| Review of transfer policy needed this summer 20:22 - Feb 3 with 6628 views | Blue_Heath |
Sorry to be negative but in the main it appears we overpay on top end Championship players who are not good enough for the premier or fixate on positions that are not needed or where previous recruitment was poor. Other than that it is relegated players from the previous season. We have a seriously imbalanced squad and Delap aside who apparently has a low buy back clause none of the others have added value for re-sale which I can only assume is our strategy?
Fair play to gamechanger for splashing the cash but if we get back to the premier league let's do the eye test rather than data and buy in the positions where it is actually needed for the first 11. We have a dearth of very similar players with little to choose between most of them.
In January we get Godfrey and Philogene both totally unnecessary and not needed. The keeper is a panic buy albeit probably an upgrade on what we have already.
In addition our scouting network needs to look further afield, we could have got much better value shopping abroad although appreciate it's more of a risk.
I feel squad harmony will be difficult to maintain next year and we'll be moving many on at a loss. |  | | |  |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 07:51 - Feb 4 with 1297 views | Horsham |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 23:16 - Feb 3 by Guthrum |
It's more an issue of short supply at the very top level. The really good people would need to be enticed away from clubs higher up the Prem ladder than us.
Who would we go for as a DoF, that would actually improve our recruitment and who might come to Ipswich? |
I’d start by reviewing the effectiveness of the current structure before deciding to recruit a DoF. If I decided to do that I’d ask the best consultants and headhunters to get me the right candidate and steer well clear of Horsham fromTWTD’s suggestions. In other words i don’t know. |  | | |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 07:58 - Feb 4 with 1262 views | Steve_M |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 21:05 - Feb 3 by olimar |
I think the policy was absolutely fine. Buying players who know the English game, speak the language and are young with loads of development potential, and therefore potential increased value, is exactly the sort of profile that every club in England would take if the players they needed were available.
Clubs like Palace, Brighton have gone down that route plenty of times in recent years.
Players like Greaves, Omari, Philogene, Clarke, Delap were all generally seen as some of the best in the championship who fitted that profile. Szmodics fitted that profile with the exception that he was older.
O'Shea and Johnson had performed well in the PL and also fitted that profile.
Townsend was always going to be a back up and didnt cost much.
Cajuste, Phillips, Enciso, Godfrey are all loans that come with good experience at the top level.
Muric has struggled, but had been strong in the Championship, is young and had PL experience.
Ogbene got injured,
I dont think any of them are crazy signings, or for ridiculous fees, that seemed poorly thought out. All of them feel like sensible decisions for various reasons for a club in our position. And nobody can question the ambition of the club in the amount they have spent, collectively.
We had to make a lot of signings and its a given that they wont all be succesful and putting them all into a side that is inevitably going to be down near the bottom end of the table makes that harder.
We could have signed different players, but its easy with hindsight to say they are the wrong ones because they didnt work. Very few, if any, fans were saying any of these signings were bad ones when they were made.
Edit- should have added that its a massive mistep not getting an extra forward though which, to me, undermines a lot of the good work. [Post edited 3 Feb 21:05]
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It's important to separate the broad approach from the worth of each signing. Bringing in good Championship players thinking they can step up but will also make us a better side should we get relegated is fine.
We were probably a bit light on Premier League experience which has been compounded by the fact that both Phillips and Johnson have looked ok at times but neither has quite done enough. O'Shea is probably the only player with significant PL experience who has generally performed to the level we wanted him to.
I can't help feeling a little bit too much is belong made of Ashton's talk of Muric being signed because of data, it won't have been difficult to have watched Burnley matches and be aware of both the good and bad of his performances. We clearly thought we could coach out the bad but it's not worked.
Jack Clarke remains an odd signing though, always looked a little weak for the PL and was clearly second choice after Philogene. Worst case there was always that he will be good next year in the Championship I suppose.
Some epic revisionism going on about some players we've let go though. This is a much, much more difficult league than the Championship, even more so now that the mid-tier of clubs have improved massively. |  |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 08:17 - Feb 4 with 1223 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
You're not "Sorry to be negative", all your posts are negative. |  |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 08:28 - Feb 4 with 1209 views | SheffordBlue |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 07:47 - Feb 4 by Horsham |
‘Do you honestly believe’ is always an opening for a condescending argument…so perhaps that’s where I got from as well when you pointed out that there is serious money involved…I mean do you seriously believe (sorry!) I don’t get that.
In terms of the other stuff. If you think we’ve succeeded in our recruitment goals that’s fine, but do you seriously believe Ashton and McKenna share the same view. If you accept that they don’t then it’s also logical that we what we do in this space should be reviewed and the gaps and shortcomings identified and a plan to fix them established. In terms of not doing something obvious to do it better, I don’t think that can be discounted but I’m not jumping to the conclusion that is the case.
