| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets 12:29 - Jun 28 with 6393 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
Doesn’t seem like they are going to be taking our approach from last summer. Let’s see if it works out any better for them. I hope we aren’t going to be doing the “Predominantly English” thing from a level down again if we get the chance this time next year, heard Ashton repeat that phrase on the Talksport segment.
If you can’t get Premier League experience, the European top leagues seems the best logical next step, or at least a blend of two. Sorry to beat an old drum but I did see the first couple of transfer interesting. |  | | |  |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 18:57 - Jun 28 with 1098 views | Churchman |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 14:29 - Jun 28 by Marshalls_Mullet |
I think its criminal how under invested and under developed out scouting network is, especially abroad.
Last year's recruitment was so basic. |
How could it be anything else given the rapid rate the club progressed? I don’t see how you can build a domestic scouting network overnight, let alone a foreign one.
As for foreign players they don’t always succeed. There is risk in any player signing but more if the come from abroad. It’s just that it doesn’t matter for big clubs with money to burn. Do Man Utd care that they may have to replace Onana who they don’t rate much? Of course not because he only cost £50m plus. Nothing to them.
The money mattered to us though. Much of Sunderland’s signing (half again what we paid for anybody) is from the Bellingham sale. It’s no real risk to them. They had an asset to sell and reinvested. It may work and for my mates’ sake I hope it does. They and Leeds belong there. We had nothing to sell so the aim was to buy in talent that’d hopefully appreciate in value. A gamble, but I can understand the logic.
I understand the romance and assumption that any foreign player is an upgrade on home players and better value. I also understand the comfort of hasbeens and excitement of bad boys. I just don’t agree with either.
I don’t think the underlying approach this time last year was too far wrong. |  | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:08 - Jun 28 with 1050 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 18:57 - Jun 28 by Churchman |
How could it be anything else given the rapid rate the club progressed? I don’t see how you can build a domestic scouting network overnight, let alone a foreign one.
As for foreign players they don’t always succeed. There is risk in any player signing but more if the come from abroad. It’s just that it doesn’t matter for big clubs with money to burn. Do Man Utd care that they may have to replace Onana who they don’t rate much? Of course not because he only cost £50m plus. Nothing to them.
The money mattered to us though. Much of Sunderland’s signing (half again what we paid for anybody) is from the Bellingham sale. It’s no real risk to them. They had an asset to sell and reinvested. It may work and for my mates’ sake I hope it does. They and Leeds belong there. We had nothing to sell so the aim was to buy in talent that’d hopefully appreciate in value. A gamble, but I can understand the logic.
I understand the romance and assumption that any foreign player is an upgrade on home players and better value. I also understand the comfort of hasbeens and excitement of bad boys. I just don’t agree with either.
I don’t think the underlying approach this time last year was too far wrong. |
We spent the best part of 140M. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:10 - Jun 28 with 1036 views | ITFCSG |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 18:49 - Jun 28 by Nutkins_Return |
Sunderland certainly moved to that market as their strategy years ago. Their owner is also a shareholder in Marseille whom his father owned I think. I think their team already had good access in the French leagues and they Have continued to sign from there.
It's important to say there is more than one way to be successful in the market and copying others rather than your strengths is not the right play. We are building our recruitment function and databases to be able to recruit in that market but just doing it before this is matured wouldn't have been right for us. |
Our ownership is American, also Berke Bakay have connections in Turkey and more specifically Galatasaray as well, so where are the USMNT, MLS, Süper Lig and Galatasaray connections?
Zilch. |  | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:15 - Jun 28 with 1015 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:08 - Jun 28 by Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
We spent the best part of 140M. |
Just for correctness, it was much closer to 120M, but of more relevance, what has spending that amount of money got to do with how far our recruitment infrastructure was behind what is needed in the PL, and the time needed to now develop said infrastructure?
It will take years to get to where we need to be, but I’m sure we’re progressing. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:36 - Jun 28 with 962 views | PrideOfTheEast |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:15 - Jun 28 by SuffolkPunchFC |
Just for correctness, it was much closer to 120M, but of more relevance, what has spending that amount of money got to do with how far our recruitment infrastructure was behind what is needed in the PL, and the time needed to now develop said infrastructure?
