[REPORTED] Nicolas Gaitan

Why would the club go flapping around indicating we are in trouble HB1? That’s hardly good business sense.

The club’s statements make perfect sense. They clearly want to sign players, but at the level we want it is very hard to do so. The job they did in the summer, Chalobah, Hughes, Femenia, Richarlison, was spectacular. It would be clear to most supporters of most teams that January isn’t as good a time.

I think they would have liked 4-5 new faces, but it will most likely be 2 or 3. Boo hoo, we still have a good squad.

 

I get all that, and I know the club’s policy is to work hard trying to identify young talent and get them to the club.

Now the scouts have been rewarded with Richarlison. He’s going to make the club a lot of money. Hernandez is the next.

Hughes and Chalobah were not really credit to the scouts as everyone knew about them.

Even now in all quotes I see from Giraldi he appears to be looking at midfielders and wingers.

I understand it’s tough but I do not believe they have not had opportunities to significantly upgrade the defence in the three years since promotion.

The Premier league is a tough place. It’s not fair but we have to compete and act quickly or else we will not remain in it. This is a crucial time and we have to do something. Doing nothing will probably end in failure.

 

Limping on with a manager who will leave at season end, and no recruitment as the signings might be incompatible with his replacement, would seem an incredibly high risk strategy to follow. Just assuming we have good enough players and they will get sufficient motivation and direction. Swansea, Stoke etc have changed manager and seem to be active in the market. We just assume we have enough ability and motivation to still finish above them ??

 

Doable. But in 15 games, with 5 of those against the top 6 ? If we were to lose those 5 that would mean W3 D4 L3 from the rest. On current form thats a very big ask.

 

Doubt we will need 40 points to be safe though.

That's not to say that it isn't a risky strategy.

 

I firmly believe that we will be safe this season and I actually think we will do it with quite a bit to spare. But I do respect that people will wonder why I have faith in that.

What does concern me, I have stated it many a time, is that whoever recruits for this club since we have been in the PL seems extremely reluctant to put considerable investment in defence. Given the market conditions, January is a time for buying what you really need. Squad 'facelifts' can wait until the summer but I am alarmed that we are only being linked with strikers, midfielders and the occasional goalkeeper. Sure, these areas could do with adding to but what we have for now in those positions is enough to keep us in the division. What we are lacking is quality at the back and that should be the only position that we are urgently addressing in this window - and not with stop-gap players who are of no real improvement on what we have, no more Udinese squad players or obscure cheap players who can't get a game in Holland, Greece or Portugal.

Sure, blame Silva for not being focused enough on defending - its an area he needs to improve on when coaching. But lets give him decent enough tools to do so, as until then, I don't really blame him for going with the attacking tactics that he does. Its easy to blame Silva for the past couple of months and he deserve some stick - but the recruitment team seem to continually get away without criticism because they backed the club in the summer (lets not forget a large chunk of the summer money was income from the Ighalo sale). They did back the manager with purchases - but I feel they stopped short once again when it comes to defenders and they continually treat the defence as an area where they can just plug with free transfers and 50/50 success stories.

 

"Wales Online report Swansea have held talks with Atletico Madrid over deals to bring France striker Kevin Gameiro and Argentinian forward Nicolas Gaitan to the club this month."

 

I'm struggling to find 3 teams i feel confident we will finish above esp given most below us seem to have beaten us recently and are investing.

 

Agree with all your points, and they largely fit with my own.

However, the big point I do not agree with you is over being safe.

A club who has the second worst defensive record cannot be considered safe. We are far too open and easy to score against, which undermines everything we do.

Until we show some improvement at the back, which I think is actually getting worse, we cannot be considered safe.

 

I was fairly hopeful that this might happen, as he would give us much needed creativity.

Apparently Swansea are willing to pay him £120,000 a week in wages however. I cannot see us giving half of that, so I doubt it's happening.

 

If he keeps them up it will have been worth it.

 

But if he doesn't - Oh Dear

Talk of Mesa leaving too.

 

At least they are looking at bringing someone in to make a difference rather than expecting the players who have got them into this situation to suddenly start performing.