The signing of 31-year-old free agent Stephen Henderson following his release from Nottingham Forest this week got me thinking. Granted we needed to fill the #3 goalkeeper slot, but is there really no-one better, younger and on similar wages who we could bring in and develop over the next 2/3 years until Guaita/Henn move on?
We must've known for some time now that Jules was intending on leaving (or retiring given his age), so where is the planning?
It got me thinking about our long term vision, if we even have one. Over the past 2/3 years, Sorloth aside (who's been a disaster), who have we signed with a view to developing for the future? The only player I can think of his Jairo Riedewald, but let's be honest he was a FdB signing rather than a Dougie one and he's seemingly been disregarded already. Barring that I suppose you could include Meyer in there, but he was already relatively established.
I just look at the the likes of Bournemouth who have picked up players such as David Brooks, Chris Mepham and now Lloyd Kelly all for relatively small fees in today's market. All three (particularly Brooks) are now instantly worth a shedload more and could play in the PL for the next decade. Meanwhile we're re-signing injury prone mercenaries like Bakary Sako on ridiculous wages. I just don't see the logic.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but I just fear we're becoming another Stoke/WBA. All it could take is one bad season and we'd be stuck with a squad full of high earners who have absolutely no desire to play in the Championship. I just can't see our current 'strategy' being sustainable. There's only so long you can plug gaps before the whole thing falls apart.
Thoughts?
We must've known for some time now that Jules was intending on leaving (or retiring given his age), so where is the planning?
It got me thinking about our long term vision, if we even have one. Over the past 2/3 years, Sorloth aside (who's been a disaster), who have we signed with a view to developing for the future? The only player I can think of his Jairo Riedewald, but let's be honest he was a FdB signing rather than a Dougie one and he's seemingly been disregarded already. Barring that I suppose you could include Meyer in there, but he was already relatively established.
I just look at the the likes of Bournemouth who have picked up players such as David Brooks, Chris Mepham and now Lloyd Kelly all for relatively small fees in today's market. All three (particularly Brooks) are now instantly worth a shedload more and could play in the PL for the next decade. Meanwhile we're re-signing injury prone mercenaries like Bakary Sako on ridiculous wages. I just don't see the logic.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but I just fear we're becoming another Stoke/WBA. All it could take is one bad season and we'd be stuck with a squad full of high earners who have absolutely no desire to play in the Championship. I just can't see our current 'strategy' being sustainable. There's only so long you can plug gaps before the whole thing falls apart.
Thoughts?
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