It will take years to get to where we need to be, but I’m sure we’re progressing. |
No, we spent almost to the £, or committed to spend,140m. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:45 - Jun 28 with 955 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:15 - Jun 28 by SuffolkPunchFC |
Just for correctness, it was much closer to 120M, but of more relevance, what has spending that amount of money got to do with how far our recruitment infrastructure was behind what is needed in the PL, and the time needed to now develop said infrastructure?
It will take years to get to where we need to be, but I’m sure we’re progressing. |
It was in response to the Churchman saying Sunderland are doing it because they could afford to after selling Bellingham. Which is nonsense, we were aggressively backed and could have easily afforded that outlay as our spending proved. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:58 - Jun 28 with 918 views | Marshalls_Mullet |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 16:45 - Jun 28 by positivity |
yes, we've signed plenty of overseas duds since then! |
And domestic duds. Do they count? |  |
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| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 20:02 - Jun 28 with 907 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:36 - Jun 28 by PrideOfTheEast |
No, we spent almost to the £, or committed to spend,140m. |
I’d actually forgotten it was now closer to 130M (which is what I remember posting previously on this -doh on my part)
You can check the transfers on transfermarket. €152M or £129M ish | | | |
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| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 21:05 - Jun 28 with 841 views | Churchman |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:08 - Jun 28 by Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
We spent the best part of 140M. |
And Sunderland have spent about double what we spent on Delap on one player. Will he be doubly effective? Maybe. Might be the signing of the decade. We will see.
£140m? An extraordinary amount for us. Bench warmers and prospects for just about everyone else. Newcastle’s two brilliant midfielders cost well over £100m a few years ago. It’d have been double that had they tried to buy them this year or last.
£140m (why don’t you round it up to £150m to make it sound more?). Isn’t much to build a team from scratch. Hence the loan punts, which for me mostly failed, and wages for injury prone people like Tuanzebe. I don’t like it, but we weren’t competitive at any level.
It’s no good people doing green eyed tiny Tim because we were a country mile from being competitive with the smallest budget in the PL. Even the two teams relegated with us having been in the PL ten years plus before us bar one season.
I get the bitterness and bemusement towards the decisions made and the people that made them. And dismissive hatred shown towards the players signed. Boooo. But people flatly refuse to recognise where we were, where we are and what we are up against. Were errors made? Of course. Too many. But it wouldn’t have made one iota of difference bar one league position.
There is that easy assumption that Carlos Kickaball, Adrian Paz or Glasslegs Le Pen is the answer. Just raid everywhere for cheapies from here to the South Pole and all will be well. All better than the rubbish in this country and cheap too. It might be, if you have the worldwide network even Brentford have and we don’t. Why? Because just a few years ago support was Lee O’Neill who off camera shoved a broom up trap one and cleaned the floor - sometimes.
Before we slaughter ITFC owners and management, let’s see how we start, what the club is doing about its infrastructure and how Leeds and Sunderland do.. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 22:01 - Jun 28 with 792 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 21:05 - Jun 28 by Churchman |
And Sunderland have spent about double what we spent on Delap on one player. Will he be doubly effective? Maybe. Might be the signing of the decade. We will see.
£140m? An extraordinary amount for us. Bench warmers and prospects for just about everyone else. Newcastle’s two brilliant midfielders cost well over £100m a few years ago. It’d have been double that had they tried to buy them this year or last.
£140m (why don’t you round it up to £150m to make it sound more?). Isn’t much to build a team from scratch. Hence the loan punts, which for me mostly failed, and wages for injury prone people like Tuanzebe. I don’t like it, but we weren’t competitive at any level.
It’s no good people doing green eyed tiny Tim because we were a country mile from being competitive with the smallest budget in the PL. Even the two teams relegated with us having been in the PL ten years plus before us bar one season.
I get the bitterness and bemusement towards the decisions made and the people that made them. And dismissive hatred shown towards the players signed. Boooo. But people flatly refuse to recognise where we were, where we are and what we are up against. Were errors made? Of course. Too many. But it wouldn’t have made one iota of difference bar one league position.
