I get what you are saying about Arbeloa, Dan, but the fact is we are not the sort of club who can afford the luxury of the managerial risks you are saying we should accept. Combine this with our chaotic / negligent / naive recruitment approach, and remembering we are a 'small' PL club, and it points towards disaster for me. I'm actually envying Brentford atm, and that is simply a horrible and unnacceptable position to be in. I'm not sure we will have time for manager and players to find their feet and I think your optimism is misplaced. We are going to be in a big relegation battle unless PL ready, game changing signings come through the door in the next few hours.
I totally hear that. Look, I’ve been an Arbeloa cynic from when it was announced. It felt like an unnecessary risk, with limited evidence that it was a risk worth taking.
However, now that we have him, the only way you unlock the potential upside, is by him failing and learning. Whether you accept that or not, that is the only trajectory that we can be on. He’s not an experienced manager, so there will be times where we suffer as a result. Do I like it? Not massively. But it’s where we are.
I think we have enough quality to be fine regardless, the jury is just very much out for me as to whether Arbeloa is the guy the hierarchy think he is
I thought before the game that Muniz and Smith-Rowe should start in place of our new Spaniards. The new boys need time to adjust, Sunderland are a tough physical team and we needed to match them. So far I will be happy to avoid relegation this season. We never looked like scoring and were lucky to get away with just one goal. We really need at least three new quality players by the deadline hopefully not last minute panic buys.
Agree with this measured assessment. What I fear is that Arbeloa's 'boys' are getting preferential treatment - a la Silva - and he just cannot be objective. Palacios is 18 for goodness sake, more 'one for the future' than one for right now! He shouldn't be starting over Smith-Rowe. And, arguably Muniz should have started against big burly CBs if lumping the ball long was going to be a tactic!
We really should have signed defenders before we let Diop go and we also should have been looking to sign a top goalkeeper things aren’t looking good with the transfer window closing tomorrow .
I get what you are saying about Arbeloa, Dan, but the fact is we are not the sort of club who can afford the luxury of the managerial risks you are saying we should accept. Combine this with our chaotic / negligent / naive recruitment approach, and remembering we are a 'small' PL club, and it points towards disaster for me. I'm actually envying Brentford atm, and that is simply a horrible and unnacceptable position to be in. I'm not sure we will have time for manager and players to find their feet and I think your optimism is misplaced. We are going to be in a big relegation battle unless PL ready, game changing signings come through the door in the next few hours.
I totally hear that. Look, I’ve been an Arbeloa cynic from when it was announced. It felt like an unnecessary risk, with limited evidence that it was a risk worth taking.
However, now that we have him, the only way you unlock the potential upside, is by him failing and learning. Whether you accept that or not, that is the only trajectory that we can be on. He’s not an experienced manager, so there will be times where we suffer as a result. Do I like it? Not massively. But it’s where we are.
I think we have enough quality to be fine regardless, the jury is just very much out for me as to whether Arbeloa is the guy the hierarchy think he is
I thought before the game that Muniz and Smith-Rowe should start in place of our new Spaniards. The new boys need time to adjust, Sunderland are a tough physical team and we needed to match them. So far I will be happy to avoid relegation this season. We never looked like scoring and were lucky to get away with just one goal. We really need at least three new quality players by the deadline hopefully not last minute panic buys.
Agree with this measured assessment. What I fear is that Arbeloa's 'boys' are getting preferential treatment - a la Silva - and he just cannot be objective. Palacios is 18 for goodness sake, more 'one for the future' than one for right now! He shouldn't be starting over Smith-Rowe. And, arguably Muniz should have started against big burly CBs if lumping the ball long was going to be a tactic!
We really should have signed defenders before we let Diop go and we also should have been looking to sign a top goalkeeper things aren’t looking good with the transfer window closing tomorrow .