Should we have gone for the obvious in the summer ?

[Riversider]

None of what I'm about to say is with hindsight, as we all saw these players play with either our very own eyes or in countless Championship matches on Sky,
But last season James Maddison of Norwich City was rated by many people (outside of Fulham of course) as the best midfield player in the division , and a player that we should have been well aware of, how many times would we have scouted future opponents that were playing Norwich City featuring James Maddison ?
The other player is David Brooks at Sheffield United, without any shadow of a doubt the best young midfield player in the division , an outstanding talent, an old school mate of mine is a former Sheffield United player and he has been telling anyone who wants to listen what a great little player he is, and I know for a fact that Sheffield United were gutted when he left.
At the time we were picking up Seri and Anguissa for North of £50 million , Leicester and Bournemouth were picking both Maddison and Brooks up for the price of Anguissa !!
Just my opinion of course but we should have been all over these two players, some of our own talent is still taking it's time to adapt to The Premier League but Maddison and Brooks have taken to it like a duck to water, a sign of outstanding talent,
As I've said before on here, we've spent millions to improve our training facilities, we've improved our floodlights and we've improved our pitch, but seemingly we've done nothing to improve either our scouting department or our coaching department, two of the most critical areas of any football club.
I watched the hilights of Watford v Bournemouth last night, and if we set up to play as we did against Arsenal then the game will be all over by halftime, they play a wonderful counter attacking game in which they attack with both pace and in numbers,
To all the people saying after the Arsenal game "don't worry, the fixtures get easier now" , I say to you, really ? , because from where I'm sitting the next 3 games against Cardiff, Bournemouth and Huddersfield are going to be immensely tough, I only wish we had both Maddison and Brooks playing for us in them.

[Milo]

My perspective over the summer was that I had little awareness of the transfer market in Europe and the Premiership due to our many years recovering in the Championship. Therefore I thought we could take advantage of the one thing we did have and that was an awareness of young talent in the Championship.

Grealish, Traore, Maddison etc were all at the top of that list.

How have they all got on this season? Maddison a success clearly, but Traore at Wolves? And how has Grealish continued at Villa?

[Statto]

Would be interested to properly (ie statisically) compare them both to Johansen's performances last season and see how compelling the case for bringing either of them in to replace him would really have been. Maddison might have shaded it but did Brooks even play a full season? Personally, rightly or wrongly, I wouldn't have seen either as an overwhelming upgrade, whereas Seri is clearly an international/world class player.

Also would be interested to know whether either would actually have been prepared to come to Fulham, without a silly money contract, when evidently solid mid-table PL clubs were in for them.

[colinwhite]

None of the players mentioned were positions  we needed to upgrade. I would take Cairney over Maddison and Sessignon is better than Brooks and actually got voted the best best young player in the division !
Seri is a different class to those mentioned and given time  he and Anguissa will come good. Besides Maddison cost 25 million !

You a are comparing us to 2 decent premiership sides that are established and settled at this level ,but this is our first year back and it will take time . Ah Wolves ,yes well lets see where they finish shall we.Have a bit of patience.
An swer to the original question -NO.

[Riversider]

Cairney over Maddison , really ? Cairney at the moment cant play two games in a row let alone a season,
And Sessegnon and Brooks play in completely different positions.

[Bassey the warrior]

None of the players mentioned were positions  we needed to upgrade. I would take Cairney over Maddison and Sessignon is better than Brooks and actually got voted the best best young player in the division !
Seri is a different class to those mentioned and given time  he and Anguissa will come good. Besides Maddison cost 25 million !

You a are comparing us to 2 decent premiership sides that are established and settled at this level ,but this is our first year back and it will take time . Ah Wolves ,yes well lets see where they finish shall we.Have a bit of patience.
An swer to the original question -NO.

Agree with this. Not sure Cairney better than Maddison but Maddison not a clear upgrade, for the price he would've cost.

Anguissa hasn't performed but it was a role we needed to fill. I'm sure he'll improve.

[colinwhite]

Brooks plays in a completely different position to Sessignon?

[Lighthouse]

The only obvious thing we should have done is bring in a few central defenders that were not recovering from injury. It boggles the mind that all that money was spent on a player who was injured and is a gamble if he will be fit enough to recover any previous form he may have had.

[filham]

Our midfield trio of Cairney, Johanson and MacDonald has been our main strength for the last two season and was as good as any other in the Championship. Any new replacement had to be very good and I suspect it meant looking beyond the Championship.

The main positions needing better players were left were at left back and centre back, a trawl through the championship may have been worthwhile for these positions.

[Riversider]

Our midfield trio of Cairney, Johanson and MacDonald has been our main strength for the last two season and was as good as any other in the Championship. Any new replacement had to be very good and I suspect it meant looking beyond the Championship.

The main positions needing better players were left were at left back and centre back, a trawl through the championship may have been worthwhile for these positions.

Never mind, you seem to have completely missed the point.

[filham]

Our midfield trio of Cairney, Johanson and MacDonald has been our main strength for the last two season and was as good as any other in the Championship. Any new replacement had to be very good and I suspect it meant looking beyond the Championship.

The main positions needing better players were left were at left back and centre back, a trawl through the championship may have been worthwhile for these positions.

Never mind, you seem to have completely missed the point.

I thought you were saying that we could have improved our midfield by bringing in Championship players and I am responding by saying that would be difficult as we had the best midfield in the Championship for the last two seasons.

Sorry if I have got the wrong end of the stick but I am quite prepared to read your further explanation.

[SP]

Would be interesting comparing against our signings last time we secured promotion.

[hovewhite]

Think our investment was sound in the summer,it's just getting the bedding in of a large influx and fittness into the team is the major problem.

[Andy S]

I don't have a problem with any of the players we signed in the summer. They are all better than the players we had last season. Whether they are good enough who knows!

[toshes mate]

I know it is always easy to speculate on this player or that player as if it is just like playing a football simulation on a computer, but the reality of transfers and loans is about what works on the pitch, for ninety minutes, within each and every game, in an eleven player team.   We should all, by now, be aware of how much emphasis is put on players who combine well with each other in our coaching personnel's regime, and how much time and effort goes into finding these 'partnerships' and making them work.  That work takes time, for there are no short cuts except luck, and misfits have to be carefully re-evaluated for less obvious solutions (in the SJ sense of the word) to appear.  In some cases the player may be, in the final analysis, incapable of resolution or simply not good enough.

As much as I am critical of our recruitment team I also understand the multitude of factors than can conflict with the apparently simple negotiation of a player who wants to join your club at a reasonable price.  Let's say your club has a much sought after 'asset' player for example and the club you are negotiating with says 'let us have your asset, and we will let you have the player you want'.  Those sorts of problems don't exist if you don't hold an asset.  We do not see most of those kinds of issues in any of the coverage of deals being looked at unless they are 'leaked' into the media scrum, the leaking being a tactic used to unsettle things.  It takes clever negotiators to outwit such tactics and I really have no clue as to the quality of FFC's team.   All I hope is every single player we recruited for this season becomes an integral part of a successful season.
     

[Whitesideup]

Cairney over Maddison , really ? Cairney at the moment cant play two games in a row let alone a season,
And Sessegnon and Brooks play in completely different positions.

How can you affect such great surprise that we would favour Cairney over Maddison when Cairney has been so good for us over a couple of seasons? Now if you want to make an argument that Cairney is a spent force because of his injury problems, that is a different issue. I would seriously hope you were wrong because my impression is that Cairney can easily hold his own in the premiership and I would like to see him back in our team.