Txiki Out

[nottsblue]

Gundo was 20 mill because of the risk.

And that he only had a year left on his contract

[South Stand Balti]

Sterling just has to show more balls.

He has what it takes, certainly to break open defences and cause havoc, but he seems fearful of what might go wrong instead of just going for it.

He definitely has all the tools to rip open defences but he needs to be fearless and not be worried about making mistakes in a split second decision.

Because at the moment, he's making mistakes because he's overthinking most situations imo.

He needs to learn how to use his left peg.
If he wasn't so predictably right footed he'd be brilliant.

You look at Sterling when he was at the dippers and now and they are two different players. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. The Sterling at the dippers was much more direct. When he received the ball he seemed to just make a bee line for the opposition box, willing to take on defenders and beat them easily. With us he seems more reticent somehow. Sounds daft but maybe he knows there's no point in racing to the opposition box as we rarely have men in there. Kun just doesn't make runs in there any more, maybe it's Catch-22 as he doesn't make the runs because the wingers don't and the wingers font because the forward doesn't!

But for his price just feel he could and should be doing more. Again, like Sane I'll give him more leeway than most due to his age, but at some point in the next eighteen months I'd like to see an upturn in his performances. You look at Sanchez at Arsenal, Suarez at both the dippers and Barca, Reus at Dortmund, Robben and Ribery at Bayern, Griezemann at Atletico as examples of players in similar roles who are more consistent and have arguably delivered better value for money. That's not to say he won't reach higher levels but he's not showing it right now

Sterling had a good spell at the dippers but it didn't last. Brenda ended up playing him at right wing back etc to try to find his best role as his form had dipped badly. This was well before he joined us. He has poor technique for his price. He has been much better this season but is far from consistent or convincing. I'd love him to succeed given the noise the dippers made when he left, but I'm doubt he will ever justify the outlay.

[South Stand Balti]

Gundo was 20 mill because of the risk.

And that he only had a year left on his contract

He will weigh heavy on our wage bill for the next 4-5 years.

[Sideshow Bob]

Gundo was 20 mill because of the risk.

And that he only had a year left on his contract

He will weigh heavy on our wage bill for the next 4-5 years.

dont we have insurance for this sort of thing? serious question. i have no idea how it works.

[South Stand Balti]

Gundo was 20 mill because of the risk.

And that he only had a year left on his contract

He will weigh heavy on our wage bill for the next 4-5 years.

dont we have insurance for this sort of thing? serious question. i have no idea how it works.

I don't know but I think there is insurance for career ending injuries. I'm not sure how it works for those with long term injuries but I doubt we would get a no claims bonus for Gundo.

[Socrates]

Again I'm not supporting Txiki but just for banance's sake, in terms of incomings who would you say has been a major failing on Txiki's part when judging fee paid against contribution made?

Jovetic
Mangala
Bony

Anyone else?

Bravo, Gundo, Delph. I could go on....and on

Jury out on Bravo, Gundogan could yet prove to be a bargain, Delph fair enough but worth the risk as a squad player given the relatively small fee imo.

Please do go on and on.

Very true about Delph and given the way Pep likes his fullbacks to invert into midfield and attack the box, as Zaba now does on the right, he could prove a bargain Pep-style left back going forward. As for Gundogan, he already paid back his signing fee and first year's wages with his performance and goals in the stunning win over Barca. A win that will have added tens of millions to the value of the club overnight in terms of profile and prestige.

I'm not defending Txixi, far from it, his personal balance sheet is clearly very negative over his tenure but we need to objective and fair when assessing it.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Ok let's look at it
Maicon
Javi Garcia
Scott Sinclair
Jack Rodwell
Matija Nastasic
Fernandinho
Jesus Navas
Alvaro Negredo
Stefan Jovetic
Martin Demichelis
Bacary Sagna
Fernando
Willy Caballero
Bruno Zucullini
Frank Lampard
Eliaquim Mangala
Wilfried Bony
Raheem Sterling
Fabian Delph
Patrick Roberts
Nicolas Otamendi
Kevin De Bruyne
Ilkay Gundogan
Nolito
Oliksandr Zinchenko
Marlos Moreno
John Stones
Leroy Sane
Claudio Bravo
Gabriel Jesus


If anything at least he has been busy. That is AMAZING amount of transfers.

