Just how astute are our transfer dealings this time round?

[Hardhouse44 261]

We are told that Giannoulis and Gibson cost around £15mil yet they are second best to a couple of youngsters one on loan and one up through the ranks.  Just how good are the other signings. I’ve seen nothing yet to suggest Lees melou or Rashica will be good enough at this level to make match winning contributions at the required regularity needed to win enough games to stay up. Tzolis? we saw little from him yesterday to suggest that either and are basing our hopes on his performance against Bournemouth’s reserves. Who knows.

The two loan players who signed just before the window closed are as yet unseen but are they really good enough to do the business at this level week in week out. Who knows again. But! Surely having seen what we’ve already seen from others you have to question it. 
 

Premier League quality that will gel and come good or just all we could get given our spending level and wage structure? I know what I think. What do you reckon?

 

 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,675]

I'll judge when we are not playing top six teams with two of them being teams aiming to win the divison.

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

20 minutes ago, Hardhouse44 said:

We are told that Giannoulis and Gibson cost around £15mil yet they are second best to a couple of youngsters one on loan and one up through the ranks.  Just how good are the other signings. I’ve seen nothing yet to suggest Lees melou or Rashica will be good enough at this level to make match winning contributions at the required regularity needed to win enough games to stay up. Tzolis? we saw little from him yesterday to suggest that either and are basing our hopes on his performance against Bournemouth’s reserves. Who knows.

The two loan players who signed just before the window closed are as yet unseen but are they really good enough to do the business at this level week in week out. Who knows again. But! Surely having seen what we’ve already seen from others you have to question it. 
 

Premier League quality that will gel and come good or just all we could get given our spending level and wage structure? I know what I think. What do you reckon?

The likelihood is it'll be a mixed bag. I think Lees-Melou, Gunn and Sargent were signed to add depth to the squad, but Kabak, Normann, Williams, Gilmour, Tzolis and Rashica all have the potential to be a success as starters at PL level. It's doubtful that they'll all make the grade, but compared to two years ago we've really pushed the boat out. The next four games will be a better barometer of how good these players are than the previous four games; not just because of the quality of the opposition, but because of the Covid outbreak, the international break and the natural gelling process.

Let's discuss this again after the Brighton match and see how/whether our opinions have changed.

Edited September 12, 2021 by Feedthewolf

[FenwayFrank 2,456]

20 minutes ago, Hardhouse44 said:

I know what I think.

We already know what you think 

[Chip20 69]

We'll not know until the end of the season. 

The end. 

[wcorkcanary 4,329]

23 minutes ago, FenwayFrank said:

We already know what you think 

Said it before  and I'll say it again...Hard House is Just Pu$$y Techno, but without the interesting  bits. Gimme some Latvian Toe Flautists over that rubbish anyday.  👍😉😇

[Hardhouse44 261]

28 minutes ago, FenwayFrank said:

We already know what you think 

Right. So that’s not a valid opinion. Yes I think we are under gunned and the players we’ve signed don’t exactly standout to me as being good enough to keep us up but I will say I am still hopeful that we can pull something together and make some fist of staying up. 
If the truth be told I question the deployment and tactics asked of the players as much if not more than the players. I’m sure some players such as Aaron’s have regressed others like Hanley and Krul are being asked to play in a way they are not comfortable with. Selection questions are also valid. Dowell not really the guy for the job yet starts against Arsenal with little game time at that level if any!
 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Hardhouse44

[wcorkcanary 4,329]

6 minutes ago, Chip20 said:

We'll not know until the end of the season. 

The end. 

Wise words, though a four point gap either way after 37 games may pre empty that. As would a 7 pt gap after 36.. and so on.

Edited September 12, 2021 by wcorkcanary

[CDMullins 436]

53 minutes ago, Hardhouse44 said:

We are told that Giannoulis and Gibson cost around £15mil yet they are second best to a couple of youngsters one on loan and one up through the ranks.  Just how good are the other signings. I’ve seen nothing yet to suggest Lees melou or Rashica will be good enough at this level to make match winning contributions at the required regularity needed to win enough games to stay up. Tzolis? we saw little from him yesterday to suggest that either and are basing our hopes on his performance against Bournemouth’s reserves. Who knows.

