2020/21 Marcel Brands

[Axlswhk]

Gylfi and Gomes have been poor, but the answer is not to look at players like Lookman and regret selling them. People think we should have kept Lookman, Kean, Vlasic, etc, but they didn't perform when they were here, so they're not the answer to our problems now.

We weren’t patient enough when it comes to kid. It’s a shame to see lots of folks jumping on them mercilessly at a stage when they are suppose to be developing and judge them as if they are fully developed senior pro.

Perhaps DCL should be sold 2 seasons ago, holgate as well.

lookman was destroyed by koeman and he went downhill from then on. It’s a case of bad manager mishandling young promising player. An arrogant manager and a sulky young man made matters worse.

we sold lookman and sign walcott, iwobi and Bernard. I’m not sure if we’ve progressed.

 

[bring the ghost on]

We weren’t patient enough when it comes to kid. It’s a shame to see lots of folks jumping on them mercilessly at a stage when they are suppose to be developing and judge them as if they are fully developed senior pro.

Perhaps DCL should be sold 2 seasons ago, holgate as well.

lookman was destroyed by koeman and he went downhill from then on. It’s a case of bad manager mishandling young promising player. An arrogant manager and a sulky young man made matters worse.

we sold lookman and sign walcott, iwobi and Bernard. I’m not sure if we’ve progressed.

I don’t think Lookman is at the required standard - hope he does well at Fulham, but there is a reason he’s playing there. You can’t blame one manager for a players subsequent career.

Talented lad, but you need a lot more than that to play at this level. He offers nothing defensively and isn’t good enough to warrant using as a luxury player.

Again, you’re suggesting that I’m happy with how we’ve invested the funds. Clearly, I’m not. However, I don’t think the mistake is in selling Lookman, just that we haven’t spent wisely.

 

[ArtetaMoney]

Needs to up his game in the summer, no waiting around to sign players days before deadline and them either getting injuries or being non-effective till Xmas.

He’s got rid of most the deadwood now, so there are no excuses.

 

[LocalNative]

Worth sticking with him at this point. He's been building this team and aside from 1-2 duds largely done quite well.

An XI from his signings:

NEW GK

NEW RB
Mina
Godfrey
Digne

Allan
Doucoure
NEW CM

James
DCL*
Richarlison*

 

[blueblue]

Do you think it was Ancelotti’s own scouting network that identified Branthwaite Nkonkou Godfrey Docuoure Hojbjerg King as targets? Obviously Carlo weighs in on it and when he needed a holding midfielder and Hojbjerg went to Spurs he went straight to his address book, same as for James no doubt. Box to box midfielder though we went with the club’s long term target. I’ve said before how I think transfers are done. The manager will have profiles of players in mind, for some he’ll have a definite target he wants, for others he’ll look for a list of players that fit the profile he’s after. Brands has to provide this, then when targets are agreed he has to get them

CA has said that his knowledge of both Godfrey and Doucoure was limited and he was surprised by the quality they had.
Branthwaite would be a signing linked to the DOF and Nkonkou the same.
The manager is used to working with a management team and I think it was Catcher suggested that the manager will sometimes want a special specific player but for rest he let's it be known the type of player he wants and the DOF refers to the records he has on file for every type of player and then needs to find out if any may become available and at what cost

 

[Lanolin]

Must say i'm a little bit confused as to how you can have an 'Academy Director' and then a 'Director of Football' who wants control over the academy. I've never worked in a company where a group director reports to anyone other than the head of the company. It seems a very odd setup.

 

[mccole]

I think he has nearly cleaned the slate of Koeman and Walsh. Under Carlo, we spent only £67m but only brought in £4m so whether we will be ever spend HUGE like Koeman.

This summer he will have options on Olson and King to join permanently plus transfers out like Kean and Kenny so we will have a healthy income from transfers before the season starts plus we have fringe and loaned out players like Bernard and Gibson plus we have some 2022 contact to renew or cash in like Sigurdsson, Coleman and Delph.

The wage bill will also be down with end of contracts like Besic, Walcott's 50% plus other loan agreements ending.

Hopefully we get European qualification also to add to the coffers which will only make the club more attractive to signings.

Carlo, Brands, Bramley Moore building going ahead plus maybe a European Tour to look forward too. I hope Moshiri backs us even further this summer.

 

[PhilM]

Needs to up his game in the summer, no waiting around to sign players days before deadline and them either getting injuries or being non-effective till Xmas.

He’s got rid of most the deadwood now, so there are no excuses.

