Who is to blame for our bloated squad?

[RickyVilla]

If the squad is bloated it can mean only one thing. Too many brussel sprouts for lunch. Harry has a lot to answer for if this is true

 

[eddiebailey]

As I said in the other thread. It is worrying that Redknapp wanted Palacios, Bassong and Kranjcar and already he has deemed them deadwood.

Each of these examples is worth considering in more detail.

Palacios did an excellent job, but Harry was not to know that his brother would be murdered and he would lose form; also the reason he is no longer getting a look in is Harry bringing through Sandro. According to rumour this season he is likely to be loaned, which if successful could re-establsih his market value.

Bassong again did a good job, but effectively lost his place in the squad to Kaboul, who is better and who, because of our complicated transfer history with Pompey, we got for a good price. We should not make a loss on him.

Krancjar was an emergency signing because of the injury to Modric, he was an absolute steal and he did excellently. He has lost his place in the squad because of the emergence of Bale, but we should make a healthy profit.

None of this strikes me as bad transfer activity; good players are being pushed out by the emergence of upgrades.

Keane and Defoe are a little harder to explain away...

 

[DJS]

I blame the government.

 

[NEVILLEB]

How quickly people forget that Keane and Palacios were vital to us staying in the premiership. We could well have been relegated without them.

Stop all the Harry bashing. He has clearly identified Rossi as a target. Let's see what the club do about buying him..

 

[talkshowhost86]

Each of these examples is worth considering in more detail.

Palacios did an excellent job, but Harry was not to know that his brother would be murdered and he would lose form; also the reason he is no longer getting a look in is Harry bringing through Sandro. According to rumour this season he is likely to be loaned, which if successful could re-establsih his market value.

Bassong again did a good job, but effectively lost his place in the squad to Kaboul, who is better and who, because of our complicated transfer history with Pompey, we got for a good price. We should not make a loss on him.

Krancjar was an emergency signing because of the injury to Modric, he was an absolute steal and he did excellently. He has lost his place in the squad because of the emergence of Bale, but we should make a healthy profit.

None of this strikes me as bad transfer activity; good players are being pushed out by the emergence of upgrades.

Keane and Defoe are a little harder to explain away...

Defoe was brought in to replace Darren Bent who most fans didn't want at the club anyway. He was also scoring almost 1 in 2 at Pompey when we signed him and carried on that ratio until last season. It's a shame he's gone downhill but the signing at the time made sense (and I remember fans singing his name before we'd even signed him).

As for Keane he was brought in due to Defoe getting a long term injury. We needed a striker desperately and I suppose the one who had been our top striker for the previous few seasons made alot of sense. Again it's a shame he's gone downhill but at the time it made sense.

Agree with you on all the others though. We haven't made many signings in recent years that were completely unnecessary when we signed them. Maybe Chimbonda and Naughton but even they have played their role in some respect.

 

[NEVILLEB]

Defoe was brought in to replace Darren Bent who most fans didn't want at the club anyway. He was also scoring almost 1 in 2 at Pompey when we signed him and carried on that ratio until last season. It's a shame he's gone downhill but the signing at the time made sense (and I remember fans singing his name before we'd even signed him).

As for Keane he was brought in due to Defoe getting a long term injury. We needed a striker desperately and I suppose the one who had been our top striker for the previous few seasons made alot of sense. Again it's a shame he's gone downhill but at the time it made sense.

Agree with you on all the others though. We haven't made many signings in recent years that were completely unnecessary when we signed them. Maybe Chimbonda and Naughton but even they have played their role in some respect.

Agree with all this. The problem is the excess players haven't been sold. They are all desirable players so we are probably asking for too much money.

If anyone can pin that on Harry then I will be impressed!

 

[Adam456]

Each of these examples is worth considering in more detail.

Palacios did an excellent job, but Harry was not to know that his brother would be murdered and he would lose form; also the reason he is no longer getting a look in is Harry bringing through Sandro. According to rumour this season he is likely to be loaned, which if successful could re-establsih his market value.

Bassong again did a good job, but effectively lost his place in the squad to Kaboul, who is better and who, because of our complicated transfer history with Pompey, we got for a good price. We should not make a loss on him.

