summer '22 transfer craziness and stupidity

[I am invisible]

Lol - Sampaoli’s just resigned!

Matteo

[Chippy]

The new Vieria signing has been seen wearing a protective boot.

I see that Harold Shipman is still employed as the club Doctor then

[LDG]

Pretty much agree with all of this.

I also think fullback is the easiest position for youth players to step into. Surely we have a young RB. Norton Cuffy or someone. I'd actually pay Cedric to fuck off. That's how shite he is.

Taveres did look magic when he first broke into the team. Another shocking piece of man management from Arteta that, imo. Managed to turn a blip into a crisis and destroyed his confidence.

Let it play out I guess. But I fucking hate the thought of Spence heading to Spurs for next to nothing

[LDG]

3/4s of our fullback options are decent - the problem we had last season was we built a system that needed one defensive FB to balance a more offence FB on the other side, and we only had one defensive option. So all good as long as Tomi was fit - even Nuno looked like a monster in the making before Christmas - but as soon as we lost him we had nothing but attacking FBs to choose from. For a while we slid White across to play there - not ideal, but it provided a balance, and even Cedric didn’t look awful (for Cedric) when we told Tierney to stay back - it had an effect in Tierney’s game, but again it provided a kind of balance. But when we lost Tierney, and then Partey as the shield in front of them, and then White, the defence finally crumbled.

Let’s not forget, though, when had our best back 5/6 available we were breaking records for clean sheets, so there’s nothing too much wrong with those starting options. I don’t even have a problem with Nuno - he’s a bit raw, but at least he has a high ceiling. I’d take him over Cedric any day, who is as good now as he’ll ever be and will never get any better. What we need is depth, especially for our defensive FB options.

Saliba actually goes some way to addressing that - he’s played RB himself a fair bit or he allows us to slide white across to cover. And Martinez sounds like he would be a really smart buy too - he’d give us that defensive option on the left allowing us to play a more offensive RB (and if he can also provide better depth for Partey then that really would be a good move). Also, the additions of Saliba and Martinez would increase the chances of playing a back 3 when needed - in that situation we can get away with two all-out attacking FBs.

We don’t have 3/4

We have 1/4

If you think the standard is Cedric, Tavares and Tommy, then you’re deluded.

Yes, we played with one sitting, one forward….amazing tactics…if only you could get one to sit and one go forward….

Bollocks.

[Chippy]

We don’t have 3/4

We have 1/4

If you think the standard is Cedric, Tavares and Tommy, then you’re deluded.

Yes, we played with one sitting, one forward….amazing tactics…if only you could get one to sit and one go forward….

Bollocks.

LDG, are you becoming as miserable as Quinny and me? 😄

[selassie]

I'd say it's close but, assuming Vieira can play that 8 role then a winger is the priority for me. Particularly right wing, with Pepe being our best option, by some distance.

Martinelli and ESR on the left isn't great but it'll do and Saka can come from his backup LB role to fill in as a winger in an emergency, for me.

Ah, ok then......

[selassie]

Let it play out I guess. But I fucking hate the thought of Spence heading to Spurs for next to nothing

You want more kids?

[LDG]

You want more kids?

Easy fella. Got three of my own.

Take that shit elsewhere

[LDG]

LDG, are you becoming as miserable as Quinny and me? ��

Nah. Just real pal.

I get nobody wants to entertain the fullback point, as it seems we have an abundance of options. Which was why we spent half of last season with Cedric and a fucking uneducated lunatic at fullback.

But yeah, we’re ok there boys. No problem.

[I am invisible]

We don’t have 3/4

We have 1/4

If you think the standard is Cedric, Tavares and Tommy, then you’re deluded.

Yes, we played with one sitting, one forward….amazing tactics…if only you could get one to sit and one go forward….

Bollocks.

Come on mate, let’s not do the ‘standards’ thing. This isn’t about ignoring the fullback issue - this is just a disagreement over Spence, nothing more. I get that you’re a fan of the kid, and you don’t want to see him go to spurs, but for me he’s not a priority - he doesn’t do anything to add to our more defensive FB options and I don’t see that he offers a great deal more than AMN or Norton Cuffy in terms of profile, if we want that more athletic, attacking option down that side.

(I also think you’re putting a lot of faith in a 21yo player from the Championship after a couple of eye-catching games in the cup. He might very well turn out to be the next big thing, but he could also be this year’s Ryan Sessegnon - we don’t know yet. Nuno had a couple of really strong games before Christmas too - form and confidence can come and go quickly at that age.)

Not really sure I get the issue with the ‘one forward, one back’ system? It looked like it was working just fine to me when Tomi was available? I see problems with our FB options, of course I do, but the issues I see and want resolved are that we need like-for-like cover for Tomiyasu, if we’re going to play that way, and we need stronger competition for Tierney. I like Nuno - he’s raw AF, but I think there’s a potentially really good player there waiting to be development - but he becomes more of a problem than he should be because of Tierney’s injuries. By rights we should only have to use him for a game here and a game there at this stage of his development, and it’s not really his fault that we’re forced to rely on him for 4-month stretches at a time, but there you go - that’s the situation and it needs to be dealt with.

Nobody wants Cedric, believe me - my only thought there is that Norton Cuffy looks a year away from being where Spence is now, and Cedric buys us that extra year. Even then I expect him to be 4th choice behind Tomiyasu, White and Saliba, so hopefully we’ll never have to see him.