Johan Lange - Sporting Director

[thfcsteff]

I really do think selling Brennan without a replacement, in the midst of an injury crisis, was also a dumb move that again shows up this data / theory vs judgement situation we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Selling a player at the peak of their value, moving them on if we don’t have any intention of building around them, is definitely something we needed to do better as a club. But I feel no one was like ‘hang on a minute, maybe we can hold off on this because everyone is being run into the ground’.

It’s just another example of really poor judgement, ‘not panicking’ as a virtue without having a feel for what the squad needed.

As much as anything, with an already fragile vibe, you do not want to punt on a player who the rest of the squad get on with unless you have a plan.
I am not sure we had a plan beyond showing everyone that 'look, we can sell players quickly if we need to we are getting better at that)...the way we did it was also, by all accounts, pretty rough.

 

[thfcsteff]

What player would have made a difference though when it is the club culture that is taking us down and now the player quality?

Weren't we involved in 2 of the big 5 or 6 transfers in January. We also picked up a highly rated 19 year old for the future.

I really believe we need to see the wood from the trees here. Everyone seems to be looking for spacegoats, especially the ones that don't actually kick a ball or coach the players.

His first, and most fundamental, task as we approached Xmas was to realise he and his 'mate' had got it wrong with their appt. Plans are lovely things until life punches you in the face and demands a sudden reaction. He saw us getting punched in the face and stuck with this 'plan' of his to guide through a season which most could see was already off the rails. He failed to make provisions early in removing the manager, he did not give the manager the necessary experience (short-term) he needed, and then he was part of the sacking AFTER the window. It was disastrous. I know we 'tried' to get Semenyo and 'tried' to get Robertson, but could the dept not have scouted other options, especially in the 'experienced' dept which Frank was asking for. I know, we signed Gallagher, but I'm talking richer experience than that. Besides, the profile of player we have is probably best stocked in Gallagher land.

Lange is heavily responsible for the current club culture/allowing it to have developed. Like it or not (and I will keep saying this regardless of criticism) HE is part of the group which decided that winning a trophy did not count and that we needed to rewrite the 'culture' of the club. You know my view on that so I'll spare us both, but even if someone felt he easily right, it is clear that he has been part of ballsing it right up because we have no fudging clue WHO we are right now, and are reliant on the players to dig deep and find something they have not been able to find as of yet.

It's not space-boating IMO, he has not done a good enough job and needs to go. I'd like to see someone replace the snake above him too, but I fear he'll contort and survive...

 

[Gazza]

He needs to be sidelined into young talent. He clearly has not done well.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

His first, and most fundamental, task as we approached Xmas was to realise he and his 'mate' had got it wrong with their appt. Plans are lovely things until life punches you in the face and demands a sudden reaction. He saw us getting punched in the face and stuck with this 'plan' of his to guide through a season which most could see was already off the rails. He failed to make provisions early in removing the manager, he did not give the manager the necessary experience (short-term) he needed, and then he was part of the sacking AFTER the window. It was disastrous. I know we 'tried' to get Semenyo and 'tried' to get Robertson, but could the dept not have scouted other options, especially in the 'experienced' dept which Frank was asking for. I know, we signed Gallagher, but I'm talking richer experience than that. Besides, the profile of player we have is probably best stocked in Gallagher land.

Lange is heavily responsible for the current club culture/allowing it to have developed. Like it or not (and I will keep saying this regardless of criticism) HE is part of the group which decided that winning a trophy did not count and that we needed to rewrite the 'culture' of the club. You know my view on that so I'll spare us both, but even if someone felt he easily right, it is clear that he has been part of ballsing it right up because we have no fudging clue WHO we are right now, and are reliant on the players to dig deep and find something they have not been able to find as of yet.

It's not space-boating IMO, he has not done a good enough job and needs to go. I'd like to see someone replace the snake above him too, but I fear he'll contort and survive...

There’s this seeming desire to be Bournemouth, Brighton or Brentford because they use ‘data’ to over perform and so if we use ‘data’ then surely we’ll be champions!

