where has our squad gone?

[Blake Griffin]

so with the news of niko's departure, our previously overloaded squad has become paper thin within the space of a year. this is pretty much our squad as it stands -​

​

goalkeeper: friedel, cudicini

right back: walker, naughton
centre back: kaboul, gallas, dawson, caulker
left back: assou-ekotto, rose

right wing: lennon
defensive mid: parker, sandro, livermore
centre mid: modric, huddlestone
left wing: bale

attacking mid: van der vaart
striker: defoe

​

even that is with uncertainty over the future of rose, modric and defoe who all seemingly want out. bale is questionable and who knows whether naughton and caulker want to play backup. harry has marginalised the rest of the squad - [gomes, corluka, bassong, khumalo, bentley, jenas, pienaar, giovani] and now kranjcar has been sold, that lot cost us 55m+ in transfer fees and are probably earning 300k per week collectively and they all know they're not in harry's plans and we know that too. the squad has been horribly mis-managed and now we're left looking paper thin.​

​

this is what happens when you don't use your squad properly, harry can have no excuses as this is the squad he has built. we desperately need competition for our wide players, as well as at least two new forwards, our keepers don't exactly have many miles left on the clock and we're hardly stacked at full back either. but it's no use giving harry the money to buy these players if he refuses to use them again.​

 

[hellava_tough]

I'd wait until players were actully sold, until leaving them out of your squad listings

Because if we're musing over hypotheticals then we may as well add Vertonghen and Ade to your squad list

But, yeah, I get what you mean - I think we need to sign 3 or 4 players

 

[Dinghy]

Oh good. Another thread to bash Harry over ifs buts and hypotheticals. Just what was needed.

 

[Blake Griffin]

it's not hypotheticals though, the players i listed have all been thrown on the scrap heap by harry, the only one there you could debate is pienaar but even he was barely used and has since said he wants to join everton permanently.

 

[Real_madyidd]

it's not hypotheticals .

It is.

 

[Dinghy]

So it couldn't hsve gone in any one of the other 399 threads?

 

[hellava_tough]

it's not hypotheticals though, the players i listed have all been thrown on the scrap heap by harry, the only one there you could debate is pienaar but even he was barely used and has since said he wants to join everton permanently.

Dude, seriously....

 

[Blake Griffin]

it isn't directly about harry, it's about the state of our squad. if you could link me to 399 similar threads then do so.

 

[Blake Griffin]

Dude, seriously....

tell me what those players were doing last season?

 

[Spurs_Bear]

As much as they are out the running, they are still very much part of the 'squad' and the way Harry works is they would be called upon if absolutely necessary. The only one I'm disappointed about is Pienaar, he could and should have been doing a job for us last season. It's a bit misleading to start a thread with them all left out and then say our squad is thin, as mentioned above you could include Vertonghen, Adebayor and other potential signings in it as hypotheticals.

 

[brasil_spur]

I have to say that i'm in partial agreement with Blake Griffin here.

At the moment the only players we currently have registered with us who should regularly make the first team (18 players) are:

Friedal (PL's oldest player at 41)
Walker, Corluka (likely to be sold)
Kaboul, Dawson, Gallas/King (one will surely be let go this summer)
Ekotto
Lennon, Bale, Livermore, Parker, Sandro, Modric, VdV
Defoe

That puts us 3 quality players light IMO, that's assuming we keep Corluka (doubtful). I've excluded Pienaar as he's almost certainly going back to Everton.

The obvious area is in the strikeforce (or lack of), we need at least one quality striker in if not two.

Then we need some quality defensive back-up and a GK whose not about to hit a wall soon.

 

[tiger666]

Transfer window isn't even open. We've sold one player. At least wait until the season starts/window closes before moaning about the state of our squad.

 

[Blockbuster]

if the players were good enough they would be in the first team.

Bale, BAE, Walker, Huddlestone all put the effort in and got rewarded.

Do ANY of you work with these players day in day out? nope didn't think so. so judging the squad isn't something you can do really is it.

obviously if we had Levy picking the team we would win the league.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

if the players were good enough they would be in the first team.

Bale, BAE, Walker, Huddlestone all put the effort in and got rewarded.

Do ANY of you work with these players day in day out? nope didn't think so. so judging the squad isn't something you can do really is it.

obviously if we had Levy picking the team we would win the league.

Not sure what as to which context your sarcastic comment about Levy is appropriate. Oh wait, it's a completely random, unprovoked and unnecessary comment which has nothing to do with this thread. My mistake, as you were.

 

[markiespurs]

Very early days yet and we've been told over the last couple of transfer windows now that we have to sell before we buy, so at the moment I'm viewing the sale of a squad player in a positive light.

 

[Paolo10]

Harry this, marginalised squad that.

Oh do dry up.

It's June by the way. Named after a basketball player, what a joke.

 

[Blake Griffin]

how do you know he isn't named after me?

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Harry this, marginalised squad that.

Oh do dry up.

It's June by the way. Named after a basketball player, what a joke.

I don't really know what that has to do with anything and the price of fish?

 

[Blake Griffin]

indeed, better than being named after a spammer anyhow.

 

[PrettyColors]

I'm not so sure that replacing Harry (Blake I understand you did not express that directly) will solve the problem. Rotation is one of the most delicate yet eristic actions a manager can take. If Harry switches out VDV for Niko, who then has a poor game, he is slaughtered for "changing what worked," and most fans/media jump on him for it. However, if he plays Lennon 4 weeks in a row and he then picks up an injury, he is also crucified for "not rotating," and "why didn't that tax-evading **** play Gio?"

The grass is always greener on the other side...