Wigan v AFC Bournemouth - FA Cup 3rd Round Replay

Had we not signed Afobe we wouldn’t have played with ten...... whoever played up front could have scored, maybe more, we will never know. We could have signed someone better for that and Grabban cash if we had a proper scouting network. A goal every six games tells you what you need to know.
 
afobe blew a big chance tonight. he could have had a load but he not only duffed it, he duffed it badly by all accounts. And he was wearing gloves as well which is unforgivable. I want him to do well because he is such a nice bloke but for whatever reason he is all two left feet this season.

flip side is that you look at Chelsea wondering how they will get goals and they think "2 goals this season" ANdy Carroll is the solution at £20M !!! What hope have we got of getting a ready made striker?!?!?
 
dscu - 18/1/2018 00:14

SlowDownDerek - 17/1/2018 22:07

I slaughtered Howe after Millwall and I certainly don't think he deserves to be defended now - if I'm honest though I didn't have a problem with his starting line up like I did against Millwall. Surman and Arter should have been good enough to dominate that game. We're not helped by the lack of decent reserve games but there's just no excuse for people that should be knocking on the first team door not being at it.

Surman has played well this year but Harry Arter is nowhere near it.
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Surman has played well this year? Are you nuts?
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He has played well in the majority of games this season.

 
Neil Dawson - 18/1/2018 00:30

Had we not signed Afobe we wouldn’t have played with ten...... whoever played up front could have scored, maybe more, we will never know. We could have signed someone better for that and Grabban cash if we had a proper scouting network. A goal every six games tells you what you need to know.
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But we did sign him and he did the job that was required. Now THAT tells me all I need to know.

We don't need to rely on your famous mythical unnamed world beaters that we could always have signed instead of who we did sign - we signed Afobe to do a job and he did it.

If he's no longer good enough for the team then drop him or sell him but that doesn't change the fact that he was a good signing when we signed him.

 
I am disppointed as the rest on here that we lost, but think Eddie couldn’t please everyone whoever he picked tonight. After our win against Arsenal I was hoping to see that team start against West Ham.

If Eddie put out a really strong side tonight and we won but picked up injuries that we didn’t need, what would have been the reaction from our fans?

Then we went to West Ham without important players and lost, would our fans be saying he shouldn’t have put out a strong side against Wigan?

Wigan are a League 1 side with an impotant difference, they are top of the league and have only lost three games after 26 games of the season gone and if they keep that form up will be a Championship side next season.

They other day on another club’s forum they were saying maybe their club might learn from our club including our player recruitment.
 
Neil Dawson - 18/1/2018 00:30

Had we not signed Afobe we wouldn’t have played with ten...... whoever played up front could have scored, maybe more, we will never know. We could have signed someone better for that and Grabban cash if we had a proper scouting network. A goal every six games tells you what you need to know.
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it is very sad that you cannot accept that Afobe was bought to do a job and he did it. who else was going to score those crucial goals against Palace, Sunderland, Norwich etc.. The right signing at the right time. End of story.
 
I’ve made comments like this before but I’ll repeat that many of our signings made sense at the time. In the first season with Callum injured, King still adapting and with niggling injuries plus Rantie and Yann clearly out their depth, there was definitely an argument for a player who knew the system and another who could bang in a few goals. In the end, it was a gamble which just about payed off. Actually it clearly did, we stayed up

The question is how did that fit within an overall recruitment strategy. We paid £5m on Lys. Was he one for the future or now? By this point we had Gradel and Wilson now available. OK one for the future let’s give him a year to develop. That’s fair enough.

Except we now sign Defoe. A 3 year deal for a 34 year old. At this point we still don’t know if Afobe, King or Lys are a number 9 or 10. We know Defoe is only a 9 but we also had success with a genuine midfield 10 last season with Wilshere.

What I’m getting at is I don’t think we have signed bad players. It just strikes me as a cross the fingers and hopefully one of the strikers will do enough. This season it might be Wilson. In fact he might well be our long term no. 9. If that is the case, then the £25m spent on Afobe, Grabban, Murray and Lys creates a huge missed opportunity in midfield, especially after considering Defoe’s package too.
 
Unfortunately I think we are not at a level either financially or in terms of ability to attract players where we can do anything other than gamble on strikers. I would suggest that Defoe is the nearest to a sure thing but his age means injuries were a concern.

As far as the general transfer policy is concerned I think there's a danger of hindsight there. When we signed Afobe we weren't signing as a part of a three year plan - he was what was needed at that point given the injuries we had.

 
SlowDownDerek - 18/1/2018 06:06

Unfortunately I think we are not at a level either financially or in terms of ability to attract players where we can do anything other than gamble on strikers. I would suggest that Defoe is the nearest to a sure thing but his age means injuries were a concern.

As far as the general transfer policy is concerned I think there's a danger of hindsight there. When we signed Afobe we weren't signing as a part of a three year plan - he was what was needed at that point given the injuries we had.
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So....you know what the clubs plans were when we signed individual players? Which ones were long term and which were short term? This is great insight! Let us know about the rest......

