[Albion] ‘Happy with the squad’.. are we now paying the price for not signing a Striker in the wind

[Weststander]

Need a decent striker. Been same story for years. Not just about price, but willingness to come here, and whilst we scrabble about at the bottom, will always be difficult. Bit that annoys me is that we will pay big money for defenders, but not a striker?

Wages. The likes of Ings are paid far more than we pay.

 

[vagabond]

I think what we’re seeing now is a perfect storm of a promising, young (but largely untested at top level) manager, with poor recruitment, and a touch of arrogance from some at the club.

We came mightily close to relegation last season. The problem? Taking our chances, scoring goals. Most of us, utter non expert ‘laymen’ “if you like..” (to use a Potter-ism), could see this quite clearly.

You’d think we have learned from that and addressed what is evidently a problem area for the team the past few seasons. Well we didn’t. And then we made ourselves weaker shipping out Andone and not replacing him..

‘Completely happy with the squad’ we were told.

Was this arrogance, misguidedness, naivety or all 3?

 

[deslynhamsmoustache1]

I think what we’re seeing now is a perfect storm of a promising, young (but largely untested at top level) manager, with poor recruitment, and a touch of arrogance from some at the club.

We came mightily close to relegation last season. The problem? Taking our chances, scoring goals. Most of us, utter non expert ‘laymen’ “if you like..” (to use a Potter-ism), could see this quite clearly.

You’d think we have learned from that and addressed what is evidently a problem area for the team the past few seasons. Well we didn’t. And then we made ourselves weaker shipping out Andone and not replacing him..

‘Completely happy with the squad’ we were told.

Was this arrogance, misguidedness, naivety or all 3?

Think it was just towing the party line. For the life of me why the club didn't go large on a striker is unfathomable. Potter is just too laid back for my liking. Im not saying i want a "toy's out the pram Poyet style" but a bit more robust analysis post match. Every manager would always want to improve the players at his disposal, so why say otherwise, unless of course he felt almost forced to.

 

[Return of the Rev]

If he was unable to sign something better was he suppose to say, blooming eck fellas I have no faith in any striker in our squad?

 

[portlock seagull]

Think it was just towing the party line. For the life of me why the club didn't go large on a striker is unfathomable. Potter is just too laid back for my liking. Im not saying i want a "toy's out the pram Poyet style" but a bit more robust analysis post match. Every manager would always want to improve the players at his disposal, so why say otherwise, unless of course he felt almost forced to.

Absolutely. Potter interviews are like listening to your geography teacher explaining longshore drift.

 

[trueblue]

Last reasonable centre forward was Tomer Hemed. We have struggled for goals ever since being in the top flight. We all knew that Andone & Locadia leaving was futile. To not bring in any replacements in January was at best arrogant & at worst acceptance of relegation - perhaps there is not such a desire by our chairman now for BHA to be a top flight club. After all we are only going to make up the numbers at best?

You really think Tony Bloom put £250m+ into the club so that he can lose money every season in the Championship?

 

[deslynhamsmoustache1]

If he was unable to sign something better was he suppose to say, blooming eck fellas I have no faith in any striker in our squad?

Erm how about, "That of course I think we always need to improve the sqaud and the forward area is just one of the positions we are keen to improve".
Which is the polite way of saying, "these boys have had multiple chances but couldn't hit a whore in a brothel, so I acknowledge we need better".

 

[HantsSeagull]

to be honest Bloom has to take the blame here. i know its not my money etc etc but at what point do you, as the owner of the club with 300m invested, say - "well I am glad you are happy with the squad Graham, but we have two experienced strikers (only 1 in the PL), we are in a relegation battle and we aren't scoring and therefore I am not happy with the squad....i am buying someone "

or is it a case of GP not really being happy at all and Bloom not wanting to spend in the window.

either way we are sleep walking to the championship as a result.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

to be honest Bloom has to take the blame here. i know its not my money etc etc but at what point do you, as the owner of the club with 300m invested, say - "well I am glad you are happy with the squad Graham, but we have two experienced strikers (only 1 in the PL), we are in a relegation battle and we aren't scoring and therefore I am not happy with the squad....i am buying someone "

or is it a case of GP not really being happy at all and Bloom not wanting to spend in the window.

either way we are sleep walking to the championship as a result.

