China Black Posted 21 December 2016 Posted 21 December 2016 Need to recruit better in the summer, and start early. That way pre-season is likely to be better. If last summer, the recruitment been much better and less time was spent celebrating last seasons success, then pre-season would gone much better. Personally I don't mind the pre season tours where we would get to play teams from outside England, as it is always good to play against different teams.
StriderHiryu Posted 21 December 2016 Posted 21 December 2016 8 hours ago, TJB-fox said: Get used to it! We're now a big brand in the prem partly due to last season. Everyone saw how mad Asia has gone for Leicester, we'd be mad to not exploit that financially. The pre season this year was a bit of a mess frankly, but it was the first our club has seen-I'm sure it will be far more organised next time. All of the other big clubs do it every year so cant be that detrimental to form and performances Spot-on. Liverpool have never won the premier league, but actively play in the far east to keep the brand appeal up. The owners will want to maximise the commercial opportunity of the club and frankly we need them to (within reason) to make sure the club is healthy. I can still remember the dark days when we were banned from signing any players due to relegation to the Championship and the collapse of ITV digital. Or look at clubs like Leeds and Forest... Leeds made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League not that long ago but are in a dire state of affairs! So ensuring the club has growing revenues is important if the goal of the club is to challenge for Champions League places regularly. That said, our pre-season was awful this year, bordering on embarrassing Yes we literally performed a miracle but it was over done and on the Sunday Supplement they revealed that a number of players called it farcical. I think it's forgivable this season (it may never happen again after all) but I'd like to think they will plan it properly this time round. Assuming we survive the drop, our club is entering a transitional phase now. We can make relatively big money signings and want to build a squad to play in multiple competitions (even though I don't think we will be in Europe next year). We have some aging players in the team, some exciting young players coming through and I personally expect at the end of the season to lose one of our stars in Mahrez. But I think all this is to be expected. We may see some bouncing around in league positions for a few years but as long as we can maintain an identity and keep a solid core of players and staff together we should be better for it ultimately. The Martin O'Neil era was probably the most consistent we were as a "good" team. Every year you knew we would be OK in the league and would have a good cup run. I think our next aim as a club should be one that qualifies for Europe every year (even if that means Europa League). Once we can do that for a few years in a row, then it's time to step up again! And of course I hope that along the way we perform another miracle and win the Champions League / League again, but am not holding my breath. I think the owners have shown time and again that they have great business acumen and know what they are doing. Though they will likely make a few more blunders, I think they will eventually get it right.
Richardgill Posted 22 December 2016 Posted 22 December 2016 post season tour of China + Thailand. The condition of pitches in China are not the best, no point risking pre season injuries.
Crinklyfox Posted 22 December 2016 Posted 22 December 2016 At a time when teams in the Chinese Super League seem to be offering ridiculous sums of money to bring Premier League players in a tour to China would highlight the talent in our squad to them. So we could be at risk of getting some of our better players poached for wages we couldn't afford. On the other hand we could get to offload some of our less able players for sums that we could never expect in England. Just a thought.
Dan Posted 22 December 2016 Posted 22 December 2016 23 hours ago, Barky said: I don't think it was the travel that harmed us, more the fact that we were getting soundly beaten. Pre-season tours abroad are nothing new. It was a mix of all of it I think. It isn't for me. I just don't think we're that kind of club.
Dan Posted 22 December 2016 Posted 22 December 2016 21 hours ago, desertfox2 said: Arsene Wenger was having a moan about Arsenal looking at China and India for pre-season. Have to say he's right about it. We should be playing lower league clubs in pre season. Nothing wrong with a trip abroad after the season has finished. I get that it's good long term for the club to go over to Asia but the timing has to be right earlier the better. It's short sighted too playing things like the ICC. Let's say you make a decent chunk of money from one of these tours. If it effects league position or getting in Europe then surely the profit and loss doesn't add up. It can't pay more than getting in Europe surely. And if it cost a place in the prem then it's even more idiotic. Mourinho & Guardiola have also gone on record saying similar.
RonnieTodger Posted 22 December 2016 Posted 22 December 2016 Bring back the Asia Trophy when thousands of Hong Kong Chinese fans would flock to watch Portsmouth v Bolton.
Rigga Posted 22 December 2016 Posted 22 December 2016 Blowing £60m+ on Sub standard players and the squad not having that dangling carrot of winning the PL is to blame much more than a hectic pre season.. One thing for sure in most of the games so far this season the players are in no way even trying as much as last season
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