There does seem to be a lot of thinking that players who are not playing well are not good players.
I honestly don’t see the squad as the problem. We need to replace those players whose contracts are coming to an end, but I don’t see many players that are fundamentally below par. At least, not with a suitable training regime.
No the people who are drugs are the ones who paid the money on people who are nowhere near the hyped up talent their their price tags would suggest .
Are they worth their transfer value so far? No.
Are they worth a place in the squad to build around? Surely, yes.
Ekitike , 100%…isak no imo
I can see Isak missing more games than he plays. His injury record at Newcastle was not good and I can see it been worse here. This is the main reason he is not going to live up to his price tag and will be looked back on in the future as a costly mistake.
I still maintain that we need to let these guys have some time under a coach who has a clear vision and ability to get us there. I’m quickly coming to the idea that Pochettino would be a great fit. He’s a project manager who enjoys developing talent, plays forward-thinking, high pressure football and always squeezed the maximum out of the talent he had at his disposal.
His only black-mark on his CV is managing a basket-case Chelsea, which he probably should have known better than to get involved with. PSG wasn’t a roaring success but he was basically fired for having the temerity to bench Messi, and he has a 4-1 away win at Barca and a win over Bayern in two legs to boast about from that period. Kind of a no-win situation at that club, especially at that time.
Outside of that he got fucking Spurs to a Champions Leeague final and consistently churned out exciting, young, attacking talent whether that was at White Hart Lane or St Marys.
With him managing the US it wouldn’t be ideal preparation but I could see him being a successful coach here for an extended period of time. I’d certainly be excited if we went that way.
Yip, you can sign the best 3 players and the system will still fail under this manager.
And this is why the posts about wholesale changes isn’t necessarily a good idea.
Agreed that recruitment can only work if it’s in concert with a manager’s vision and style, which is partially why I’m disconcerted by the notion of bringing back Slot as a lame duck. Investing big again for a head coach on a short leash with a one year deal just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I also like Pochettino quite a bit. I watched his interview on Stick to Football and I came away with even a greater impression of him than I had previously. His reputation really was shafted by going to PSG and Chelsea. I’m not sure if the US job will work for him long term - seemed like a bit of a well-paid chance to get out of the day to day spotlight of club management to work in a far less pressure packed environment. And he’s likely going to be available in the fall if we stick with Slot only to sack him in November.
But as much as I like him, he’s still well below Alonso on my list.
I would suggest…McAtee…but he now looks crocked…
I’d skip Pochettino and I’m saying this as someone who has defended him in last years (as he got criticism in general for not winning enough during and especially post Spurs).
without a new manager it doesn’t matter who we bring in. the fitness will be suspect and the tactics will be confused. we will see the same listness, disjointed product on the pitch.
I have so little interest in this summer’s transfer activity because nothing we do regarding players is going to fix what is wrong. Its so depressing.
I hear what you are saying. If you have the wrong leader then the signings are a band aid and won’t fix the underlying issues.
I still care about the signings, for example, who will we sign as Mo leaves? Will we sign a midfielder to give us better balance? What else will we do?
Still, if the players aren’t prepared properly, whoever we sign won’t be able show their best.
We could sign the PSG team and Slot would soon make them look like strangers to each other.
I sadly feel this is the case, it’s also why I’m not sure Diaz would have made much of a difference and as for Nunez well he already was putting in the Haaland performance without goals before he left.
I place the blame for the largely on Slot. When you are out of favour with him (Quansah, Elliott, Endo, Chiesa) he just robs you of your confidence with his cold nature.
He doesn’t get the concept of a squad, just flogs his favourites to death.
Nunez is one of those emotional characters that needs a bit of love, something Klopp was an expert at.
Football fans are some of the most unrealistic people on earth…
From what we learned, Klopp and Nunez didn’t really get on, especially in their last season towards the end.
Didn’t know that. But Slot’s cold nature turning players off isn’t isolated with Nunez as I mentioned