Bloom employs a team of people to do a job.

IMO the blame rests with Ashworth and the recruitment team.....

What was Potter or Hughton supposed to say when asked?
They are hardly going to undermine the infrastructure within the club.



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[Harry Wilson's tackle]

OK, here is my take.

Bloom could quite easily go the Palace route. Get Pards in. Get Big Sam in. Spaff 30 million and £100K a week on Benteke. We would probably be 12th now.

However, this is not a sustainable model, as we will see over the next few years when Palace finally trip up (it will be a very long fall).

No. Instead Bloom has decided to build slowly and sustainably. Potter will stay, whether we stay up or not. Bloom has picked Potter and extended his contract because he likes what he sees. Potter isn't a good interviewee. I suspect he has little time for it, but is smart enough to be able to do it, unrattled (which is why he sounds so lackadaisical). We have no idea what really goes on at the club in terms of the manager's training regime and man management. But we won't stay up simply by getting a manager who sounds better when interviewed and plays to the gallery.

As for spaffing on a £25 mill striker (and the £100K a week salary that goes with it), this will happen as the average wage at the club increases. Apparently we have a good team spirit. Tony probably feels that having one player earning twice what Ali J earns isn't in the best interests of the club at the moment.

The rest is fine margins. The plan is long term, so short term setbacks, including relegation, are factored into the plan.

I'm happy with that. If we find ourselves 12th in the championship next season, playing shite, and with 5 of our current squad sold, and no obvious plan, then I'll be critical. But not now.

 

[darkwolf666]

Last reasonable centre forward was Tomer Hemed. We have struggled for goals ever since being in the top flight. We all knew that Andone & Locadia leaving was futile. To not bring in any replacements in January was at best arrogant & at worst acceptance of relegation - perhaps there is not such a desire by our chairman now for BHA to be a top flight club. After all we are only going to make up the numbers at best?

Have you erased Glenn Murray from your memory banks, or are you just talking shit, like the rest of your post...

 

[A mex eyecan]

When we failed to bring a striker in during the window I said it would likely cost us our top flight status and it’s now looking highly likely. The squad was desperate for a lift, although to be honest even if we did get one unlikely Potter would even be including them in the match day 18.

with GP’s way of using players he would most likely start them at right back, then drop him the match after he scored a hat trick

 

[martin tyler]

Relying on 1 striker whose spent 2 seasons in the championship is suicidal. I think Mupaay is a good striker with good movement but he’s not clinical enough or the right type of striker to lead the line alone.
He’s beginning to look frustrated and burnt out.
This is recruitment failings and it’s been their failings for years. We can’t even sell the dross they have brought in as no one will buy

 

[Uh_huh_him]

OK, here is my take.

Bloom could quite easily go the Palace route. Get Pards in. Get Big Sam in. Spaff 30 million and £100K a week on Benteke. We would probably be 12th now.

However, this is not a sustainable model, as we will see over the next few years when Palace finally trip up (it will be a very long fall).

No. Instead Bloom has decided to build slowly and sustainably. Potter will stay, whether we stay up or not. Bloom has picked Potter and extended his contract because he likes what he sees. Potter isn't a good interviewee. I suspect he has little time for it, but is smart enough to be able to do it, unrattled (which is why he sounds so lackadaisical). We have no idea what really goes on at the club in terms of the manager's training regime and man management. But we won't stay up simply by getting a manager who sounds better when interviewed and plays to the gallery.

As for spaffing on a £25 mill striker (and the £100K a week salary that goes with it), this will happen as the average wage at the club increases. Apparently we have a good team spirit. Tony probably feels that having one player earning twice what Ali J earns isn't in the best interests of the club at the moment.

The rest is fine margins. The plan is long term, so short term setbacks, including relegation, are factored into the plan.

I'm happy with that. If we find ourselves 12th in the championship next season, playing shite, and with 5 of our current squad sold, and no obvious plan, then I'll be critical. But not now.

Yeah this is the truth of the matter.

