Recruitment under Puel

[murphy]

5 hours ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Can we relax on the Ghezzal bashing after only 500 odd minutes played in mostly sub appearances where the game is either over or being chased? 

I don't think it is Ghezzal bashing, as @Gerard said, he has lived up to expectations.  It is more the questioning of signing a player that we knew was fairly limited after losing a class player in that position.  It made no sense to me at the time and still doesn't.  Not Ghezzal's fault though.

 

I think the recruitment has been pretty good.  Ricardo and Maddison the standouts.  I just wonder about the priorities.  We signed 3 cbs an average winger and paid too much for a GK when we needed to replace Mahrez as best we could.

[Gerard]

1 minute ago, murphy said:

I don't think it is Ghezzal bashing, as @Gerard said, he has lived up to expectations.  It is more the questioning of signing a player that we knew was fairly limited after losing a class player in that position.  It made no sense to me at the time and still doesn't.  Not Ghezzal's fault though.

 

I think the recruitment has been pretty good.  Ricardo and Maddison the standouts.  I just wonder about the priorities.  We signed 3 cbs an average winger and paid too much for a GK when we needed to replace Mahrez as best we could.

 

I'm not saying we should have replaced Mahrez almost like for like (if only) but Ghezzal had "not good enough" written all over him. 26 years old and had terrible couple of seasons and looked to be no better than what we had and that has proved to be the case. He's a tidy enough player but doesn't excel in any particular area. 

 

We were linked with Malcolm who went Barcelona and somewhat flopped there. I just think we should either buy proven quality or young and highly talented. I could accept buying a young player for big money who flopped but Ghezzal was just a predictable waste of £12m. You can say with some degree of certainty that we'll either sell him for a loss or he'll see his contract out here as a 30 year old. A nothing signing. 

[Attywolf]

7 minutes ago, murphy said:

I don't think it is Ghezzal bashing, as @Gerard said, he has lived up to expectations.  It is more the questioning of signing a player that we knew was fairly limited after losing a class player in that position.  It made no sense to me at the time and still doesn't.  Not Ghezzal's fault though.

 

I think the recruitment has been pretty good.  Ricardo and Maddison the standouts.  I just wonder about the priorities.  We signed 3 cbs an average winger and paid too much for a GK when we needed to replace Mahrez as best we could.

Don't think we could replace mahrez so it made sense using the money to fix deep problems with the squad. We didn't pay too much for ward it was worth getting a strong back-up keeper if kasper got injured. But I don't think we had much left to spend on a striker but management probably thought it would take as long as it did for vardy and maddison to work well together(don't think the red card helped)

[Babylon]

11 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

I'm not saying we should have replaced Mahrez almost like for like (if only) but Ghezzal had "not good enough" written all over him. 26 years old and had terrible couple of seasons and looked to be no better than what we had and that has proved to be the case. He's a tidy enough player but doesn't excel in any particular area. 

 

We were linked with Malcolm who went Barcelona and somewhat flopped there. I just think we should either buy proven quality or young and highly talented. I could accept buying a young player for big money who flopped but Ghezzal was just a predictable waste of £12m. You can say with some degree of certainty that we'll either sell him for a loss or he'll see his contract out here as a 30 year old. A nothing signing. 

Seems clear to me he was a last minute panic, we'd been linked with x, y and z all summer and failed with all of them. We were throwing money at any old player in the end (see the bid for the Brighton flop). Seems to me we got to the point of being desperate and we've asked the manger if he knew of a few who might be available and we've just got something, anything over the line. 

 

With hindsight Barnes could have just stepped up, but he was woeful against Fleetwood and didn't look ready. Him being sat on the bench would likely have stunted his growth as well, this half of the season as been the making of him. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

We're never going to be able to buy the finished article of the quality we crave.

 

We either have to buy very young and hope they come good through the academy like Choudhury, Barnes, Chilwell and the rest or we have to take a chance on someone like Madison or N'Didi or Maguire or Vardy.

 

If it's the finished article you want then you have to settle for a Ghezzal or Albrighton. 

[The Doctor]

19 minutes ago, murphy said:

 we needed to replace Mahrez as best we could.

That doesn't necessarily mean a straight replacement though, that was always going to be difficult. Instead we added a number 10 and another attacking full back, replacing 1 brilliant attacking outlets with 2 good attacking outlets.

