Threadbare squad...

[howitis]

Watched a few games of this summer series and it is very evident that we have a desperately limited squad and without 6-7 major additions will be fighting relegation.

If Silva is frustrated, you couldn't blame him. What an earth does our recruitment team during the season and why are we so unable to act swiftly.

Mitro off, Tosin off, Paulinha injured, pereira and Ream yet to get fully back to fitness and Reed and Robinson both with knocks.

A midfield lacking creativity, a defence that is lacking first team picks let alone adequate back ups.

Mababu not good enough, jury out on lukic. A.genuine lack of pace and goals amongst the squad.

 Make no mistake this could unravel very quickly.

Currently watching the villa game and squad giving it everything but almost over exerting themselves to make up for the shortcomings of some players. Good experience for Luc de F tonight but he has has a baptism of fire and really struggled. You can almost sense the frustration that Leno feels with the players in front of him.

Unfortunately nothing will change in the Tony khan strategy. He will look to drive the negotiation to the point of a deal breaking and we will be left with late additions to the squad. I really had hoped that Marco Silva had earned the trust of the recruitment team and proved that he deserved early additions in order to push forward the good work of the last 24 months.

Unfortunately it has enabled TK to sit back and think all is fine ...

[alfie]

Watched a few games of this summer series and it is very evident that we have a desperately limited squad and without 6-7 major additions will be fighting relegation.

If Silva is frustrated, you couldn't blame him. What an earth does our recruitment team during the season and why are we so unable to act swiftly.

Mitro off, Tosin off, Paulinha injured, pereira and Ream yet to get fully back to fitness and Reed and Robinson both with knocks.

A midfield lacking creativity, a defence that is lacking first team picks let alone adequate back ups.

Mababu not good enough, jury out on lukic. A.genuine lack of pace and goals amongst the squad.

 Make no mistake this could unravel very quickly.

Currently watching the villa game and squad giving it everything but almost over exerting themselves to make up for the shortcomings of some players. Good experience for Luc de F tonight but he has has a baptism of fire and really struggled. You can almost sense the frustration that Leno feels with the players in front of him.

Unfortunately nothing will change in the Tony khan strategy. He will look to drive the negotiation to the point of a deal breaking and we will be left with late additions to the squad. I really had hoped that Marco Silva had earned the trust of the recruitment team and proved that he deserved early additions in order to push forward the good work of the last 24 months.

Unfortunately it has enabled TK to sit back and think all is fine ...

Mbabu certainly not good enough at left back because he is a right back, he still done ok.

[Logicalman]

Watched a few games of this summer series and it is very evident that we have a desperately limited squad and without 6-7 major additions will be fighting relegation.

If Silva is frustrated, you couldn't blame him. What an earth does our recruitment team during the season and why are we so unable to act swiftly.

Mitro off, Tosin off, Paulinha injured, pereira and Ream yet to get fully back to fitness and Reed and Robinson both with knocks.

A midfield lacking creativity, a defence that is lacking first team picks let alone adequate back ups.

Mababu not good enough, jury out on lukic. A.genuine lack of pace and goals amongst the squad.

 Make no mistake this could unravel very quickly.

Currently watching the villa game and squad giving it everything but almost over exerting themselves to make up for the shortcomings of some players. Good experience for Luc de F tonight but he has has a baptism of fire and really struggled. You can almost sense the frustration that Leno feels with the players in front of him.

Unfortunately nothing will change in the Tony khan strategy. He will look to drive the negotiation to the point of a deal breaking and we will be left with late additions to the squad. I really had hoped that Marco Silva had earned the trust of the recruitment team and proved that he deserved early additions in order to push forward the good work of the last 24 months.

Unfortunately it has enabled TK to sit back and think all is fine ...

But you said just about the same thing this time last year, not enough quality players, relegation, etc. except you didn't put all the blame on TK, well not in so many words.

That's not to say you are completely wrong in what you say, far from it, though I would question your assertion that TK takes full control of all negotiations from post-scouting up to the signing, I really do believe he has others that take care of 90% of that for him.