Krancjar was an emergency signing because of the injury to Modric, he was an absolute steal and he did excellently. He has lost his place in the squad because of the emergence of Bale, but we should make a healthy profit.

None of this strikes me as bad transfer activity; good players are being pushed out by the emergence of upgrades.

Keane and Defoe are a little harder to explain away...

Well said - Kranky was bought for £2m (with a year left on contract) when he was clearly worth at least £5m so that was good business. When it was clear that he had pedestrian pace and is useless as a LW backup we bought Piennar (Everton's player of the year) also in last year of contract for £3m. We can't really sell Piennar until Jan due to the 3 clubs rule but we could easily end up making £5-6 profit from these two after decent contributions

....but on the last point, yes a little harder to explain but not much - we were in dire straits when we bought Keane back at £8m less than we just sold him for. A talisman striker with a great record for us. Easy to say why with hindsight but there was every chance he'd just pick up where he left off.......

and Defoe was banging them in for Pompey and was a regular for England. Everybody thought it was fine until his 2011 form. Defoe £15m. Roy Carroll £35m ? Need I say more


All of this said I'm as frustrated as anybody at the lack of sales of fringe players so far this summer but keep reminding myself that it's only first week of July.....

 

[talkshowhost86]

Agree with all this. The problem is the excess players haven't been sold. They are all desirable players so we are probably asking for too much money.

If anyone can pin that on Harry then I will be impressed!

With some the problem may be that they can't be sold. Keane and Bentley for example I see being problematic to shift due to their wages and poor form in the last year or so.

But with the likes of Palacios, Bassong, Defoe etc I imagine we'll want to be a bit more certain about who we're bringing in before we commit to offloading them. I still think we'll sell before we buy but we'll do it in a way that means we're confident of not diminishing the squad.

 

[Maske2g]

How quickly people forget that Keane and Palacios were vital to us staying in the premiership. We could well have been relegated without them.

Stop all the Harry bashing. He has clearly identified Rossi as a target. Let's see what the club do about buying him..

If Keane was responsible for keeping us up, I've got a chance for that nobel peace prize.

 

[dav3j]

Roy Carroll £35m ?

He lets in goals, not scores them!

 

[$hoguN]

Can I just ask a serious question, why does anyone need to take the blame for this? Alot of top clubs have overly inflated squads, you don't see their messageboards blaming people.

 

[gregga]

Perhaps we need to employ better agents to tout our players out to potential clubs?

If we have some cash available our first priority should be getting them off our squad list and off the wage bill.

We paid Keane nearly £4m last season, surely we could have just let him go to Celtic for £2m rather than holding out for £6m and paying his wages? If he is still on our books come September 1st I will be livid.

 

[NEVILLEB]

If Keane was responsible for keeping us up, I've got a chance for that nobel peace prize.

His leadership and positivity helped enormously.

The team were very weak minded before he re-joined.

 

[Casparian]

Casparian, in retrospect, when you look at it, we are net par (roughly) for Keane and Defoe......however, justifying buying a player for 12-15 million because you have already made profit on them before, has little logic in my eyes.

Defoe was never a regular before he was sold, and Keane had clearly dropped a bollock at Liverpool.

I agree bud,I never said I supported the two players being brought back,actually was well in with the people mocking Liverpool for paying the handsome sum they did.Was also disappointed to see us pay the £12m as with many others having an inkling he would not perform even more so as his partner in crime was already gone.Though his presence will have indeed made an impact I dont feel it was £12m worth.

Defoe was different I still recall cameras on him walking up some dark street to sign for Pompey he did not look like he was all smiles and excited about signing for them.More to point looked dejected it had come to him having to move just to get out of the berb/keane limelight.Fans did indeed cheer his name before he was announced on the pitch before a cup game in some dodgy flat cap same fans were told their embarrassing etc cheering a guy from another club.

Anyway to finish off to OP think you will find I quoted what I did where you stated they get sold at a loss.Now whilst I agree a loss on the fee we paid looks likely in the grand scheme of which previous deals are relevant its not a loss at all meaning however you want to twist it THFC aint out of pocket when all is said and done.All it really means is if we had not bought them both back the profits they were sold for in the 1st place would be more significant nonetheless profit. :wink:

Cheers btw for finding some points made, of interest that is all I seek on a forum to be enlightened or atleast given food for thought.