[Babylon]

2 minutes ago, The Doctor said:

That doesn't necessarily mean a straight replacement though, that was always going to be difficult. Instead we added a number 10 and another attacking full back, replacing 1 brilliant attacking outlets with 2 good attacking outlets.

That's absolutely what we were doing, but we also needed a better replacement than Rachid. Like I said above, everything about it just stinks of panic. 

[siraaj_lcfc]

5 hours ago, David Hankey said:

Don't be so damned rude. I've be watching/supporting the City since 1955 and I have seen a mass of players come and go, some one season wonders, some who never made the grade and some who have performed absolutely fabulously. Therefore, I put to you, 'Reserve Team' member that I have seen far more "talent" than you and when you have witnessed as much you too will be "amazed".

What i 'm saying is Gazelle hasn't really had the time to prove himself and he's shown talent in the time he has. He'll only get better. I don't really think he is another Silva or Slimani. And I've only been following city for 16 years so i'm pretty sure you would have seen some talent.

[TheLittleBigMan]

7 hours ago, foxile5 said:

Ghezzal is the only one of his signings I would put in the 'crap' camp, but I'm willing to give him a bit more time for him to come good. 

I reckon he'll come good. He's showed some good skills at times but seems to struggle a bit with the pace of the game. That's normal for any player coming into this league.

[murphy]

1 hour ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

We're never going to be able to buy the finished article of the quality we crave.

 

We either have to buy very young and hope they come good through the academy like Choudhury, Barnes, Chilwell and the rest or we have to take a chance on someone like Madison or N'Didi or Maguire or Vardy.

 

If it's the finished article you want then you have to settle for a Ghezzal or Albrighton. 

 

Disagree totally with this.

 

If West Ham brought in Andersen, Fulham got Seri and Wolves got Neves then why can't we show some ambition and sign proven quality?

 

 

[Fox85]

He will be much better next season.

 

Like knockeart was.

Like mahrez was.

Like Mendy is.

 

All from the French divisions had had better seasons after a year of being here.

 

Also don't give me the Mahrez was world class when we got him.

He was good but we developed him to what he is now.

 

Give the lad time 

[Foxboy]

3 minutes ago, murphy said:

 

Disagree totally with this.

 

If West Ham brought in Andersen, Fulham got Seri and Wolves got Neves then why can't we show some ambition and sign proven quality?

 

 

Neves was promoted with wolves, he was far from the finished product when they bought him and is still no where near his full potential.

[murphy]

1 hour ago, The Doctor said:

That doesn't necessarily mean a straight replacement though, that was always going to be difficult. Instead we added a number 10 and another attacking full back, replacing 1 brilliant attacking outlets with 2 good attacking outlets.

The full back and number 10 positions were areas we needed to recruit anyway, regardless of the Mahrez situation.  It seemed clear that Puel didn't fancy Simpson and we had been after a no.10 for years.

 

The departure of mahrez meant that we also had to replace him but at least it gave us an extra £60m to do it.

[murphy]

3 minutes ago, Foxboy said:

Neves was promoted with wolves, he was far from the finished product when they bought him and is still no where near his full potential.

He played 60 times for Porto including in the Champions League.  It was ridiculous that he went into the Championship.

[Foxboy]

1 minute ago, murphy said:

He played 60 times for Porto including in the Champions League.  It was ridiculous that he went into the Championship.

How many of those 60 games did you watch? He may have been the worst player on the pitch in 45 of them. I can’t say for fact as I had never heard of him till last season.

[murphy]

11 minutes ago, Foxboy said:

How many of those 60 games did you watch? He may have been the worst player on the pitch in 45 of them. I can’t say for fact as I had never heard of him till last season.

I don't wish to be rude but why say he came through at Wolves then if you don't know what you're on about?

 

At Porto he was a Portugese international and the youngest Portugese player to appear in the Champions League.

[Foxboy]

Just now, murphy said:

I don't wish to be rude but why say he came through at Wolves then if you don't know what you're on about?

 

At Porto he was a Portugese international and the youngest Portugese player to appear in the Champions League.

I said he was promoted with wolves, never said he came through their academy. I never watched any of his games at Porto and I highly doubt you watched a lot of them, therefore, would not know whether he was already a complete player. Or were you calling for us to sign him from Porto 2 years ago?

[murphy]

14 minutes ago, Foxboy said:

I said he was promoted with wolves, never said he came through their academy. I never watched any of his games at Porto and I highly doubt you watched a lot of them, therefore, would not know whether he was already a complete player. Or were you calling for us to sign him from Porto 2 years ago?

