2019/20 Marcel Brands

[Eggs]

..if his job is to develop a football strategy and then support the manager in bringing players in who fit, then he appears to have made a decent start.

The cull was never going to be complete in one window but he and Silva obviously have their surplus list. Getting rid of Klaassen permanently was particularly good business, i’m sure he’d like to do similar with Sandro, Mirallas, Bolasie, Martina, Pennington and Besic. Browning and Galloway are both clearly done with the club from a football perspective. There will be more movement via the exit door in the next few weeks.

Where Walsh failed to deliver Giroud, Brands made the Mina deal happen even if it was last minute. He appears to have considered blend, adding Zouma who seems a similar type to Mina’s partner at international level, Davison Sanchez.

We can now assess his judgement but that will take games.

 

[bluestevon]

..if his job is to develop a football strategy and then support the manager in bringing players in who fit, then he appears to have made a decent start.

The cull was never going to be complete in one window but he and Silva obviously have their surplus list. Getting rid of Klaassen permanently was particularly good business, i’m sure he’d like to do similar with Sandro, Mirallas, Bolasie, Martina, Pennington and Besic. Browning and Galloway are both clearly done with the club from a football perspective. There will be more movement via the exit door in the next few weeks.

Where Walsh failed to deliver Giroud, Brands made the Mina deal happen even if it was last minute. He appears to have considered blend, adding Zouma who seems a similar type to Mina’s partner at international level, Davison Sanchez.

We can now assess his judgement but that will take games.

Oversll you'd have to say his first summer in charge was done with an amazing degree of cohesion and with a clear plan in mind, one look at the positions we needed and hit tells you that, also look at the age of what we'd say was our starting 11 last season compared to how it will likely look this one.

Brought in 21yo winger, 25yo winger/cam, 23yo cb and a 25yo left back as the permanent deals, brought in a 23yo cb and 25yo cm who both appear desperate for a new start on loan so will be motivated - cherry on the cake, bringing in a young rated keeper from arsenal.

The two loans I wouldn't be shocked if they where successful to see us try turn them into permanent moves in January either.

Throw in Pickford, at 24/25 and that's s nucleus of 7 players who won't be 30 for at least 5 years.

Means the replacement of any players ageing now can be done on a slower basis 1 or 2 at a time.

The recruitment also hasn't been done whilst totally saturating us in a position, every one of the signings you can see how they'll fit into the side and the role the normal starter would fit into should they be replaced.

Something which has been missed as well, we didn't recruit hugely as usual for the under 23s, maybe the idea is that s youth coach should as a priority be able to develop the players rather than what we've been doing which is try to buy in 4-5 every year at 20-21?

 

[jamieni]

Did well bringing in players in a tough market (World Cup etc). Hopefully a few more loans out the door by end August.

I’m pretty sure Brands said Everton approached him before in the past, so probably fits in with the 2nd choice behind Monchi narrative.

 

[Axlswhk]

Am I too late to admit I was wrong about marcel?

Initially thought he was a limited dof and will go back to Dutch league for recruitment, Glad to be proven wrong. The only complain is the unwillingness to follow thru on Tierney.

Signing Bernard as well as insisting to keep Lookman changes my opinion towards Marcel.

 

[samsonthedog1]

He’s next job is to find us a striker (even though I think Cenk is ok) and possibly look at seeing if Kenny is good enough to take Coleman’s spot, if not sell and get a better understudy.

 

[Eggs]

Oversll you'd have to say his first summer in charge was done with an amazing degree of cohesion and with a clear plan in mind, one look at the positions we needed and hit tells you that, also look at the age of what we'd say was our starting 11 last season compared to how it will likely look this one.

Brought in 21yo winger, 25yo winger/cam, 23yo cb and a 25yo left back as the permanent deals, brought in a 23yo cb and 25yo cm who both appear desperate for a new start on loan so will be motivated - cherry on the cake, bringing in a young rated keeper from arsenal.

The two loans I wouldn't be shocked if they where successful to see us try turn them into permanent moves in January either.

