[Football] Selling Off The Albion Family Silver

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Touched on it on another thread, but on mature (ha!) reflection, maybe worth a thread of its own...

We sold off the Albion Family Silver Midfield this summer.

We look to be shaping up to sell off the Albion Family Silver Attack next summer.

Albion defence is fit for the knackers yard. We'll be stuck with that.

How do we kick on from there?

Or do we just do a Southampton?

Well?

 

[NorthstandRacoon]

Touched on it on another thread, but on mature (ha!) reflection, maybe worth a thread of its own...

We sold off the Albion Family Silver Midfield this summer.

We look to be shaping up to sell off the Albion Family Silver Attack next summer.

Albion defence is fit for the knackers yard. We'll be stuck with that.

How do we kick on from there?

Or do we just do a Southampton?

Well?

Some good points. Tbh I really think if we keep selling the silver, we won’t progress. We have done v well with replacements, but what’s happening atm is it is showing us we have some cracks forming. I think we need to invest in some PL ready players and who can slot straight into the starting 11. But on the flip side that means we move away from our model, that had bought us loads if success.

 

[studio150]

To kick on, only one big money sale in the summer window is needed, so that we can spend time in the pre-season and early games fully integrating new players into the pattern of play.

Whether we do that, or are still willing to let more players leave at the same time if our valuation is met, we give a good indication of whether the club is willing to stay as a mid table team, or regularly push for European qualification.

 

[dazzer6666]

Really difficult balance….think Ale Mac was always going to go, but that was compounded by the ridiculous offer for Caicedo that we couldn’t refuse for a bunch of reasons - but agree end result is our midfield was significantly weakened at least in the short term. Baleba might be the next Caicedo, but he’s young and inexperienced and we don’t have anyone else in that mould. Add to that all the extra fixtures and it’s easy to see the difficulties we’re having.

For a club like ours, progression (bearing in mind sustainability) will never be linear - we’ll have stellar seasons and some dips as we ‘trust the process’, but over time the peaks will get higher as we get to be more of an attractive proposition for players to stay. We’ll always, however, lose our very best players to ‘big’ clubs - always. We don’t have the resources (or blind stupidity in Boehly’s case) to pay top, top dollar. Going to just enjoy the ride, it’s never going to smooth but we’re at least competing at or near the top table. It’s really only a couple of years or so since we were continually shitting ourselves about relegation……..

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

The defence is definitely not “fit for the knackers yard”. Dunk, Estupinan and Veltman are all high quality players, JPVH and Igor both seem very competent too. The lack of consistency and defensive ability in midfield is selling the defence short. Last season our midfield routinely consisted of Mac Allister, Caicedo and Groß, this season we’re seeing some highly suspect midfields ie the 2 man option that was steam rolled by Villa.

 

[Simster]

Agree with dazzer. We can't expect progress to be linear if we are offered ludicrous money for our players. Also, part of the reason we continue to attract talent is that we don't stand in their way when the big boys come calling. I'm not sure we will sell the family attacking silver next summer anyway. Mitoma is a maybe, Ferguson absolutely no chance. He'll be here for at least a season longer than that, maybe even two.

As for our defence, not sure it's quite ready for the knackers yard. Van Hecke is young, Dunk and Webster are not yet old. We do need new full backs eased into this squad though. We rely too heavily on the excellent Veltman for sure.

 

[Littlemo]

Tbh I get sick of hearing about it. We lost two big players but it was only two, so far RDZ has been as much of an architect of his own downfall.

He insists on dropping Veltman who is the best RB we have, but there’s plenty of time before the Ajax game and he hasn’t been away for the internationals, so there’s really no need to.

He also insists on playing 2 in midfield when he’d be better playing 3. We had 3 there last season, Mac, Caicedo and Gross all played together.

We brought in replacements, it’s up to RDZ to get them up to speed. It’s part of his learning as well, is a system that takes working with a player for half a season before they are ready, going to be sustainable as a manger? He is on a learning curve here as well.

 

[Springal]

We knew both were going after January and failed to plan. Instead ‘planning for the future’s but unfortunately not planning for the here & now.

Equally our failure around providing options to rotate around wing backs.

 

[Whitechapel]

As things stand we’re currently 7th, having played 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th & 9th in our 9 games. We’re doing this whilst balancing Europe for the first time in our history. The doom and gloom seems slightly premature.

