Glass half full

[ALG01]

The two signings are top class.
If they don't work out it will not be because they were the wrong signings.
So far so good

We need this quality of defensive players too. At lest two.
Unless that happens it will likely remain a long season unless sess s works out.

[David I]

I'm optimistic that Knockheart and Cavaleiro are the correct signings based on their league experience and historical performance in the league. Looking forward to seeing them in a fulham shirt!?! 

We should have been signing this type of player rather than taking gambles on Seri and Anguissa.

Just need a top RB and CB with a decent back up striker (Fonte won't cut it)

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

The two signings are top class.
If they don't work out it will not be because they were the wrong signings.
So far so good

We need this quality of defensive players too. At lest two.
Unless that happens it will likely remain a long season unless sess s works out.

Just wait. There will be posters on here telling us that they said when they were signed that they were wrong signings if things don't quite work out.

[The Rational Fan]

The average DOF is estimated to make bad signings about 60% of the time and good signings about 40% of the time. Our DOF maybe marginally worse than that probably making between 30% to 40% good signings, but he is signing twice as many players as team in our league position would expect giving us a good chance of success. After signing Knockaert and Calaverio, I strongly expect at least one of the new wingers will be successful, but the real question is whether the players from last season click.

I don't think we can expect every signing to be successful, most selling teams think they would do better with the money than keeping the player they are selling. As at lot is revealed about a player at training in addition to games, the selling teams are often wiser in determining the value of a player. For example, last season MLM played really well in his three games at RCB and Mawson played poorly in his few games at RCB; yet Parker seems to prefer Mawson at RCB. Of course, Parker has seen more than 360 minutes match time of each player at RCB, so probably better informed than anyone buying them.

[ALG01]

The two signings are top class.
If they don't work out it will not be because they were the wrong signings.
So far so good

We need this quality of defensive players too. At lest two.
Unless that happens it will likely remain a long season unless sess s works out.

Just wait. There will be posters on here telling us that they said when they were signed that they were wrong signings if things don't quite work out.

Even the best signings do not always work, sometimes a player just does not fit in, or cannot settle for whatever reason. So to an extent all signings are a gamble and I think we all know that.
To date y objection to TK's signings in the main (in fact most signins under the Khan dynasty) until now is they are the wrong ones for the wrong reasons. These two seem to me to be the right players that we actually need and if they go wrong I will not blame TK UNLESS they are not fit or there is some other hidden problem but I really am not expecting that at all, so well done to him.

The defence remains a mega concern despite much of what sopme others seem to be saying and what we do need is a couple of signings of this type to bolster the back line which I think is way to fragile.

[Lyle from Hangeland]

What quality defenders can Fulham legitimately sign? Will Chris Smalling come back to Fulham now?

[filham]

What quality defenders can Fulham legitimately sign? Will Chris Smalling come back to Fulham now?

Suspect Smalling would not be prepared to take the cut in wages.
We had best continue with the policy of signing top championship players.

[WindyCity]

We need this quality of defensive players too. At lest two.
Unless that happens it will likely remain a long season

Agreed.  The back line defense needs to be upgraded, still, in my opinion, the major need.  Nice to see some quality added up front, but if defense is not improved, I see promotion being out of reach.

[Andy S]

I see promotion being well in reach. Teams coming to the cottage will as usual defend and try and catch us on the break. Attack is the best form of defence and we certainly have the ammo for that. We are not playing against premier league defences we are playing against Championship teams. Some will have good defenders but quite a lot won't. We cannot write us off before a ball is kicked and we are better prepared than in previous seasons. So let's have some positivity here and support the defenders whoever they are

[The Rock]

What quality defenders can Fulham legitimately sign? Will Chris Smalling come back to Fulham now?

I fear you are correct in our ineptitude in being able to find, and sign, quality defenders. It is shocking that it continues to go unaddressed. We only need 2 additions to the squad at this point, and it is 2 proper defenders.

[Lyle from Hangeland]

What quality defenders can Fulham legitimately sign? Will Chris Smalling come back to Fulham now?

Suspect Smalling would not be prepared to take the cut in wages.
We had best continue with the policy of signing top championship players.

What are their names?

[Lyle from Hangeland]

What quality defenders can Fulham legitimately sign? Will Chris Smalling come back to Fulham now?

