We should try to move on from the past, in particular the mismanagement of the midfield department. It has all been done to death.
Everyone would say, looking back, of course we should have handled the midfield differently. I don’t see much mileage in going over that, still.
Obviously there’s no censorship, so if people still want to discuss it, go for it!
For me, it needs a line drawing under it, as we all know the score.
The issue is what we do to the midfield as we move forward. MacAllister is an excellent start. Will we see one or two more this summer? Will any midfielders depart, apart from the ones we know about? What will the tactics be? Those things are way more interesting, to me at least.
I think Fabinho will get decent gametime this season but i’m really looking forward to see how much time Bajcetic gets,will it be in Fabs position and will he be able to make it his own by seasons end.
Want three new midfielders until January as prove that lessons have been learnt, that we’ll be ‘ruthless’ to the remaining old guard and to show that it was the right move to back out of a relatively cheap Bellingham deal.
Then I can start thinking about drawing a line under the mistakes of the last two years.
contracts, signed by both parties. club tried to sign Tchouameni and it didn’t work out. 9 midfielders on the books with three of them on last year of contracts, I’m sure the club tried to move some of them, but the players have to agree to move. we’re at the top of the pile when it comes to wagers, any of the guys we wanted to move would have agreed to take a huge pay cut to transfer to another club where they’ll make 1/3 of the wages.
on the back of the season before, 60 games played with 4 cup finals. the hands were played with the cards that were dealt this season, not much they could do about it no matter how much hand-wringing we do as fans.
The irony of the conversation is you could speak to a lot of Real fans who say the same about their season as we’re seeing said here about our failings. It was a season that faded badly after the restart, with fans pointing to a team with all the energy expected of one whose midfield is run by a 37 and 33 year old. They just couldnt put in back to back good performances and fans were constantly pointing to this lack of being able to call on suitable alternatives to the old guard as a big part of the reason. Despite the money they spent, they somehow managed to get more games out of the 37 year old modric this year than they did last year, and that in a fucked up world cup year in which his workload was high
I think the reason it resonates so much is it is a Rorschach test for what you think happens at the club. Did our season go the way it went because we’ve got owners who refuse to spend what is necessary to be competitive, or put a team around our legendary manager that have let him down? Or was it because our manager, notoriously big on continuity and collective growth, felt that after failing to bring in either of the midfielders at the very top of our list, players who wouldnt need much accommodation, decided that with the number of changes in the front line we’d already had the best bet was to roll the dice with the midfield he had for one more year.
If you think it’s the former, I can understand it not being something you can draw a line under.
First, the transfer fee. We should go with whatever the upper end is, as Real Madrid tend to win trophies. So, the choice on the fee is one Bellingham, OR three players, with MacAllister confirmed, and possibly two from Kone, Thuram, Veiga, that sort of caliber… for a similar price.
No brainer. Three midfielders. We made the right choice.
Second observation is the wages. Real Madrid tend to report net wages, and a UK comparison would mean we would have had to pay Bellingham somewhere in the region of £400k per week, to be in the ballpark.
Whatever else we might say, it is not relatively cheap!
It’s a new day, and we are active in the market, building a new midfield with one already in the bag, and looking to the future.
Going over old ground… grrr we should have done this, or that, etc. is fine, to a point - and that point, for me at least, was some time ago!
We will sign two, maybe three new midfielders this summer, and probably a defender too. We have refreshed the attack. Trent has been unleashed as a playmaker in the inverted fullback role. If we extrapolate his impact since we did that, over the course of a season, new records will be written.
It is an exciting time to be a red!
Much better to muse over all that than say, those bloody owners! Arthur, Arthur! Etc.
ox chamberlain, Naby and Jones injured for most of the season did not help, maybe if Jones came back a month earlier we might have finished in the top 4.
We have gone from 35M Andy Carroll signed ages ago to 35M Alexis MacAllister in today’s inflated transfer market. But people will still find a reason to complain. Some people can never be pleased, can they?