The two loan players who signed just before the window closed are as yet unseen but are they really good enough to do the business at this level week in week out. Who knows again. But! Surely having seen what we’ve already seen from others you have to question it. 
 

Premier League quality that will gel and come good or just all we could get given our spending level and wage structure? I know what I think. What do you reckon?

 

 

I questioned this last week and got massively shut down.

Still hold lots of hope for Rashicha and Tzolis.

Frustrating that our two new signings didn't play - Ronaldo, Tomyasu, Emmerson Royal, Saul just from the bits I saw yesterday were all players who signed last minute and started straight away.

[Uncle Fred 526]

I said before a ball Had even been kicked we have recruited badly, I have seen nothing to prove me wrong in fact they are worse than I had predicted 

[Clever Farke 64]

17 minutes ago, Uncle Fred said:

I said before a ball Had even been kicked we have recruited badly, I have seen nothing to prove me wrong in fact they are worse than I had predicted 

Shame we didn’t get that Ronaldo eh?  

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,131]

Let's see how they get on after more time to gel and in one of those extremely rare PL fixtures where the ref is maybe only 90% biased against us, instead of the usual blatent 100% leaning towards whatever opposition we play.

 

I think once the likes of Rashica, Tzolis etc get a goal (Well, when it's not disallowed because one of them didn't cut their facial hair close enough so one strand of beard is offside by a nano meter) then they'll gain some confidence and kick on. Only summer signing I'm not sure about is Gilmour, he looks to small for this league and too easily out muscled, but i'm not writing him off yet. 

[Ken Hairy 3,759]

57 minutes ago, Uncle Fred said:

I said before a ball Had even been kicked we have recruited badly, I have seen nothing to prove me wrong in fact they are worse than I had predicted 

Agreed, a 5-2 home defeat to Bolton suggests you have indeed recruited badly...... 

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

Ask again in 4-6 weeks time.

As for writing off Ben Gibson after 3 games, can you not remember Michael Turner's first games for us? Or indeed, Hanley's first 4 or 5 games in the Premier League? 

Gibson will be the right player for some games, the wrong player for some others, and I think the same will apply to the two left backs, Williams is better defensively so makes more sense in the games where you expect to be dominated, the Greek makes more sense when you think you'll have the rub of the green and you expect there to be scope for him to get forward frequently.

Farke has been given options tactically, now its up to him to show us that he can use that to his and our advantage over the course of the season. 

 

[Dean Coneys boots 1,398]

Having identified that we were too easily out muscled last time out and lacking physicality- we went and signed a load of young lightweight players…

[Herman 9,714]

2 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Having identified that we were too easily out muscled last time out and lacking physicality- we went and signed a load of young lightweight players…

[Mike w 46]

I think we are too lightweight in midfield and up front. Ok in championship but Premier far more physical

 

[Badger 2,405]

3 hours ago, Hardhouse44 said:

Premier League quality that will gel and come good or just all we could get given our spending level and wage structure? I know what I think. What do you reckon?

1. All that anybody can get, including Man U and Real Madrid is what their spending level and wage structure allows - it is a blindingly obvious point in that respect. You might as well say that I think I will only have a chance of staying healthy if long as I carry on breathing. 😃

2. I think I know what you think but also think that you don't really know what you are talking about - you could perhaps convince me by explaining what our wage structure is and how it compares to Palace, Southampton, Brighton, Brentford, Watford etc.

Otherwise my guess is that this is vacuous.

[Badger 2,405]

46 minutes ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

Ask again in 4-6 weeks time.

Or even at the end of the season?

They are players not machines - they don't just perform automatically - even if you pay £79 million for them like Arsenal for Pepe etc

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

44 minutes ago, Badger said:

Or even at the end of the season?

They are players not machines - they don't just perform automatically - even if you pay £79 million for them like Arsenal for Pepe etc

There are probably two things which need to be critiqued.