I think Jack Pitt-Brooke said it on the Libero podcast, but the only manager that’s truly found a way to navigate the demand of the fans, the board and the players was Poch. Ange came close but clearly lost the board. There is so much to be said for someone just getting what the job is, understanding the club, and being uniquely suited to that. Moyes at Everton. Ancelotti at Madrid. Sometimes it just fits.

Equally, this obsession with ‘structure’ lead us down this path. The other point well made is that some of the better performing clubs than us now like Villa and Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Fulham just back their managers. What is Villa if not Emery. What is Fulham if not Silva etc. I think that’s so right.

We’ve tried to fanagle our way down a path of being data driven and highly structured, which leads us to hiring someone like Thomas Frank who can ‘change the culture’ to what I have no idea. Brentford but with better players? Who are for some reason just as willing to do as little in possession work as those Brentford players did? It’s mad.

Again, all sorts of stuff that sounds good in theory and reasonable when presented by management consultants but now just looks completely stupid once we’ve seen it play out.

 

[thfcsteff]

There’s this seeming desire to be Bournemouth, Brighton or Brentford because they use ‘data’ to over perform and so if we use ‘data’ then surely we’ll be champions!

I think Jack Pitt-Brooke said it on the Libero podcast, but the only manager that’s truly found a way to navigate the demand of the fans, the board and the players was Poch. Ange came close but clearly lost the board. There is so much to be said for someone just getting what the job is, understanding the club, and being uniquely suited to that. Moyes at Everton. Ancelotti at Madrid. Sometimes it just fits.

Equally, this obsession with ‘structure’ lead us down this path. The other point well made is that some of the better performing clubs than us now like Villa and Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Fulham just back their managers. What is Villa if not Emery. What is Fulham if not Silva etc. I think that’s so right.

We’ve tried to fanagle our way down a path of being data driven and highly structured, which leads us to hiring someone like Thomas Frank who can ‘change the culture’ to what I have no idea. Brentford but with better players? Who are for some reason just as willing to do as little in possession work as those Brentford players did? It’s mad.

Again, all sorts of stuff that sounds good in theory and reasonable when presented by management consultants but now just looks completely stupid once we’ve seen it play out.

Not to be ego-driven or pedantic, but I have said this for years. It is why that was so special, and why losing on June 1st 2019 was actually not just a tragedy for us, but for football because had we got across the line, we'd have shown it can still be done the 'right' way. It also amplified why I was (actually) furious that Poch did not get support for a rebuild, because it proved that few people actually 'got it', understood what he had done and what he was.

I am in no way a total luddite, but you will know that I very, very much value the intangible magic and alchemy of chemistry in football, across all levels. I won't get into it here, but trust me, 'culturally' the descent into some faceless, non-accountable series of metrics, spreadsheets and projections has been both disgraceful (to me) and destructive (to the fabric of the club).
I understand that what I am about to say will be aggravating to some, and I do genuinely apologise for that if it happens, but the writing was on the wall when we decided that there needed to be a 'cultural reboot' of a 'project' which was only two years in and had already produced a European trophy! That we decided to shut 'the project' down and reboot in another direction (effectively a message to every single player saying 'yeah, well done, nice night out but not good enough overall AND we don't feel you have learnt anything from this past season') was awful IMO.

I always support whoever our manager is until they show themselves to be. charlatan/not up to it. Mourinho showed me his arsse when he stole Poch's job by saying to Levy that he could do better with that squad. Liar. trumper. fudge off. And I waited for Frank to rise above and beyond 'one thing is for certain, we will lose football matches', and hoped he would ride to 'we stand on the shoulders of other and will build upon Ange's work' only to sady hear, 'this isn't really a CL club because they finished 17th and only got into the tournament by winning a trophy'. Which again must've been wonderful for the players. Still, everyone got excited that he and Paratici went to Brennan Johnson on what, Jan 5th, and said effectively 'fudge off we won't ever use you', thus showing we could be a really efficient 'selling club' except for the fact his muppet mate Lange didn't get another attacking body in! Marvelous work, well done team! Also, BTW, well done on reading the dressing room, which already in a weakened psych state lost one of the players who was popular and kept the vibe light. Oh, and was the top scorer last season; complain about his ineffectiveness all you want, I thought the reason we HAD that manager was because he USED players well and used tools at his disposal....AND then when Lange finally did step up and do some press explaining WTF was going on, he effectively told us all we needed to understand that patience and not panicking was the M.O...

