The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 19th August 2022

If this is where business is finished I’d say going position by position-

GK- I’m very happy with as Lloris is Lloris and I rate Forster.

CB- I think we’ll see Lenglet is an upgrade on Davies, Romero is class, Sanchez is a good back up and it seems he’s first choice back up for RCB and CCB, with Tanganga being another backup for RCB (feel a bit sorry for him tbh, barring an injury crisis, this is a shit squad role for him). Overall I think we’ll be alright here unless we got injuries to Dier and Romero at the same time I think we would really struggle playing out from the back.

Wingback- I think we’re looking much better, Perisic and Sess is good, for RWB I’m a little bit concerned as i don’t think Emerson although he’s improved or Doherty are good enough. I rate Spence though, so I’m hoping he can gradually force his way into the equation a bit more as the season goes on.

Central midfield- I think is mega strong, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Bissouma and Skipp is a choice of 4 where I would be fine with any 2 of them starting almost any game, though I’m really not a fan of Hojbjerg starting against the top sides that press us, we either need a 2 of Bentancur, Skipp or Bissouma who are better on the ball against a press or to start a 3 in midfield against those sides, other than that though, really happy with midfield options. I also really like the look of Sarr as a prospect and Devine is a big talent that may start to get some minutes this season if he stays at the club

Front 3- This is where I think we’re short, CB isn’t disaster proof if we have bad luck but it’s okay. 4 top forwards for matches we can’t afford to drop points in every 3-4 days is not enough. Couldn’t be happier with Son, Kane, Kulusevski and Richarlison, that’s absolutely fantastic but I think the last 6 months or so Moura has looked really bad and I don’t think Gil is ready, we’ll be incredibly lucky if we don’t have a scenario where we have to count on these two for an extended period and it’s going to be a huge drop in quality. 1 injury to our first choice forwards and 1 or the other of them will have to start CL or PL matches regularly during that period, our first choice players can’t play every 3-4 days and neither of them are good enough to be having that kind of role for us in my opinion.

Overall a good window but we’re definitely a top attacking player away from it setting us up to really challenge in both the CL and PL

JacoZA said:

‘the league is there for the taking it

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How the hell do you get to this conclusion? Saying that, you could say that at the start of every season.

Rob said:

If this is where we end, I think we're missing two first team players.

An upgrade on CB - I can see why we're waiting for the right player as this (like Romero) is someone we'll need as a core player for 5+ years.
A attacking midfielder - someone who can break down teams by direct runs (Zaniolo/Traore/etc).

The problem is that the league looks like it could be there for the taking this year and we might not get the same opportunity again (similar to when Liverpool signed Van Dijk and really pushed on and we stagnated).

The other concern is that a lot of the deadwood will be back with us next summer...

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Yeah- we’re not quite there yet. Conte has stated it’ll take another two windows before he believes we’ll be ready for a league challenge. It sounds increasingly like we won’t make a serious signing this window

WiganSpur said:

This is fine but what I can't quite make sense of is Conte's admission that he can only ever be challenging for a title whilst also saying yesterday that to be challenging we need a couple of transfer windows (which means effectively an admission of defeat this season in that respect). He will know the best we can hope for is another 4th place spot with this current squad so just seems a bit at odds with his previous remarks and behaviour. It's a bit of a worry with him having a year on his contract also. What if we can't do any good business in a notoriously tricky January window? If he doesn't commit, our Summer window next season is just not gonna be sanctioned unless Conte extends.

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Correct, Conte has historically been a short term manager, a sort of now or never. The club must be sure he wants to do 3-4 more years and break with that if we are going down this path so I do agree with Rob on that.

Lots of post rationalisation going on in here this morning. Expectations have been raiised and not fulfilled, at least that’s the messages coming out from Conte in the last week or so. We know what he is like, always wants more, but he is definitely signalling we are short on what we need.

WiganSpur said:

This is fine but what I can't quite make sense of is Conte's admission that he can only ever be challenging for a title whilst also saying yesterday that to be challenging we need a couple of transfer windows (which means effectively an admission of defeat this season in that respect). He will know the best we can hope for is another 4th place spot with this current squad so just seems a bit at odds with his previous remarks and behaviour. It's a bit of a worry with him having a year on his contract also. What if we can't do any good business in a notoriously tricky January window? If he doesn't commit, our Summer window next season is just not gonna be sanctioned unless Conte extends.

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He also keeps referencing Klopp and Guardiola and how long they've been at their clubs to get them to the standards they are now. If we keep backing him and he feels we are consistently improving he'll stay. The question really is will we keep backing him if he feels he needs it. Lets hope so.

EastLondonYid said:

Funny how some on here never disagree with what Rob says but do when others post the same/similar comments on here.
Grow a pair.

