The Final Piece of the Puzzle

that's how DG described the signing of Amaeretto or whatever his name is.

now I can't fault DG and DS for the money they've spent on new players and the bright-eyed among you will remember towards the end of last season, I said we needed 9 new players to really save our team...

well, we have 9 new signings now...

but I'm concerned with what picture is on the box of the puzzle...

because we have 9 new players... but we're playing a strike force of Carlton Cole and Rcardo Vaz Te...

and try as I might... the team line-up looks frighteningly like the same bunch of lackluster no-hopers who nearly got us relegated...

so the puzzle to me is why are we still relying on Cole up front?

why are we still relying on Nolan and Noble in midfield?

why are we still playing as poorly as we did last season?

and...

what odds would you get on Diame scoring against us in two weeks time and what odds on us getting anything out of the following two games against Liverpool and Man City?

Monk, the one thing i will say is this. I think we now have the arsenal ( Pardon!), It's just a matter of finding out where to play them positionally.
I tend to agree re Cole and Vaz, and thats a shame since I thought both were standouts in the pre season tour to NZ
cheers
Stew

Manura if the standouts for us in NZ were the tree and Vaz then the puzzle is which relegation berth has BFS booked us! We were shite in NZ, ok I its pre-season, but we didn't beat any teams of worth until the last game in the last min! Its almost as if BFS wants us to lose, Zarte, Valencia and Sakho are, on the limited amount of time they have played, way better than CC and Vaz. On paper we have far better mid-filed players than Noble & Nolan, but I think we all know who will get games once Nolan is fit again.
The defence was very good for most of last season, the number of clean sheets speak volumes, and we have added players this year who should make us better, but from what those who go say, we were woeful against Saints, a team that has been rebuilt by a new manager. We should have creamed them (on paper) but all the reports are we didn't show up and were a disgrace.

I don't think the puzzle is sorted at all, I think the puzzle is how is BFS still in his job after the pre-season and start to the season we have had and the money that has been spent. GAS need to do something drastic and sooner rather than later, or when they do even I will be hoping for TCP(ulis) to come and rescue us!

Sorry Manurewa misspelt your name completely!

It is all very puzzling. I have no more idea than anyone else about what happens in the offices of the club or between the ears of BFS and Gold. But I do know that BFS is stubborn and arrogant, and I suspect that Sullivan is not backward in expressing his opinions about team selection either, and is what we see the result of that? Sullivan will be bursting to see if the players he has bought will perform on the pitch, so is BFS just digging his heels in with his team selections? Cole and Vaz Te may be ineffective, but they will do what BFS tells them...it's caution, caution, caution all the time. And with Sam it's always "my way or the highway" and fupp everyone else. He was employed to get us to the OS as a Prem side which he's quite confident of doing whatever the rest of the world thinks, and if he fails? A lost bonus perhaps? he knows he's not going to get another contract anyway. If Gold sacks him early it's just another payday from ending his contract, and there'll soon be someone else who believes BFS can get them out of the shit.
I just have to hope that BFS is half as good as he believes he is and can get us to 17th or above, however painful the journey. And I have to hope that Sullivan and Gold hold their nerve, because changing managers would be a massive, massive gamble.

It always seems weird to me... and kinda counterintuitive...

If BFSA is purely holding on to do the job he was paid for - i.e. getting us to the OS as a Premiership side... then wouldn't the easiest way to accomplish that be by winning games?

Rather that the squeaky bum time for months on end...

Here's the thing...

I subscribe to the "lazy man" theory of life.

If you want to know the quickest, cheapest and way that requires the least amount of effort - then ask the laziest man how they'd do it.

And I can be pretty lazy... it's not an insult, it's just practicality.

So my approach would be to win enough games as quickly as possible to ensure safety and then if time permits... just sit back and chillax...

I just don't get the approach that plays Carlton Cole as your main attacking option, lose three out of your first four games, fail to win (or even show up) at home...

That to me seems like WAY more effort and hassle than is necessary.

You go a player up against a team - hammer them into the ground. Make them run round till they're dead on their feet... not sit back and bolster the midfield.

You go a goal up against a team - hammer them into the ground. Go for a second as quickly as possible... destroy their confidence and take away their chance to get back into the game.

