Sheaf (2 Viewers)

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I’m not the bloke who does the identifying, I’m just a fan who wants to see his team perform to a high standard every week and become accustomed to the shite we’ve seen over the first 15-ish games and the last 5-6 games of the season. I feel like I’m in an interview for a job at the CBS arena atm, please stop

Well no it’s just you say we need ‘good players’, are the club not trying to sign them?

 

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[BlueSkiesForever]

I mean this comment sums it up really. "We just need good players" is actually hilarious.

Also, King hasn't made £7m profit at all.

We just do though, like what is wrong with wanting that?! Why are so many Cov fans accepting of having to put up with shit every week and convoluted arguments to say we should enjoy signing League 1 players? Like what?! We’re such loyal and fair fans, we deserve and NEED better than a midfield of Allen, Kelly and Eccles etc

 

[skybluecam]

We just do though, like what is wrong with wanting that?! Why are so many Cov fans accepting of having to put up with shit every week and convoluted arguments to say we should enjoy signing League 1 players? Like what?! We’re such loyal and fair fans, we deserve and NEED better than a midfield of Allen, Kelly and Eccles etc

I'll put it this way; you're like a child asking why you can't have ice cream for dinner.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I'll put it this way; you're like a child asking why you can't have ice cream for dinner.

You can’t put ideas like that into a fat guy’s head mate

 

[BlueSkiesForever]

Well no it’s just you say we need ‘good players’, are the club not trying to sign them?

Well maybe some of the recruiting has been off then, I can’t help but think Lati, Dasilva, Kitching, Collins have been quite a let down. Sakamoto and Van Ewijk on the other hand have been exceptional. I’m really not convinced plundering League 1 or the championship is the way to go, I’m all for the European leagues and I hope our recruitment see the likes of Torp, Haji, MVE and Saka have all come from those leagues.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Well maybe some of the recruiting has been off then, I can’t help but think Lati, Dasilva, Kitching, Collins have been quite a let down. Sakamoto and Van Ewijk on the other hand have been exceptional. I’m really not convinced plundering League 1 or the championship is the way to go, I’m all for the European leagues and I hope our recruitment see the likes of Torp, Haji, MVE and Saka have all come from those leagues.

Well no club in the world gets every signing correct. The slight concern for me is signing loads of former Chelsea youth players who mostly haven’t worked out.

Those who the scouting team have recommended have generally been strong. Kitching needs to prove his worth out of those, the rest look fine.

 

[skybluecam]

Well maybe some of the recruiting has been off then, I can’t help but think Lati, Dasilva, Kitching, Collins have been quite a let down. Sakamoto and Van Ewijk on the other hand have been exceptional. I’m really not convinced plundering League 1 or the championship is the way to go, I’m all for the European leagues and I hope our recruitment see the likes of Torp, Haji, MVE and Saka have all come from those leagues.

Firstly you're ignoring Thomas who's been a success.

Secondly, those first 4 combined cost us ~£5.5m. The 4 from abroad you mention cost us ~£13.5m. You see why the second group may be slightly better?

 

[BlueSkiesForever]

I'll put it this way; you're like a child asking why you can't have ice cream for dinner.

Still not sure why you’re trying to have a jibe at me every other reply, I’ve literally said jack shit to you personally (other than this shamanistic mumbo jumbo that you mentioned previously), but aside from that I’ve been humble and considerate. I’m just a fan who wants money spent on his club, I’m not happy with seeing some of the bollocks we’ve had to witness this year, genuinely not sure why you’re having a go at me constantly, it’s just really odd tbh.

 

[skybluecam]

Still not sure why you’re trying to have a jibe at me every other reply, I’ve literally said jack shit to you personally (other than this shamanistic mumbo jumbo that you mentioned previously), but aside from that I’ve been humble and considerate. I’m just a fan who wants money spent on his club, I’m not happy with seeing some of the bollocks we’ve had to witness this year, genuinely not sure why you’re having a go at me constantly, it’s just really odd tbh.

Apologies then, that's not my intention. I'm just trying to say that it's not as simple as just signing good players and our recruitment has been pretty outstanding given our budget and the amount of players we had to bring in this season. Obviously it's not been perfect - if it was the recruitment team would likely not be working for us, they'd be off to a premier league team. And part of being a smaller club with a smaller budget means we have to take risks on players, which will never always pay off.

You mention Lati - has he been outstanding? No. But he's come in and covered essentially 2 positions in the squad for a fee of just £500k, which represents excellent value for us really.

Comments like "just sign good players" boil my piss a bit.

 

[shmmeee]

I definitely agree with you about Sheaf being a more technical player, he wouldn’t be easy to replace, but in terms of having an impact on games I think Hamer and Gyokeres were massively more impactful. I think Sheaf is only really good at stopping the opposition (which is clearly important) but I feel that Hamer in particular was good at almost everything, getting the ball, passing, assists, shooting, Hamer has been a massive miss to us has been much harder to replace than Sheaf will be (although I still think it won’t be easy to replace him).

