The yo-yo’ing is boring

It was clear that Smith wasn’t the sole problem, but he was a part of it. V hard to imagine him ever succeeding here. That doesn’t mean Wagner definitely will, but I think he has a better chance.

What I’m referring to in my message title, is the switch between the view that we’re amazing when we win, and we’re rubbish when we lose. Wagner was bang on in his post match interview, you can’t get carried away after a good win or two and you can’t overreact to a bad defeat. We have a poor squad by recent standards with no remarkable players. We have an above average squad by championship standards, but it’s a bit unbalanced and lacking in a couple of key positions.

Someone said yesterday that we’d need to spend £100m to reach 17th if we were promoted. If you compare the value of the squad we have now with the squad that was relegated in 2020, we’re miles and miles off. What is the value of the squad we have today? There are a few players that might fetch c£5m (Sarge, Rashica, Tzolis, Idah, Sara, Gunn), most fall in the band below though of c.£3m or so (Giannoulis, Gibson, Kenny, Dowell, Hanley) and others that probably are less. The only saleable assets are Aarons and Omabamidele, but neither of those are really demonstrating that right now. Pukki is quality but getting older and his wages are high.

Compare with the 19/20 squad: Buendia, Cantwell (if we’d have been up for selling for £10m, I’m sure we could have), Godfrey, Aarons, Lewis, Pukki. The difference is stark. We’d have to spend £100m just to get back to having a squad comparable to one that finished 20th with a whimper.

Time for new heroooooos.

Posted By: SimonOTBC, Feb 5, 18:35:14