I fear you are correct in our ineptitude in being able to find, and sign, quality defenders. It is shocking that it continues to go unaddressed. We only need 2 additions to the squad at this point, and it is 2 proper defenders.

Which two center backs in the Championship are better than Mawson?

[The Rational Fan]

What quality defenders can Fulham legitimately sign? Will Chris Smalling come back to Fulham now?

I fear you are correct in our ineptitude in being able to find, and sign, quality defenders. It is shocking that it continues to go unaddressed. We only need 2 additions to the squad at this point, and it is 2 proper defenders.

Which two center backs in the Championship are better than Mawson?

With our Current Squad (including R.Sess), only five players from PFA team of the year would defiantly make our First XI.

1. Darren Randolph GK
2. Max Aarons RB
3. Pontus Jansson RCB
4. Oliver Norwood CM
5. Jack Grealish CM

[toshes mate]

The two signings are top class.
If they don't work out it will not be because they were the wrong signings.
So far so good

We need this quality of defensive players too. At lest two.
Unless that happens it will likely remain a long season unless sess s works out.

Just wait. There will be posters on here telling us that they said when they were signed that they were wrong signings if things don't quite work out.

And to a greater or lesser extent those posters will have a case, despite pitiful attempts by others to deride them and in spite of casual put downs. 

The task of a recruitment team is to bolster the role of FFC to have a team fit for purpose which includes everybody right down the the invaluable services of Hilda, the veritable someone  who has never denied she is passionately involved with her tea bags and understands the pivotal role she plays in success.  Plain wrong signings are by nature the ones that go completely wrong for very obvious reasons - unfit for purpose; inappropriate roles; impossible misfits; expensive nightmare figures; players who cannot be arsed to play and cause disruption and havoc elsewhere, etc.   Most of these are pretty obviously down to bad decision making and trying to cover them up as being something else entirely because of some misguided love for our owners is totally counterproductive.  Point these misfits up every time and ask why they happen and point out how they may seriously disrupt the process of actually getting the people who would be good for the Club.

[Skatzoffc]

I see promotion being well in reach. Teams coming to the cottage will as usual defend and try and catch us on the break. Attack is the best form of defence and we certainly have the ammo for that. We are not playing against premier league defences we are playing against Championship teams. Some will have good defenders but quite a lot won't. We cannot write us off before a ball is kicked and we are better prepared than in previous seasons. So let's have some positivity here and support the defenders whoever they are

I too, see promotion in reach Andy.

But we will come straight back down again, probably topping our own "most conceded goals in PL history record", if we don't get a solid defensive unit sorted.
Coyw!

[The Rational Fan]

The two signings are top class.
If they don't work out it will not be because they were the wrong signings.
So far so good

We need this quality of defensive players too. At lest two.
Unless that happens it will likely remain a long season unless sess s works out.

Just wait. There will be posters on here telling us that they said when they were signed that they were wrong signings if things don't quite work out.

And to a greater or lesser extent those posters will have a case, despite pitiful attempts by others to deride them and in spite of casual put downs. 

The task of a recruitment team is to bolster the role of FFC to have a team fit for purpose which includes everybody right down the the invaluable services of Hilda, the veritable someone  who has never denied she is passionately involved with her tea bags and understands the pivotal role she plays in success.  Plain wrong signings are by nature the ones that go completely wrong for very obvious reasons - unfit for purpose; inappropriate roles; impossible misfits; expensive nightmare figures; players who cannot be arsed to play and cause disruption and havoc elsewhere, etc.   Most of these are pretty obviously down to bad decision making and trying to cover them up as being something else entirely because of some misguided love for our owners is totally counterproductive.  Point these misfits up every time and ask why they happen and point out how they may seriously disrupt the process of actually getting the people who would be good for the Club.

When it comes to major transfers in the premier league, experts have analyzed them and 60% transfers fail to provide the value expected. 

If the average DoF is getting 60% of their signings wrong, are most obviously wrong at the time of signing the player?

Was it obvious at the time that "Kalas, Targett and Norwood for £37m", was better value than "Mawson and Anguissa for £37m"?

According to experts if a DoF buys 10 players, then only 4 players will be good value. What percentage are we getting wrong?

[toshes mate]

When it comes to major transfers in the premier league, experts have analyzed them and 60% transfers fail to provide the value expected. 

