No Defenders This Window: Official Alarm Bells Thread

[The Rock]

So we haven't got a single defender in this entire window when it is maybe the ONLY problem that has needed to be addressed this window, let alone decade. Now it is too late on for one to gel by the first match.

Someone pinch me. Are the Khan's that daft? I am officially worried and it looks like we might not get the CB and RB at a minimum that we need.

Is this possible?

[JoelH5]

The same old excuse keeps coming up. It's out of our hands. We need to wait on other clubs etc..

Cav and Knockaert would get into any team in the Championship. We managed to sign them. Why cant we get defenders?

[Lyle from Hangeland]

If Fulham earns automatic promotion all you naysayers should have to run 24 laps around the Cottage naked.

[Nero]

The same old excuse keeps coming up. It's out of our hands. We need to wait on other clubs etc..

Cav and Knockaert would get into any team in the Championship. We managed to sign them. Why cant we get defenders?

Ask Man Utd who been after a centre back all season, even if we did sign one people would say their not good enough

[BestOfBrede]

...and don't forget that every player signed by other championship teams should have come to us - especially Ha has and bees newbies!

[The Rock]

If Fulham earns automatic promotion all you naysayers should have to run 24 laps around the Cottage naked.

I actually think 50/50 chance we will get promoted, but the chance probability in promotion would be FAR greater (80%) if we addressed this weakness.

I believe the Khan's to be smart business people but continue to misjudge the importance in addressing this. It's SIMPLE!

[MikeW]

If Fulham earns automatic promotion all you naysayers should have to run 24 laps around the Cottage naked.

You think that will happen with our defence.  Dream on

[MikeW]

The same old excuse keeps coming up. It's out of our hands. We need to wait on other clubs etc..

Cav and Knockaert would get into any team in the Championship. We managed to sign them. Why cant we get defenders?

Ask Man Utd who been after a centre back all season, even if we did sign one people would say their not good enough

The same old excuse keeps coming up. It's out of our hands. We need to wait on other clubs etc..

Cav and Knockaert would get into any team in the Championship. We managed to sign them. Why cant we get defenders?

Ask Man Utd who been after a centre back all season, even if we did sign one people would say their not good enough

They are in dreamland we are in reality.  Can TK really not sign a Champ hardened centre back for &10-£15M?  He's truly incompetent.

[David I]

If Fulham earns automatic promotion all you naysayers should have to run 24 laps around the Cottage naked.

I'll Make it 240 with this current squad. What's your forefeit?

[ALG01]

If Fulham earns automatic promotion all you naysayers should have to run 24 laps around the Cottage naked.

OK but with the squad as is and only at night when painted black!

[Andy S]

You'd be lucky to get me to run a lap oh and you would need an ambulance with a defribulator.
Seriously though when you are buying any product you need to know that it is 1 for sale 2 suitable for purpose, Value for money, you haven't got any better in the squad already and will fit in for what you need it for. It is easy to say there are lots of players out there any one will do. You also have a responsibility to players who want to push for a starting place. If you bring somebody in you could block their progress for 5 years and eventually let them go for peanuts. Already people are talking about one such player Cauley Woodrow

[snarks]

All of those saying we should sign a CB (and we should) who would you have that suits the possession based style we have, is quick and good in the air, oh and is tall and solidly built. Then give me a budget. The thing is we all want one of those but I can't decide who. Yes there are loans but that depends on the parent club letting them go. Kalas went for £8million yet he's not good enough. Jansson has the wrong attitude and is too slow. (Both of those are views expressed on this board not mine).

So let's have a consensus who is in the budget and right for us.

[bobby01]

10/10 for the thread title 049:gif

[Woolly Mammoth]

The same old excuse keeps coming up. It's out of our hands. We need to wait on other clubs etc..

Cav and Knockaert would get into any team in the Championship. We managed to sign them. Why cant we get defenders?

Ask Man Utd who been after a centre back all season, even if we did sign one people would say their not good enough

The quality of CB we are looking for is totally different to Man U, we should have more to choose from, so you cannot compare, and I still expect them to get one before we do.