Success of individual signings... Vrancic one who showed that it sometimes takes a while for a player to show their best football. Yeah, end is season for that one. 

Success of summer transfer business where the objective is to stay to in this division... And unfortunately perfectly possible to determine that unsuccessful much earlier than the end of the season. E.g. November. 

Edited September 12, 2021 by TeemuVanBasten

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

1 hour ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Having identified that we were too easily out muscled last time out and lacking physicality- we went and signed a load of young lightweight players…

Let's see the latest two before judging our physicality, Normann looks like a little Pitbull to me? 

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

12 minutes ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

Let's see the latest two before judging our physicality, Normann looks like a little Pitbull to me? 

Since when were Deano's judgements based on reality? Even ignoring the fact that more than half of our summer signings are 25 or over, where is this idea of 'lightweight' coming from?

Williams, Lees-Melou, Normann and Kabak all have plenty of physicality about them, and Tzolis hardly looks like a shrinking violet. Sargent puts himself about a lot too. The only one of our signings who I'd say is 'lightweight' is Gilmour, and he brings an obviously different skill set.

I'm not saying all our signings are brilliant and they're all heavyweight, I'm just saying it's far, far too early to rush to judgement. Unless you're Deano, of course.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

5 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

I'll judge when we are not playing top six teams with two of them being teams aiming to win the divison.

Although of course your broad point is correct, we've been handed a very tough run of fixtures to start... Arsenal finished 8th last season, and 8th the season before that. They don't get to be called a top six team in perpetuity, they are a 'top half' side, or an 'upper mid-table' side these days. One season could be written off as an outlier, or a fluke, but not two seasons in a row. It has been five years since they qualified for the Champions League. 

[sonyc 5,492]

9 minutes ago, Feedthewolf said:

I'm not saying all our signings are brilliant and they're all heavyweight, I'm just saying it's far, far too early to rush to judgement. Unless you're Deano, of course.

Imagine you are a new employee (anywhere) and you've been written off before you've even started in your job?!

That's what some supporters are doing. We've played 4 games.

Surely with all our new recruits you have to form a view over many games before you form an opinion? Iwan Roberts? etc etc....

[hogesar 9,618]

1 hour ago, Feedthewolf said:

Since when were Deano's judgements based on reality? Even ignoring the fact that more than half of our summer signings are 25 or over, where is this idea of 'lightweight' coming from?

Williams, Lees-Melou, Normann and Kabak all have plenty of physicality about them, and Tzolis hardly looks like a shrinking violet. Sargent puts himself about a lot too. The only one of our signings who I'd say is 'lightweight' is Gilmour, and he brings an obviously different skill set.

I'm not saying all our signings are brilliant and they're all heavyweight, I'm just saying it's far, far too early to rush to judgement. Unless you're Deano, of course.

DCB will make up whatever he fancies to give him a reason to post negatively.

Which seems even more unnecessary when he could genuinely post negatively purely based on the results without the need to make things up.

[Dean Coneys boots 1,398]

3 hours ago, Herman said:

Don’t know why you post this. I have argued that the midfield needed beefing up since before skipp left us 

[Herman 9,714]

We got all the types of player you were moaning that we should go for, so now you've indulged in a bit of revisionism to carry on moaning that we haven't got the players you were moaning for. We see you.👀

[Jpootz 15]

Rashica has for me been the most impressive new signing so far. Even when he came on yesterday he was running at and beating the Arsenal players and won us a few corners. A fully fit Rashica on one side and Tzolis on the other is quite an exciting prospect tbh, especially against the lesser teams in the league. I believe that when we have a fully fit squad that we’ve got players in the midfield and attacking positions that can really cause serious problems for opposing teams. 

[Son Ova Gunn 165]

According to the Sun our signings were quite astute having only underpaid very slightly… the fact that they couldn’t be bothered to find a Norwich badge kind of discredits the nonsense article thou.. 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Son Ova Gunn

[Capt. Pants 4,195]

According to the front page we had a £13m bid for Gianoullis, that's double what we paid? Don't know if the £500k is based on that market value.