- May 16, 2004
- 18,516
- 19,991
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
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...
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.
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...
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!
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..
Roy Carroll £35m ?
If Keane was responsible for keeping us up, I've got a chance for that nobel peace prize.
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.