate things with accounting treatment and going into the detail of our debt structure and commitments but think that’s probably best left for the financial threads.

Simplistically speaking we had a wide variety of things that we had to pay for and selling the players we did last summer was part of the way we paid for all these commitments.

The reason I and others raise this is that it makes no sense to look at certain things (like one transfer window) in isolation. And I know that is not something you do either.

Without a number of different things happening there is no way we spend what we did last summer. And without question our transfer activity and reduction of our wage bill which took place last season is one of the most relevant reasons we were able to spend the money we did (as of course was promotion and the increased TV revenue, advertising income, and other things too)

The actual wage bill for last season (when you consider that bonuses will have been paid) is going to be one of the most interesting features of the next published accounts, we were led to believe that there had been cuts the previous season and it ended up much higher than almost everyone expected

[CoolClaret]

The actual wage bill for last season (when you consider that bonuses will have been paid) is going to be one of the most interesting features of the next published accounts, we were led to believe that there had been cuts the previous season and it ended up much higher than almost everyone expected

I'm interested in this as well CP - will certainly reveal a lot of info about future planning/contingency et al

[Kilson810]

Sigh
People just don’t get it

Players are mostly young and will improve
Players are mostly on long contracts, this makes a big difference
Several players were held in high regard/ones to watch, across Europe before coming here - Tresor and Amdouni being examples

More often than not the transfer fees being thrown around will I include add-ons and we had this confusion with Gibson and we only paid just over half the claimed total of £15 million

Just because some of you don’t rate our players, it doesn’t mean scouts/coaches/managers have the same opinion as you

Ramsdale was relegated twice and went for more money after each one - this is being ignored in regards to Trafford
Pope had one year left on his deal, wanted to move and wasn’t a young player

How often do players get sold for a lot less than they were signed for?
We made money on Chris Wood after he’d had a torrid first half of the season and he’s never rediscovered his early form

We can't use Chris Wood's transfer as a yardstick. Newcastle clearly only bought him to try and dent our chances of survival.

[Big Vinny K]

The actual wage bill for last season (when you consider that bonuses will have been paid) is going to be one of the most interesting features of the next published accounts, we were led to believe that there had been cuts the previous season and it ended up much higher than almost everyone expected

Yes it will.
I have no idea of the bonus structure under the new regime. I’d imagine it’s pretty generous given the relatively low fees and wages we agreed with a number of last seasons new signings.
I do know that before the January transfer window that the wage bill (without bonuses) was in the region of £27m.
But as you say lots of things have happened since then.

My own view is that it will still be nowhere near the £92m in the last accounts.
If I was to guess it would be in the £60m to £70m as we stand right now. But given the cross over of seasons and very high number of transfers and contract renewals etc it’s always difficult to align the total wage bill in a year end accounts to what your actual wage bill is at any one time (if you know what I mean).

When I was told it was around £27m that will I assume be based on an annualised figure of the players on the books at the time with no bonuses included as it was the start of last season.

[Chester Perry]

Yes it will.
I have no idea of the bonus structure under the new regime. I’d imagine it’s pretty generous given the relatively low fees and wages we agreed with a number of last seasons new signings.
I do know that before the January transfer window that the wage bill (without bonuses) was in the region of £27m.
But as you say lots of things have happened since then.

My own view is that it will still be nowhere near the £92m in the last accounts.
If I was to guess it would be in the £60m to £70m as we stand right now. But given the cross over of seasons and very high number of transfers and contract renewals etc it’s always difficult to align the total wage bill in a year end accounts to what your actual wage bill is at any one time (if you know what I mean).

When I was told it was around £27m that will I assume be based on an annualised figure of the players on the books at the time with no bonuses included as it was the start of last season.

anything below £40m including bonuses will show they have kept a strong eye on the costs and that financial management was in control last season - anything approaching the figures you have described will likely show quite the opposite, which is what the £92m without Premier League membership bonuses in 2021/22 showed

[GodIsADeeJay81]

We can't use Chris Wood's transfer as a yardstick. Newcastle clearly only bought him to try and dent our chances of survival.

Yes we can

He was shocking during his final half season here, we all know it

Yet we made a profit on him and it ended up being a good sale because he’s still shocking now

[GodIsADeeJay81]

I agree with you. We do seem to be overloaded though with similar type players, however much they cost.

Attacking players tend to sell for more than defensive ones

[GodIsADeeJay81]

We'll have to disagree. The only player we paid a low price for was Koloesho, who is probably (at this stage) our joint most successful signing along with Berge, who we probably paid around market value for.

I don't think it's unfair to suggest there is more risk attached to a few other signings we've made. The claim that they'll all automatically be sold for at least what we paid for can be challenged. There's no guarantee of that.

You missed the point I was making

What we’re paying for players has been lots of money
We’re paying the going rate, or less, on all our transfers

The issue is it seems to be big money for Burnley but compared to the rest of the league it isn’t

[CoolClaret]

Attacking players tend to sell for more than defensive ones

They don't if they're not playing

[Newcastleclaret93]

You missed the point I was making

What we’re paying for players has been lots of money
We’re paying the going rate, or less, on all our transfers

The issue is it seems to be big money for Burnley but compared to the rest of the league it isn’t

Which was a strange move.