 

[raymondo]

I think our model needs to be tweaked if we're to maintain momentum, rather than slip a ways back.
Our scouting of young talent is remarkable but they improve/mature at different speeds that are hard to predict: AliMac, Caicedo, Enciso, Buonanotte, Baleba.
Buying more experienced players has been patchy too: Pedro (seems PL ready mostly), Dahoud, needs more time.

For me, we need to spend some solid money on at least one PL experienced fullback, plus one PL experienced midfielder.
It looks like Lallana is going to be mainly a bench based 'coach' who's hardly going to play. Also, getting Milner is more of a favour to him I think rather than us.

It'll cost money, but if we want to compete in Europe as well as PL, I think we have to balance our purchases better.

 

[Springal]

As things stand we’re currently 7th, having played 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th & 9th in our 9 games. We’re doing this whilst balancing Europe for the first time in our history. The doom and gloom seems slightly premature.

We’ve played 2 games in Europe, but last season we entered the league cup a round earlier. Net net we’ve played 1 game more.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Tbh I get sick of hearing about it. We lost two big players but it was only two, so far RDZ has been as much of an architect of his own downfall.

He insists on dropping Veltman who is the best RB we have, but there’s plenty of time before the Ajax game and he hasn’t been away for the internationals, so there’s really no need to.

He also insists on playing 2 in midfield when he’d be better playing 3. We had 3 there last season, Mac, Caicedo and Gross all played together.

We brought in replacements, it’s up to RDZ to get them up to speed. It’s part of his learning as well, is a system that takes working with a player for half a season before they are ready, going to be sustainable as a manger? He is on a learning curve here as well.

Three. We sold Trossard

 

[dazzer6666]

As things stand we’re currently 7th, having played 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th & 9th in our 9 games. We’re doing this whilst balancing Europe for the first time in our history. The doom and gloom seems slightly premature.

Also this. It’s all part of the process……..as is the rotation which DeZ is getting slammed for in some quarters. It’s going to pay off later in the season imo. Don’t think we’ve ‘failed’ to do anything - quite happy the club don’t spunk tens of millions on players they don’t think are worth it.

 

[dazzer6666]

I think our model needs to be tweaked if we're to maintain momentum, rather than slip a ways back.
Our scouting of young talent is remarkable but they improve/mature at different speeds that are hard to predict: AliMac, Caicedo, Enciso, Buonanotte, Baleba.
Buying more experienced players has been patchy too: Pedro (seems PL ready mostly), Dahoud, needs more time.

For me, we need to spend some solid money on at least one PL experienced fullback, plus one PL experienced midfielder.
It looks like Lallana is going to be mainly a bench based 'coach' who's hardly going to play. Also, getting Milner is more of a favour to him I think rather than us.

It'll cost money, but if we want to compete in Europe as well as PL, I think we have to balance our purchases better.

The buying of Joao Pedro is exactly that kind of tweak though isn’t it ? Club record signing……..
Wouldn’t expect to see that happen with more than one player in any window

 

[maltaseagull]

We’ve played 2 games in Europe, but last season we entered the league cup a round earlier. Net net we’ve played 1 game more.

I don't think that was the point.
Surely it's about the quality of the opposition?

 

[Whitechapel]

We’ve played 2 games in Europe, but last season we entered the league cup a round earlier. Net net we’ve played 1 game more.

The first round cup game was away to Forest Green, in a game which Jack Spong and Ed Turns started, whilst someone called Jack Hinchy came off the bench - a player I knew so little about I had to Google what his first name was.

Whilst your point is true, I’m not sure comparing that game to AEK or Marseille is entirely fair.

Edit: Admittedly that team looks quite strong now, but Ferguson, Enciso, van Hecke & Steele weren’t first team names when it happened. Mitoma had only played about 20 minutes too.

 

[drew]

Three. We sold Trossard

He was already sidelined by the form of Mitoma.

 

[drew]

We have a business model that has taken us, under Bloom, from League 1 to Europe. It's working. We don't have the resources of bigger clubs. Shall we just spend spend spend or do we sign young players and then get a reputation for never letting them move on.

 

[Eeyore]

It will always be like this because Albion do not have the financial muscle of other clubs.

It is incredible that we are where we are.

I'm just enjoying it all. I know that it could slip, but that happens to all clubs in our position. Just enjoy these days and hope they last a little longer.

 

[Littlemo]

Three. We sold Trossard

I’m not sure he’d have played Trossard again since there seemed to be a lot of stropping about and falling out. I only meant players RDZ would have kept and played.