I get the feeling that the reasons for this are two fold: trying to achieve the best value for money and the requirement to still shed dross before spending properly.

In an ideal world, we'd be tying up our key deals as early as possible, but until our long-term situation improves I think he'll only slowly change his methodology.

Brands isn't perfect - nobody is - but on the balance on things I think he's done a fairly decent job and I'm not sure who we could obtain who would do better.

If we're aiming for the long-term, the retention of people like Brands is really important.

 

[andy4efc]

I get the feeling that the reasons for this are two fold: trying to achieve the best value for money and the requirement to still shed dross before spending properly.

In an ideal world, we'd be tying up our key deals as early as possible, but until our long-term situation improves I think he'll only slowly change his methodology.

Brands isn't perfect - nobody is - but on the balance on things I think he's done a fairly decent job and I'm not sure who we could obtain who would do better.

If we're aiming for the long-term, the retention of people like Brands is really important.

He showed when we sigend Digne he'd rather do it early. As you put, we have to sell players though, we cant sign 5 players and then end up with a squad of 35 again.

Im hoping, once the rest of the deadwood has gone, things will be smoother.

 

[catcherintherye]

Do you mean big sales of good players, or the crap ones?

I think richarlison will be the true measure of brands's capabilities as a DoF, as he will leave at the end of the season if we don't qualify for champions League or Europa league.

I suppose both. Just the sales process as a whole. In a way, a couple of big sales will do the club good. If we can get over £100m for Richarlison and Kean it would give the club a fair bit of leeway.

 

[ArtetaMoney]

I get the feeling that the reasons for this are two fold: trying to achieve the best value for money and the requirement to still shed dross before spending properly.

In an ideal world, we'd be tying up our key deals as early as possible, but until our long-term situation improves I think he'll only slowly change his methodology.

Brands isn't perfect - nobody is - but on the balance on things I think he's done a fairly decent job and I'm not sure who we could obtain who would do better.

If we're aiming for the long-term, the retention of people like Brands is really important.

I think people are making a lot of excuses for him, whether they are right or not is yet to be seen.

I’m not convinced, but a decent summer window with deals coming in early and the positions we are desperate to fill being filled; will help change my mind.

 

[trueblue84]

I suppose both. Just the sales process as a whole. In a way, a couple of big sales will do the club good. If we can get over £100m for Richarlison and Kean it would give the club a fair bit of leeway.

If richarlison leaves at the end of the season, on current form, it will be interesting to see what brands could do. Kean is a bit more straightforward for me, as we will do no worse than a small profit.

 

[catcherintherye]

I get the feeling that the reasons for this are two fold: trying to achieve the best value for money and the requirement to still shed dross before spending properly.

In an ideal world, we'd be tying up our key deals as early as possible, but until our long-term situation improves I think he'll only slowly change his methodology.

Brands isn't perfect - nobody is - but on the balance on things I think he's done a fairly decent job and I'm not sure who we could obtain who would do better.

If we're aiming for the long-term, the retention of people like Brands is really important.

I do understand why the deadline day transfers is annoying and frustrating for people, but also understand why it is done.

Football is a game of bluff in transfers. Neither the buyer nor the seller want to be the first to move in the process, and if you are the first mover, you run the risk of the other side really taking liberties. It's really only when there is pressure on, that you see an honesty in the negotiations. I mean take Kabak at Liverpool, Schalke quoted them £30m at the start of the window. In the end they let him go on loan, for 2 million, with up to another £28m in the summer. That deal could probably only have been done right at the back end when Liverpool were presumably saying "take this, or we go to player y".

It is the cauldron that you operate in if you want good deals. Increasingly, the market has gone from massive premiums on deadline day, to really massive savings. Most of Europe want and need to sell to English teams, so panic does begin to set in.

The other point, is that we are not the biggest fish. Players, agents, clubs etc will want to sell to the top pool. In England thats going to likely be Manchester City. After them probably United/Liverpool/Chelsea. Then Arsenal /Spurs. Then we probably come in. A player is likely only going to come here, once he accepts all of the above aren't that interested in him. So we have to wait our turn a bit. Given money will be a lot tighter at Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs this summer it is a worthwhile ploy.

The one summer we seemed to break this rule, was 2017 under Walsh and Koeman. We got loads in early and it went awfully. So there is a lesson in that- namely it is not always best to do things early.

 

[matty1878]

Love marcel x

 

[Connor]

At what positions does he want his own men? Will it be all the way to the top (including Unsworth)?

How do you think academy recruitment will go mate? More focus on local? Buying more in later on etc?

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