I'm not against Brands at all, I think we should just be careful not to go OTT with the adulation
Thus far he's had just one good transfer window. There's still time for this one to be a success as well of course, and part of me thinks it will, but can we tone down the cult like worship of him just a little bit please? It's not healthy and it'll only lead to a massive blow up on here when he inevitably bodges something up, because no one has a perfect run no matter how good they are (And make no mistake, Brands is good, but he's not infallible)
I agree completely, building folk up in that manner only leads down one road.
I mostly like what he has done so far, and see him as a streetwise operator, but he has to shoulder a huge burden of expectation in an environment where he has inherited significant difficulties as we all know. The club has a strait-jacket imposed by the amount of "deadwood" on high wages, that problem seems set to last as long as the length of those contracts.
None of us know the budget available, but as with Silva I would be surprised if he agreed to come in knowing any major degree of belt tightening was about to hit as early as the second season. But that should not be confused with wanting to run the club in an overall efficient manner and ensure we get value for money from now on.
I must say I'm disappointed with the failure to move more players out on permanent deals, I'm glad that the loans out are picking up and I think we should sell Lookman and Onyekuru. So far this is where I'm more concerned than satisfied with him.
But I'm still confident that we'll do good business before the end of the window. I thought last summer's dealings were on the whole very good indeed, and he has had a whole year to build on that.
We'll get players in, better than what we have in certain areas I'm sure. We don't necessarily have to do that for big fees and big wages, though for a striker maybe that's where we have to make a bigger push. We have to try and bridge the gap to the Top Six but can't compete like for like. That's where the challenge is even before considering the stadium move, how poor we do commercially, and the fact that we don't have a game-changing benefactor.
