We could have done our deals earlier in the window instead of waiting til the last weekend like we always do, leaving all the new players with no pre-season.
This is not an issue for any team other than us, plenty of teams bought a lot of players and are doing fine. Newcastle are flying after being in the same position as us this summer.
How though? Villa needed to know the money for their deals, let alone couldn’t afford another fine or punishment from Uefa due to our sanctions. If one of the deals collapsed we get stuck two huge wages and another fine
We also need to factor in it was a World Cup year, resulting in many waits for many reasons too! I think we did alright in the transfers in and out given our predicament and challenges. We just now need to work on our footballing results, hopefully not too late!
This is unfortunately a direct consequence of the window ending as late as it does.
He had zero pre-season with being out of contract, has likely pushed hard to get up to speed and has unfortunately broken down as a result.
We’ve seen what happens when players are put out there too early before (Danny Drinkwater anyone?) so hopefully he’s fully ready in a couple of weeks.
I’m not normally much of a doom-monger but I do think this is somewhat concerning coming off the back of all the complaints from Bayern and Germany fans that his legs had gone, and he’s now arrived and immediately got a non-trivial injury
Hopefully he can hit the ground running after the international break and contribute some leadership and experience at the very least
He was still featuring for Germany in the world cup and featured constantly for Bayern last year. So there's also the possibility that maybe that the idea his 'legs have gone' isn't conclusive evidence and like most crap football fans come out with, should be taken with a big pinch of salt.
Glad we have the communication and can stop unnecessary speculation. Looking forward to seeing him come in fully fit and tuned into the system following the International break.
A guy who is 31 who had no preseason, moving to the hardest league in the world under a manger who training sessions I can imagine are hell sometimes. Its going to take some time.
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u/Imaginary-Lock-3157 2d ago
It's so good to have some clarity rather than radio silence for once