Ismaila Sarr

I'm not fussed if Bilic leaves so if we manage to get rid of him and Sarr in one go then it's fine by me.

 

Just out of interest, who would you want instead of Bilic?

 

Has this useless sack of ***** ****ed off yet?

 

How do you know he’s never been a prefect?

 

No idea, just don't think Bilic is that impressive. Wouldn't be bothered if he left.

 

Fair enough.

I think he’s done a decent job considering we haven’t had a single game with our best 11. 16 first team players out at one point. Long term injuries to our best players. Picking up the mess that Edwards left with a poor pre-season and low squad morale. On top of dealing with Gino who hasn’t backed him so far in the transfer window.

 

I think Sarr could end up leaving. He’s good, PL proven and available for a decent price. Think someone blinks and pays £25-30m

Thing is, I think our squad is more suited to a back 3 now. Porteous and Hoedt are both progressive CBs and Sierralta is v well suited to CCB. Araujo and Davis could play up top ahead of Pedro with Martins covering all of those roles. I’d be pretty open to selling Sarr and getting a decent CF who will be our main striker regardless of division next season (though would cost of course).

Bilic though is very much a back four guy.

 

Not for me.

 

I think Bilic has performed about at par this far. But he can’t really be evaluated given the injuries.

Despite his complaints, I can’t agree that he hasn’t been/won’t have been backed in the window by the time it shuts. Only Burnley have spent more and I believe we’ve brought in more players than any other club. Yes he isn’t getting as much input as he likes but that’s not really his job. I think he should only really be evaluated at the end of the season, but he’d look pretty silly if he walked for not being backed in a transfer window where we’ll have signed a handful of players at least.

 

But we haven’t signed the players he wants. He made it very clear, CM and Winger. We need those players in then he will have no excuse.

 

Get him out of the door ASAP. Stick him on the bench tomorrow and play Davis and Arajau up front instead. At least they will be giving 100%.

 

We have. He just said they don’t count.

 

He’s PL proven in so much as he’s been relegated from it twice, and most people specifically remember the 1.5 good games he had as a PL player in great detail. Nobody blinked 6 months ago at that price, not sure what he’s done since to inflate it.

£20m would be a good deal if we could get it.

 

That’s my point. Bilic has made it very public that Martins and Kone didn’t count and Gino knew that.

So unless we sign another CM and winger, Bilic is not going to be happy.

GK: Bachmann, Okoye Hamer
RB: Ferreira, Ngakia, Gaspar
CB: Cathcart, Sierralta, Porteous, Kaba
LB: Kamara, Morris
CDM: Choudhury, Louza, Kayembe
CM:, Kone, TDB, Clevs, Bacuna, Gosling
CAM: Pedro, Asprilla
RW: Sarr, Kalu
LW: Martins, Sema
ST: Davis, Araujo, Bayo, Assombalonga?

Looking at that, you can see why he wants another CM. Kone new to the league, and with Louza being the only one who can control the tempo of the game and get the ball into our players feet, it’s vital we bring someone else in. Preferably someone more like Louza.

Clevs, Gosling and Bacuna wouldn’t surprise me if they are omitted from the 25 man squad. TDB I could see going out on loan. Leaves us with Kone. Bilic knows those 4 aren’t good enough.

Then you look at the wingers. Sema has proven he’s good enough, Martins looks tidy so far and Sarr regardless of form, still makes other teams nervous. However Kalu is always injured and I think Sarr could use some competition on the RW.

Think Bilic will genuinely wants rid of Hause, Clevs, Bacuna, TDB, Gosling and Manaj. None of them make the 25 man squad in my opinion. Wouldn’t surprise me if he wants Bayo gone as well.

Either way, a CM and Winger is a must.

 

Poor old Edwards still carrying the can for Pozzo mismanagement I see.

 

Haha, no. Was just me chatting freely.

I was told today by a Sunderland fan that apparently they have a 14 day notice period of him being recalled….so they know he’s staying now.