Why they didn’t spend more on less to help VK with his system
Is looking a bit daft. Most of the summers signings are depreciating in value because of how lob sided our squad is

[Big Vinny K]

anything below £40m including bonuses will show they have kept a strong eye on the costs and that financial management was in control last season - anything approaching the figures you have described will likely show quite the opposite, which is what the £92m without Premier League membership bonuses in 2021/22 showed

Sorry the £60m to £70m I mentioned was a guess at our current wage bill as we stand today.

For the next set of accounts I’m guessing it’s going to be £27m I was told…..plus our January new signings which would I guess take it to £30m……plus any bonuses.

So probably not far off the £40m you mention.

[NewClaret]

We can't use Chris Wood's transfer as a yardstick. Newcastle clearly only bought him to try and dent our chances of survival.

Newcastle would’ve been better letting us keep him. He was in dreadful form at the time, although his service was also abysmal.

Paying £25m for him was a massive help for us. Am pretty certain that the investment we got last summer wouldn’t have been possible without it.

[boyyanno]

Manager isn’t as good as Vincent? Big change in play style so started slow compared to Ipswich / Leicester breaking records for the fastest ever starts to the Championship?

Luckily for us next season, Leicester and hopefully Leeds & Saints will go straight back up, meaning the Champ becomes worse again with us, Sheff and Luton back.

At this rate there will be two better teams relegated alongside us, and at a minimum one of Leicester, Leeds, Saints, or Ipswich. Possibly two out of those 4.

So how are we going to walk the league? Why can every club not say we go again stronger? It's just a wierd view given that the current league table shows there are two better teams than us that will also come down. Why won't their players get better?

I find it a bizarre notion. We've done it 3 times on the bounce and that has somehow tricked the younger fans into thinking it's a given. The same people thought we'd find it easy this year, far too much delusion for my liking.

[NewClaret]

Which was a strange move.

Why they didn’t spend more on less to help VK with his system
Is looking a bit daft. Most of the summers signings are depreciating in value because of how lob sided our squad is

I hugely disagree that any of our players are depreciating in value. Scouts and recruitment teams can spot wheat amongst the chaff.

Not that it matters a jot if we don’t want to sell them. Which I very much hope we don’t.

[Newcastleclaret93]

I hugely disagree that any of our players are depreciating in value. Scouts and recruitment teams can spot wheat amongst the chaff.

Not that it matters a jot if we don’t want to sell them. Which I very much hope we don’t.

I would argue the likes of Tresor, Odobert potentially even Amdouni certainly haven’t lived up to there fees so far.

[RVclaret]

At this rate there will be two better teams relegated alongside us, and at a minimum one of Leicester, Leeds, Saints, or Ipswich. Possibly two out of those 4.

So how are we going to walk the league? Why can every club not say we go again stronger? It's just a wierd view given that the current league table shows there are two better teams than us that will also come down. Why won't their players get better?

I find it a bizarre notion. We've done it 3 times on the bounce and that has somehow tricked the younger fans into thinking it's a given. The same people thought we'd find it easy this year, far too much delusion for my liking.

I think judging ‘at this rate’ when there’s 25 games left and a point or 2 in it is premature to say the least. Happy to accept that after 38 games if it remains! Although even then there is an argument to say our dominant brand of football suits that level more and our younger team has a higher ceiling moving forward.

I don’t find it that bizarre to suggest a team (more talented/dynamic than the one that got 101 points) would be clear favourites to gain promotion again with the same manager. In fact the bookies would likely have us favourites.

[Kilson810]

Newcastle would’ve been better letting us keep him. He was in dreadful form at the time, although his service was also abysmal.

Paying £25m for him was a massive help for us. Am pretty certain that the investment we got last summer wouldn’t have been possible without it.

Oh no doubt it was good money for a poor player, and Newcastle knew they were overpaying. The Saudis can afford £25m on a dud if it helps them stay up every day of the week.

All I mean is that it wasn't a standard transfer i.e., buying a player because the buying club genuinely wants that player to improve their squad.

[CoolClaret]

I don’t find it that bizarre to suggest a team (more talented/dynamic than the one that got 101 points)

In yours and only a few minds only.

[NewClaret]

I agree with you. We do seem to be overloaded though with similar type players, however much they cost.

I agree. I don’t think that’s in much doubt. We can deliberate it but I’m sure the club and Kompany are aware and acknowledge the error now.

Everyone says: but why didn’t you buy a LB, Rb, striker, CDM?

I think we likely tried. We know we tried to get Maatsen. We know from Matt Williams we tried to sign other LB’s. I think the ones we wanted weren’t available and we decided not sign others.

I imagine creating a squad isn’t as simple as selecting your fpl team & sometimes you sign players because they’re available but others you can’t. Some you see as being for the here and now and maybe others to develop, which is where we went wrong. I think Kompany likes two pushing for each role and to cover injuries but

I’ve given up on survival now. I just can’t see us turning it around enough but I do hope we go in for more of the same quality we’ve found so far in January, just in the areas we know we need, because I’ve been massively impressed with all of Kompany’s signings so far. The season is about developing this squad and seeing continued development/strengthening for me.

Boey & Habib Diarra would be absolute dream signings but before anyone pipes up with the “we’ll never sign any players at all, nobody will come to us” - I know, I’m more saying they’re the type of player I’d like and hopefully Kompany has some unearthed gems like Koleosho in the offing.

[NewClaret]

I would argue the likes of Tresor, Odobert potentially even Amdouni certainly haven’t lived up to there fees so far.

We are 13 games in to their careers with us. Are you serious?