As for these preseason friendlies, they are the opportunity for Marco to try our different players and combinations, as well as tactics, against sides we will be meeting in the league shortly, giving credence to these results is like betting on a cockroach race imho.

[Lighthouse]

Four first team players out injured. Striker offered millions, say he doesn't want to play anymore. Coach delaying confirming he is staying with the club.

Gosh you would think these pesky kids could just ignore all this and just get on the computer and Football manager and bring in the players that will be their fault if they fail or Silvas brilliance if they succeed.

Grrrrr these pesky kids what have they been doing.

[filham]

I think we find the summer window difficult, perhaps the players we want are not prepared to commit themselves to us at an early stage in the hope that a big club with big money will show an interest later in the window.

[bencher]

David Elm and Ahmad Elrich are available. Sadly Kay Voser is busy busking the triangle at Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

[Willham]

We talk on this board a lot about when signings should be made and I don't think it's as clear cut as people like to think,

There's definitely positives to each and an argument can be made either way,

A positive that seems to get missed a lot about late signings is the lack of wages paid up until the signings day, sign a player 1st of July and you pay their wage for a whole month and a half before a competitive match ball is struck, say you do that with 3 players on 100k wages, your paying 1.8 mill extra, over signing the player at the end of the window.

Say you consistently do that over 5 years, thats covered the cost of say jimenez transfer at 5.5 mill.

Of course managers and head coaches want players early to bed in but that's from their side with the players, backroom and fiance might need things different, it's about balancing the needs.

[Southcoastffc]

We talk on this board a lot about when signings should be made and I don't think it's as clear cut as people like to think,

There's definitely positives to each and an argument can be made either way,

A positive that seems to get missed a lot about late signings is the lack of wages paid up until the signings day, sign a player 1st of July and you pay their wage for a whole month and a half before a competitive match ball is struck, say you do that with 3 players on 100k wages, your paying 1.8 mill extra, over signing the player at the end of the window.

Say you consistently do that over 5 years, thats covered the cost of say jimenez transfer at 5.5 mill.

Of course managers and head coaches want players early to bed in but that's from their side with the players, backroom and fiance might need things different, it's about balancing the needs.

Fair point but counter-balance that with the income per league position - Each place in the table is worth about £2.2million.  Ask a coach and Finance Director what the optimum pre-season date to sign a player is!

[Woolly Mammoth]

Watched a few games of this summer series and it is very evident that we have a desperately limited squad and without 6-7 major additions will be fighting relegation.

If Silva is frustrated, you couldn't blame him. What an earth does our recruitment team during the season and why are we so unable to act swiftly.

Mitro off, Tosin off, Paulinha injured, pereira and Ream yet to get fully back to fitness and Reed and Robinson both with knocks.

A midfield lacking creativity, a defence that is lacking first team picks let alone adequate back ups.

Mababu not good enough, jury out on lukic. A.genuine lack of pace and goals amongst the squad.

 Make no mistake this could unravel very quickly.

Currently watching the villa game and squad giving it everything but almost over exerting themselves to make up for the shortcomings of some players. Good experience for Luc de F tonight but he has has a baptism of fire and really struggled. You can almost sense the frustration that Leno feels with the players in front of him.

Unfortunately nothing will change in the Tony khan strategy. He will look to drive the negotiation to the point of a deal breaking and we will be left with late additions to the squad. I really had hoped that Marco Silva had earned the trust of the recruitment team and proved that he deserved early additions in order to push forward the good work of the last 24 months.

Unfortunately it has enabled TK to sit back and think all is fine ...

There is a pattern here and i fully understand Marcos frustration as a Manager and a coach.
He needs new recruits pronto to work with, not recruitment dragging their feet again.

[Thailand Mick]

Watched a few games of this summer series and it is very evident that we have a desperately limited squad and without 6-7 major additions will be fighting relegation.

If Silva is frustrated, you couldn't blame him. What an earth does our recruitment team during the season and why are we so unable to act swiftly.

Mitro off, Tosin off, Paulinha injured, pereira and Ream yet to get fully back to fitness and Reed and Robinson both with knocks.

A midfield lacking creativity, a defence that is lacking first team picks let alone adequate back ups.

