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Post by foxysgloves on Aug 3, 2015 10:17:33 GMT
We're light at the back, lack a bit of bite in the middle, need another option on the wing and seem a bit slow up top.
If this was how MH and the team planned to enter the new season I'd be very concerned.
But I don't think it was...I'm confident they know our weaknesses and are working on them.
I hope....
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Post by poethebald on Aug 3, 2015 10:26:14 GMT
You are probably right mate.I just think the spine of the team looks a little frail at the moment due to the lack of quality cover in central midfield and at centre half.This coupled with MVGs and Affelys injury records, plus Shawcross's injury I think we need reinforcements. I think we'll be fine. Butland did ok last season, we still have the continuity of Whelan sitting alongside Van Ginkel, who could go either way but has massive potential. Up front we've still retained Crouch who we know we can revert back to if needs be. The only question mark is the injury to Ryan. That's tough to take but partially unseen given we didn't know how his injury would turn out with rest. We could be sat here now with him in the side having had a full pre season. My concerns are that if MVG or Whelan get injured we have no quality replacement.If we had managed to hold onto Nzonzi and signed MVG I for one would have been ecstatic. Central defence is a major concern for me at the moment as it is for others I have spoken too.However, as you say I'm sure we will be fine and the manager knows what he is doing.I just hope he is being backed as much has the CEO says he is being backed.
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Post by Lakeland Potter on Aug 3, 2015 10:28:35 GMT
Yes, but you must surely have some reason for saying that Shaq and Yarmolenko are demanding salaries in excess of what we have offered. How does that square with Yarmolenko's interview last night saying he wants to come to Stoke, but it his his club which have not accepted our bid? And in all the many comments Shaq has made about our bid he has never once suggested that our terms are a problem. He appears to want CL football even if that means accepting lower wages than we offered. RE: Yarmalenko then until a bid is accepted we cannot talk to him about wages so we will have to wait and see. Re: Shaquiri then I dont think we have heard his side of the story beyond Percy reporting that following discussions 'there was no response'. I think the difference between joining a club who are playing in the Champions League v Stoke is that they will pay him much more money than we can possibly consider - When really has a modern day footballer baulked on a transfer due to footballing reasons ? Your statement I have underlined above, simply isn't true. An English club in the CL or the top 6 of the PL could afford to pay a player more than we could but most other Champions League clubs (other than the top clubs in Spain and Germany and possibly Italy and PSG in France) could not afford wages close to what we (or any other mid table English Club) can afford - purely, of course down to the TV deal we have which is much larger than all but a few European clubs. As an example, Dynamo Kiev and Dnipro both qualify on occasions for the Champions League, yet we could/would probably pay Yarmolenko or Konoplyanka more than double the wages they earned in Ukraine. I understand that Shaqiri would not have to take a pay cut if he had joined us from Inter. Remember, in financial terms Stoke are the 30th richest club in Europe BEFORE THE NEW TV DEAL KICKS IN NEXT SEASON and that will probably add £25 million or more to our income.
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Post by Kjones9 on Aug 3, 2015 10:54:29 GMT
But you hope that they ARE good enough then surely? He didn't say he hoped they weren't good enough, he said he hoped they weren't the replacement plan for Nzonzi and Moses for the reasons he has now stated, twice. He may be right or he may be wrong but it was a valid opinion. But you knew all of that anyway. Have you got a special table on that horse? Why would he hope that we didn't find a replacement in the players that we have signed for them roles. If it was you, I'd know, more ammo.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 10:56:56 GMT
The way I see it is that we have won nothing and do not look like winning anything either so the answer is players are not likely to sign, so the better the player the more he will look at his chance of winning medals here not money because most are wealthy anyway. No matter how much money we may or may not have the first thing they look at is trophies. So IMO we have to look at outstanding young players not quite there yet but with potential or players with injuries or just "over the hill" 30+ but still quality on their day.
So unless we turn into Man City and have more money than sense we get the best we can but not quite THE best.
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Post by Miles Offside on Aug 3, 2015 12:15:09 GMT
How many of your 18 signings have been U21 or development players? It is hardly fair to include those in a post moaning about the transfer policy. When Arsenal signed a young Fabregas or Portsmouth signed a teenage Begovic - no one said that it represented poor transfer business. For what it is worth, I reckon players like Telford and Moha look very promising for our future and I'm delighted we signed them - just as I would be if we signed Traore. I certainly wouldn't be including those signings in some tirade against the club's first team policy. In the long term building a squad of good youngsters for the future is just as important as building a current first team squad. I liked TP (fully paid up rimmer, I was) and I appreciate all he did for the first team - but he neglected to plan for the future by ensuring a steady stream of recruits for the academy and development squads - and that is one reason why we now need to recruit so many players in the 18-21 age range. You've got a strange idea of what constitutes a "tirade". And I mentioned the likes of Telford and Moha as signings looking beyond this coming season. You must have missed that part. I didn't count Telford or the other young lad we signed at the same time, but I did Moha because I think he might get a few minutes off the bench occasionally. Anyway, the point stands - within the two years after we needed three attacking players we've made eighteen signings and the first team is still light in the areas I pointed out.
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Post by Pugsley on Aug 3, 2015 13:00:07 GMT
The frustrating thing, for me anyway, has been our pursuit of top targets like Yarmo, Kono etc that haven't come off (yet) and then seeing us sign freebies and so-called has beens. It's all a bit jam tomorrow from our CE who's not my favorite bloke as it is. It all feels like we're being strung along a bit, especially when we see other clubs like Palace spending £10million on Cabaye and another similar amount on Wickham.
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Post by sheikhmomo on Aug 3, 2015 14:19:32 GMT
I do not know of any other set of fans around the globe who have so much concern for their billionaire owner's wallet.
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