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Not being over dramatic at all, but to McKenna this must feel like the first time Ashton hasn’t got a really key signing over the line for us.
Won’t lie, I’m really concerned to only really have Delap as our only premier league standard striker at the club for the next few weeks at least. Having Al Hamadi come off the bench on the 60/70 minute mark massively weakens us.
I find it really hard to knock Ashton after everything him and his team have done, but only signing one striker all summer is really, really poor and that can’t be dressed up.
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 07:38 - Aug 31 with 1401 views
I won't knock Ashton he has work tirelessly since his arrival. I just believe when Broja failed the medical and talk of 2 months out we should have gone elsewhere. I'm glad we never wasted 25 million on the Burnley player revisit in January and get a striker if the lads here need help..
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 07:45 - Aug 31 with 1377 views
Why your last sentence? You’ve gone out of your way to put the boot into Ashton. The title alone says that let alone the rest of the post. You in fact found it very easy.
You are not alone. Tears and tantrums are quite widespread across contributors to this forum. My guess is if we’d brought 24 players in some would have wanted 25. Everyone loves a big money transfer.
Yes, it would seem we were after that additional striker. I hope so because we could have done with one. So did every club. No we didn’t get him. Not everything in life goes as we wish and since we have absolutely no idea how this played out it seems odd to draw conclusions and hammer individuals for what we don’t know.
I appreciate the clamour and excitement that comes with a signing, especially a ‘marquee signing’, but it really isn’t the be all and end all. Looking in from the outside my concern is that we’ve signed too many players, not too few and so have destroyed the cohesion that made the team so strong.
However, we had to do something and the full team of new players we’ve brought in says we have. You can see the type of player they’ve been looking at and sometimes it’s fair to look at what we did get, not what we didn’t. Namely Hutchinson, Clarke, Greaves,Szmodics and Phillips - none of whom I’d put a penny on us signing. I thought we’d bring in about six at a cost of £5-£10m each.. dizzying money for the smallest budget in the PL. but nope, double that and beyond.
That extra striker? Maybe we will find him in January or we find we don’t need him. It really isn’t about letting people down or not trying. It’s actually about building a team and a club. Finding players who will do the former and who want to be here.
The lad chose Fulham. Who cares - they’re a stronger club and he didn’t have to move home. Fair enough. Broja? Thank goodness we were strong and walked away. Who else? Well I’ve no idea who we were in for. Missing out on one target in one window will not define our season.
Now why is our yoof system unable to produce enough top level players and what are we doing about it? That interests me more, in terms of club development.
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 08:02 - Aug 31 with 1342 views
This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 07:45 - Aug 31 by Churchman
Why your last sentence? You’ve gone out of your way to put the boot into Ashton. The title alone says that let alone the rest of the post. You in fact found it very easy.
You are not alone. Tears and tantrums are quite widespread across contributors to this forum. My guess is if we’d brought 24 players in some would have wanted 25. Everyone loves a big money transfer.
Yes, it would seem we were after that additional striker. I hope so because we could have done with one. So did every club. No we didn’t get him. Not everything in life goes as we wish and since we have absolutely no idea how this played out it seems odd to draw conclusions and hammer individuals for what we don’t know.
I appreciate the clamour and excitement that comes with a signing, especially a ‘marquee signing’, but it really isn’t the be all and end all. Looking in from the outside my concern is that we’ve signed too many players, not too few and so have destroyed the cohesion that made the team so strong.
However, we had to do something and the full team of new players we’ve brought in says we have. You can see the type of player they’ve been looking at and sometimes it’s fair to look at what we did get, not what we didn’t. Namely Hutchinson, Clarke, Greaves,Szmodics and Phillips - none of whom I’d put a penny on us signing. I thought we’d bring in about six at a cost of £5-£10m each.. dizzying money for the smallest budget in the PL. but nope, double that and beyond.
That extra striker? Maybe we will find him in January or we find we don’t need him. It really isn’t about letting people down or not trying. It’s actually about building a team and a club. Finding players who will do the former and who want to be here.
The lad chose Fulham. Who cares - they’re a stronger club and he didn’t have to move home. Fair enough. Broja? Thank goodness we were strong and walked away. Who else? Well I’ve no idea who we were in for. Missing out on one target in one window will not define our season.
Now why is our yoof system unable to produce enough top level players and what are we doing about it? That interests me more, in terms of club development.
Distortion becomes somehow pure in its wildness.
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 08:25 - Aug 31 with 1288 views
This is tedious get a grip ffs. Do you not think Ashton and whoever else were not trying there best? A signing cannot be forced and if a signing for whatever reason doesn't happen it won't be for the lack of trying.
We could honestly make the CL this year and the same old folk would still moan about something.
Players are capable of playing 90 minutes you know and even if a striker does need a rest KMc has the the skills to set us up with no big striker and cause the oppo even more problems.
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 08:28 - Aug 31 with 1284 views
With whom we’ve brought in over the summer, I don’t think we can genuinely complain. We’ve had a good transfer window. Let’s be fair, MA has clearly tried to get another striker through the door and that hasn’t materialised. No point signing someone if the deal isn’t right for all concerned. I’m content with our lot, it’s up to the players now to step up to the plate and deliver.
This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 02:21 - Aug 31 by Illinoisblue
But framing it as Ashton letting down KM is simplistic at best. You or I have no clue as to what the negotiations were, how much was being demanded in wages, how long of a contract was being asked for . Or, crucially, what other deals were or weren’t happening to set off the buying chain.