Mababu not good enough, jury out on lukic. A.genuine lack of pace and goals amongst the squad.

 Make no mistake this could unravel very quickly.

Currently watching the villa game and squad giving it everything but almost over exerting themselves to make up for the shortcomings of some players. Good experience for Luc de F tonight but he has has a baptism of fire and really struggled. You can almost sense the frustration that Leno feels with the players in front of him.

Unfortunately nothing will change in the Tony khan strategy. He will look to drive the negotiation to the point of a deal breaking and we will be left with late additions to the squad. I really had hoped that Marco Silva had earned the trust of the recruitment team and proved that he deserved early additions in order to push forward the good work of the last 24 months.

Unfortunately it has enabled TK to sit back and think all is fine ...

so what is your solution? Do we just go out and buy lesser players just to make up the numbers because there was plenty of free transfers available. Marco complains about the squad size but during the last two seasons he's reluctant to use players he deems not good enough. I for one want the club to sign the best players possible and due to FFP we need to be creative.

[H4usuallysitting]

Run for the hill's - we're doomed

[SerbianLad]

We need some new sigings asap. Especially in defence and one new winger. That needs to be sorted very soon.

[Jim©]

Towards the end of last season we saw
Leno
Tete Diop ream robinson
Pal
Reed
Wilson pereira willian
Vini

With tc and lukic playing a role. We have mbabu back (who is an international rb and half decent) jiminez in, more to come and who knows with tosin and Mitro.
All is definitely not lost, not a big fan of the panic on here pre season.

[Lighthouse]

Brentford have lost to us and to Brighton 2-0 in the Summer series. How far along are their preparations and are they happy in themselves.

[Tabby]

Brentford have lost to us and to Brighton 2-0 in the Summer series. How far along are their preparations and are they happy in themselves.

I'd be a bit worried as their prospective keeper has had two bad games. Nothing he could have done for the Wilson goal, but he was suspect for the other 3.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Towards the end of last season we saw
Leno
Tete Diop ream robinson
Pal
Reed
Wilson pereira willian
Vini

With tc and lukic playing a role. We have mbabu back (who is an international rb and half decent) jiminez in, more to come and who knows with tosin and Mitro.
All is definitely not lost, not a big fan of the panic on here pre season.

There is no panic, just common sense observations which i am sure any Manager/ Coach will concur.

[WindyCity]

I thought the lads played well v villa.  Did their best, the effort was there.  Not a big Mbabu fan, but I thought he did well enough these two games.  But as the TO points out, team is very lean and needs reinforcements.  Not sure of status of Ream, Pereira, Palhinha starting opening ko.  Now have learned Robinson picked up knock in first game, again, status unsure.  We wait as we always do for the end of the window before we see players coming in.  Very frustrating for fans, and I'm sure for MS as well.  I suspect team will not be sorted until having played a handful of games.  And if FFC has poor start to the season, could be fighting to stay out of the drop zone from the get-go.

[Nero]

yes we should have a squad of 36 players to cover injuries and have back ups for the back ups, even though we can only register 25 for the premier league

[Whitestone]

yes we should have a squad of 36 players to cover injuries and have back ups for the back ups, even though we can only register 25 for the premier league

The problem we have is that we don't have anywhere near 25 players that can make up a Premier League squad unless you're happy stocking the squad with the youngsters that played last night.

Five of last seasons squad are no longer with us and we look like losing Mitro and Tosin. We've only signed Raul Jiminez although it looks like Bassey will be added soon. So, no we don't need 36 but we probably need to bring in at least seven.

[Roberty]

yes we should have a squad of 36 players to cover injuries and have back ups for the back ups, even though we can only register 25 for the premier league

The problem we have is that we don't have anywhere near 25 players that can make up a Premier League squad unless you're happy stocking the squad with the youngsters that played last night.

Five of last seasons squad are no longer with us and we look like losing Mitro and Tosin. We've only signed Raul Jiminez although it looks like Bassey will be added soon. So, no we don't need 36 but we probably need to bring in at least seven.

According Alex Ferguson our dressing room is too small - his was his excuse for them loosing - so we could never have that many in there