Ha ha that statement sums up your lack of knowledge of scouting in half a sentence…..777Kidnappings wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 2:05 pm That's not good scouting unobtainable players followed by players not good enough. The scouting is meant to find good players who will sign for you not good players who won't
Scouting/recruitment
Re: Scouting/recruitment
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Re: Scouting/recruitment
I’m still looking for a bit more evidence before I say anything about the current setup.
The players who were intended to step right in and play most of the minutes have been excellent.
I need a bit more time to judge the rest. We’re not going to know for another year or two whether Barry, Dibling, Aznou, and Röhl were worth it.
The players who were intended to step right in and play most of the minutes have been excellent.
I need a bit more time to judge the rest. We’re not going to know for another year or two whether Barry, Dibling, Aznou, and Röhl were worth it.
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777Kidnappings
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Re: Scouting/recruitment
As things stand would you take our money back on any of them if offered?kramer wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 5:56 pm I’m still looking for a bit more evidence before I say anything about the current setup.
The players who were intended to step right in and play most of the minutes have been excellent.
I need a bit more time to judge the rest. We’re not going to know for another year or two whether Barry, Dibling, Aznou, and Röhl were worth it.
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777Kidnappings
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Re: Scouting/recruitment
You don't think there's a fundamental problem if we've got a list of good players who we couldn't attract and then ended up signing players over numerous years who haven't been good enough
Re: Scouting/recruitment
Too early to say.777Kidnappings wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 6:00 pm As things stand would you take our money back on any of them if offered?
I’m one of the few who likes Barry and still thinks he’ll be good.
Dibling could become something like a £100m player if he figures out how to turn his strength and pressure resistance into goals and assists like Grealish. I know we want him to be more all-action but it’s an interesting investment. The skills he possesses are so rare.
Aznou cost close to nothing and we really haven’t seen him.
I might not want the obligation to buy Röhl given the development of Iroegbunam and Armstrong. Made sense to add a midfielder at the time but both of those players coming on has made him somewhat irrelevant form a long-term planning perspective.
Re: Scouting/recruitment
To be fair mate that’s not what you said….scouts don’t just scout players who WILL sign for you it’s not their job at a professional level to ensure they WILL sign for you….particularly nowadays…..777Kidnappings wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 6:02 pm You don't think there's a fundamental problem if we've got a list of good players who we couldn't attract and then ended up signing players over numerous years who haven't been good enough
There’s also a number of outside factors that I believe influence many players to sign/ not sign for any club…
Eg: if you had the chance to sign for a club constantly fighting relegation against a club say middle to near top 6/7 in the table who would you choose….
For lots of players the choice between London against Liverpool…..until Newcastle started to really splash the cash they found it difficult to attract top players purely because it was so far from London…known fact…
Would you sign for a club where known wages are 30/40/50% lower than average ..or where they could get more….
the list goes on and on….mate….and that takes me back to my original point of I also feel that we are on the right projectory and moving forward but it will take more than 1-4 windows before we see if it’s working…
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Cereal Killer
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Re: Scouting/recruitment
It’s like you’ve forgotten we’ve been crippled by FFP restrictions for years777Kidnappings wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 6:02 pm You don't think there's a fundamental problem if we've got a list of good players who we couldn't attract and then ended up signing players over numerous years who haven't been good enough
Yes we all know the recruitment hasn’t been good, but we’ve probably been shopping off a list of about 3 clubs that actually didn’t mind taking a million a year over 10 years
Before that we had Moshiri throwing buckets of cash at whoever Joorabchian whispered in his ear
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777Kidnappings
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Re: Scouting/recruitment
4evablu wrote: ↑Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:20 pm To be fair mate that’s not what you said….scouts don’t just scout players who WILL sign for you it’s not their job at a professional level to ensure they WILL sign for you….particularly nowadays…..
There’s also a number of outside factors that I believe influence many players to sign/ not sign for any club…
Eg: if you had the chance to sign for a club constantly fighting relegation against a club say middle to near top 6/7 in the table who would you choose….
For lots of players the choice between London against Liverpool…..until Newcastle started to really splash the cash they found it difficult to attract top players purely because it was so far from London…known fact…
Would you sign for a club where known wages are 30/40/50% lower than average ..or where they could get more….
the list goes on and on….mate….and that takes me back to my original point of I also feel that we are on the right projectory and moving forward but it will take more than 1-4 windows before we see if it’s working…
I fully understand why there's numerous players we cant attract but im not sure that's a defence for whoever is consistently failing in the transfer market. Sunderland had a more successful window than we've probably had in 5 years plus. They dont get their first choices either. Weve been getting it wrong for years and years