I agree with the sentiment we shouldn't be buying players for the sake of it, and we should all back Juergen and his waiting game - its paid dividends over the last 18 months. With that said, we need to face the fact that we need to catch up with City who have the depth to challenge on all fronts, which is where were lacking. Salah and Bobbys dips in form in the spring cost us in the end as Divock wasnt yet stepping up to the plate.
I hope Brewster, Ox and Keita can all pitch in with double figures this season to reduce the reliance on the front line.
This summer window was a fantastic opportunity to seriously strengthen the squad depth, so we could face the 5-6 competitions ahead of us without worrying how we would cope when x y and z are injured/rested. If you can't strengthen when you're European Champions, then somebody has missed a trick somewhere. Unfortunately it has passed by, and the squad will start the season more or less as it was. So we have to drag every drop out of the first XI again, a sizeable task with a tough fixture list in the league, and if we have any domestic cup runs.
As for the wait and see transfer policy, it would be wonderful if every target waited for us, and only us, to come calling, as VVD did. Unfortunately most don't. Pepe has moved, De Ligt has moved, Fekir has moved. Understandably they don't wait around for us forever, they just go. It may not be a major issue at this time of year, come Christmas and January though it could be a different story. Obviously nobody will be bought in January again, because we usually don't, even if there are (hopefully) still 25-30 games to play.
Brewster and Origi will fight it out to be the impact man off the bench role. Neither Ox nor Keita will hit double figures. Both are injury prone. And the left back situation is, well I don't know how we're going to deal with that when Robbo is out.
The owners are lucky Jürgen blindly accepts the lack of transfer activity, and even defends it in public. There are many other coaches who wouldn't.
Logged