Stadt

Fulham fans liked him

It’s not going to be another bad season we have already had some bad ones look on the bright side you’ve got what you wanted with young players and for a striker in Cullen bet you’d be moaning if we didn’t sign a striker no pleasing some people is there get behind them must be exhausting being so negative all the time

Puel managed Monaco in 1999-2001. Macia - our signings went to shit as soon he left.

Fulham fans like him though

The obviously attributable Puel signings were Ricardo… good, Ghezzal abysmal and Diabate - whatever the **** that was. Puel wasn’t the only manager that could have “transitioned us to possession football” pretty much 99% of mangers in the late 2010s would have done. To go with the migraine football, bad man management, playing Gray upfront, whatever else - he was a typically lazy, unambtious, King Power (under Vichai, no less) appointment. I’ve also gone back on my word about not getting into it again but our fans have Stockholm syndrome and just can’t imagine it being better

Macia built us a decent team

Puel was shit, I’ve said enough on this in the past but it feels like every two months a thread pops up and thickos try and reanimate his time here.

Ugh

I have a feeling Plymouth are completely overlooked. They were 2nd/3rd over the last 25 or 30 game last season, they have lots of goals even without Tolaj and Cleverly seemed to adjust well halfway through. They seem to recite quite well generally. Oxford are bit underpriced by the bookies.

£3m would be good deal for us, get his wages off the books and we could spend the money on (completely the wrong player profile but never mind) someone who wants to be here.

I'd have some more sympathy for Thomas if he wasn't in the pub all the time. We'd all give up a hell of a lot to play for Leicester, even now. With his physical limitations he should be eking out as much as possible from his body. He's supposedly Leicester fan and he's never engaged with the fanbase, he's never appeared pained by our demise despite playing through almost all of it. I don't like Choudhury but he's a stronger character and at least outwardly appears a bit more bothered about the club. Proportionally, I think Thomas has probably gotten away with more than anybody at the club, 118 league starts and 3 relegations probably whilst earning something like £8m. Some of his defending, like Millwall away last season is genuinely some of the absolutely worst I've ever witnessed. He's probably directly cost us many goals as villains like Faes (maybe more!) but because he's too meek for a personality, he's not vilified for it. If we signed him from say Peterborough he wouldn't have made 20 apps for us but he's probably the last of the academy players to directly be one of Rudkin's boys, so he's still here for what, 2 more years?

In isolation, based on his ability, versatility, character and his record (more or less 1 in 3, per 90) in a better league it's a good signing. Where it falls down is: What does he add that we're missing? We already have two paceless, physically-lacking, scorers-but-not-creators in Reid and Chapman. Opportunity cost - we could have spent this money on fixing problem positions at ST, DM or CB. An extra 2.5m (admittedly a lot for where we are now) probably gets us Tolaj. Financial implications - it remains to be seen what our budget actually is but 1.5m (first spend since Woyo ****ing Coulibaly in January '25) on a player we'll only ever sell at a loss, he's not dropping down a division for a paycut. Lessons haven't been learned - our managers last less than 6 months on average, we've got a teachers pet/manager pick just like Skipp and Ayew, if/when Martin is sacked we have a system player he loves, not a long term asset. Long term planning - we go up and then what we have a guy who is good enough to be a Championship squad player which isn't a good use of our limited funds. With a 3 year deal ( without a +1 option?), after S1 he has 2 years left, extend, sell or risk losing on a free following summer? We've gone all in on Martin and all in on a style of play that's led to 3 relegations in 4 seaons. We haven't replaced our last decent DM (signed in 2017 lmao) and we've been very easy to play through because of lack of effort an physicality. Cullen seemingly works hard but he's a piss ant. I can see a narrow deep-mid block and direct counters causing us huge trouble, just as it did in the latter half of 23/24. There's a chance we pull a few more good signings out the bag and address issues we haven't for about 7 or 8 consecutive windows, but why would you give the club the benefit of the doubt? What have they done to suggest they deserve it? As I've said, they've doubled or tripled down. It could work because finally our extant players might just be too good for the third division but eventually being better than the opponents you plummet into isn't viable.

Managers should be able to have the players they want provided the scouts, analysts and the DOF agree. I did the Hughes example in % of transfer budget, up to now Cullen will be 100% of our budget, in 24/25 we spent about £55m net.

Cooper liked Ayew’s profile. The equivalent in the premier league would like spending £55m on Will Hughes to complement Skipp and Winks. I think Cullen is fine but we’re hugely overpaying by probably 2x - 4x and we should put the money towards a 9, DM or CB

A player isn’t ‘cheap’ if we spend the only money we’ve spent in 18 months on them, regardless of the fee. If we picked him up on 500k, I still think it’s silly because it’s the wrong profile but he does at least have some upside. If it’s £2m then we will end up in administration, not directly because of the signing but we don’t say no to reckless spending.

There is a completely delusional culture at the club, I don’t think Russel Martin is the man to address it for some reason. Be careful what you wish for though because it could get worse than dropping 6 places a season average under this owner.

He really impressed for Watford, I can't see them loaning him out to a team in L1 in a million years

Alleyne will go to a PL club, at worst top end Championship like M'boro

No complaints about Chaplin really, bar a minor quibble that 3 years is perhaps too much. 95% of our bad signings were obviously going to be rubbish, I didn't like any of those signings - I actually think relatively Cullen is a decent player we just don't need him but it's like going on your fourth holiday of the year whilst your roof has blown off.

This is a great signing and exactly the link we should be exploiting given the connection with Maresca and McCarron. Hopefully we pick up another one or two from CFG.

We're short in some some areas as you've said and now we'll be overly deep in an area we didn't need to be. You always have to prioritise areas of need but especially when we have so little headroom. Also this a club that has been relegated 3 times in 4 years you just can't give them the benefit of doubt.

You could say that about almost any striker though RE Wareham? A striker that has scored 19 goals in 40 odd games in this division already for a relegated side is more likely to hit 20 than a versatile 10/striker/winger who's scored more than 10 in a season once. In fact Cullen has only strayed 30+ games twice.

Any combination of Cullen, Alves, Chaplin just looks far too similar to me, if opposition defences sit deeply and double up on Alves there aren't a lot of options to mix it up. Cullen and Chaplin score their goals from very similar positions, look:

Wareham almost got 20 last season for relegated Exeter. Most strikers that score 20 goals in a division never have until they do, that's why you have to scout players - there will be plenty of players in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Portugal, the second tiers of Spain/France/Italy etc that are capable of 20 goals in L1 available for a million or so.