The fact there’s an infrastructure of football people at the club such as Probert is good, and from where we were with poor old Lee O’Neil spinning every job at once we are in a much better place. The question is for me is whether the management structure has the bandwidth, experience, talent and if the internal and external accountability is attributed to the right people and roles within it he organisation. The fact that our recruitment budget on fees alone increased by circa x100 this season and the size and shape of the management structure is still roughly the same as it was after promotion from league one suggests that might be an area to review, hence my DoF suggestion. I don’t think any of this is unreasonable or stupid to think of.
In terms of off the shelf solutions to analaytics - we literally did buy Bloom’s system off the shelf and had to give it back after promotion. I could be completely wrong but is Bloom’s system unique? Could we do something with a club like Atalanta in Italy who also seem very proficient. Could we hire their people? Unless we have the expertise in the building now then how do we build our own model? So for me it’s very much about people and structure. Maybe I was flippant about off the shelf - it’s hard to achieve but if I were Ashton I’d be very mindful that success in this area has the potential to redefine his legacy….again! |
Don't disagree at all with the bandwith stuff at the top of the club and promotion to the Premier League clearly added a whole load of stuff that had to be be done.
I think a lot of this stuff is difficult to judge without the inside knowledge on what the medium/long term strategy is/was, exactly where responsibilities currently lie with people like Gary Probert, and how much this was impacted by getting promoted early. Expanding the recruitment set up and maybe adding a DoF figure might well be in the plan but even when they come in I think there'll be a bit of a lead time before we see results. | |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 08:51 - Feb 4 with 1167 views | tractordownsouth |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 21:50 - Feb 3 by pointofblue |
It's more the finances behind it which could have been used elsewhere if he's going to be a bench option, if a lack of cash played a part in no CM or striker. As said, I'd understand more if we let Woolfenden go out on loan, but we seem to have a lot of depth on the right of defence but not enough in the centre of midfield (considering the way we play) or up front. |
I agree that the Philogene money would have been better spent on a starting central midfielder but any striker we brought in would have been a bench option. Granted, it’s a risk relying on Hirst’s fitness but at least we have two players for that position, whereas we didn’t for the RB/RCB hybrid role before Godfrey came in. |  |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 09:15 - Feb 4 with 1119 views | Pinewoodblue |
There is so much wrong with this thread, which can best be described as opinion presented as facts in many cases by posters who haven’t a clue.
That we gained promotion to the top flight earlier than planned is an inescapable fact. We had a choice, give it a go or follow the example of others and take the money and go back down.
No one could dispute that if we were still in the Championship, heading for promotion, we would be in a better position than we were last season to survive at the highest level.
We can still avoid relegation although to a certain extent it now requires us to hope that others continue to struggle. We have to forget about them and make the best of the next 14 games.
Anyone who thinks survival is impossible turn your back on the club and walk away. You are not welcome. Foxtrot Oscar. |  |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 09:24 - Feb 4 with 1102 views | yorkshireblue |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 20:40 - Feb 3 by ITFCSG |
I cannot understand why we didn't go for Moder at Brighton at only £1.2 million. Instead once again we obsess ourselves over one player (Downes) who may or may not perform at PL level and miss the boat. We need to cast out net wider and look where the bargains are.
Ditto for the ST position, shouldn't we already be putting feelers out before the window opened?
Instead we obsess ourselves with buying more youth players who aren't ready to step up to the PL in a position already stacked to the gills at sky-high prices. Fair enough if we are stocking up on these players for future resale but the way MA and McK has gone about this transfer window seems very likely that they have already accepted that relegation is inevitable. |
Ah, so you know for certain that we didn't look at him do you?
Maybe we did, but he decided the prospect of playing in the Champions Leagueknock-out stages in front of 50,000 home fans in a team regularly fighting for league and cup titles was more appealing than a releagtion fight and possibly Championship football.
The reality is you - or anyone else on this board or social media - has any idea who we have and haven't "gone for"., |  | | |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 11:06 - Feb 4 with 997 views | mikeybloo88 |
“No one could dispute that if we were still in the Championship, heading for promotion, we would be in a better position than we were last season to survive at the highest level. “
I’m not sure I’d agree with that. We’d still have the same lack of knowledge about PL reality and be facing the same recruitment decisions that we faced at the start of this season. Maybe the available recruitment options this summer would have been better, maybe not. What IS indisputable is that next season, no matter which division we’re in, we’ll have a much clearer idea of what is required to survive at the highest level. |  | | |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 15:12 - Feb 4 with 896 views | FBI |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 09:15 - Feb 4 by Pinewoodblue |
There is so much wrong with this thread, which can best be described as opinion presented as facts in many cases by posters who haven’t a clue.