 
Amazing that you're accusing me of drawing conclusions about our 'transfer policy' Neil. All I've ever said is that it seems to me that Eddie signs what he thinks we need and some of them work out and some don't. What we needed then is clearly different to what we need now because we aren't a brand new PL club. No 'failed transfer policy', because his nephew works at the club - just judging each player against what I reckon we needed at the time - and Afobe did alright.

Anyway, I've got a question about this Ballon d'Or winner you reckon we missed out on when we signed Afobe... How many goals would he have scored?

:hihi:

 
Surely the most important FACT was Surman was substituted after 87 mins, did Eddie want him to receive a standing ovation or is he being saved for Saturday?
 
dragonm8 - 18/1/2018 08:21

What was Boruc doing for their third?
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He seems in a right state this season.
It's a shame that Boruc's career with us is going to end on such a bum note, given what happened in his first year or two here.
 
Tinpot Club - 18/1/2018 01:10

I’ve made comments like this before but I’ll repeat that many of our signings made sense at the time. In the first season with Callum injured, King still adapting and with niggling injuries plus Rantie and Yann clearly out their depth, there was definitely an argument for a player who knew the system and another who could bang in a few goals. In the end, it was a gamble which just about payed off. Actually it clearly did, we stayed up

The question is how did that fit within an overall recruitment strategy. We paid £5m on Lys. Was he one for the future or now? By this point we had Gradel and Wilson now available. OK one for the future let’s give him a year to develop. That’s fair enough.

Except we now sign Defoe. A 3 year deal for a 34 year old. At this point we still don’t know if Afobe, King or Lys are a number 9 or 10. We know Defoe is only a 9 but we also had success with a genuine midfield 10 last season with Wilshere.

What I’m getting at is I don’t think we have signed bad players. It just strikes me as a cross the fingers and hopefully one of the strikers will do enough. This season it might be Wilson. In fact he might well be our long term no. 9. If that is the case, then the £25m spent on Afobe, Grabban, Murray and Lys creates a huge missed opportunity in midfield, especially after considering Defoe’s package too.
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100% spot on :thumbsup:
 
Boruc very poor 2
24Fraser prob our best player on the night no protection from a poor ref 6 Substituted forHyndmanat 78'minutes
3S Cook best of our defenders at fault for second 5
42Simpson gave the ball away constantly caught in possesion 4
11Daniels poor defending and going foreward 4
23Mahoney very poor dident tackle or keep hold of the ball 3Substituted for Ibeat 64 'minutes
6Surman clueless all night 2Substituted forTaylorat 87'minutes
8Arter tryed but no support dident have a chance as overun 5 Booked at 41mins
7Pugh clueless 2
31Mousset headless chicken 2
9Afobe tryed hard couldent shoot or pass 3
howe for team selection and treating the fans at the cup with no respect 1
 
...if you break it down into our signings over the last few years it looks like we are no different to many other clubs who sign players?

I mean when it comes to strikers Spurs have had some duffers, Soldado being an example, and paid multi millions for them, Arsenal much the same, Lacazette being an example.

So whoever you sign is a huge gamble, for us it has paid off with Wilson and King, maybe not so much with Afobe, definitely not with Rantie....Defoe is class and that is what we have paid for and Mousset is an investment liek Ibe is too...

When it comes to defenders we have some problems, but tbh these players are really at a premium, but the money you would have to pay for a Mawson or Keane is astronomical and we can't hope to compete in that market. Eddie will be ooking for the next Holding or similar from the lower leagues to bolster us. It has worked with Adam Smith,Charlie Daniels, Simon Francis and Steve Cook but unfortunately we need to be replacing some of them through age and loss of form.

Midfield is an area where we can find a gem or two IMO...maybe Surman, Arter and Gosling are not up to it? But we have Lewis Cook ( a fantastic prospect)...Hyndman who still has time left to command a place. We should be looking at Cairney (Fulham) and Maddison (Norwich) as players we could utilise?

Wingers we are looking solid for with Fraser,Ibe and a fit Stanilas? (along with Mahoney to develop)

Eddie and Jason will have a strategy in place to metamorphosis our current squad I'm sure over the summer which will be an interesting time...probabaly the most challenging in our history??
 
Eddie Howe = Arsene Wenger mark 2. Living off past glories and going downhill fast.

Eddie is a magician eg Buys decent forwards, waves his wand, and turns them into strikers who would struggle in the National League. There was nothing wrong with the goalscoring abilities of Afobe, Mousset, Grabban, Murray,Rantie,Ibe, Defoe, Lyle Taylor before they came to the club,some being multi-million pound buys but somehow under EH they have lost that ability, however if they move on they are sure to recover their goalscoring powers.
Arsenal will never win anything again under Wenger and we are going nowhere under Eddie, relegation struggle every year and no cup runs.
 
Norniron, why is wearing gloves unforgivable? Obviously you have never suffered from poor blood circulation in your hands which means it takes about 15 minutes to unlace your boots on a cold night after the game has finished, by which time your mates have left the dressing room. Also difficult to take throw-ins when your hands are numb.
 
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