I’ve seen the window described by more than one fan as a disaster and that’s the most insane thing I’ve ever read .
I think some people on here would happily shell out £10k on an old Cortina just so they could say that had been prepared to spend loads!
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 09:13 - Aug 31 with 1187 views
This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 02:20 - Aug 31 by Matt_Netherlands
We don’t rely on a striker to get 25 goals admittedly, but our four main strikers chipped in with 20 league goals last season and 26 the year before so it is still somewhere where we look for goals to come from.
20 goals from 92 over 4 players.
So 5.5% of goals per player?
Super important to get a £30m injured striker over the line guys
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 09:44 - Aug 31 with 1133 views
When since McKenna came in have we relied on a No.9 to score us a majority of our goals ? It has been a case of all positions chipping in. Maybe with the two new centre backs more goals will come from them also.
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 10:58 - Aug 31 with 1022 views
This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 10:55 - Aug 31 by OldFart71
When since McKenna came in have we relied on a No.9 to score us a majority of our goals ? It has been a case of all positions chipping in. Maybe with the two new centre backs more goals will come from them also.
And the way we set up is the number 9 holds up the ball and plays others in. I hope Szmodics might be able to do that role in an emergency, but fingers crossed we never have to find out.
"Let down" is the wrong phrasing, but we have always struggled to get a number nine in, especially over the summer. We spent the pre-season of 2022 chasing Hirst, who elected to go to Blackburn, and ended up scrabbling for Ahadme. Similarly we struggled to land a target in the summer of 2023 and picked up Scarlett on deadline day, who didn't really suit our profile for the position. Both Hirst and Moore would later join in the respective January's.
I'd love to know why we focused so much on Broja, as it seemed like we wasted a lot of time and effort on him to the detriment of signing anyway else. But if we're going to say Ashton made a mistake over it, how many, on paper, has he got right? For now, the record looks good and it is easy to be critical in hindsight.
This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 02:04 - Aug 31 by Ryorry
"I find it really hard to knock Ashton after everything him and his team have done, but ..."
You went out of your way to knock him anyway, despite not knowing what went on behind the scenes.
A few people on this forum really have lost their grip over the past few hours.
The Premier League fumes have truly infected some minds. We've had so many things go our way over the past two years, and had incredible success. It's a shame some people can't show the same sort of reslience the players and managers have shown in tough times.
It is not ideal not to have got another striker in but we play one up front and we have Hirst, Delap and Szmodics either match fit or about to be. Let's see what McKenna does with this current squad.
People need to cut Ashton a bit of slack, Alongside spending £100m+ for the first time in the history of the club, landing targets like Hutchinson and Clarke who we thought we had a slim chance of getting, he has also overseen the biggest revamp of the club's facilities ever, with multiple major projects ongoing at the same time.
I am not really sure when he finds the time to sleep tbh.
This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 01:43 - Aug 31 by Illinoisblue
Football fans are never happy, part 367 (special episode where newly promoted side spend over 100million to get three of the best young players in the county in Omari, Jack Clarke and Greaves. Oh and a recent England international. And a Swedish international)
Imagine at the start of the transfer window we’d have been told we were bringing Omari back, plus signing three in last years championship team of the season, plus Cajuste from Napoli and Englands best midfielder as little as 2 years ago in Kalvin Phillips. TWTD would’ve taken that in a heartbeat.
Important to note as well our transfer kitty was around £80m. We ended up having a net spend of £106m. So the club have managed to find an extra £26m for McKenna.
In no way was McKenna let down and he himself, likewise all of us, can look back at the window as a whole and think ‘wow we really have strengthened in all areas’
This isn't the first window where we've finished weaker in an area than we intended to be and it won't be the last. We were short up front for the first six months last season, as a prime example. Where there's disappointment there doesn't need to be blame, however. Sometimes the right strategy just doesn't bring the desired outcome. My instinct would be that be McKenna signed off on the ambition and risk of our recruitment attempts in this position, and so will have been very aware of the potential for the window to conclude the way it has. Time will tell how successful our scouting and recruitment has been this summer; we may well have smashed it despite the striker situation, or we may have fallen a good deal short even ignoring this area. I for one am excited to find out, no time for regret. 😃
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(No subject) (n/t) on 12:35 - Aug 31 with 882 views
Wow. Apologies for seemingly raising the blood pressure of a fair few with this one.
Ultimately it’s just an opinion though, which we are all allowed to have - good times and bad. In my view, McKenna had made it very clear he wanted a striker, and perhaps our net wasn’t quite cast wide enough to make sure we got one - we will never know. Thankfully he’s more pragmatic and not as likely to throw a tantrum as me….
Was the threat title too strong? Maybe. But are we allowed opinions? I damn well hope so.
It shouldn’t have come across like a personal attack though, so for that I apologise.
[Post edited 31 Aug 13:08]
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This must be the first time McKenna is let down by Ashton? on 13:58 - Aug 31 with 789 views
I very seriously doubt that McKenna is feeling let down by Ashton based on all this windows activities. If he feels like this, then maybe a high-pressured Premier League manager job isn't for him.
"I find it really hard to knock Ashton after everything him and his team have done...." but clearly you didn't find it that hard as you knocked him in the same sentence.
Spent over £100M and still not happy. Modern football eh?
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