There is that easy assumption that Carlos Kickaball, Adrian Paz or Glasslegs Le Pen is the answer. Just raid everywhere for cheapies from here to the South Pole and all will be well. All better than the rubbish in this country and cheap too. It might be, if you have the worldwide network even Brentford have and we don’t. Why? Because just a few years ago support was Lee O’Neill who off camera shoved a broom up trap one and cleaned the floor - sometimes.
Before we slaughter ITFC owners and management, let’s see how we start, what the club is doing about its infrastructure and how Leeds and Sunderland do.. |
Dismissive hatred? Quite the leap. As I’ve said I don’t think outside a couple of misses we’ve signed bad players and I think they’ll serve us very well next year. I wish people would read before throwing statements like that around.
I’m also not talking about everyone else, that’s the point, it’s literally what the entire thread is about, the promoted clubs. Why are you getting so upset about an opinion and talking things that are completely irrelevant from years ago? I’m not slaughtering anyone, let alone the guys that’s have taken the club on an incredibly trajectory. I’m concerned staying in the UK market was by design as said multiple times. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 23:16 - Jun 28 with 718 views | positivity |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:58 - Jun 28 by Marshalls_Mullet |
And domestic duds. Do they count? |
our hit rate seems better with domestic players, we've sold maybe two players from abroad for a profit since treacle in 1997ish
el mizouni (400k after many years)
tete yengi undisclosed figure (possibly up to 4 figures!)
build the network properly before wasting the cash on half-baked hunches! | |
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| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 23:43 - Jun 28 with 678 views | Churchman |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 22:01 - Jun 28 by Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
Dismissive hatred? Quite the leap. As I’ve said I don’t think outside a couple of misses we’ve signed bad players and I think they’ll serve us very well next year. I wish people would read before throwing statements like that around.
I’m also not talking about everyone else, that’s the point, it’s literally what the entire thread is about, the promoted clubs. Why are you getting so upset about an opinion and talking things that are completely irrelevant from years ago? I’m not slaughtering anyone, let alone the guys that’s have taken the club on an incredibly trajectory. I’m concerned staying in the UK market was by design as said multiple times. |
Poor language on my part. In. My mind I wasn’t aiming that at you, Joey. It’s just that there were some slaughtering players before they’d even started here, which I thought unfair. Not new. A particular poster not on the Board at the moment slaughtered Burgess before a ball was kicked two years ago.
And I’m not upset. I am just a supporter with plenty going on in my life, but do care about the club and want it to progress/grow of course.
I think focussing on the U.K. market was by design, but also by necessity. Limited funds and no infrastructure made that the right option. The hope is that the club builds that infrastructure properly over time along with a youth policy. A
A reason Sunderland stand a better chance than us is that they bring good players through. We, at the moment, do not and don’t even have a decent training ground.
That’s where I think we are. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 01:09 - Jun 29 with 608 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 23:43 - Jun 28 by Churchman |
Poor language on my part. In. My mind I wasn’t aiming that at you, Joey. It’s just that there were some slaughtering players before they’d even started here, which I thought unfair. Not new. A particular poster not on the Board at the moment slaughtered Burgess before a ball was kicked two years ago.
And I’m not upset. I am just a supporter with plenty going on in my life, but do care about the club and want it to progress/grow of course.
I think focussing on the U.K. market was by design, but also by necessity. Limited funds and no infrastructure made that the right option. The hope is that the club builds that infrastructure properly over time along with a youth policy. A
A reason Sunderland stand a better chance than us is that they bring good players through. We, at the moment, do not and don’t even have a decent training ground.
That’s where I think we are. |
Fair enough, I do agree there is element who are quick to write off players, which is rather ridiculous.
For the record I think a good few of the signings have a high ceiling with potential to develop into decent top flight players. I’m higher on Greaves than most for example. I was just questioning the overall strategy in a few aspects. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 01:11 - Jun 29 with 607 views | bournemouthblue |
Leeds presumably have Red Bull's data? |  |
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| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 08:56 - Jun 29 with 502 views | Churchman |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 01:09 - Jun 29 by Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
Fair enough, I do agree there is element who are quick to write off players, which is rather ridiculous.