[Dubciteh]

Ok let's look at it
Maicon
Javi Garcia
Scott Sinclair
Jack Rodwell
Matija Nastasic
Fernandinho
Jesus Navas
Alvaro Negredo
Stefan Jovetic
Martin Demichelis
Bacary Sagna
Fernando
Willy Caballero
Bruno Zucullini
Frank Lampard
Eliaquim Mangala
Wilfried Bony
Raheem Sterling
Fabian Delph
Patrick Roberts
Nicolas Otamendi
Kevin De Bruyne
Ilkay Gundogan
Nolito
Oliksandr Zinchenko
Marlos Moreno
John Stones
Leroy Sane
Claudio Bravo
Gabriel Jesus


If anything at least he has been busy. That is AMAZING amount of transfers.

Prob about 5 on that list, his best signing value wise was demechelis, but that was Pellers surely rather than Txiki.

[Dubciteh]

Also what about the outs?? We have let some cracking players go for pract nothing...

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Ok let's look at it
Maicon
Javi Garcia
Scott Sinclair
Jack Rodwell
Matija Nastasic

^nothing to do with Txiki

Fernandinho - excellent signing

Jesus Navas - decent squad player, money considered he's an ok signing

Alvaro Negredo - good signing, contributed well to our title win and we turned a profit when sold

Stefan Jovetic - gamble didn't pay off, poor signing

Martin Demichelis - good stop gap signing

Bacary Sagna - on a free, good signing

Fernando - decent squad player, needed to replace Garcia, fee modest, all things considered an ok signing

Willy Caballero - good back up keeper, good signing ( worth it for his penalty saves in LC final alone )

Bruno Zucullini - weird signing, reckon he's related to Txiki and wanted to inter rail Europe, I'd imagine any outlay has been recouped in loan fees, meh

Frank Lampard - good signing apart from the pr side

Eliaquim Mangala - first real fail, payed way over the odds, poor signing

Wilfried Bony - fail, understood the logic in the signing but didn't work out, poor signing

Raheem Sterling - starting to look like he may yet fill that potential, pricey but good signing

Fabian Delph - gamble hasn't paid off but may yet justify his transfer, have to say poor signing though

Patrick Roberts - jury out

Nicolas Otamendi - ok signing, not great but not a disaster either

Kevin De Bruyne - excellent signing

Ilkay Gundogan
Nolito
Oliksandr Zinchenko
Marlos Moreno
John Stones
Leroy Sane
Claudio Bravo
Gabriel Jesus

^ jury out


If anything at least he has been busy. That is AMAZING amount of transfers.

20 senior players over 4 widows, 5 a window, fairly standard I would say.

Some gambles on injury prone players haven't paid off.

A couple of excellent signings with the potential for 3 or 4 still to be too

4 poor signings so 1 a season, again fairly standard I'd say

On the fullback issue, we've let a situation develop where the average age at fullback is ridiculous, perhaps our outlay on centre backs has prevented us from upgrading here, whatever the reason it shouldn't have been allowed get to that, thankfully 3 of the 4 are out of contract this season so it'll be addressed this summer.

All in all, our recruitment hasn't been that bad

C +

[mr_nool]

That's way too sensible of a post!

[nottsblue]

Ok let's look at it
Maicon
Javi Garcia
Scott Sinclair
Jack Rodwell
Matija Nastasic

^nothing to do with Txiki

Fernandinho - excellent signing

Jesus Navas - decent squad player, money considered he's an ok signing

Alvaro Negredo - good signing, contributed well to our title win and we turned a profit when sold

Stefan Jovetic - gamble didn't pay off, poor signing

Martin Demichelis - good stop gap signing

Bacary Sagna - on a free, good signing

Fernando - decent squad player, needed to replace Garcia, fee modest, all things considered an ok signing

Willy Caballero - good back up keeper, good signing ( worth it for his penalty saves in LC final alone )