[toshes mate]

The most worrying part of the equation is that we have need decent central defenders for three seasons but we have managed to get by on make weight defenders who have played exceptionally well as part of the whole team and so the quest for better has never seemed to focus minds in ways that perhaps it should have done.  My questions would be 'Are we tracking suitable players continuously and working the networks to ascertain all the information pertinent to getting them over the line?' or 'Are we playing the opportunist game?' which is very hit and miss and volatile.  My knowledge of TK says it is the latter game since it answers the question about why we keep signing/loaning so many inappropriate and expensive players.  I still believe we need someone football charismatic in charge of recruitment.

[jayffc]

The same old excuse keeps coming up. It's out of our hands. We need to wait on other clubs etc..

Cav and Knockaert would get into any team in the Championship. We managed to sign them. Why cant we get defenders?

Because it was very evident their teams didn't want them and were willing to let them go. So they were easier transactions.

The "same old excuses" can also be viewed as "the same valid reasons" depending on how you look at it. If you're inclined to believe our staff are completely incompetent, you'll frame it the former. If you see that there are, always, every year, multiple factors at play with transfers that are in and out of our hands, you may think the latter.

Lots of activity happens in the last week of the window, a huge amount is done in the last 2 days due to the domino effect. Don't see why it'd be any different this year. It's frustrating for us all, as everyone would love for it to be sorted sooner, but...on it goes.

On this note
I wonder if it'd be possible to close the transfer window say 2 weeks before the season starts. Surely that'd give everyone the best opportunity to bed in their new players and focus on the first games with a more settled squad. It would also cut down the amount of farting about that goes on.

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

All of those saying we should sign a CB (and we should) who would you have that suits the possession based style we have, is quick and good in the air, oh and is tall and solidly built. Then give me a budget. The thing is we all want one of those but I can't decide who. Yes there are loans but that depends on the parent club letting them go. Kalas went for £8million yet he's not good enough. Jansson has the wrong attitude and is too slow. (Both of those are views expressed on this board not mine).

So let's have a consensus who is in the budget and right for us.

Spot on.

It is not a matter of anybody at any cost. I am not clear that there is any CB that we have truly missed out on that I would have wanted except possibly Konsa but he went to Villa to join his old manager so that was probably a lost cause.

[jayffc]

All of those saying we should sign a CB (and we should) who would you have that suits the possession based style we have, is quick and good in the air, oh and is tall and solidly built. Then give me a budget. The thing is we all want one of those but I can't decide who. Yes there are loans but that depends on the parent club letting them go. Kalas went for £8million yet he's not good enough. Jansson has the wrong attitude and is too slow. (Both of those are views expressed on this board not mine).

So let's have a consensus who is in the budget and right for us.

Spot on.

It is not a matter of anybody at any cost. I am not clear that there is any CB that we have truly missed out on that I would have wanted except possibly Konsa but he went to Villa to join his old manager so that was probably a lost cause.

+1

[Statto]

The same old excuse keeps coming up. It's out of our hands. We need to wait on other clubs etc..

Cav and Knockaert would get into any team in the Championship. We managed to sign them. Why cant we get defenders?

Because it was very evident their teams didn't want them and were willing to let them go. So they were easier transactions.

I'd suggest that is one of the big 'secrets' to successful transfers. When I want to buy something, anything from a house to a chocolate bar, I generally check first that the current owner is open to selling it. 

[jayffc]

So, is the suggestion here that we aren't checking to see if clubs are willing to sell players when bidding?

Clubs do, of course, also, begrudgingly sell players that they'd like to keep, all the time. If the price is right, if the player pushes for a move, if they are able to get in a replacement or upgrade (an incredibly important factor that one). All of these things create big delays in transfers that, frequently, drag on to the end of a window.


If we focus only on transfers where the selling club is happy for the player to leave and has no need for them, just to make transfers easy, we're risking getting players deemed not up to par. Whilst sometimes you can find gems in there (see hopefully Cav and Knockhaert) you're also naturally going to get a lot of duds too.