That we gained promotion to the top flight earlier than planned is an inescapable fact. We had a choice, give it a go or follow the example of others and take the money and go back down.
No one could dispute that if we were still in the Championship, heading for promotion, we would be in a better position than we were last season to survive at the highest level.
We can still avoid relegation although to a certain extent it now requires us to hope that others continue to struggle. We have to forget about them and make the best of the next 14 games.
Anyone who thinks survival is impossible turn your back on the club and walk away. You are not welcome. Foxtrot Oscar. |
Got it in one. Nothing left to be said. |  |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 15:28 - Feb 4 with 852 views | BseaBlue |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 07:58 - Feb 4 by Steve_M |
It's important to separate the broad approach from the worth of each signing. Bringing in good Championship players thinking they can step up but will also make us a better side should we get relegated is fine.
We were probably a bit light on Premier League experience which has been compounded by the fact that both Phillips and Johnson have looked ok at times but neither has quite done enough. O'Shea is probably the only player with significant PL experience who has generally performed to the level we wanted him to.
I can't help feeling a little bit too much is belong made of Ashton's talk of Muric being signed because of data, it won't have been difficult to have watched Burnley matches and be aware of both the good and bad of his performances. We clearly thought we could coach out the bad but it's not worked.
Jack Clarke remains an odd signing though, always looked a little weak for the PL and was clearly second choice after Philogene. Worst case there was always that he will be good next year in the Championship I suppose.
Some epic revisionism going on about some players we've let go though. This is a much, much more difficult league than the Championship, even more so now that the mid-tier of clubs have improved massively. |
I think that is a really important point about the broadening of the approach. If we are narrowly relegated but end up winning the Championship next year, you'd probably look back on the policy as a big success wouldn't you?
All the young lads would have another season under their belts and more quality to be added again.
I was initially concerned with our lack of experience but have grown quite comfortable with it, seeing how far away we are from some of the teams we have played this season.
I think it's only fair to give the club some patience after everything they have changed/achieved over the last couple of years. |  | | |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 15:30 - Feb 4 with 841 views | Kieran_Knows |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 23:08 - Feb 3 by itfcsuth |
Featured 61 times in the PL, Europa League, Domestic cups and a well capped international.
Above all else and most importantly he’s a very good player who would have improved the quality in that area.
For £1.5m, fantastic piece of business for Feyenoord, the smart sort of business I personally love to see in the foolish world of football transfers. |
We was actually interested in him last summer, and held talks with Brighton for him... |  |
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| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 17:36 - Feb 4 with 774 views | Blue_Heath |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 08:17 - Feb 4 by The_Flashing_Smile |
You're not "Sorry to be negative", all your posts are negative. |
Actually they are not but haven't we spent well discuss doesn't generate a discussion really does it. If you look at what I said I put fair play to gamechanger. I am merely asking the question if we come back up again should we buy differently next time as I believe it's a discussion worth having. | | | |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 18:19 - Feb 4 with 736 views | OldFart71 |
Sadly we are shopping at Lidl and Aldi and not Waitrose and M&S. Partly due to fair play rules and partly because with the outgoings from last season we needed twelve new players which due to injuries has got up to fifteen. Those that say we should have stuck with some of the old brigade are wrong and the management at PR would have been lambasted for not getting in new players. During the days when these new players came in there wasn't a word of negativity for any of them, Philogene apart due to the saga surrounding his not signing and then eventually signing. Believe me they are all very good players. The problem is that unlike the two previous seasons they aren't a team. | | | |
| Review of transfer policy needed this summer on 03:45 - Feb 5 with 644 views | IPS_wich |
Just to reiterate something Ashton said in an interview in the middle of last summer (I can't be bothered to go back and look up which interview):
- Evans completely dismantled the scouting network
- We had little UK scouting which is why Cook resorted to signing players he knew
- We had zero overseas scouting network anymore
- Was in the strategic plan to start re-establishing the overseas network in 2024/25 season, having focused on the UK & Ireland network over the last couple of years
- The single biggest downside of being promoted 1-2 seasons earlier than thought possible is that we would be going into the Premier League without the tools to shop overseas
- We're trying to rapidly rectify this, but it will take time
- Don't expect to see many overseas signings in 24/25 because the club can't afford to make mistakes given the limits on playing squad size
Of course we want things now - but we just need to remember that the back to back promotions isn't all sunshine and roses. Our club was starved to within an inch of its life and you don't turn that around in 2-3 years. | | | |
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