Number 9 wrote:john craig wrote:Another concern I have is the amount of players we are bringing in and that Rafa may once again be trying to plug too many gaps.
If this summer we had let Crouch and Riise go and signed Dossena/another left back, a replacement striker and one top quality winger, then I'd have been happy with our business.
As it goes we have already signed 3 for the first team squad, let go of 4 and seem to be spending a lot of time trying to essentially trade Alonso for Barry, without addressing the issues of a replacement striker and a quality winger. By the time August comes, we could be looking at up to 6 new faces in the first team squad. It's too many. These guys then have to settle into the club and get used to the way we play. It won't help our early season form, I can guarantee you that.
Compare that with our rivals - you won't see them buying in half a dozen new faces this summer. It'll be 2 or 3 buys of quality. Chelsea may sign more but they can be forgiven as it's a new manager with new ideas and may want some of his own players in.
Well if that does be the case its proof that Rafa is still obsessed with having a huge squad and will probably continue rotating players a lot more than needed.
Groundhog day 5!
And very likely 4th again!
4th wasn't good enough last season, and it won't be good enough this season, not for the owners and not for the fans.
Don't forget, the yanks won't forget last season and the bust up with Rafa. They only need an excuse to get rid of him, and if the fans start turning against Rafa they'll sack him. That's my take on it anyway. Rafa needs to make sure he doesn't give them that excuse, by not fu.cking around with rotation too much, signing quality instead of quantity and getting a bit of luck in the big head-to-heads with our rivals in the league (which we haven't had in the past few seasons).