....and no, I'm not blaming us for the downturn in form, but there has been several threads bumped over the last 5 days that clearly indicate as fans that both the superlatives & valuations we place on our players are miles and miles off it.
- Pre season, there was a litany of fan media accounts and fans here & on X telling us to "enjoy Nico Raskin while he is here" because seemingly his comment about wanting to play for Chelsea was going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Look at him now? You'd bite the hand off for just shy of what we paid for him
- Fabio Silva was "Gabriel Amato with pace"
- Renewing John Lundstram's contract was a "no-brainer" based on a couple of months of looking close to worth the £30k a week he's stolen from us for years.
- Jack Butland, came here on reduced wages and likely a pre agreed fee should he want to move back home, but as usual, it's "£20m n no a penny less111!" - he has literally sacrificed millions of pounds to come here, the notion we would get that feeling for a guy who we got for free under those circumstances, given he could easily want back down south at some point for personal reasons, was nuts.
Again, the reason I'm saying this is not to blame us at all for the team's form, but can we finally agree that delivering league titles and performing well for an entire season at the very least should be realised before we start deluding ourselves & setting ourselves up for disappointment?
I get why it happens, we've been desperate for heroes for years and any time it looks like one steps forward, we get excited.
Personally speaking, I think we need to stop creating career paths for players where we prophesies over transfer fees and which club will pick up our players when they've only been playing well for a couple of months.
Since 2018, our valuations as fans on everyone bar Bassey and maybe Patterson have been wild.
Tin Hat on - I just think this kind of thing can go to the head of the modern footballer.
- Pre season, there was a litany of fan media accounts and fans here & on X telling us to "enjoy Nico Raskin while he is here" because seemingly his comment about wanting to play for Chelsea was going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Look at him now? You'd bite the hand off for just shy of what we paid for him
- Fabio Silva was "Gabriel Amato with pace"
- Renewing John Lundstram's contract was a "no-brainer" based on a couple of months of looking close to worth the £30k a week he's stolen from us for years.
- Jack Butland, came here on reduced wages and likely a pre agreed fee should he want to move back home, but as usual, it's "£20m n no a penny less111!" - he has literally sacrificed millions of pounds to come here, the notion we would get that feeling for a guy who we got for free under those circumstances, given he could easily want back down south at some point for personal reasons, was nuts.
Again, the reason I'm saying this is not to blame us at all for the team's form, but can we finally agree that delivering league titles and performing well for an entire season at the very least should be realised before we start deluding ourselves & setting ourselves up for disappointment?
I get why it happens, we've been desperate for heroes for years and any time it looks like one steps forward, we get excited.
Personally speaking, I think we need to stop creating career paths for players where we prophesies over transfer fees and which club will pick up our players when they've only been playing well for a couple of months.
Since 2018, our valuations as fans on everyone bar Bassey and maybe Patterson have been wild.
Tin Hat on - I just think this kind of thing can go to the head of the modern footballer.