2020/21 Marcel Brands

[Tubey]

Cant really blame him when you look at the state of them and the wages they are on. The wages are a massive hurdle as players wont take pay cuts.

You cant force a team to buy rubbish

He's had five transfer windows.

 

[ToffeeTim]

1. All teams need to avoid losing any of their best players.
2. All teams have areas to strengthen.

You have no faith in us getting recruitment right but then insist “Ancelotti’s” signings would be good A.K.A. the window we’ve just had. Did the recruitment not go right?

I worry about our recruitment every year but we need so many players next year. We just find so many ways to get it wrong usually.

It looks like the plan is to make squad as lean as possible before the summer. That works fine and the logic is sound, but we then need a whole load of new players who are better than those we let go.

It could very well or it could go very badly wrong. If someone other than the manager is involved in targeting the players we sign, then I dont think it will go well.

 

[pedro789]

I’m in the minority here, but I hope he signs new contract. Some good and bad signings, but we need continuity right now.

Seems like he’s got good relationship with Carlo and £60m for 4 summer signings was decent business.

We’re still recovering from catastrophic recruitment. It takes time.

I do think there’s something in Man U rumours tho.

 

[nsno-chris]

We literally had the equivalent of a second division player tied to a 5 year contract on the best part of £80k a week

An 29 year old, technically poor right winger tied to a long contract, £120k a week, contract

An extremely poor, ageing french midfielder, already booted to the reserves at Man Utd, tied to a long £120k a week contract

It was gross negligence from Steve Walsh with the inflated squad and wage Bill he left us with

 

[Nymzee]

I worry about our recruitment every year but we need so many players next year. We just find so many ways to get it wrong usually.

It looks like the plan is to make squad as lean as possible before the summer. That works fine and the logic is sound, but we then need a whole load of new players who are better than those we let go.

It could very well or it could go very badly wrong. If someone other than the manager is involved in targeting the players we sign, then I dont think it will go well.

Personally was very happy with the Summer, personally grateful the squad is getting decimated & personally confident - if a new DoF doesn’t come in this Summer - we’ll have another decent window of Godfrey’s, Allan’s and Doucoure’s.

 

[Tubey]

I worry about our recruitment every year but we need so many players next year. We just find so many ways to get it wrong usually.

It looks like the plan is to make squad as lean as possible before the summer. That works fine and the logic is sound, but we then need a whole load of new players who are better than those we let go.

It could very well or it could go very badly wrong. If someone other than the manager is involved in targeting the players we sign, then I dont think it will go well.

I get the point of a DoF for consistency when you're bringing in unproven managers. With Marco Silva it's a perfect model for example, as you negate the damage he can do if he's a calamity.

But when you bring in a world class manager like Ancelotti, I don't see the point in delegating to a DoF unless Ancelotti actively doesn't want to do recruitment, which is possible.

Either way, that bench today is proof Brands has failed. We have about eight genuine first team capable players at the club, around three others who might develop to that quality, and nothing else. His signings have been hit and miss, and all of them chronically lacking pace.

What's the point in persisting bar just for the sake of consistency?

 

[Tubey]

We literally had the equivalent of a second division player tied to a 5 year contract on the best part of £80k a week

An 29 year old, technically poor right winger tied to a long contract, £120k a week, contract

An extremely poor, ageing french midfielder, already booted to the reserves at Man Utd, tied to a long £120k a week contract

It was gross negligence from Steve Walsh with the inflated squad and wage Bill he left us with

All well and good, and to an extent understandable.

But this guy sanctioned £30m on Iwobi. I can't fully trust the ability of someone who would sanction £30m on Iwobi, when my mother who barely knows what football is can tell inside 10 minutes of watching him that, in her words, "he looks like he's just seen a football for the first time and isn't quite sure if he's meant to kick it."

 

[Sphincter Sports]

Get rid of this absolute beaut straight away, his wages are criminal.

 

[ToffeeTim]

I get the point of a DoF for consistency when you're bringing in unproven managers. With Marco Silva it's a perfect model for example, as you negate the damage he can do if he's a calamity.

But when you bring in a world class manager like Ancelotti, I don't see the point in delegating to a DoF unless Ancelotti actively doesn't want to do recruitment, which is possible.

Either way, that bench today is proof Brands has failed. We have about eight genuine first team capable players at the club, around three others who might develop to that quality, and nothing else. His signings have been hit and miss, and all of them chronically lacking pace.

What's the point in persisting bar just for the sake of consistency?

Brands is coming towards the end of his contract so its the right time to judge him now. He's had 2.5 years and the improvement is fairly small and can largely be put down to Ancelotti.

We have a chronic lack of pace, we don't have players who carry the ball, and he has wasted money on quite a few players who haven't contributed anything. Not to mention the refusal to do business in January, and the decision to do most of our businesss in the last couple of weeks of the summer.

I dont see any logic behind retaining someone who has been pretty hit and miss and not pushed us forward. Yes he hasn't left us in an utter mess like Steve Walsh and Koeman, but I'm not sure that's the measuring stick we should be looking at.

 

[Tubey]

There's an American Dad episode where one of the characters keeps believing what another is saying, because the other character looks and sounds smart and reassuring, even if what he's actually doing is stupid.

That's the impression I get with Brands. He looks the part, talks the part, but actually isn't the part.

 

[Bob Elstone]

The recruitment under brands has been ok. Wouldn’t say it’s been amazing.

lack of pace in the side is hurting us.

 

[Carloblues]

I said at the time not replacing him wasn’t wise but getting rid of Kean himself was fine as he doesn’t offer anything.

This convo can go round and round about what Kean can/can't offer, I personally think he could be good for us.

Either way, he's a better option today than anyone on our bench, not having an option today is down to brands not replacing him.

 

[Azza]

I worry about our recruitment every year but we need so many players next year. We just find so many ways to get it wrong usually.

It looks like the plan is to make squad as lean as possible before the summer. That works fine and the logic is sound, but we then need a whole load of new players who are better than those we let go.

It could very well or it could go very badly wrong. If someone other than the manager is involved in targeting the players we sign, then I dont think it will go well.

It's not just the players we let go this window though that need replacing.

In the summer, Delph, Coleman, Sigurdsson, JJK all have 1 year left of their contracts. Tosun looks like he's only going on loan until the end of the season, Lossl probably the same if he goes in the next couple of days, but both will still have 1 year left on their contracts.

Non of those players are good enough and non of them realistically are going to sold for any money, maybe Sigurdsson a nominal fee from a MLS side maybe, otherwise it's a loan or he just carries on stinking the place out until his contract expires. Then of course there's the dross of Davies and Iwobi.


I don't want to be do a Zat and list out the whole squad, but in my head unless there's a crazy amount of money spent or we diddle something to get our revenue up so our wages can increase because of past failings we'll always be 4-5 players 'short' - be they starting XI players or 'squad' players and stuck in this horrible loop which I don't think anyone can solve.

 

[Toffee222]

Criminal if we dont see any incomings if he is prepared to let two players who frequently come on in games for us go. It makes no sense and although he isn't a 'fan' of january anybody with half a brain could have sensed a few weeks ago that this was our best chance in years to be in the top 4/6.

The position the club have given him with a seat on the board is essentially a free role to get us challenging and he is taking baby steps every 12 months with a manager who desires success evidently pulling the strings last summer with James and Allan. He needs to get this sorted as we cant wait for ever for our time to come, especially with how bad other teams have been.

 

[catcherintherye]

It just did. Or didn’t depending on what mood the fan base wakes up in.

I mean in 2021. And yes I think it ws well spent in 2020.I think it will stretch a lot further in real terms in 2021.