Congerton

[Chocolate Teapot]

40 minutes ago, Babylon said:

I think as Ealing is alluding to, it's impossible to tell right now. 

 

James - OK to Average

Perez - Poor to Average

Praet - Average to Good

Castagne - Looks very good but only 4 games in

Bennet (Loan) - Naff

Under - God knows

Fofana - God knows

Disagree on james - think hes shown excellent potential. Also wouldnt class Praet as average, inconsistent yes but on his day as good as any midfielder weve got.

 

Bennett and Perez yes.

[jeffschlupp]

23 minutes ago, m4DD0gg said:

3rd window in a row and no forward to cover or provide competition for our soon to be 34 year old only striker - Ollie Watkins was available.

 

Under is too early to tell but looks like Knockeart mk2

 

Timothy looks a bargain though and i hope new Wes does well.

 

 

 

 

Watkins cost Villa £33m. It's absolute madness to suggest we had the funds to do that. How do you convince Watkins to turn down a guaranteed starting place with some quality attacking players to sit on the bench behind the Golden Boot winner?

 

'No forward to cover or provide competition' - I think you are forgetting the existence of Iheanacho? Who are you going to get who is better than Iheanacho who is willing to sit on the bench?

 

I do wish people would stop banging on about strikers. We all fear the worst with Vardy but there looks to be no sign of him stopping any time soon. It's not like Kane/Aguero where you know they're going to be injured for 3 months of every season.

[Muzzy_Larsson]

28 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Congerton has nothing to do with the fees we pay for players, that is down to Rudkin and the board. Only impact would be recruitment department and management putting pressure on in regards to how much they want that said player.

I may be wrong but what I'm taking from the business that has been done so far is that Congerton is merely a stakeholder in an already well oiled recruitment model. Very different to what his role has been at other clubs. This is a good thing imo.

 

I still hate him though.

Edited 6 October 2020 by Muzzy_Larsson

[Jethrolcfc]

All 3 signings seem positive, but as other people have mentioned still no real competition for Vardy. Are we all really expecting him to play every game, because if he’s not playing are we going to score enough goals. Should we be not have been looking at an Ollie Watkins type player to bring and support the strikers. 

[Finnegan]

15 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

[Praet] on his day as good as any midfielder weve got

 

Bit of a stretch. 

[Chocolate Teapot]

4 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Bit of a stretch. 

Is it? 

[Ric Flair]

20 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

Disagree on james - think hes shown excellent potential. Also wouldnt class Praet as average, inconsistent yes but on his day as good as any midfielder weve got.

 

Bennett and Perez yes.

Agreed about Justin, he was a 20 year old signing from League One who is one for the future and has already played more football here than he perhaps was earmarked for and on the whole he has handled the step up well. There's been some superb performances mixed in with some mistakes and poor games but it's been just as many good performances as bad which with all things considered means he looks a real prospect. Signings such as him cannot be considered a failure after just a year.

[Finnegan]

Just now, Abrasive fox said:

Is it? 

 

Yes. 

 

He's had a couple of good appearances so far this year and has looked promising. 

 

But I'm sorry he's just not at the level of Maddison or Tielemans on their "day." 

 

He's exactly what you'd expect from an option in the middle and as long as he's used correctly (he isn't an adequate substitute for Tielemans, he definitely makes a much better replacement for Maddison) he's a good signing as cover. 

 

But come on. 

[Ric Flair]

I love Praet, I think he is and will become one of our most important players. There's way more goals and assists to come from him too in this system with Castagne, seemed to have linked up so well together.

[Chocolate Teapot]

6 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Yes. 

 

He's had a couple of good appearances so far this year and has looked promising. 

 

But I'm sorry he's just not at the level of Maddison or Tielemans on their "day." 

 

He's exactly what you'd expect from an option in the middle and as long as he's used correctly (he isn't an adequate substitute for Tielemans, he definitely makes a much better replacement for Maddison) he's a good signing as cover. 

 

But come on. 

The Newcastle game last year he was absolutely ridiculous. Not consistently but hes up there with them, I dont see that much difference between him and those two and neither does the manager given he replaced tielemans for large parts of last season. Maddison has an x factor, but isn't that consistent.

[KingsX]

Net spend around the ₤20M - ₤30M range.  One need brilliantly filled, one young “project” for a position likely to become a need, and one veteran from a European League who could be great or could totally disappoint.   

 

For all the manic-depressive swings that define FT through the window, we’ve actually become one of the most predictable outfits on the transfer market. 

[Babylon]

45 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

Could you explain what you mean by average, it's a term that gets thrown around quite often, do you mean an average Premier league player in their position?  

Average in terms of performance. 

 

Woeful > Crap > Below Average > Average > Above Average > Very Good > Me

[Strokes]

2 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Average in terms of performance. 

 

Woeful > Crap > Below Average > Average > Above Average > Very Good > Me

I didn’t realise there were more variables than, absolutely shit > fücking brilliant.

Intersting.

[Babylon]

12 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

The Newcastle game last year he was absolutely ridiculous. Not consistently but hes up there with them, I dont see that much difference between him and those two and neither does the manager given he replaced tielemans for large parts of last season. Maddison has an x factor, but isn't that consistent.

I think so far "on their day" the other two are ahead of him. He replaced Tielemans a lot last season as Tielemans never managed to really repeat his top drawer loan performances.

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, Strokes said:

I didn’t realise there were more variables than, absolutely shit > fücking brilliant.

Intersting.

I'm been working on this system for quite some time, I'm considering trademarking it and selling it to Opta. 