...apologies @SissokoWasGood (BoL) as I find myself in the midde of an 'inside voice' rant, but here we are and here I am. Last June we had a tremendous vibe around the club, a trophy, the glow of winning and the football world wondering if we could take the bounce into the league and be a force. Instead, the absolute *unts running this club smugly fu*ked it up. people can blame the players all they want, this is on the upper management and the management they chose to run the football side of things. Inadequate, 'modern club data driven middle management WA NKERS who live in a small bubble of data-driven smugness. I despise them I really do, to the extent that I find myself half-thinking that maybe a benefit of going down would be those tossers getting jettisoned.

Older contributors such as @parklane1 do, like me, vividly remember Keith Burkinshaw post the UEFA Cup win. It was seismic. I didn't really understand what he meant, but I soon came to. As it was, the season following that UEFA Cup win was decent, finishing 3rd and qualifying again for a UEFA Cup we never got to play in because of the British ban. Whatever about Irving Scholar (and it is a history WELL worth reading if folks don't know it) his heart was absolutely in the right place and he loved this club.
WHO of the Lewis family, Charrington, Venkatesham, Lange, could you say actually KNOWS football, let alone cares about damn about this club?
None of them...

Thanks for reading/listening hahahahaha...

 

[Gutter Boy]

There’s this seeming desire to be Bournemouth, Brighton or Brentford because they use ‘data’ to over perform and so if we use ‘data’ then surely we’ll be champions!

I think Jack Pitt-Brooke said it on the Libero podcast, but the only manager that’s truly found a way to navigate the demand of the fans, the board and the players was Poch. Ange came close but clearly lost the board. There is so much to be said for someone just getting what the job is, understanding the club, and being uniquely suited to that. Moyes at Everton. Ancelotti at Madrid. Sometimes it just fits.

Equally, this obsession with ‘structure’ lead us down this path. The other point well made is that some of the better performing clubs than us now like Villa and Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Fulham just back their managers. What is Villa if not Emery. What is Fulham if not Silva etc. I think that’s so right.

We’ve tried to fanagle our way down a path of being data driven and highly structured, which leads us to hiring someone like Thomas Frank who can ‘change the culture’ to what I have no idea. Brentford but with better players? Who are for some reason just as willing to do as little in possession work as those Brentford players did? It’s mad.

Again, all sorts of stuff that sounds good in theory and reasonable when presented by management consultants but now just looks completely stupid once we’ve seen it play out.

This is how I imagine our data team and Tudor arriving the other week

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[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

Not to be ego-driven or pedantic, but I have said this for years. It is why that was so special, and why losing on June 1st 2019 was actually not just a tragedy for us, but for football because had we got across the line, we'd have shown it can still be done the 'right' way. It also amplified why I was (actually) furious that Poch did not get support for a rebuild, because it proved that few people actually 'got it', understood what he had done and what he was.

I am in no way a total luddite, but you will know that I very, very much value the intangible magic and alchemy of chemistry in football, across all levels. I won't get into it here, but trust me, 'culturally' the descent into some faceless, non-accountable series of metrics, spreadsheets and projections has been both disgraceful (to me) and destructive (to the fabric of the club).
I understand that what I am about to say will be aggravating to some, and I do genuinely apologise for that if it happens, but the writing was on the wall when we decided that there needed to be a 'cultural reboot' of a 'project' which was only two years in and had already produced a European trophy! That we decided to shut 'the project' down and reboot in another direction (effectively a message to every single player saying 'yeah, well done, nice night out but not good enough overall AND we don't feel you have learnt anything from this past season') was awful IMO.