For the record I think a good few of the signings have a high ceiling with potential to develop into decent top flight players. I’m higher on Greaves than most for example. I was just questioning the overall strategy in a few aspects. |
I too think Greaves is better than some believe. In a settled, more balanced side I think he will prove that.
Same for a number of our players, including Clarke and Philogene. I think a lot depends on what we do about that midfield. For me it’s the key to this coming season, just as it was a major factor in last season’s collapse.
Strategy wise, it’s more a case of being caught out by rapid progression up the leagues (over reach?). I don’t see much good out of last season looking back, bar one key thing. It shone a light in our shortcomings in every area.
From minor stuff like how Premier clubs work over refs with the dark arts to club infrastructure, yoof, training, recruitment, scouting here and abroad and the sheer levels the established teams play at.
We know what the Premier League looks like now (the change in 20+ years surprised me). I just hope those at the club and most particularly those who own it are up for the challenge. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 09:01 - Jun 29 with 492 views | ITFCSG |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 21:05 - Jun 28 by Churchman |
And Sunderland have spent about double what we spent on Delap on one player. Will he be doubly effective? Maybe. Might be the signing of the decade. We will see.
£140m? An extraordinary amount for us. Bench warmers and prospects for just about everyone else. Newcastle’s two brilliant midfielders cost well over £100m a few years ago. It’d have been double that had they tried to buy them this year or last.
£140m (why don’t you round it up to £150m to make it sound more?). Isn’t much to build a team from scratch. Hence the loan punts, which for me mostly failed, and wages for injury prone people like Tuanzebe. I don’t like it, but we weren’t competitive at any level.
It’s no good people doing green eyed tiny Tim because we were a country mile from being competitive with the smallest budget in the PL. Even the two teams relegated with us having been in the PL ten years plus before us bar one season.
I get the bitterness and bemusement towards the decisions made and the people that made them. And dismissive hatred shown towards the players signed. Boooo. But people flatly refuse to recognise where we were, where we are and what we are up against. Were errors made? Of course. Too many. But it wouldn’t have made one iota of difference bar one league position.
There is that easy assumption that Carlos Kickaball, Adrian Paz or Glasslegs Le Pen is the answer. Just raid everywhere for cheapies from here to the South Pole and all will be well. All better than the rubbish in this country and cheap too. It might be, if you have the worldwide network even Brentford have and we don’t. Why? Because just a few years ago support was Lee O’Neill who off camera shoved a broom up trap one and cleaned the floor - sometimes.
Before we slaughter ITFC owners and management, let’s see how we start, what the club is doing about its infrastructure and how Leeds and Sunderland do.. |
//And Sunderland have spent about double what we spent on Delap on one player//
Cherry-picking. Why not see if their new player is doubly more effective than J Clarke or Philogene then?
Are Sunderland light years ahead of us in terms of scouting and overseas recruitment? | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 10:15 - Jun 29 with 424 views | Churchman |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 09:01 - Jun 29 by ITFCSG |
//And Sunderland have spent about double what we spent on Delap on one player//
Cherry-picking. Why not see if their new player is doubly more effective than J Clarke or Philogene then?
Are Sunderland light years ahead of us in terms of scouting and overseas recruitment? |
You’ve missed the point, but never mind. Their new forward cost £30m plus potentially £5m add ons. What did Delap cost? They are both forwards from what I understand so to me that’s a fair comparison. Anyway, who is to say Clarke and everyone’s favourite hate figure at the moment Philogene won’t prove better value than Diarra? Nobody knows.
Who would have guessed that Chelsea’s Nkunku at over £50m would look like a pub player? You just cannot tell. Well I can’t anyway, beyond seeing the obvious that Chelsea were trying to mug us off with one legged Broja that many on here thought was a good risk.
The Sunderland player has been largely paid for from the Bellingham sale. So no impact on the PL money then. Who did we sell to fund? Nobody, because we had zilch to sell that’d have raised more than what they were worth to us.
In the last 25 years Sunderland have spent 15 in the Premier League. They have a stadium that is a lot newer and will need less work to stage a PL game. They have a huge support base compared to us and while tv money dwarfs that, it does no harm. They have a yoof system that is clearly producing or refining very good players. They’ve had three years in the Championship, two of them in the play offs and for a period a manager in Mowbray who was a good builder of things in the old GB style.
