Wow. Some amazing opinions here.
If you can't tell the difference b/t the sides of 17/18 AND 18/19, you need to have your head examined. I won't even begin to explain xPTS to any genius that thinks that - it would've had us finish bottom third easy, some models had us as low as 17th or 18th, but you'd think your eyes would be able to tell, ignoring just the basic 20 goal and 5 point difference.
But FAR AND AWAY the best opinion, is the idea that Brands is at fault for not being able to shift Niasse and Martina, two players - especially Niasse, who would have NEVER BEEN ACQUIRED if we had employed a proper Director of Football in the first place. Talk about irony. Niasse is the most incompetent buy in club history. Totally irresponsible. To this day no one is still taking responsibility for it, because the club had zero direction, zero recruitment strategy, zero plan, and zero accountability.
It is completely unreasaonable to suggest that it's his responsibility to fool other clubs into taking players that are clearly not good enough - he's a Director of Football, not a Carnival Barker or a mob hitman. Just insanity of course, but obviously this is a wind up because if we all know they are crap, the suggestion that others might not think so is farcical. Yet Brands has somehow - I don't know how - convinced several Championship clubs to take him on, despite only have 6 months on Niasse's deal, and he's said no. Same with Cenk. Had him sold, he said no. Finally, Carlo yanking him helped him see he's not wanted.
Beyond that, I love all the negativity over Iwobi. The kid has been amazingly productive in the PL considering he's been playing out of position - go look at his numbers in open play vs. Bernard. I cannot wait until he is playing in our midfield properly supported by a couple decent DMs/CMs. He's also 23. But he has a couple average performances and people think he can't play - I'm going to trust the 1,000s of other minutes he's played rather than the couple hundred with us. It's like Kean must stink because he played a couple times as a 19 year old in a team with zero service.
As far as the Delph signing, he's our best midfielder. He was signed to be a backup 8 and he's been starting and playing as a 6. Is he great? Not really, but he's miles better than Davies, Scheiderlin, and everyone else in there. Thank heavens Brands signed someone at that spot.
Last point - Brands has a much longer time horizon than many of you. He's not thinking about just this window. He's got a longer term strategy and he's going to stick to it. I cannot imagine what state this club would be in without him.
