01 Nov 2025 10:47:30
I was really pleased and excited by the transfer window except for 3 things.
With Konate and Gomez injury records, I would have liked Quannsah to stay.
With all the attack minded players we did sign, a physical, defense minded centre midfielder who could spot danger and breakup play and win second balls was a must. All our current centre midfielders apart from Endo are converted number 10's, whose first instincts are to attack.
Lastly I would have preferred to have signed Guehi over Isak on the final day of the season.
We have excellent players but the balance of the squad is all wrong, especially when we are out of possession of the ball.
I hope Slot gets the time to sort this out and is given the January window to address these imbalances.
01 Nov 2025 10:55:43
Quansah was a liability last year.
01 Nov 2025 10:56:03
If we didn't sign isak we would have one center forward and we would have to play wirtz probably as a false 9. As for quansah, slot just didn't rate him and the price Bayer offered was huge, there wasn't much of a chance of him staying really.
01 Nov 2025 10:57:55
I love Mo and he’s a legend. Arguably evidence there to put a case forward of being (one of) our best ever. But I’d also like to see Isak and Ekitike used in a two which then takes Mo out of the team.
It’s almost like Slot is damned if he does damned if he doesn’t with him.
Crazily Mo could get called out for the Afcon as early as 8 Dec apparently so that would take the decision out of Slots hands.
Best case though Mo hits form again and Slots finds a way to utilise Ekitike, Isak, Wirtz and Gakpo in the lineups.
01 Nov 2025 11:10:03
I agree with most of your sentiments too, Molby. Only two things that I disagree with. Out of our CMs, only Szob was an attacking midfielder who was converted into a CM. Macca was mostly playing CM for Argentina and Brighton, and Jones and Grav were CMs as well. I do agree though that none of them are especially defensively minded like Endo is but they can sit in when required. The only issue is that they are all being told to attack now which leaves a gaping hole in midfield. Even when Endo plays, he's pressed high up the pitch against the other team's CBs, so it's not the players mentality that is the problem but what they are now being told to do for the team.
And we did try to get Guehi over the line. We had an agreement in place with Palace all agreed but they pulled out at the last minute, seemingly at the tantrum that Glasner threw. So it wasn't an either or situation with Isak and even if we didn't sign Isak, it doesn't mean that we would have signed Guehi. We did sign a Quansah replacement in Leoni though who was an upgrade in the little that we saw him but unfortunately, his serious injury now means he won't be playing for us this season.
I'm not for calling for the manager's head but the Carabao Cup lineup was poor. I get the part about playing the youngsters in this stage of the competition but not having any senior players on the bench to come in was indicative that he was willing to throw the match. That's all in the past now though but he has to win against AV and Man City now for me to break the momentum of losses. We can still turn this season around but Slot and his coaches need to put in some serious work. He has admitted that he had the players going into this season undercooked and unfit so he should be doing something about that especially he had a whole week to prepare for the next few games. Get their conditioning up to speed and go from there.
01 Nov 2025 11:12:08
I honestly can’t understand why anyone would question us needing 2 centre forwards. We lost 3 in the summer so 2 was an absolute minimum and we signed 2 very good ones.
The CB situation was ok. We lost Quansah and bought Leoni giving us 4 Cbs. Yes Guehi would’ve been nice but it didn’t happen through no fault of our own.
01 Nov 2025 11:29:07
Are you counting Doak as one of the forwards ?.
01 Nov 2025 11:32:55
I agree on 2 up top JK, but personally I don't think paying as a two means Salah being out of the team. I don't think he is capable of being an effective forward starting out wide anymore, but do think he, as well as all our other forwards could play down the middle effectively.
01 Nov 2025 11:41:29
Westwood good point that mate. Absolutely didn’t think of that.
01 Nov 2025 12:01:55
No Irish I’m including Diaz as he played as a false 9 for large parts of last season with Nunez not being fancied and Jota not being fit.
Yet again in your attempts to be clever you have failed miserably.
01 Nov 2025 12:54:42
The fact that we have been linked with Martin Zubimendi, Lamine Camara, Adam Wharton, Angelo Stiller, Nicolo Rovella, Mikel Jauregizar and countless others since Slot's arrival, it suggests there is a desire to bring someone of a certain profile in.
The same goes for ball playing CBs who can do a job at fullback - Inacio, Lukeba, Colwill, Guehi etc etc.
It does feel like Wharton and Guehi are the strategic targets that we are willing to wait for.
As for LW - difficult to say if there was ever a plan to bring someone in to replace Lucho (I am not counting Wirtz as that) . Dickie might know something nifty about Semenyo's release clause or maybe they wanted to give Fofana another season at Lyon before deciding. Or perhaps they really want to see what Rio can do.
Perhaps the reality is that we are in Window 1 of a 3 window overhaul?
01 Nov 2025 14:11:38
I would have retained Quansah ahead of Gomez.
02 Nov 2025 10:43:35
I wouldn't.