The current manager clearly knows the foreign, particularly French, market too. Two of their best players last season were from there and Mayenda in particular might do well in the PL. How can they not be light years ahead of us in terms of things like scouting networks? We didn’t have one here or anywhere else. Saviour Evans saw to that
Rome wasn’t built in a day. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 12:07 - Jun 29 with 357 views | PrideOfTheEast |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 10:15 - Jun 29 by Churchman |
You’ve missed the point, but never mind. Their new forward cost £30m plus potentially £5m add ons. What did Delap cost? They are both forwards from what I understand so to me that’s a fair comparison. Anyway, who is to say Clarke and everyone’s favourite hate figure at the moment Philogene won’t prove better value than Diarra? Nobody knows.
Who would have guessed that Chelsea’s Nkunku at over £50m would look like a pub player? You just cannot tell. Well I can’t anyway, beyond seeing the obvious that Chelsea were trying to mug us off with one legged Broja that many on here thought was a good risk.
The Sunderland player has been largely paid for from the Bellingham sale. So no impact on the PL money then. Who did we sell to fund? Nobody, because we had zilch to sell that’d have raised more than what they were worth to us.
In the last 25 years Sunderland have spent 15 in the Premier League. They have a stadium that is a lot newer and will need less work to stage a PL game. They have a huge support base compared to us and while tv money dwarfs that, it does no harm. They have a yoof system that is clearly producing or refining very good players. They’ve had three years in the Championship, two of them in the play offs and for a period a manager in Mowbray who was a good builder of things in the old GB style.
The current manager clearly knows the foreign, particularly French, market too. Two of their best players last season were from there and Mayenda in particular might do well in the PL. How can they not be light years ahead of us in terms of things like scouting networks? We didn’t have one here or anywhere else. Saviour Evans saw to that
Rome wasn’t built in a day. |
Easy to forget that Sunderland have been in the top flight more often than not in the time we’ve been away from it.
Let’s hope we are addressing the infrastructure at pace because not a chance we stay up without approaching things very differently next time re recruitment. Hands were tied to a very large extent last summer I suppose and the more Ashton talks, the more obvious it is that our signings were made with this season in mind. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 13:57 - Jun 29 with 277 views | Churchman |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 12:07 - Jun 29 by PrideOfTheEast |
Easy to forget that Sunderland have been in the top flight more often than not in the time we’ve been away from it.
Let’s hope we are addressing the infrastructure at pace because not a chance we stay up without approaching things very differently next time re recruitment. Hands were tied to a very large extent last summer I suppose and the more Ashton talks, the more obvious it is that our signings were made with this season in mind. |
Agree. Ramping up the infrastructure is absolutely key. All aspects of it. We are no longer blind to the requirements. Without working on the above at pace as priority, even if we make it next year, we will just repeat last season’s disappointment (understatement). Nobody wants that bar one or two trolls on here. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 17:05 - Jun 29 with 187 views | ITFCSG |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 12:07 - Jun 29 by PrideOfTheEast |
Easy to forget that Sunderland have been in the top flight more often than not in the time we’ve been away from it.
Let’s hope we are addressing the infrastructure at pace because not a chance we stay up without approaching things very differently next time re recruitment. Hands were tied to a very large extent last summer I suppose and the more Ashton talks, the more obvious it is that our signings were made with this season in mind. |
Point taken
That saying if you have watched STID you'd realise the shambles Sunderland were in during their relegation season in the Champ and in League One under the ownership of Ellis Short and later Stewart Donald where the entire club was literally falling apart from the fans to the backroom and players. Whatever they had built up in the earlier Prem seasons were most probably gone by then including their scouting infrastructure.
If pre-GC we were even worse than Sunderland under Short and Donald where fan protests were almost a weekly event at Sunderland games then I really question the happy clappers of ITFC who for years were apparently satisfied with the car crash that Evans and later Lambert brought to the club.