I always support whoever our manager is until they show themselves to be. charlatan/not up to it. Mourinho showed me his arsse when he stole Poch's job by saying to Levy that he could do better with that squad. Liar. trumper. fudge off. And I waited for Frank to rise above and beyond 'one thing is for certain, we will lose football matches', and hoped he would ride to 'we stand on the shoulders of other and will build upon Ange's work' only to sady hear, 'this isn't really a CL club because they finished 17th and only got into the tournament by winning a trophy'. Which again must've been wonderful for the players. Still, everyone got excited that he and Paratici went to Brennan Johnson on what, Jan 5th, and said effectively 'fudge off we won't ever use you', thus showing we could be a really efficient 'selling club' except for the fact his muppet mate Lange didn't get another attacking body in! Marvelous work, well done team! Also, BTW, well done on reading the dressing room, which already in a weakened psych state lost one of the players who was popular and kept the vibe light. Oh, and was the top scorer last season; complain about his ineffectiveness all you want, I thought the reason we HAD that manager was because he USED players well and used tools at his disposal....AND then when Lange finally did step up and do some press explaining WTF was going on, he effectively told us all we needed to understand that patience and not panicking was the M.O...

...apologies @SissokoWasGood (BoL) as I find myself in the midde of an 'inside voice' rant, but here we are and here I am. Last June we had a tremendous vibe around the club, a trophy, the glow of winning and the football world wondering if we could take the bounce into the league and be a force. Instead, the absolute *unts running this club smugly fu*ked it up. people can blame the players all they want, this is on the upper management and the management they chose to run the football side of things. Inadequate, 'modern club data driven middle management WA NKERS who live in a small bubble of data-driven smugness. I despise them I really do, to the extent that I find myself half-thinking that maybe a benefit of going down would be those tossers getting jettisoned.

Older contributors such as @parklane1 do, like me, vividly remember Keith Burkinshaw post the UEFA Cup win. It was seismic. I didn't really understand what he meant, but I soon came to. As it was, the season following that UEFA Cup win was decent, finishing 3rd and qualifying again for a UEFA Cup we never got to play in because of the British ban. Whatever about Irving Scholar (and it is a history WELL worth reading if folks don't know it) his heart was absolutely in the right place and he loved this club.
WHO of the Lewis family, Charrington, Venkatesham, Lange, could you say actually KNOWS football, let alone cares about damn about this club?
None of them...

Thanks for reading/listening hahahahaha...

Hahahaha, I love it, data driven middle management wan kers had me lolling. Massively agree with all of it, especially what the club effectively telling the players about last season must have done to their psyche. The whole thing is just bizarre and I have no idea what they thought they were building towards. What system of play? What sort of culture? Why was whatever one the decided was being built so superior to what came before it?

Btw I only mentioned Pitt-Brooke as I wanted to legitimise the idea rather than have it seem like was a musing from me. But I know you thought it for a long time and I did too. I’m going to try and search back to 2019 posts because I’m sure it was discussed at the time. But sacking Poch seemed like a very ‘the results aren’t good enough, no context applied’ kind of approach. And because I always try and see the good in decisions made by people that get to make them, I rationalised it. Maybe it was a smart decision to get Jose in, to work with an older squad that would run less? Maybe Levy was being ruthless and knew better? Maybe there were very real cash flow / stadium reasons as to why we couldn’t sell players when Poch wanted to, and replace them with ones he actually wanted? Maybe it all just came to a natural end point due to circumstances outside of everyone’s control? As sad as it was.

But it’s just clear that wasn’t the case. Levy saying on Amazon that ‘time will tell whether it’s the right decision’ was definitely him bricking it that he got it wrong, and it’s clear that since nobody has really had any idea of what’s required to make Tottenham successful, with the demand of the fans, the expectations of the players and the constraints of the owners. Poch actually chartered a path through all of that and Ange did too. But for some GHod knows what reason it’s just not what they want. They want whatever they started building in late June this year.

 

[thfcsteff]

Hahahaha, I love it, data driven middle management wan kers had me lolling. Massively agree with all of it, especially what the club effectively telling the players about last season must have done to their psyche. The whole thing is just bizarre and I have no idea what they thought they were building towards. What system of play? What sort of culture? Why was whatever one the decided was being built so superior to what came before it?