Bruno Zucullini - weird signing, reckon he's related to Txiki and wanted to inter rail Europe, I'd imagine any outlay has been recouped in loan fees, meh

Frank Lampard - good signing apart from the pr side

Eliaquim Mangala - first real fail, payed way over the odds, poor signing

Wilfried Bony - fail, understood the logic in the signing but didn't work out, poor signing

Raheem Sterling - starting to look like he may yet fill that potential, pricey but good signing

Fabian Delph - gamble hasn't paid off but may yet justify his transfer, have to say poor signing though

Patrick Roberts - jury out

Nicolas Otamendi - ok signing, not great but not a disaster either

Kevin De Bruyne - excellent signing

Ilkay Gundogan
Nolito
Oliksandr Zinchenko
Marlos Moreno
John Stones
Leroy Sane
Claudio Bravo
Gabriel Jesus

^ jury out


If anything at least he has been busy. That is AMAZING amount of transfers.

20 senior players over 4 widows, 5 a window, fairly standard I would say.

Some gambles on injury prone players haven't paid off.

A couple of excellent signings with the potential for 3 or 4 still to be too

4 poor signings so 1 a season, again fairly standard I'd say

On the fullback issue, we've let a situation develop where the average age at fullback is ridiculous, perhaps our outlay on centre backs has prevented us from upgrading here, whatever the reason it shouldn't have been allowed get to that, thankfully 3 of the 4 are out of contract this season so it'll be addressed this summer.

All in all, our recruitment hasn't been that bad

C +

An excellent post with well thought out reasoning to back up your argument.

However, I slightly disagree on some of the players. Squad players for my money should be from the academy. I am not having it that there isn't a lad in there who could have done as good a job as Delph. Or Fernando. Or Bony. Navas even. There's £65/70m right there. That's money that can be spent on bona fida top players who improve the first eleven. I am not talking about flooding the first eleven with academy players, just one or two here and there who can deputise and be part of squad rotation. The rags did this well during Bacons tenure which then enabled them to spend big on the likes of Shrek, Ferdinand, Veron etc.

But agree in the main about the job he has done. When you compare the rags, dippers and Arsenals transfers over the last five years we haven't done as poorly as is being made out. Possibly only Chelsea have had better value for money. And the threat of FFP a few years ago cannot be underestimated. Brought in after we won our first title as an attempt to derail us as a measure of desperation as they knew if we landed our real targets the rest wouldn't have got a look in. Now we are in a position where it doesn't affect us we are getting the squad together. Stones, Sane, Sterling, KDB, Jesus and possibly Gundogan are the backbone of the side for a good 5/6 years. A few tweaks here and there and we are where we want to be.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

I agree Notts in that we need to do better at bridging the gap with academy players to senior level but again how much of that falls on Txiki? You use the rags as an example, it took them 6/7 years from when the pisscan took over to start bearing fruit, Txiki's been here for 5 this September.

A big advantage the rags had was the pisscans network of clubs in the PL that he could loan youth players to gain decent experience at senior level so that they're ready to step in as deputies to first team. We don't have that luxury but there are some signs that we're starting to build up a decent network, the relationship with Girona being a good example, they are in with a decent shout of promotion this season, if that happens we have a La Liga club to send players on loan to.

[fangsanalsatan]

Also what about the outs?? We have let some cracking players go for pract nothing...

Preach.

2013 we replaced

Tevez
RSC
Sinclair
Barry
Maicon
Kolo
Bridge

with

Jovetic
Negredo
Navas
Fernandinho
Demichelis

All in all, not too bad. I'm a big fan of Pellegrini's Demichelis tansfer. Fernandinho is ace. Navas is an okay sub (who shouldn't start) and much better than Sinclair. However, we failed to replace Tevez adequately, which is pretty huge.

2014 we replaced

Pantilimon
Lescott
Nastasic
Richards
Javi Garcia
Rodwell
Negredo

with

Caballero
Mangala
Sagna
Fernando
Lampard
Bony

At first glance, a real lack of quality. Failure to find a reliable CB is a big one. Every other transfer is sideways at best. Criminal conduct for any top club. Still no replacement for Tevez! And I'm not having the FFP excuses, seeing how we pissed away a good £75m on the comedy duo that is Mangala and Bony.