Ok fair enough.  No, I didn't watch him but he was a player with a big reputation and that is the point.  If Wolves and the like can get top talent so can we.

 

[volpeazzurro]

42 minutes ago, Fox85 said:

He will be much better next season.

 

Like knockeart was.

Like mahrez was.

Like Mendy is.

 

All from the French divisions had had better seasons after a year of being here.

 

Also don't give me the Mahrez was world class when we got him.

He was good but we developed him to what he is now.

 

Give the lad time 

Very true in fairness. For example, I was very sceptical about Pereira yet has he not come on leaps and bounds? Do we know as a fact that he was actually bought as a direct replacement for Marhez, not that you could easily. He looked quite good to me in the number 10 role,  certainly far better than Nacho! Let's wait and see. 

[Foxboy]

3 minutes ago, murphy said:

Ok fair enough.  No, I didn't watch him but he was a player with a big reputation and that is the point.  If Wolves and the like can get top talent so can we.

 

I’d say we have got some top talent with riccy, benkovic, maddison and a few others but I agree that our players are never bought as the finished product like sigurdson or Felipe Anderson. Seems the clubs around us always get the big money signings we want.

[ARM1968]

Wish I’d been wrong about that Ghezzal bloke. I wasn’t. He is just as shit as I said he was. Utter, barrel scraping dross. 

 

However, most of the other signings have been decent. 

[Fox85]

38 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

Very true in fairness. For example, I was very sceptical about Pereira yet has he not come on leaps and bounds? Do we know as a fact that he was actually bought as a direct replacement for Marhez, not that you could easily. He looked quite good to me in the number 10 role,  certainly far better than Nacho! Let's wait and see. 

Never aimed to replace mahrez because 1 it would cost to much and 2 we wouldn't get a finished article standard player or Mahrez capability.

We should be moving for Ziyech from Ajax at all costs in Jan thou before he gets taken by PSG or Real Madrid etc in a few years

[volpeazzurro]

32 minutes ago, Fox85 said:

Never aimed to replace mahrez because 1 it would cost to much and 2 we wouldn't get a finished article standard player or Mahrez capability.

We should be moving for Ziyech from Ajax at all costs in Jan thou before he gets taken by PSG or Real Madrid etc in a few years

As much as he annoyed me at times, as you say, you can't just replace a Marhez!  I don't know much about Ziyech other than having heard his name on here. I did read a post on here recently regarding how Ajax were currently a team who were executing well the type of pivot system that Puel was trying to employ and that Ziyech was an important and integral part of that system. As we now have a number of more defensive type of midfielder,  is he more of an attacking player? Would he realistically come to us from such a top team who can usually fairly guarantee European football? 

[That_Dude]

7 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

 

I'm pretty sure @Grebfromgrebland is being sarcastic.

Yeah, I know. Got somehow triggered because of the amount of daily abuse of the players and manager and posted without realizing that it was him.

[That_Dude]

4 hours ago, murphy said:

I don't think it is Ghezzal bashing, as @Gerard said, he has lived up to expectations.  It is more the questioning of signing a player that we knew was fairly limited after losing a class player in that position.  It made no sense to me at the time and still doesn't.  Not Ghezzal's fault though.

 

I think the recruitment has been pretty good.  Ricardo and Maddison the standouts.  I just wonder about the priorities.  We signed 3 cbs an average winger and paid too much for a GK when we needed to replace Mahrez as best we could.

It's not easy to get a good winger for a fair price, supposing they're willing to come and we still managed to get a 10 for which we were crying out loud. Morgan is due to call it quits next season although he did fairly well until now. Evans is a back-up until Soyuncu and Benkovic adjust and I think there was a risk of losing Maguire.

 

We desperately needed an attacking wide player, with a bit of flair, and I'm pretty sure there were other options before we bought him. Imo they didn't work because I can't imagine Ghezzal being Puels top priority. It was a gamble and maybe the manager thought he could revive his career as he did with many other players. I wasn't thrilled by the signing and still don't think he'll make it as a winger because he's simply too slow for this league. However it could be interesting to shift him (when he comes off the bench) behind the striker(s) where speed is less needed and his tricks could be useful.

 

The season is still long though and who knows, maybe he'll come good.

Edited 24 December 2018 by That_Dude