If the average DoF is getting 60% of their signings wrong, are most obviously wrong at the time of signing the player?

Was it obvious at the time that "Kalas, Targett and Norwood for £37m", was better value than "Mawson and Anguissa for £37m"?

According to experts if a DoF buys 10 players, then only 4 players will be good value. What percentage are we getting wrong? [/size]

It is a good point to note that there claim to be experts in football analysis at all.   If there were a surefire process of analyzing market places to the point where no one lost out then it would require infinite goods at infinite prices (the law of randomness) to produce, since it is the randomness of outcomes that always determines an outcome just as the last shot in any sport isn't the winner until it is proclaimed the winner by an official (even if it actually never crossed the line or went wide of the target, etc., etc.)  That is what randomness means and the only systems we have are designed to make the business risk less risky.  That works well for bookies and insurance companies, and even comparatively well for businesses wishing to always have a modest profit which, in the case of big turnovers can become a massively high number.  But the critical factor - randomness - just cannot be tamed and so some things will just never turn out as expected.

The acid test in this computer age is whether markets function better now with software advantage than they did before and the answer to that is that computers will always justify themselves as long as competition rules say 'you'd be mad to try to function without them'.   That statement will always be true not because of outcomes of individual probability processes but because computers are truly excellent at doing certain mundane clerical processes remarkably efficiently, quickly and cheaply.  Randomness, however, is left to nature and numbers like Pi, and although computers can claim to produce random number output they actually need a lot of human help to even get within a mediocre distance of true randomness.   In truth computers cannot do random. 

[Twig]

The two signings are top class.
If they don't work out it will not be because they were the wrong signings.
So far so good

We need this quality of defensive players too. At lest two.
Unless that happens it will likely remain a long season unless sess s works out.

Just wait. There will be posters on here telling us that they said when they were signed that they were wrong signings if things don't quite work out.

And to a greater or lesser extent those posters will have a case, despite pitiful attempts by others to deride them and in spite of casual put downs. 

The task of a recruitment team is to bolster the role of FFC to have a team fit for purpose which includes everybody right down the the invaluable services of Hilda, the veritable someone  who has never denied she is passionately involved with her tea bags and understands the pivotal role she plays in success.  Plain wrong signings are by nature the ones that go completely wrong for very obvious reasons - unfit for purpose; inappropriate roles; impossible misfits; expensive nightmare figures; players who cannot be arsed to play and cause disruption and havoc elsewhere, etc.   Most of these are pretty obviously down to bad decision making and trying to cover them up as being something else entirely because of some misguided love for our owners is totally counterproductive.  Point these misfits up every time and ask why they happen and point out how they may seriously disrupt the process of actually getting the people who would be good for the Club.

When it comes to major transfers in the premier league, experts have analyzed them and 60% transfers fail to provide the value expected. 

If the average DoF is getting 60% of their signings wrong, are most obviously wrong at the time of signing the player?

Was it obvious at the time that "Kalas, Targett and Norwood for £37m", was better value than "Mawson and Anguissa for £37m"?

According to experts if a DoF buys 10 players, then only 4 players will be good value. What percentage are we getting wrong?

Well let's think about that.  Mawson was carrying an injury and patently not ready to play when he was desperately required.  Anguissa showed potential but was clearly not ready for the Prem (one for the future when we needed instant impact). I see you left out Seri who was an appalling waste of money.  So, yes it was pretty obvious that, as a "bundle", Kalas, Targett and Norwood would have been a better option.  Although I confess I am not sure that on their own, even those alternatives would have been sufficient to have avoided relegation.

[Sting of the North]

With our Current Squad (including R.Sess), only five players from PFA team of the year would defiantly make our First XI.

1. Darren Randolph GK
2. Max Aarons RB
3. Pontus Jansson RCB
4. Oliver Norwood CM
5. Jack Grealish CM

I would say that I am not at all that convinced by Jansson having watched him primarily for Sweden, but also for Leeds (and a couple of years ago a lot for Malmö as well). He does indeed bring a tougher element than our current defenders, but not convinced he is actually better than what we got, and not less error prone either.

Also, Norwood couldn't get a start over KMac, Johansen and Cairney last time around. We have also added Anguissa. So to say that he would definitely make our starting eleven is a bit odd, isn't it? Agree that Grealish would, but haven't seen enough of Randolph or Aarons to form an opinion.