Also, re Sunderland's French connections under the ownership of Loius-Dreyfus and manager Le Bris, why aren't we tapping on our American ownership to target and scout players from MLS, the USMNT, as well as from Turkey given Berke Bakay and his links with Galatasaray? [Post edited 29 Jun 17:10]
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| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:07 - Jun 29 with 99 views | darkhorse28 |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 12:56 - Jun 28 by PhilTWTD |
I think it has been by design, which has surprised me. I don't see it changing, either. The concentration has continued to be on the UK market. |
It seems a bizarre strategy.
Even the elite players from the EFL have taken years working with the very best players and coaches to establish themselves, like Bowen.
Somerville who was levels ahead of anything in the EFL has struggled and Lewis Potter is getting there, but again, it takes a long while of staying at that level to develop players.
Sadly, in the EFL it’s never been less likely that you can develop in to the world class levels required, even the odd outlier now seems like it’s impossible.
We can’t build and coach an EPL side, in the EFL, the financial gap has never been bigger, so player retention is impossible, and I get a feeling McKenna wants to prove he can coach players up to that level.
I don’t want us to be the proxy to prove him wrong.
We could get 100 points this season, and 20 point next.
That’s now what the gap is.
McKenna can’t coach that gap…, because nobody can.., talented foreign talent ID at great value, it doesn’t seem like rocket science.
To look at Brighton, Bournemouth, Wolves, Fulham, Forest, who all scouted world class talent abroad and think they all got it wrong seems like ego.
Their £70 million players, they signed for £10 million, are a lot better than our £20 million players worth £30 million.
Their economics alone make our strategy impossible to work, especially in conjunction with release fees, that don’t maximise the additional ‘English’ sales value that clubs often get in the market.
It’s the worst possible value.., muddy thinking.
To know where the elite talent is, in the best league in the world, you only need to look at the nationality of the players.
They (mostly) aren’t English for a reason.
Imagine not signing Adrian Paz because he didn’t speak the lingo …, signing David Hill just didn’t bring the same level of anticipation. | | | |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:36 - Jun 29 with 70 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Leeds and Sunderland straight into the European markets on 19:07 - Jun 29 by darkhorse28 |
It seems a bizarre strategy.
Even the elite players from the EFL have taken years working with the very best players and coaches to establish themselves, like Bowen.
Somerville who was levels ahead of anything in the EFL has struggled and Lewis Potter is getting there, but again, it takes a long while of staying at that level to develop players.
Sadly, in the EFL it’s never been less likely that you can develop in to the world class levels required, even the odd outlier now seems like it’s impossible.
We can’t build and coach an EPL side, in the EFL, the financial gap has never been bigger, so player retention is impossible, and I get a feeling McKenna wants to prove he can coach players up to that level.
I don’t want us to be the proxy to prove him wrong.
We could get 100 points this season, and 20 point next.
That’s now what the gap is.
McKenna can’t coach that gap…, because nobody can.., talented foreign talent ID at great value, it doesn’t seem like rocket science.
To look at Brighton, Bournemouth, Wolves, Fulham, Forest, who all scouted world class talent abroad and think they all got it wrong seems like ego.
Their £70 million players, they signed for £10 million, are a lot better than our £20 million players worth £30 million.
Their economics alone make our strategy impossible to work, especially in conjunction with release fees, that don’t maximise the additional ‘English’ sales value that clubs often get in the market.
It’s the worst possible value.., muddy thinking.
To know where the elite talent is, in the best league in the world, you only need to look at the nationality of the players.
They (mostly) aren’t English for a reason.
Imagine not signing Adrian Paz because he didn’t speak the lingo …, signing David Hill just didn’t bring the same level of anticipation. |
To counter that, the EFL is full of sh*t overseas players. We’ve had some horrendous foreign players recently and in the past.
Shopping in that market just gives you more ways to get your fingers burnt unless you have the right contacts representing the best players (links with agents are vital, not just a decent scouting dept - probably more important as so much of the ‘scouting’ is done by analysts behind a computer screen). You’ve got to have agents batting for you, and that takes time and work to build the relationships and can cost.
For this season I’m not worried about our strategy as it worked exceptionally well in the EPL. But yeah, it does become more of an issue in the PL when we can’t afford proven top homegrown players. |  |
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