Sheaf absolutely makes us tick on the ball. More than Hamer. Hamer makes things happen, Sheaf does everything he doesn’t. They were a great partnership TBH.

 

[BlueSkiesForever]

Apologies then, that's not my intention. I'm just trying to say that it's not as simple as just signing good players and our recruitment has been pretty outstanding given our budget and the amount of players we had to bring in this season. Obviously it's not been perfect - if it was the recruitment team would likely not be working for us, they'd be off to a premier league team. And part of being a smaller club with a smaller budget means we have to take risks on players, which will never always pay off.

You mention Lati - has he been outstanding? No. But he's come in and covered essentially 2 positions in the squad for a fee of just £500k, which represents excellent value for us really.

Comments like "just sign good players" boil my piss a bit.

I definitely get where you’re coming from, it’s not easy signing hit after hit but my point is that I hope we don’t continue to scavenge around league 1 in the hope we pick out some gem of a player and then rely on that player for the rest of the season. I think it’s fine having the odd one here and there but bar Thomas none of the league 1 signings, free agents or cheap signings have blown me away. The players that have served us well have generally been £3 mil+ and that’s what I’d prefer us to sign more of.

 

[BlueSkiesForever]

Sheaf absolutely makes us tick on the ball. More than Hamer. Hamer makes things happen, Sheaf does everything he doesn’t. They were a great partnership TBH.

Sheaf’s very good, definitely not saying he’s shit, definitely not, I’m just saying I think Hamer is a better player and was more important for us than Sheaf has been.

 

[rob9872]

If I want ice cream for dinner then I'll fekkin well have it!

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

For a few games maybe up to half a season

 

[Mucca Mad Boys]

I definitely get where you’re coming from, it’s not easy signing hit after hit but my point is that I hope we don’t scavenge around league 1 in the hope we pick out some gem of a player and then rely on that player for the rest of the season. I think it’s fine having the odd one here and there but bar Thomas none of the league 1 signings, free agents or cheap signings have blown me away. The players that have served us well have generally been £3 mil+ and that’s what I’d prefer us to sign more of, that’s all.

Thomas wasn’t signed from L1, he was signed from Burnley who’d just won our league and came through their academy.

Plenty of good players come from League 1, I’ll pick out a few examples; Ivan Toney set a goal scoring record straight from L1, McNally for us came from L1, Ipswich have just won automatic promotion. There’s plenty more talented players to sign from that league too.

 

[hill83]

The debate will end I guess when we see where he ends up and what clubs are prepared to pay.

You’d hope so. But he’s only second to you in the never wrong Olympics.

 

[Kilclines curly mullet]

Still not sure why you’re trying to have a jibe at me every other reply, I’ve literally said jack shit to you personally (other than this shamanistic mumbo jumbo that you mentioned previously), but aside from that I’ve been humble and considerate. I’m just a fan who wants money spent on his club, I’m not happy with seeing some of the bollocks we’ve had to witness this year, genuinely not sure why you’re having a go at me constantly, it’s just really odd tbh.

I’ll happily take witnessing some of this years ‘bollocks’ compared to the league 2 and 1 bollocks…

Be careful what you wish for.

We are building in a way that means we won’t be in serious financial trouble if we don’t go up immediately (Hull for example)

 

[BlueSkiesForever]

Thomas wasn’t signed from L1, he was signed from Burnley who’d just won our league and came through their academy.

Plenty of good players come from League 1, I’ll pick out a few examples; Ivan Toney set a goal scoring record straight from L1, McNally for us came from L1, Ipswich have just won automatic promotion. There’s plenty more talented players to sign from that league too.

Yeah yeah my bad, for some reason I always think Thomas came from Barnsley, I think it’s the fact he was unused at Burnley and the similar sound of Barnsley/Burnley that makes me think that. Anyway if anything it means our “success rate” with league 1 players is even worse as Thomas wasn’t from there.

And yeah I’m sure there’s the odd one here or there that’s been exceptional, I’m definitely not saying it’s impossible to find premier league quality in league 1 but I just think it’s very very rare. I’d much rather us continue looking at the Belgian, Dutch, German, Japanese or even Spanish leagues for us to find players than looking to the league below us.

 

[BlueSkiesForever]

I’ll happily take witnessing some of this years ‘bollocks’ compared to the league 2 and 1 bollocks…

Be careful what you wish for.

We are building in a way that means we won’t be in serious financial trouble if we don’t go up immediately (Hull for example)

I get that but I also think that if we always look backwards and be grateful that it’s not too bad then we’ll be too fearful to look forwards and grab golden opportunities whilst we can.