None of it seems like rocket science... but nonie of it seems like anything we're doing...

To me it feels like Sam is taking the piss, he got a fair bit of stick last season about the negative way we play, the board warned him that the style has to change.
With the moneySam has spent in the summer he could have easily balanced the squad , but he appears to have been reluctant to get at least one more quality centre half in.
We may have got the last piece of the puzzle in but it's the wrong puzzle
We are two injuries or suspensions away from a disaster at the back

O'Brian out for a while with a knee injury, pulled out of the internationals
No return date yet for Jenkinson

We don't have have some luck

I actually think David Gold n David Sullivan have done brilliant in the transfer Market , We have brought in 9 very good players !

It just a shame we still have Sam Allardyce in charge

We're 4 games in and trying to bed in and blend 9 new signings into a squad. For all his faults; you cannot judge/condone or condemn his selections so far on the basis that does he believe he is putting out his strongest 18, to cover all tactical opportunities (remember I said ignore his faults for the moment). I am sure we will see Cole replaced as the new boys blend, learn his tactics (ignore the glaring obvious problems for now) and just see.

In my view the club have not strengthened the weakest area but who is to say they did not try to get a centre back or two-we just don't know.

We all take the piss out of other teams and their knee-jerk fans (Man U currently) because a rebuilding process is going on, I do believe Sam, rightly after reflection, will go before the end of the season. I don't believe it is that time right now-in May maybe after we finished 13th. But even that would have seemed madness if you was a neutral.

The gulf is getting bigger; wed cannot compete financially or in the drawing of players-so sometimes you got to put up with the Allardyce's or Pulis' to stay stable.

Arran H wrote:I actually think David Gold n David Sullivan have done brilliant in the transfer Market , We have brought in 9 very good players !

It just a shame we still have Sam Allardyce in charge  

mottinghammer wrote:Sorry Manurewa misspelt your name completely!

No probs mate, Just use Stew, Its easier and shorter.!!

Tony P wrote:

Arran H wrote:I actually think David Gold n David Sullivan have done brilliant in the transfer Market , We have brought in 9 very good players !

It just a shame we still have Sam Allardyce in charge  

Arran & Tone, Dont you think that BFS deserves some credit for getting the 9 players in, or was that all down to the two Daves??

JulianDicksLeftKnee wrote:We're 4 games in and trying to bed in and blend 9 new signings into a squad. For all his faults; you cannot judge/condone or condemn his selections so far on the basis that does he believe he is putting out his strongest 18, to cover all tactical opportunities (remember I said ignore his faults for the moment). I am sure we will see Cole replaced as the new boys blend, learn his tactics (ignore the glaring obvious problems for now) and just see.

In my view the club have not strengthened the weakest area but who is to say they did not try to get a centre back or two-we just don't know.

We all take the piss out of other teams and their knee-jerk fans (Man U currently) because a rebuilding process is going on, I do believe Sam, rightly after reflection, will go before the end of the season. I don't believe it is that time right now-in May maybe after we finished 13th. But even that would have seemed madness if you was a neutral.

The gulf is getting bigger; wed cannot compete financially or in the drawing of players-so sometimes you got to put up with the Allardyce's or Pulis' to stay stable.

I hate it on here when people talk sense,

manurewa hammer wrote:

Tony P wrote:

Arran H wrote:I actually think David Gold n David Sullivan have done brilliant in the transfer Market , We have brought in 9 very good players !

It just a shame we still have Sam Allardyce in charge  

Arran & Tone, Dont you think that BFS deserves some credit for getting the 9 players in, or was that all down to the two Daves??

isn't that part of the problem... we just don't know.

the Daves must have a hand in it because it's their hard earned that pays for it all... but who picks out the players...

I mean... if BFSA picks them to be bought, then why does he not pick the to play?

westhamonkey wrote:

isn't that part of the problem... we just don't know.

the Daves must have a hand in it because it's their hard earned that pays for it all... but who picks out the players...

I mean... if BFSA picks them to be bought, then why does he not pick the to play?

We could have a very long debate on just how "hard-earned" their dosh is! Plenty of "hards" involved in it , though...