2015 we replaced

Lampard
Milner
Jovetic
Dzeko

with

Otamendi
Delph
KDB
Sterling

Apart from KDB, who arguably makes this our best window in three seasons on his own, this is nothing to write home about. Otamendi is another average CB, Delph the invisible man and Sterling a very frustrating story so far, but one who is still very young and imo can still be coached into a quality player. Most worryingly however, is that we failed to replace yet another proven goalscorer in Dzeko.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Also what about the outs?? We have let some cracking players go for pract nothing...

Preach.

2013 we replaced

Tevez
RSC
Sinclair
Barry
Maicon
Kolo
Bridge

with

Jovetic
Negredo
Navas
Fernandinho
Demichelis

All in all, not too bad. I'm a big fan of Pellegrini's Demichelis tansfer. Fernandinho is ace. Navas is an okay sub (who shouldn't start) and much better than Sinclair. However, we failed to replace Tevez adequately, which is pretty huge.

2014 we replaced

Pantilimon
Lescott
Nastasic
Richards
Javi Garcia
Rodwell
Negredo

with

Caballero
Mangala
Sagna
Fernando
Lampard
Bony

At first glance, a real lack of quality. Failure to find a reliable CB is a big one. Every other transfer is sideways at best. Criminal conduct for any top club. Still no replacement for Tevez! And I'm not having the FFP excuses, seeing how we pissed away a good £75m on the comedy duo that is Mangala and Bony.

2015 we replaced

Lampard
Milner
Jovetic
Dzeko

with

Otamendi
Delph
KDB
Sterling

Apart from KDB, who arguably makes this our best window in three seasons on his own, this is nothing to write home about. Otamendi is another average CB, Delph the invisible man and Sterling a very frustrating story so far, but one who is still very young and imo can still be coached into a quality player. Most worryingly however, is that we failed to replace yet another proven goalscorer in Dzeko.

In regard FFP, it's not just transfer fees that need to be considered, it's wages, the fact that we had no wriggle room on wages meant we couldn't pay top salaries that the top players demand. Ask Pellegrini about Alexis Sanchez on this one.

[mr_nool]

Also what about the outs?? We have let some cracking players go for pract nothing...

Preach.

2013 we replaced

Tevez
RSC
Sinclair
Barry
Maicon
Kolo
Bridge

with

Jovetic
Negredo
Navas
Fernandinho
Demichelis

All in all, not too bad. I'm a big fan of Pellegrini's Demichelis tansfer. Fernandinho is ace. Navas is an okay sub (who shouldn't start) and much better than Sinclair. However, we failed to replace Tevez adequately, which is pretty huge.

2014 we replaced

Pantilimon
Lescott
Nastasic
Richards
Javi Garcia
Rodwell
Negredo

with

Caballero
Mangala
Sagna
Fernando
Lampard
Bony

At first glance, a real lack of quality. Failure to find a reliable CB is a big one. Every other transfer is sideways at best. Criminal conduct for any top club. Still no replacement for Tevez! And I'm not having the FFP excuses, seeing how we pissed away a good £75m on the comedy duo that is Mangala and Bony.

2015 we replaced

Lampard
Milner
Jovetic
Dzeko

with

Otamendi
Delph
KDB
Sterling

Apart from KDB, who arguably makes this our best window in three seasons on his own, this is nothing to write home about. Otamendi is another average CB, Delph the invisible man and Sterling a very frustrating story so far, but one who is still very young and imo can still be coached into a quality player. Most worryingly however, is that we failed to replace yet another proven goalscorer in Dzeko.

Also a good post!

But one should consider the spine of the team getting older with each year as well. It's not just about replacing player for player, but also strengthening an ageing squad.

[fangsanalsatan]

But one should consider the spine of the team getting older with each year as well. It's not just about replacing player for player, but also strengthening an ageing squad.

Very true. I wanted to make that point as well, but it slipped my mind by the end of the list.