I’m convinced next season will be much easier than the one we’ve just had. There won’t be any quality attacking teams coming down into the league, such as Leicester, Leeds or Southampton. The likes of Burnley, Luton and Sheffield are all much more beatable and pose less threat. It still won’t be easy but I’m convinced it’ll be easier than this season. I believe we need to spend the money now and get a squad that’s able to get promotion whilst we have an ideal opportunity.

It’s also not like we need to spend an absolute shit load, £15-20 mil would do it (which is really not much these days). Realistically a quality LB, 2 CMs, CB and GK would probably see us through.

 

[Terry_dactyl]

He’s here, he’s there…

 

[fernandopartridge]

He’s here, he’s there…

You calling him a headless chicken?

 

[Bad Boy]

Needs to stay injury free (yes I know that's in the lap of the footballing gods), cut out the silly mistakes and step up quite a bit more and look like he's enjoying his job.

Nuff said.

 

[fatso]

Needs to stay injury free (yes I know that's in the lap of the footballing gods), cut out the silly mistakes and step up quite a bit more and look like he's enjoying his job.

Nuff said.

He's under pressure for his place now.
With Eccles, Rudoni, Torp, EMC, Palmer, Allen and even Lats all offering competition and options for 3 positions, he's got to be on top of his game,

Yes he's still the best option for us when he's 100% but MR has options now and can rotate players with ease.

 

[Matt smith]

He's under pressure for his place now.
With Eccles, Rudoni, Torp, EMC, Palmer, Allen and even Lats all offering competition and options for 3 positions, he's got to be on top of his game,

Yes he's still the best option for us when he's 100% but MR has options now and can rotate players with ease.

He’s not under pressure for his place, he’s the first name on the team sheet

 

[Perennial Lurker]

He’s not under pressure for his place, he’s the first name on the team sheet

MvE?

 

[fatso]

He’s not under pressure for his place, he’s the first name on the team sheet

He is when he's on form.

The difference now is that if his performances drop, (which is rare tbf) or if he needs resting, we have viable options available without our standards dropping.

That hasn't been the case up to now.

 

[NortonSkyBlue]

He’s not under pressure for his place, he’s the first name on the team sheet

Hopefully all of the players are under pressure for their places

 

[Matt smith]

MvE?

Yeah fair enough, he’s the same

 

[fatso]

MvE?

Yep, or Thomas, Sakamoto, Simms

 

[Matt smith]

He is when he's on form.

The difference now is that if his performances drop, (which is rare tbf) or if he needs resting, we have viable options available without our standards dropping.

That hasn't been the case up to now.

Be interesting whether we go two up top if we’re chasing a game

 

[Perennial Lurker]

Yep, or Thomas, Sakamoto, Simms

Dovin?

 

[skybluericoh]

Dovin?

Possibly, what he had to do Tuesday night he did well, but that wasn’t really a testing game for him.
I do hope you’re right. A goalie can be the difference between almost and job done.

 

[steve cooper]

Possibly, what he had to do Tuesday night he did well, but that wasn’t really a testing game for him.
I do hope you’re right. A goalie can be the difference between almost and job done.

I think the idea is, a goalie is always the first name on the teamsheet

 

[itsabuzzard]

I get that but I also think that if we always look backwards and be grateful that it’s not too bad then we’ll be too fearful to look forwards and grab golden opportunities whilst we can.

I’m convinced next season will be much easier than the one we’ve just had. There won’t be any quality attacking teams coming down into the league, such as Leicester, Leeds or Southampton. The likes of Burnley, Luton and Sheffield are all much more beatable and pose less threat. It still won’t be easy but I’m convinced it’ll be easier than this season. I believe we need to spend the money now and get a squad that’s able to get promotion whilst we have an ideal opportunity.

It’s also not like we need to spend an absolute shit load, £15-20 mil would do it (which is really not much these days). Realistically a quality LB, 2 CMs, CB and GK would probably see us through.

I don't understand the point you continually make that this coming season will be "much easier" than last, based on the teams dropping out of the Premier. Every year the relegated teams have to adjust to life in the Championship. All you can really say about them is that they got relegated because they weren't good enough. Unless they implode, they're always likely to be challenging for a top 6 spot.

 

[BlueSkiesForever]

I don't understand the point you continually make that this coming season will be "much easier" than last, based on the teams dropping out of the Premier. Every year the relegated teams have to adjust to life in the Championship. All you can really say about them is that they got relegated because they weren't good enough. Unless they implode, they're always likely to be challenging for a top 6 spot.

I know what you mean about how the relegated teams are always challenging for top 6 but I really do think Luton, Burnley and Sheffield are a lot weaker than Southampton, Leeds and Leicester. I think it makes our job just that bit easier with Leicester and Southampton having left the league.

Also Leeds have lost a fair few decent players, same for West Brom and Hull, so they’ll all be weaker and it’s not like Sheffield or Burnley have signed some gobsmacking talent yet. We’ll see what it’s like at the end of the window but atm I think it’s a slightly easier league than last year. Still going to be a slog no matter what but I think we have more of an advantage this season.