2020/21 Marcel Brands

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Has consistently failed to plug holes in the squad. We were VERY lucky last season that we got by with 3 central defenders.
Lack of striker competition and cover is already costing us this season though.
Its a mess that he built for himself with his second window where only one of the players has had any sort of real impact in Iwobi.

He brought in 2 central midfielders who can't get on the pitch, a back up keeper we have let go on a free, and a young striker who wanted out after the first season. That's 5 players he spent over 100 million on who have offered us very little.
 
Only one of those sold for a fee (Lossl) are his signings. We had so much dross to get rid of and unfortunately more to go. Busy boy.

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Has consistently failed to plug holes in the squad. We were VERY lucky last season that we got by with 3 central defenders.
Lack of striker competition and cover is already costing us this season though.

I don’t disagree, but last season the priority was midfield, Gana and Lookman were leaving so we had to get cover so in came Gbamin Gomes Delph Iwobi and Kean. Centreback we tried but missed out on, and then Branthwaite arrived in January as a 4th CB.

The priority this summer was again the midfield, everyone was unanimous in that Gbamin Gomes and Delph were crocked or just back from injury and the rest were complete rubbish and Schneiderlin had left. So the budget went on Allan Doucoure James. Holgate’s injury probably pushed us into getting Godfrey and Nkonkou was cover for Baines going that we had to sort out.

Then the priority became ‘we have to get a right back’. Now after loaning, Kean, Simms, Walcott, the priority has become sorting upfront.

The problem is that if you look in almost any position in the team apart from centreback now there’s still major work to be done. There’s not enough money to address all of it in one window. Maybe Brands and Ancelotti thought Iwobi/Bernard would step up and we’d be playing Richarlison down the middle far more with Tosun as third choice and we could use the money on one of the players we bought. Who knows.

Its just easy in hindsight to blast Brands for what he missed but in the summer everyone was crying out for midfielders.
 

I don’t disagree, but last season the priority was midfield, Gana and Lookman were leaving so we had to get cover so in came Gbamin Gomes Delph Iwobi and Kean. Centreback we tried but missed out on, and then Branthwaite arrived in January as a 4th CB.

The priority this summer was again the midfield, everyone was unanimous in that Gbamin Gomes and Delph were crocked or just back from injury and the rest were complete rubbish and Schneiderlin had left. So the budget went on Allan Doucoure James. Holgate’s injury probably pushed us into getting Godfrey and Nkonkou was cover for Baines going that we had to sort out.

Then the priority became ‘we have to get a right back’. Now after loaning, Kean, Simms, Walcott, the priority has become sorting upfront.

The problem is that if you look in almost any position in the team apart from centreback now there’s still major work to be done. There’s not enough money to address all of it in one window. Maybe Brands and Ancelotti thought Iwobi/Bernard would step up and we’d be playing Richarlison down the middle far more with Tosun as third choice and we could use the money on one of the players we bought. Who knows.

Its just easy in hindsight to blast Brands for what he missed but in the summer everyone was crying out for midfielders.
People were, quite rightly, crying out for midfielders but then we loaned out Kean and left ourselves with one centre forward. You have to concede that was an odd move, at least if we weren't planning on bringing in another forward. We also had Bernard and Gordon, both of whom had a decent amount of pitch time at the end of last season and neither of whom have had a proper run this season, who are both linked with moves away. For the four most advanced positions we may have only James, Sigurdsson, Richarlison, Iwobi and DCL. Five players for four positions, with half a season to play. It's madness and will end badly.
 
I don’t disagree, but last season the priority was midfield, Gana and Lookman were leaving so we had to get cover so in came Gbamin Gomes Delph Iwobi and Kean. Centreback we tried but missed out on, and then Branthwaite arrived in January as a 4th CB.

The priority this summer was again the midfield, everyone was unanimous in that Gbamin Gomes and Delph were crocked or just back from injury and the rest were complete rubbish and Schneiderlin had left. So the budget went on Allan Doucoure James. Holgate’s injury probably pushed us into getting Godfrey and Nkonkou was cover for Baines going that we had to sort out.

Then the priority became ‘we have to get a right back’. Now after loaning, Kean, Simms, Walcott, the priority has become sorting upfront.

The problem is that if you look in almost any position in the team apart from centreback now there’s still major work to be done. There’s not enough money to address all of it in one window. Maybe Brands and Ancelotti thought Iwobi/Bernard would step up and we’d be playing Richarlison down the middle far more with Tosun as third choice and we could use the money on one of the players we bought. Who knows.

Its just easy in hindsight to blast Brands for what he missed but in the summer everyone was crying out for midfielders.
Right back
Right wing.
Back up forward.

None addressed in twelve months
 
I just presumed unless he paid up his own contract which I guess is still a fee.
I think we just told him he could go for free.

I haven't seen any fee mentioned anywhere and I highly doubt that if we got one off of a team in the Danish league that it would be worth publishing. Any money we got for him will have been tiny.
 

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