Btw I only mentioned Pitt-Brooke as I wanted to legitimise the idea rather than have it seem like was a musing from me. But I know you thought it for a long time and I did too. I’m going to try and search back to 2019 posts because I’m sure it was discussed at the time. But sacking Poch seemed like a very ‘the results aren’t good enough, no context applied’ kind of approach. And because I always try and see the good in decisions made by people that get to make them, I rationalised it. Maybe it was a smart decision to get Jose in, to work with an older squad that would run less? Maybe Levy was being ruthless and knew better? Maybe there were very real cash flow / stadium reasons as to why we couldn’t sell players when Poch wanted to, and replace them with ones he actually wanted? Maybe it all just came to a natural end point due to circumstances outside of everyone’s control? As sad as it was.

But it’s just clear that wasn’t the case. Levy saying on Amazon that ‘time will tell whether it’s the right decision’ was definitely him bricking it that he got it wrong, and it’s clear that since nobody has really had any idea of what’s required to make Tottenham successful, with the demand of the fans, the expectations of the players and the constraints of the owners. Poch actually chartered a path through all of that and Ange did too. But for some GHod knows what reason it’s just not what they want. They want whatever they started building in late June this year.

I think in many ways, I'd have to say that the single greatest path to sustained success (IMO anyway) is recognising that you will always need elite intangible 'human' skills and elite technical/scientific ones to work side by side. Look at any great (and I mean GREAT company/artistic creative endeavor) and rarely do you just have one. Even Apple. The genius of Jobs needed the creative eye of Jonny Ive to 'bring it to the people in a way they could understand and fall in love with. Look at the Beatles; Lennon and McCartney. I have worked with a very similar situation (as my bosses) for four decades, and you need the contrasting ways and skillsets to create the magic.

I really, really believe Levy both knew this AND tried so hard many times to land the 'perfect partner' in the DoF regard. Arnese, Commoli, Baldini, no-one can say he didn't try...and look at Paul Barber (not a DoF per se but now essentially a 'club maker' who loved THIS club)...sadly, I believe Daniel could never quite help himself. Such partnerships require trust over micro-management. And I believe Levy's chemistry was micro-management. AND doing things his way, even when another way was required.

Poch is a really great example actually. Hindsight tells us that given how it was going to end, he'd have been better off parting ways after the CL Final. But somewhere deep down, Daniel both didn't want to be 'that guy' AND I think genuinely wanted it to work. He pledged to give Poch support. Poch always wanted signings at the start of pre-seasons. He got Ndombele, all good. He did not get Fernandes for whatever reason. He got Lo Celso at the end of the window as a loan to buy. Sess came in that window too, and I believe this was a Daniel pick. Even not counting that last one, the balance of support in the window - for a club that had just made one hundred and fifty million in their CL run - was negligible and did not give him players on time. And then, having sweet-talked Poch into staying to do what the guy himself has said would be a 'painful rebuild' which involced switching to 4-3-3, he allowed his old obsession to flimflam him into believing there was an 'instant' path available. A terrible decision IMO, but in some ways, I almost felt sorry for him because again, he wanted to do the right thing and ultimately couldn't help himself in terms of fudging it up/self-sabotaging.

I remember well how many people included the league form from Jan 2019 in their evaluations as to why Poch had to go in November despite being mid table and still in the CL. One thing I remember specifically was how some said the 2-7 loss to Bayern was a 'terrible performance' when it was nothing of the sort, that first-half we were brilliant, and played some of the best football in the CL we'd ever played. It was second-half sloppy and remarkable for the fact I think Gnabry could've tried to lob Lloris from the dressing room and succeeded. But yeah, everyone got 'excited' about 'the winner', not remembering that he had essentially got the gig off a lie (saying he could do better with that current squad) when anyone with half a brain knew he would require some BIG signings. As much as I dislike Mourinho for that, in another sense I cannot blame him. He got the gig, everyone (other than Levy it seems) knew what he'd want and what we'd need to give him, and well, yeah; Daniel ultimately couldn't and wouldn't do the business necessary to justify the hire. We should always caveat the situation with covid to be fair; maybe it would've been different? Who knows? But history suggests it would not have been. Besides, Mourinho had already gone to Red Bull and let us brick the bed massively in our last 16 tie. What was it, 4-0 on aggregate? Disgraceful, injuries or not.