In regard FFP, it's not just transfer fees that need to be considered, it's wages, the fact that we had no wriggle room on wages meant we couldn't pay top salaries that the top players demand. Ask Pellegrini about Alexis Sanchez on this one.

But surely blowing a shedload on mediocrity is contraproductive then?

[Foreverinbluedreams]

But one should consider the spine of the team getting older with each year as well. It's not just about replacing player for player, but also strengthening an ageing squad.

Very true. I wanted to make that point as well, but it slipped my mind by the end of the list.

In regard FFP, it's not just transfer fees that need to be considered, it's wages, the fact that we had no wriggle room on wages meant we couldn't pay top salaries that the top players demand. Ask Pellegrini about Alexis Sanchez on this one.

But surely blowing a shedload on mediocrity is contraproductive then?

Yes, as I pointed out in my initial post, two of our major transfer failings happened in that season, Mangala and Bony.

At the time I could see logic in both signings. Mangala was on the verge of breaking into the France team and was on occasion captaining Porto at a very young age, the potential was there, unfortunately for us and him that potential was never realised.

Bony was the PL's highest scorer in the calendar year before we bought him, possessed may of the same traits that Negredo had, which proved so successful the previous year in his partnership with Aguero, so got the logic, unfortunately he flopped badly when he came in. On Bony as well, this is just speculation on my part but I reckon this signing was made to appease Pellegrini, not excusing Txiki as he signed off on it but you have to keep your manager sweet too.

[Cocacolajojo]

Also what about the outs?? We have let some cracking players go for pract nothing...

Preach.

2013 we replaced

Tevez
RSC
Sinclair
Barry
Maicon
Kolo
Bridge

with

Jovetic
Negredo
Navas
Fernandinho
Demichelis

All in all, not too bad. I'm a big fan of Pellegrini's Demichelis tansfer. Fernandinho is ace. Navas is an okay sub (who shouldn't start) and much better than Sinclair. However, we failed to replace Tevez adequately, which is pretty huge.

2014 we replaced

Pantilimon
Lescott
Nastasic
Richards
Javi Garcia
Rodwell
Negredo

with

Caballero
Mangala
Sagna
Fernando
Lampard
Bony

At first glance, a real lack of quality. Failure to find a reliable CB is a big one. Every other transfer is sideways at best. Criminal conduct for any top club. Still no replacement for Tevez! And I'm not having the FFP excuses, seeing how we pissed away a good £75m on the comedy duo that is Mangala and Bony.

2015 we replaced

Lampard
Milner
Jovetic
Dzeko

with

Otamendi
Delph
KDB
Sterling

Apart from KDB, who arguably makes this our best window in three seasons on his own, this is nothing to write home about. Otamendi is another average CB, Delph the invisible man and Sterling a very frustrating story so far, but one who is still very young and imo can still be coached into a quality player. Most worryingly however, is that we failed to replace yet another proven goalscorer in Dzeko.

Also a good post!

But one should consider the spine of the team getting older with each year as well. It's not just about replacing player for player, but also strengthening an ageing squad.

The ageing thing is probably my biggest gripe. It was pretty obvious early doors that this was going to be an issue and has not been solved properly. We've started now but it was probably a couple of years too late. FFP was not the issue here obviously as we bought three 28 year olds in 2013 for a lot of money. For example.

And Negredo was not a good buy just because we managed to go plus minus zero in the books. We've needed competition for our forward line for a long time and he failed to fix that issue, as did Bony. Although I still belive there's more to Otamendi than we've seen, he's performed like a below average defender so far.

And then there's the goalkeeping issue as well where it's been pretty obvious that the competition has not been good enough. And still isn't.

[Cocacolajojo]

But one should consider the spine of the team getting older with each year as well. It's not just about replacing player for player, but also strengthening an ageing squad.

Very true. I wanted to make that point as well, but it slipped my mind by the end of the list.

In regard FFP, it's not just transfer fees that need to be considered, it's wages, the fact that we had no wriggle room on wages meant we couldn't pay top salaries that the top players demand. Ask Pellegrini about Alexis Sanchez on this one.

But surely blowing a shedload on mediocrity is contraproductive then?

Sure seems like it.