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Passion

Submitted by Zummerzet on

After the events of the past week and the amazing turn arounds that our great game can produce, one thing that stands out for me does not seem to have been mentioned by the media while eulogising over the victories of two English clubs.
Firstly I do not subscribe to the belief that defeat of English clubs is of paramount importance to most of the posters on this site. I can't stand the Spuds or any of their so called fans however the succes of Premiership clubs in Europe means that all eyes are on us at the moment and may possibly lead to player and prospective investors interest. Success breads success and our great club may benefit from the increased attractiveness that four clubs in major Europeen finals could bring. That brings me to my main point, the support that was given to Ajax in Amsterdam by their fans was magnificent and spine tingling, the passion and noise generated in the stadium was amazing and spectacular and I suddenly realised that apart from the dreaded scousers our game has lost this passion. The majority of games now, including the London Stadium (I hate that title) when things are not going our way are soulless and sad. Why has the passion seemingly vanished from our game, is it due to the nature of the so called modern stadiums, look at Palace, with their smaller ground they generate superb passion, which if the owners get permission will be destroyed if a new ground is built. I worry about our game, I accept that the game must adapt and that times change but being a corporate jolly does and will not generate the passion delivered at clubs such as Ajax, Borrussia Dortmond, Atletico Madrid, and Real Betis to name a few. Anybody have any ideas?

Smiling and having a laugh after a defeat?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I'm referring to Hazard. His side lost to one of their rivals, was he bothered? Apparently not. There he was laughing and joking, patting Liverpool players on the back.

Is it me or is this a sign of the times?

Your star player couldn't care less if you win or lose. I know the whistle gone, but what happened to players who would pound the turf, kick the ball into the stands in anger after such a loss?

Team is good on paper

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

seems after every rubbish loss we take to the channels to say we need a wholesale clearout. personally, I don't think so. I think there's potential in this squad. for me the problem is the players aren't asserting their ability in the 'lesser' matches.

is this a managerial problem? is Pelle failing to motivate these players?

this being Pelle's first season, I'm inclined to give him more credit. I think overall hes done a decent Job in signings and style. we are afterall not in a relegation fight.

I personally think the likes of Fabianski, Balbuena, Diop, Zabaletta, Anderson, Yarmalenko, Rice, Antonio, Hernandez, Lanzini, Noble, Cresswell, Wiltshire, Carroll and Arnautovic form a pretty good squad and the likes of Snodgrass, Diangara, Obiang, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Massuaku, Nasri are decent squad players.

Bearing in mind that Pelle has had Yarmolenko (who looked mustard) out, Balbuena out, Lanzini out - the team is not as strong as it could have been.

For me the one biggest issue this season has to be Arnautovic. Before Chinagate he was one of the top strikers in the league. So basically Pelle has lost him too. bottom line here is he has to go and we have to replace him with someone good and once that is done, we will look a good side again.

Its been up and down this season. good performances like against Liverpool and Arsenal matched with utter sh** against burnley and Everton.

But I don't think our squad is as bad as some make out. I think with a few tweaks, Pelle will get it stronger in the summer.

The Transfer Budget: Who We Can/should Sell and for How Much Realistically Come Summer

Submitted by fred149 on

Coming off the back of another loss, I think for most, its become quite apparent as to why we've been battling relegation the previous few seasons. Players that I believe we thought were good enough but just under performing its turns out are just not good enough, and whilst we have 4 or 5 good players, and while pellegrini isn't blameless, i'm sure he expected certain individuals to be better then they are. So with a rumoured £25m starting transfer budget, I like most felt like this was way lower then what it should be. However looking in to a bit deeper, you can start to see why. Previous season we didn't really sell anybody, just loaned players out this along with the fact we pay many players silly wages you start to realise that for a club with our resources we have a lot of players on our books. So as the title suggests, who could we sell and how much realistically. In my opinion we need a mass clearout, was thinking along the lines of: Arnautovic £30m, Oxford £10m, Snodgrass £6m, Masuaku £6m, Obiang £5m, Ogbonna £5m, Hugill £5m, Byram £3m, Cullen £3m, Sanchez £2m, Perez £2m = £77m

All seem realistic enough, maybe under priced a few and over priced a couple others, but you never know with this market. If that was to happen and you add it all to the budget you have circa 100m to spend again and thats without taking in to consideration that Carroll, Adrian and maybe Zab are all leaving on a free and Edi Fernandez comes back off loan aswell. We have a lot of deadwood!