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To echo our new Brazilian pigeon

"Cry more"

Trix said:

He also keeps referencing Klopp and Guardiola and how long they've been at their clubs to get them to the standards they are now. If we keep backing him and he feels we are consistently improving he'll stay. The question really is will we keep backing him if he feels he needs it. Lets hope so.

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Yeah. Don't get me wrong I totally get the arguments of those who say let's not buy anyone who's not first or second pick, but imo going down that route is as much as a calculated gamble as maybe pushing the boat out for 3rd - 4th choice picks which would mean we are more competitive this season, leaving more chance of a Conte extension. I do get it, like I say they might not work out and we have to sell them down the line in that case, but let's not pretend the alternative is not a gamble either which we know from the Poch days when he was rejecting options en masse. I think Paratici's job is to convince him on one or two options he might not normally consider, it's a balancing act. He almost needs to say we'll be more inclined to listen to your demands in full if you can promise us some sort of commitment beyond this season.

Clubs will be trying to tempt Conte next summer, and if he's in any doubt that we are ready for a title challenge he might just jump ship even if he likes it here.

I wonder if the reason that we are going to leave ourselves a bit short once again is due to the fact we have been apart from Stevie B unable to sell anyone to boost our transfer funds and hence have a lack of spending power to go and get the players we want. I know we have got some of them off the wage bill but it just feels like kicking the tin down the road until we face the same problem next summer.

It's crazy to think we have made 7 signings plus making Romero permanent and we can all see that we are short especially when you look at the fixtures ahead and how important is Eric Dier going to be considering we have no back up for him.

So just to confirm the melting down: we're definitely done and the shop is shut, and it's not looking good but we're expecting at least one in to replace Gil and we're subject to last minute shifting markets and will react if necessary.

Doesn't strike me that an awful lot has changed really. Fun 2.5 half days to go.

Does the window close tomorrow night?

Stoof said:

So just to confirm the melting down: we're definitely done and the shop is shut, and it's not looking good but we're expecting at least one in to replace Gil and we're subject to last minute shifting markets and will react if necessary.

Doesn't strike me that an awful lot has changed really. Fun 2.5 half days to go.

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schrodinger's transfer window.

If our business has ended I'm OK with that, providing Gil stays at the club until January at the earliest. I'd much rather him as our 6th attacker than Traore or James, and think he will see a lot of minutes from the bench with the upcoming fixture pile-up.

My only slight gripe is at CB. Ideally another CB to challenge Dier would have been signed a lot earlier in the window. As things stand we'll have the exact same 6 CB's at the beginning of next season as we had this, with Lenglet returning to Barca and Rodon returning to us (if they don't take the buy option). Hard to wrap my head around that one.

Overall I don't think anyone can argue that our squad as of today is far superior to our squad which played against Norwich in May, with 4/5 additions who can realistically fight for starting places and a couple for the future. I don't think all is quite as bleak as some people are suggesting.

Stoof said:

So just to confirm the melting down: we're definitely done and the shop is shut, and it's not looking good but we're expecting at least one in to replace Gil and we're subject to last minute shifting markets and will react if necessary.

Doesn't strike me that an awful lot has changed really. Fun 2.5 half days to go.

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For once I wouldn't say that there is too much melting down - just that if we were to do no more business it would be a disappointing end to what was/is a reasonably positive window - given a couple of weaknesses that still exist.

Seems fair even if some don't agree with it.

It has been a bloody brilliant window even if we don't sign anyone else. I'm delighted with who we have brought in personally. It's a total rebuild we are now well in the middle of. It was never likely to get sorted in two windows.

Trix said:

There has been talk of holding money back to January, as it might make all the difference being able to strengthen in a specific area if needed during a long season like this one.

Saying that I'll be surprised if no one comes in at all.

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If we can't get our top choices in this is the most pragmatic thing to do.
Our last game before the WC is 12th November and we restart Boxing Day so we have only got just over 2 months to play with the existing squad. Things may then become clearer and new opportunities may open up rather than buying someone who we are not 100% on now for the sake of it.

0-Tibsy-0 said:

For once I wouldn't say that there is too much melting down - just that if we were to do no more business it would be a disappointing end to what was/is a reasonably positive window - given a couple of weaknesses that still exist.

Seems fair even if some don't agree with it.

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If we were signing Bissouma and Perisic now as opposed to a few months ago now, the outlook would be totally different from the ones whinging a bit because there would be something happening.

Yeah, we could do with one more CB, and maybe an AM or winger, but if the ones available don't fit Contes requirements why would we buy them?

Very good window but Bastoni just feels like the one who got away

I really wish some of us would wake up. I’m not happy, and don’t buy everything the club wants us to believe. Sorry for being so blunt.

Hercules said:

I really wish some of us would wake up. I’m not happy, and don’t buy everything the club wants us to believe. Sorry for being so blunt.

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*Rests hand on shoulder*

Talk to me, Goose.