Emery sacked

[Chimaera]

I'm not writing off Pepe. In fact, I think he's a good player. He hasn't settled as well as you'd like, but there's plenty of potential there. I just question whether or not what they spent on him was a good plan for what was really a team already top heavy with attack, and lacking in defense.

I don't have a problem with buying for the future, with the expectation of players improving. That's certainly all well and good. Liverpool did that this summer. But they also don't have glaring flaws in their lineup.

My problem is when there's a clear need, they didn't address it. That led to the manager getting the boot and makes me question whether or not they have the right people running things.

When Liverpool had a central defensive crisis prior to VVD, and didn't buy anyone, I questioned leaderships decisions. I question City not buying a new central defender this summer (they did try with Maguire supposedly). It makes you wonder whether it's ego (for Liverpool and City, yeah, definitely some of that) or idiocy.

 

[YNWA14]

Would have loved to see Maguire at City. He would be so exposed with how high they play. If you think Otamendi and Stones look bad when being countered...

He’s much better suited to current United, and even there he’s nothing special. I still have no idea how Leicester sold him for what they did but good on them.

 

[S E P H]

My problem is when there's a clear need, they didn't address it. That led to the manager getting the boot and makes me question whether or not they have the right people running things.

I don't disagree with what you're saying overall, but Arsenal were heavily linked with Upamecano in the last couple of weeks in the transfer window. It might've been for just pure smoke to settle down the Arsenal fan base or they ran out of time considering the nature of the deal needing more time. Leipzig did want around his buyout clause for him and that's in the 90 million Euros range.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Would have loved to see Maguire at City. He would be so exposed with how high they play. If you think Otamendi and Stones look bad when being countered...

He’s much better suited to current United, and even there he’s nothing special. I still have no idea how Leicester sold him for what they did but good on them.

Yeah I think Maguire is a good option as your 2nd best CB. If he’s paired up with a top tier guy I think he’s a great option to have as your complimentary guy, but if he’s your best CB chances are you won’t go far. Well if your a top team.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

I honestly don’t understand why the big teams buy average epl players at a premium when they can have better players at a discount. What ever, keep doing you.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I honestly don’t understand why the big teams buy average epl players at a premium when they can have better players at a discount. What ever, keep doing you.

Yeah I don’t know... like Maguire is a perfect CB for a the teams just outside the top 6 in the PL unless you play him with a Laporte or VVD where they do all the heavy lifting. But he just isn’t an elite/world record CB.

 

[Chimaera]

I honestly don’t understand why the big teams buy average epl players at a premium when they can have better players at a discount. What ever, keep doing you.

The assumption is they can make a move up, while having already passed the “can they settle in this league” argument. Knowing they should be able to, that makes a big purchase much easier to rationalize and sell to a board.

If I’m a club and I spend 30 on a guy who has been in the EPL, I’m going to get much less derision if they don’t work than if I travel to Brazil and spend the same on a player half my supporters have never heard of. Throw in what’s not always a guarantee work permit, and the potential to recoup money on EPL players more so than non local washouts, and I can see some logic.

I completely agree that many clubs are spending money on meh footballers when they could find better for cheaper elsewhere. But that’s also a bigger risk and for some clubs, you aren’t quite sure what you’re getting. If they’re already in England, you can talk to someone and find out about them much more than if they’re playing in Sweden or something

 

[Havre]

I am not going to argue that everyone scouting players, deciding on who to buy etc. are brilliant at their jobs, but this idea that it would be so easy to just bring in better players for the resources PL teams got is a bit odd. Obviously they are trying to bring in the best players and obviously they are really trying to hire the right people in those mentioned roles. I think a lot has changed since the 90s when someone like Wenger could "beat" the PL just by being slightly more sophisticated in his/Arsenals recruitment of players than the rest of the league.

Room for improvement? Absolutely. Easy to just "fix"? Hardly.

 

[Chimaera]

Yeah, scouting is improving a lot, and it's only going to get better with the analytics entering the fray. Old school scouting where you know a guy who knows a guy, or who has seen the look of a player is going to go the way of the dodo. Though there's still a lot of it still in the game.

But there is a real consideration of taking a kid from Bolivia and expecting him to be able to live in Birmingham and settle comfortably. It's not the easiest situation, when you consider there might be one or two guys who can even speak his language, no place to eat food they're used to, facilities they're not comfortable with. You can get a kid who grew up in England relatively comfortable outside of the pitch pretty easily if they're used to how it is.

 

[YNWA14]

I honestly don’t understand why the big teams buy average epl players at a premium when they can have better players at a discount. What ever, keep doing you.

I think there are examples of good and bad buys within the EPL even with the inflated fees. Just have to find the right players...like anywhere. There are plenty of flops from outside of the PL as well.

 

[S E P H]

I honestly don’t understand why the big teams buy average epl players at a premium when they can have better players at a discount. What ever, keep doing you.

Only reason is because they're "EPL proven" and for as many good players there are in the other leagues, each team has been hit with failures and busts.

If you look at Liverpool's team, they pretty much bought everyone important besides van Dijk, Robertson, and Mane outside of the EPL. But other teams like Newcastle and Fulham last year bought a lot of non-EPL players and a tonne turned out to be failures.