Bidding for Zaha , Doucoure and Iwobi and not bidding for a CB is crazy
Arsenal signing Luiz blindsided him and he had no other plans ready to go
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Arsenal signing Luiz blindsided him and he had no other plans ready to go
hktoffee
Birds of a feather flock together
We better have one boss young CB signed and sealed on 1st of January.
Doucoure and Zaha not so sure we are going to splash huge money on them next summer as they are a year older. 27 by next summer.
Deco
Player Valuation: £40m
It was definitely a failure on the face of it. We should’ve had a CB in and we didn’t get one so there’s no excuses.
I’m not even sure the Luiz situation changed anything - I imagine Luiz knew Zouma was ahead of him in the pecking order and pushed for a move.
I would’ve honestly taken Cahill on a free as he would’ve been happy as back up.
Deco
Player Valuation: £40m
Agreed. Age isn’t that big a deal because even a 27/28 year old CB who is class would be ideal for us. As long as we can get 4+ years out of whoever we splash money on, I don’t mind.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
More than one thing can be true at once. Firstly that Brands has, for the most part been exemplary here in, but also that he had a chaotic end to the window (the only relief being we didn't actually pay the money for Rojo).
A lot of the job is about pre-planning to avoid getting yourself into difficult situations. Thats where Walsh seemed to fall down a lot, he ended up going down traps.
In hindsight I think Brands will have to learn from the final week. He may need to learn that dealing with English clubs can be different and ore challenging than European Clubs. Lets be honest, European clubs are actively trying to facilitate deals for players to England as they get very decent fees for them. In fairness Brands has exploited this very well. However in England there is far more of a reticence to negotiate and do deals.
I'd suggest he had information from Chelsea and they probably moved the goalposts and screwed us over a bit. I can imagine they said Zouma was a possibility and if Zouma were to stay Tomori could come to us. However right at the end Luiz went and we were left with too little time to react. I think Brands will have to learn to not be so trusting of English clubs.
In my view and hindsight is 20/20 but in late July we should have moved away from Chelsea/Zouma. I don't think it's impossible he moves on but he was playing pre-season games for them so it was unlikely he would move on. We should have gone down our list for other CB's, either on loan or get a young player on a permanent. Maybe Todibo (the lad from Barca). Had Zouma become available later on it could have been done too, with Holgate being sold.
In fairness Brands does deserve some criticism. We may get away with it. However you can't Steve Walsh for not signing a centre forward and not be consistent with brands not signing a centre back. Whats also fair though is to say the rest of his business is far more measured, controlled and sensible than what Walsh did and the quality of the player signed have been better. Both of those things can be true at the same time.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
The guy is not an idiot. I understand he doesn't normally do it, but it's an exceptional circumstance. I think a centre back will come in. And in truth if Zouma is unhappy about it, he should have kicked up a much bigger fuss and done what Zaha did if he really wanted the move.
hktoffee
Birds of a feather flock together
Macro said we had multiple cb targets and for somehow none of that came off. Not so sure on that...
It looks as if they were so confident Zouma will move here and by the time they realised that was not the case we were too late to act and thus putting in panic loan bid for Smalling and Rojo towards the end of the window. Utd knew we were desperate and decided to pull our pants down by asking £25m for an injury prone 29 cb who played about 4 league game for his club last season.
Both Chelsea and Utd decided to weaken us. One by not loaning a deadwood to us, another one must be playing around on the Zouma situation throughout the summer. The decision to not totally close the door for the transfer of Zouma must be a strategy?
Slippin Jimmy
Player Valuation: £5m
Oh they will have their excuses alright with lashings of their favourite little childish 'bedwetter' quote.
hktoffee
Birds of a feather flock together
I can’t believe Brands cannot get a capable cb in. He has the entire summer to identify targets. Massively disappointed on this.
Hasnt Mina been cited by the FA for breaching betting rules.
Lets pray that wont carry a ban.
Slippin Jimmy
Player Valuation: £5m
Need a win today then
hktoffee
Birds of a feather flock together
Lads don’t laugh. I do think clubs like Chelsea and Man Utd may see us as a threat (breaking top 6) after beating them comfortably at home last season. That’s why we see the objection of loaning a 5th choice reserve cb as well as let us fall into a trap regarding Zouma situation.
That staggers me honestly. Cant believe we were never in for him. Would have been perfect!
rochdaleblue
Player Valuation: £50m
With all respect scratching around on the final day trying to get an injury prone 5th choice Rojo smacks of desperation. Brands did a lot of good this window initially but he has handled the centre back situation appallingly. Let’s hope we’re lucky with the form and fitness of Mina and Keane till January.
Nyhus
#EvertonNorge
Might as well kept Jags
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