[Nalis]

The 'on their day' argument also needs to factor in how often someone hits their 'on their day' levels. You could say someone like Andy Carroll is brilliant on his day but that only happens about once every 2 years or so.

Edited 6 October 2020 by Nalis

[Babylon]

49 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

Disagree on james - think hes shown excellent potential. Also wouldnt class Praet as average, inconsistent yes but on his day as good as any midfielder weve got.

 

Bennett and Perez yes.

I'm merely marking their performances that I've seen so far. Praet can be very good and there is more to come from him, as there is with Justin. But he was up and down last year and only put in two or three great performances, with lots where he didn't pull up any trees. Justin might have excellent potential, and he's shown some nice glimpses. But I've got to counteract that with quite a lot of shit moments also, let's not forget we were gubbins last season for 6 months. Not all his fault, but he played a fair few games and didn't show too much. 

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, Nalis said:

Andy Carroll is brilliant on his day but that only happens about once every 2 years or so.

Usually against us. 

[Finnegan]

28 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

The Newcastle game last year he was absolutely ridiculous. Not consistently but hes up there with them, I dont see that much difference between him and those two and neither does the manager given he replaced tielemans for large parts of last season. Maddison has an x factor, but isn't that consistent.

 

He replaced Tielemans for large parts of last season in which we were largely absolutely awful, in no small part because he replaced Tielemans. 

 

They have incomparable styles of play, Praet doesn't dictate a game like YT does, tbf not many players do. 

 

We've nearly always looked worse without Tielemans. 

 

Praet has looked better this season playing WITH YT as opposed to instead of him because it gives him the freedom to push higher up and not be a first receiver, something he does poorly when he actually does it (which is rare because he's usually neglecting the responsibility to take up more advanced positions.)

 

Edited 6 October 2020 by Finnegan

[shen]

29 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Yes. 

 

He's had a couple of good appearances so far this year and has looked promising. 

 

But I'm sorry he's just not at the level of Maddison or Tielemans on their "day." 

 

He's exactly what you'd expect from an option in the middle and as long as he's used correctly (he isn't an adequate substitute for Tielemans, he definitely makes a much better replacement for Maddison) he's a good signing as cover. 

 

But come on. 

It's a bit of an unfair comparison though as Maddison, Tielemans, Praet (even Ndidi and Mendy) offer different things to the side. 

Praet has been the player that's made us tick going forward so far this season. His movement and ability to find space as well as his great technical ability, has enabled Castagne, Tielemans, Barnes et al to have more space and time to strut their stuff. 
If thunderbolts like the one against Burnley become a regular occurrence I'd argue he's as valuable as Maddison and Youri, especially since neither of those have been prolific during 2020.

[The Horse's Mouth]

The perez deal still gives me nightmares 

[coolhandfox]

I think its to early to judge.

[AjcW]

My contribution on this, as it has been in my staunch defence throughout, is that none of us no enough about the actual role to be able to spew some of the crap that Celtic fans and some of our fans were at him. 

 

Another thing as i've said before is that he's spent most of his career having to shop in the Bargain Bin, which is always going to result in a few duffers... he doesn't know so hopefully he's recommending the players he's always wanted to!

 

To bring about more of a real world example, my boss gets to take a lot of the credit/stick for the campaigns I create at work. Similarly congerton is relying on his scouts to recommend the best players, knowing that ultimately he will get praise/stick... not the ones behind the scenes. 

 

It was summed up perfectly early doors really 'it's not one bloke playing football manager' but some of our fans and the Celtic/Sunderland fans are too dense to get their heads around that.

I'm also not really sure where we can start claiming a signing was his recommendation from, I highly doubt Perez was his recommendation and we went and spent £20m on him just like that within a few weeks of Congerton being in the job! I'd imagine that's another we'll have been looking at for some time. I think on paper he was the ideal vardy back up, but we didn't manage to get a winger in/offload Nacho so again he's been shoved onto the wing which he doesn't like. 

Edited 6 October 2020 by AjcW

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

2 hours ago, Babylon said:

I think as Ealing is alluding to, it's impossible to tell right now. 

 

James - OK to Average

Perez - Poor to Average

Praet - Average to Good

Castagne - Looks very good but only 4 games in

Bennet (Loan) - Naff

Under - God knows

Fofana - God knows

I was scratching my head on James. Matty? I've realised it's Justin now. 😂

Edited 6 October 2020 by Cadno'r Cymoedd

[Raw Dykes]

2 hours ago, Jethrolcfc said:

All 3 signings seem positive, but as other people have mentioned still no real competition for Vardy. Are we all really expecting him to play every game, because if he’s not playing are we going to score enough goals. Should we be not have been looking at an Ollie Watkins type player to bring and support the strikers. 

It's just been said before your post, but I think it's unrealistic to expect better backup than Nacho right now. Who could we get who is better who would also be happy sitting on the bench? And how much would this player cost? I think that player would be the definition of a luxury player when there were such bigger priorities. Watkins cost Villa over £30m, and he's gone there to be their no.1 striker. He wouldn't have come here to play second-fiddle to a player like Vardy, who looks as clinical as ever.

 

Our main priorities this window were a replacement for Chilwell, competition for the CBs and a right winger. We've got what looks like a fantastic player in Castagne for a great price. We've got our right winger on a loan with an option to buy. Could be a very good signing, but it's low risk with no obligation to buy next year. We also signed a young CB who could go on to be a great player, and is young enough to not expect to play every game. Yet to be seen how Fofana and Under turn out, but on the face of it, I think this is very good business.