Throw in Pickford, at 24/25 and that's s nucleus of 7 players who won't be 30 for at least 5 years.

Means the replacement of any players ageing now can be done on a slower basis 1 or 2 at a time.

The recruitment also hasn't been done whilst totally saturating us in a position, every one of the signings you can see how they'll fit into the side and the role the normal starter would fit into should they be replaced.

Something which has been missed as well, we didn't recruit hugely as usual for the under 23s, maybe the idea is that s youth coach should as a priority be able to develop the players rather than what we've been doing which is try to buy in 4-5 every year at 20-21?

..it’s a really good point about the ages, Ste. Again, this indicates a clear and progressive strategy. I always say it takes 10 games to assess where your team might finish, it might take slightly longer this time. We could do with picking up early points from our home games.

 

[bluestevon]

..it’s a really good point about the ages, Ste. Again, this indicates a clear and progressive strategy. I always say it takes 10 games to assess where your team might finish, it might take slightly longer this time. We could do with picking up early points from our home games.

The hope is that the incomings give the ones who'll start the season a kick up the backside enough that they stuck a few decent performances before they get replaced.

Remember in bobbies first season didn't we get only 3 points first three games until deadline day when we signed Barry, Lukaku etc?

Btw I think Gomez will go on to be one of the signings of this summer, sometimes a player just needs the right club and as importantly the right manager for them. Been a hell of s lot of players over the years who fit into that category.

 

[bluestevon]

..it’s a really good point about the ages, Ste. Again, this indicates a clear and progressive strategy. I always say it takes 10 games to assess where your team might finish, it might take slightly longer this time. We could do with picking up early points from our home games.

Early season is all about trying to stay in a ok position avoiding any hammerings until the new players bed into the side

 

[bluebud]

Has he done an interview/ press conference/ press statement since the first week he joined? haven't heard much from him, which is fine he's doing the business, would be interesting to hear from him though.

 

[BirkenheadBlue]

People were not split on Klaassen, it was only @davek who said he was not worth it. Look back and everyone was going over the top with praise for Walsh in July last year.

Think the contrast is that by the end of the window, (ie where we are now) people were far less impressed - we’d failed to bring in the two positions we needed the most. Whereas now we’ve fairly clinically addressed the most important roles.

 

[Moomin]

Think the contrast is that by the end of the window, (ie where we are now) people were far less impressed - we’d failed to bring in the two positions we needed the most. Whereas now we’ve fairly clinically addressed the most important roles.

Totally agree with that.

 

[Nyhus]

Initially thought he was a limited dof and will go back to Dutch league for recruitment, Glad to be proven wrong. The only complain is the unwillingness to follow thru on Tierney.

Why is this a problem? Celtic asked for too much, and Brands went and got us a better player for halv the price. Totally a win-win for us.

 

[bicycleheader]

The club dragged us into the scheisse last November and over the last three years so I won't be getting overly excited about anything until they actually show some results. They are all complete baxtards until they prove otherwise. Brands, Rico, the tea lady and all of them. Show me the magic. Mend my broken heart.

 

[COYBL25]

Am I too late to admit I was wrong about marcel?

Initially thought he was a limited dof and will go back to Dutch league for recruitment, Glad to be proven wrong. The only complain is the unwillingness to follow thru on Tierney.

Signing Bernard as well as insisting to keep Lookman changes my opinion towards Marcel.

He`s handled the Tierney situation correctly imo.

He obviously had a ceiling on the amount we were prepared to pay and crucially also had a plan B with Digne, if Tierney didn`t come off.

Celtic wanted more than we were prepared to pay and he quickly moved onto plan B - Digne.

Look what happened with the Siggurdson transfer last season - went on for weeks and we ended up paying at least 15 mil over the odds.

This may come back to bite Celtic on the bum, as there`s a very good chance they`ll go out of the Champions League qualifiers, after only drawing 1 - 1 with Athens at home during the week.

 

[Paulie]

Zero complaints from me. Next is to sign a quality striker and replace Schneiderlin. We have a nucleus of a good young squad now we can concentrate on 1-3 quality players at a time now that'll improve the strength of the squad.