This current lot? I think it has to be arrogance. How on earth can you look at a situation which has been run a certain way for 25 years, a unique way at that, and think it can be swapped out and replaced like a new piece of modular 'kit' in a sound system? Who wasn't watching or doing their due diligence? How could Venkateshem have been looking on and allowed the Lewis family to fudge Levy off when they did, as anyone observing our operations would now that it would need a long exit ramp and strategy to transition from the old ways to their new desired way of operating. WHO didn't speak up? WHo was in charge? WHO IS in charge?????? It's a fuc-king mess and a sick joke.

It is why I have always said that I cannot blame Frank for who he is. He is that! A damn fine manager at a certain level with certain structures in place. He was NEVER a manager for the scale and way of this club, and I think there's an arrogance in Lange thinking that he could ignore certain aspects of who we are in order to draft in someone who certainly helped make Brentford a consistent Premier League club; we had just WON a trophy to snake & ladder our way back to a potential place of progress. Instead, failed to read room IMO.

Anyway, I'll spare you more...this would really be better in a pub. With Guiness, hold off on the bitter!!!!!!!

 

[Muttley]

Not sure what part of my post made you think I'm spacegoating?

Nah, wasn't talking about you. Apologies if it read that way.

All I've read for a couple of years is just a constant blame culture towards Levy, Lewis siblings, Vinai, Munn, Lange, Paratici etc. Good example is Munn who has latterly spoken about the complete strategic review of the medical side and the biggest outcome was needing more bodies and specialisation. This was refused by the club even though the guy was our Chief Football Officer and according to prior announcements run that side of the business. Completely dismissed by most because it was Munn, and he's one the bad guys.

We know something is broken right? However, we need to be objective in our assessment. That's easy when we see the very public performance of the managers and players. Very easy to make judgments and opinions. I think most of what I read about the rest of the supporting cast isn't often fair. As an example, we don't know what Lange's charter is. He might simply be the player recruitment analysis and the identification of players. He may not be sitting around the negotiation table at all. However, he takes bullets for not being gregarious.

 

[braineclipse]

Nah, wasn't talking about you. Apologies if it read that way.

All I've read for a couple of years is just a constant blame culture towards Levy, Lewis siblings, Vinai, Munn, Lange, Paratici etc. Good example is Munn who has latterly spoken about the complete strategic review of the medical side and the biggest outcome was needing more bodies and specialisation. This was refused by the club even though the guy was our Chief Football Officer and according to prior announcements run that side of the business. Completely dismissed by most because it was Munn, and he's one the bad guys.

We know something is broken right? However, we need to be objective in our assessment. That's easy when we see the very public performance of the managers and players. Very easy to make judgments and opinions. I think most of what I read about the rest of the supporting cast isn't often fair. As an example, we don't know what Lange's charter is. He might simply be the player recruitment analysis and the identification of players. He may not be sitting around the negotiation table at all. However, he takes bullets for not being gregarious.

Yeah I agree very much on caution in judgement when we have limited information.

But there's imo no way you say we didn't panic if you think there's a chance we're going down. Such an obvious terrible look if that happens. And at that time he was our lone DoF. It's his job to know that we were in potentially serious trouble at that point.

 

[Muttley]

Yeah I agree very much on caution in judgement when we have limited information.

But there's imo no way you say we didn't panic if you think there's a chance we're going down. Such an obvious terrible look if that happens. And at that time he was our lone DoF. It's his job to know that we were in potentially serious trouble at that point.

Do you mean in the transfer window?

You talking Gallagher, Johnson or both? Surely not Souza who seems to fit the template of recent years?

If anything, Spurs were perhaps in denial about going down. They also probably made a bad judgment call on Conor but I guess that is still to be played out. They backed themselves to remove an underperforming player in Johnson and they went back in for a long term target in Conor. Obviously, the number 1 target to replace Johnson was Semenyo who was unreachable by that point.

When I looked across the entire transfer landscape, I didn't really think Spurs were failing, panicking etc. There was only really City who made an elite signing in the entire league.

 

[Benny_Lad]

Do you mean in the transfer window?