I'm in a very low place following yesterday ( and most of the games this year), but I would still rather we were following this model than spunking everything on staying up.

 

[deslynhamsmoustache1]

I dont think any Brighton fan would disagree that an awful lot of money has been spent on players. Nor do I think any Brighton fan would disagree that most of that has been wasted.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Bloom employs a team of people to do a job.

IMO the blame rests with Ashworth and the recruitment team.....

What was Potter or Hughton supposed to say when asked?
They are hardly going to undermine the infrastructure within the club.



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I think this goes a little further back than Ashworth, although he has failed to correct a problem of fairly haphazard recruitment.

It appears to me that we have just signed players that the recruitment team like, regardless of whether they fill a specific squad need. This is why we are overloaded with central defenders, wingers and number 10s but short of defensive midfield players, central strikers and (until recently) right backs. Alireza didn't exactly fill a gaping hole on the right when we already had Knockaert and March but we still targeted him rather than a Murray replacement. The result is that we have an unbalanced squad full of not-very-fast wide players drawing big wages when we could have a slightly smaller, better-balanced squad, all earning a bit more.

Until recently Potter has repeated a mantra of 'improving what we have' but the truth is that you can't improve something that isn't there, and we're short of strikers. Look how well Matej Vydra has done recently for Burnley, proving the wisdom of having experienced backup.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I think this goes a little further back than Ashworth, although he has failed to correct a problem of fairly haphazard recruitment.

It appears to me that we have just signed players that the recruitment team like, regardless of whether they fill a specific squad need. This is why we are overloaded with central defenders, wingers and number 10s but short of defensive midfield players, central strikers and (until recently) right backs. Alireza didn't exactly fill a gaping hole on the right when we already had Knockaert and March but we still targeted him rather than a Murray replacement. The result is that we have an unbalanced squad full of not-very-fast wide players drawing big wages when we could have a slightly smaller, better-balanced squad, all earning a bit more.

Until recently Potter has repeated a mantra of 'improving what we have' but the truth is that you can't improve something that isn't there, and we're short of strikers. Look how well Matej Vydra has done recently for Burnley, proving the wisdom of having experienced backup.

Great post - yes very fair, but as you say and my point, Ashworth has apparently not addressed a worrying situation.


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[portslade seagull]

Maybe they didn't want a striker that might've saved us. Seems extremely odd to release two out on loan when the window is closed and then not make any worthwhile attempt to get one in January knowing what the likely outcome would be

 

[doogie004]

You really think Tony Bloom put £250m+ into the club so that he can lose money every season in the Championship?

I very much doubt it but what we are seeing on the pitch and decisions we are making off it tell a different story


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[Barnham Seagull]

I think this goes a little further back than Ashworth, although he has failed to correct a problem of fairly haphazard recruitment.

It appears to me that we have just signed players that the recruitment team like, regardless of whether they fill a specific squad need. This is why we are overloaded with central defenders, wingers and number 10s but short of defensive midfield players, central strikers and (until recently) right backs. Alireza didn't exactly fill a gaping hole on the right when we already had Knockaert and March but we still targeted him rather than a Murray replacement. The result is that we have an unbalanced squad full of not-very-fast wide players drawing big wages when we could have a slightly smaller, better-balanced squad, all earning a bit more.

Until recently Potter has repeated a mantra of 'improving what we have' but the truth is that you can't improve something that isn't there, and we're short of strikers. Look how well Matej Vydra has done recently for Burnley, proving the wisdom of having experienced backup.

Spot on, I’ve spent 2 hours this morning trying to pick a starting line up and can’t. Squad is full of peripheral players that we seem to collect on mass all in the areas that are not needed which as you say points to the recruitment team picking players they like rather than players for specific positions.

If we couldn’t bring in top quality from abroad we should have opted to get the best from the championship which would have at least given us 11 players you would as Wilder mentioned the opposition has to go through rather than the lightweights we have. It would also make us much better equipped if we do drop, now we have to many on the books that will be hard to move on and not cut out for the championship.

If we go down it feels to me like such a big opportunity missed with so many poor decision by the recruitment team and likely the board.