Absolutely, and given cheaty dropped a level it’s probably cost us a PL this season and definitely cost us CL next season.
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Rumours are that he was brought in to negotiate prices with clubs as Ward wasnt great at this. Sounds like a lot of work with regards to wages, schmoozing and trips to Blackpool have been done with quite a few players. Now its down to Jorg to do a Martin Lewis and get us some bargains.
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What deals has Ward been primarily responsible for? Nunez, and Gapko. And renewals for Mo, Gomes, Jota, and a few of the younger players. Maybe quibbles over the cost of the Nunez deal and Mo’s contract, but this rumour seems like one people just make up to explain something we dont have great answers for (why he’s leaving so quickly)
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Seemed huge money for Darwin at the time but as he’s shown he’s still very much a work in progress, it seems even more like we’ve overpaid.
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trying not to be too quick to judge on this one, but considering how fast Diaz got up to speed…I think Darwin has been a bit of a flop. a lot of money for a bench player.
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Darwin will come good. Just taking a bit of time to bed in thats all.
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I’d phrase that as Diaz being a steal. It just makes you wonder how many other gems are out of the radar.
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Darwin was obviously a much rawer talent than Diaz when we signed him.
We got somewhat lucky with Diaz because we knew his club were in financial difficulties (they asked the club for flexibility on Grujic’s loan deal) and were needing to sell …we waited until they dropped their asking price (I think they were initially asking around £60m for him) which they did when Spurs came in.
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time will tell. in the meantime, we have Nunez, Jota and Diaz all rotating through LW. not one of those three can do what Gakpo does, and none of them have had time at RW.
Yeah this one is a head scratcher for me.
Inverted winger system, and we don’t have a single left-footed winger at the club other than Salah. this is a bit of a problem for me, having four players for LW/CF and no natural substitute for our top goal scorer of the past 5 years. Even Doak is right footed, although he plays on the right. but is only 17. that’s a long ways away.
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Diaz and Jota have played on the right.
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But it’s not ideal though is it?
It’s something I feel can be looked at next summer.
The forward line as it is even if Diaz, Nunez or Jota had to play over there will still score enough goals.
It’s our CM and CD that needs improving that’s where we will win or lose titles.
Doak is a right forward, he will get a fair few minutes next season.
Teams rarely have everything ideal in their two XI’s.
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Unless they’re Man Cheaty.
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True, but if we play an inverted winger system then it sure as hell makes sense to have a 2nd left footed attacker that can fill in instead of having 10 players that all play on the left.
Inverted means only if they’re right footed or left footed. We don’t need to have a Salah clone being Salah’s backup next season without CL football. We can still be good whether Jota, Diaz or Elliott play there when Mo is unavailable or rested (which happens rarely, not always justified though).
I’d say there’s a higher chance that our next right sided attacker or winger purchase (could be a different player than Mo, it’s linked to what happens centrally, if it’s Gakpo or Nunez or someone third long term) is a player when Mo leaves or when we know he will leave in advance, rather than buying a backup now who would maybe be his replacement one day (probably expensive right now for all our other priorities).
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