You talking Gallagher, Johnson or both? Surely not Souza who seems to fit the template of recent years?

If anything, Spurs were perhaps in denial about going down. They also probably made a bad judgment call on Conor but I guess that is still to be played out. They backed themselves to remove an underperforming player in Johnson and they went back in for a long term target in Conor. Obviously, the number 1 target to replace Johnson was Semenyo who was unreachable by that point.

When I looked across the entire transfer landscape, I didn't really think Spurs were failing, panicking etc. There was only really City who made an elite signing in the entire league.

Nobody else was in such an inferior 'perceived' position in the league and without so many 1st team players.

Using West Ham as an example: They made 5 signings in January. Putting to one side the ability of the players. They opted to refresh the squad and add players that could come into the team and change the vibe etc.

We sold our top scorer from last season and replaced him with a combative CM. We've seen Gallagher play RM on a few occasions since he joined so one of two things has happened:

- Someone saw CG playing RM for Athletico Madrid and thought he could cover Johnson there - that person should be sacked.
- We didnt get RW Johsnon cover so Gallagher is having to cover there - whoever didn't get cover should be sacked.

 

[Gutter Boy]

To be fair Kudus and Odobert weren't injured when we sold Johnson, so there is some hindsight. With Kudus and Mauni right, and Odobert, Tel and potentially Richy left, on paper we had sufficient cover

To me the bigger mistake was not recalling Moore later in the window

 

[DubSpur]

To be fair Kudus and Odobert weren't injured when we sold Johnson, so there is some hindsight. With Kudus and Mauni right, and Odobert, Tel and potentially Richy left, on paper we had sufficient cover

To me the bigger mistake was not recalling Moore later in the window

Solanke was still coming back from injury so Mauni was needed up top.

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

To be fair Kudus and Odobert weren't injured when we sold Johnson, so there is some hindsight. With Kudus and Mauni right, and Odobert, Tel and potentially Richy left, on paper we had sufficient cover

To me the bigger mistake was not recalling Moore later in the window

Muani isn't a right winger though, which is proven with how poor he has been there.

Moore isn't the standard needed here yet and not the right set up with the battle. The Rangers loan is by far the best place for him and us currently

 

[Benny_Lad]

To be fair Kudus and Odobert weren't injured when we sold Johnson, so there is some hindsight. With Kudus and Mauni right, and Odobert, Tel and potentially Richy left, on paper we had sufficient cover

To me the bigger mistake was not recalling Moore later in the window

They only had to look at the injury record and goal output of that crew and you would know it would take us further into a relegation fight.

 

[Drew]

What player would have made a difference though when it is the club culture that is taking us down and now the player quality?

Weren't we involved in 2 of the big 5 or 6 transfers in January. We also picked up a highly rated 19 year old for the future.

I really believe we need to see the wood from the trees here. Everyone seems to be looking for spacegoats, especially the ones that don't actually kick a ball or coach the players.

The thing that really gets me about the last transfer window is our performance going into it reminds me so much of the '97-'98 season... Ferdinand and Ginola had come in pre-season and we were excited. Then into the relegation zone, Francis resigns - we end up with Gross. but the transfer window saw proven old talent come in to rescue us. Klinsmann, Berti were the two that stood out. The club knew they needed to do something; even if it was short-term.

 

[Gutter Boy]

The thing that really gets me about the last transfer window is our performance going into it reminds me so much of the '97-'98 season... Ferdinand and Ginola had come in pre-season and we were excited. Then into the relegation zone, Francis resigns - we end up with Gross. but the transfer window saw proven old talent come in to rescue us. Klinsmann, Berti were the two that stood out. The club knew they needed to do something; even if it was short-term.

There weren't transfer windows per se back then, you could make signings at anytime up to a fairly late season cut-off. The points still the same, there was just more scope for buying yourself out of trouble into the spring.

 

[Drew]

There weren't transfer windows per se back then, you could make signings at anytime up to a fairly late season cut-off. The points still the same, there was just more scope for buying yourself out of trouble into the spring.

Absolutely fair. The problem with remembering the 97/98 season is it means I'm older than I care to admit!