 

Gino has nothing to do with the tactics, team talks, substitutions etc. all of that under Edwards became very poor. Instead of adjusting, he played Kamara RWB! It was atrocious football. Had he stopped sulking and being stubborn with insisting on playing 3 at the back, we would be closer to Sheff Utd. We dropped many points because of him. Sunderland, Rotherham, Blackburn, Preston and Birmingham were all shocking results. Those 5 fixtures you could argue that was at least 8 points dropped.

 

Incredible the damage one guy could do in just 10 games isn’t it.

Funny you pick those games as you should probably double check how Bilic did in the same fixtures.

 

And yet he beat Burnley, Sheff Utd and Boro. Points gained there. Maybe if Pozzo hadn’t gone with Gaspar and Ngakia for a bloke that wanted to play 5-3-2 then he wouldn’t have played Kamara at right back?

The castigating of Edwards by some of our fans to cover up the summer incompetence of our owner is ridiculous. How on earth do you know teamtalks were poor?

Gaspar. Bayo. Manaj. Edwards was seriously handicapped.

 

It's a good job we haven't had cr@p results against Millwall (x2), Rotherham, Hull, Swansea (x2), Bristol City and Blackpool under Bilic. Both head coaches have had injuries to deal with, both head coaches haven't got players they wanted yet the vastly less experienced one has been thrown under the bus by Pozzo and some fans.

 

Is it possible that Gino/Giaretta did a poor job squad building and Edwards did a poor job with what he was left with?

 

Not in my book because Edwards wasn’t given enough games to be judged. I’d agree it was possible Edwards would have been marooned in lower midtable after 18 games but I don’t think he was given a fair crack.

 

Or Sarr for that matter.

 

If Sarr is gone by 01 February and Bilic stays, I would be happy. If Sarr stays and Bilic goes I would be very disappointed. If both go I would be disappointed but not surprised.

 

We got points out of those games, absolutely. But not a single game under Edwards did we ever look dominant. Bilic has come in and had nothing but injuries.

Again I’m not making excuses for Gino and the summer incompetence, but to let Edwards off the hook because of that is just crazy. He was a very poor manager, that had one style of play. Forest Green got figured out and nearly lost the league title because of it. He didn’t change coming here. Yes it was his preferred formation, but good managers adapt to the players they have, not shoe horn a LB to play RWB or Sarr to play as a striker.

Edwards never got the players fired up, we would be woeful in the first half, and the second half you would expect a reaction, we didn’t get it.

The truth is we should never have/of hired him in the first place, I believe I wasn’t the only one stating so before we hired him. He didn’t fit the players.

Anyway, what’s done is done, he’s not here, Bilic is and all Bilic has had is a list of long term injuries from the beginning. Make shift defence, to make shift CM, and so on.

Get our main boys back, and then let’s see what Bilic can do. Thankfully that should be happening by the Reading game or just after.

 

I don’t agree Edwards was as poor as you are making out, and he had injuries of his own and couldn’t play his favoured formation effectively due to Pozzo. but agree to disagree.

 

Well given Bilic wants another winger regardless, if we don’t sign one AND sell Sarr - how would that leave you happy? How does that leave us well placed for a run at promotion?

Sarr is underwhelming, there’s no denying that. But blimey, people must really overestimate how potent this squad is if they are happy to lose him for the next 6 months. And more fool anyone who thinks we would get good money AND reinvest it before the window is closed.

Sarr staying is clearly best for our promotion hopes.

 

I think it’s unlikely we will get promoted. For a start we won’t catch the top two. if we end up in the play offs we have to win our last game of the season, and win and draw the two prior to that. It’s over three months since we managed that, Sarr or no Sarr.

Does Sarr’s presence guarantee promotion? No, does his presence make it more likely - probably, but I really would not be unhappy to seem him leave. But I accept that’s more a personal view on him and what his recruitment represents, rather than an objective sporting judgement.

 

All will be forgiven if you take this waste of space Bournemouth.

 

Oh yeah. We'd be seriously upset alright. There'd probably be riots or something. Please, for the love of god Bournemouth, don't take our beloved Sarr away from us for £20m+. I'm not sure how we'd cope. Why? WHY?

 

We’d go into meltdown? Hilarious.

I will go into meltdown if he’s still here on Wednesday morning!