[cads_ap_albion]

The squad lists / loans returning are also missing Dara O’shea. Seems to have had a decent season from the little I’ve read.

Thought I saw him under contract extended

[Droitwich Baggie]

We need a strike force of at least 3 oln the field.
We were almost unstoppable at the beginning of last season because the opposition couldn't really know where and from whom the next shot was coming.

[Atomic]

We need a strike force of at least 3 oln the field.
We were almost unstoppable at the beginning of last season because the opposition couldn't really know where and from whom the next shot was coming.

You're sort of right. You need goals in a team. It doesn't matter if you play slick football or not, you need defenders that will defend and then goals from as many areas of the pitch as possible. That's one thing we lacked last season a midfielder who would get double figure goals.

Without Rodriguez and Gayle we drip fed goals. Rather than 45 goals between two strikers I'd rather have 30 between the strikers and ten each from a midfielder / wide man for example. More difficult for teams to defend when goals are spread over the pitch.

For that reason I'd love to sign someone like Bradley Dack, he'd get you double figure goals from a midfield role.

[TheJacko2000]

You're sort of right. You need goals in a team. It doesn't matter if you play slick football or not, you need defenders that will defend and then goals from as many areas of the pitch as possible. That's one thing we lacked last season a midfielder who would get double figure goals.

Without Rodriguez and Gayle we drip fed goals. Rather than 45 goals between two strikers I'd rather have 30 between the strikers and ten each from a midfielder / wide man for example. More difficult for teams to defend when goals are spread over the pitch.

For that reason I'd love to sign someone like Bradley Dack, he'd get you double figure goals from a midfield role.

Agree with what you're saying though Dack plays up front with Graham usually.

[cads_ap_albion]

Oh well. Didn't take long to pass water on the bonfire...

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/west-bromwich-albion/2019/05/19/west-brom-will-not-sign-dwight-gayle-permanently-this-summer/

[baggie96]

Bit of uproar on twitter re the Gayle news, people don’t seem to be able to grasp that just because we’re not splashing out 55k/week and swapping one of our most valuable assets(rondon) for him that we will be in trouble next year. There is a mid ground, just like in 2007 where we buy younger and cheaper players. Downing has even hinted at this. Also bare in mind dowling only joined in September so last summer has nothing to do with him. In January we bought in loans to top up the squad, everyone thought it was good business at the time.

Now is a time to trust in them, if they mess it up they will pay with their jobs. Hopefully we are looking abroad as that is where the value is, however there are plenty of players in leagues 1+2 that are good enough. Hopefully as well our academy will be used more, youngsters can only prove themselves if they are given game time.

[gazberg]

Well let's hope we sign those good league 1+2 players then as we can't afford any more Conor Townsend types

[Standaman]

Some of the comment I have seen on twitter on Gayle is beyond dumb and some of it has come from people that I had thought reasonably sensible, honestly what part of "we cannot afford £55k a week in the Championship" do people not understand?  Other comment about Jay Rod obviously wanting out as a consequence or imaginary trades involving Jay Rod and HRK etc... hit the same wall of reality i.e. unless someone bids for either player then the player and their wages will be at the club next season.

We cannot trade our most valuable asset and 2 other players to keep one (29 year old) striker who may not even fit the style of play that the new Head Coach wants to play. 

[17GD]

Reading on other threads about players wages and think it's worth reminding that the players wages were cut in half when we got relegated. So i doubt players were on 40/50/60k a week this season. More like 15-25k. Gayle may have been, but not the rest of the squad.

With that in mind, I don't see why we wouldn't attract some top end championship players for 25k a week. That and the prospect of challenging for promotion again next season.

And with regards wages, some fans need to remember that top wages don't necessarily equal top players. See Sturridge and Gregorz for example. And who's to say if Gayle did sign for us that he would have had another good season? He needs the right players around him to score and create chances, and IF we can't sign the right quality players, he won't get the service/support he needs.

We have one of the highest wage bills in the league, so I'm sure we could tempt a few decent players away from their clubs. Getting the right manager in soon will be the key, before all the decent released players are snapped up.

[darbolina]

Dowling's article a couple of days ago pointed to the Gayle decision. He says he wants to help rebuild the team with energy and youth. Let's see if that also involves sufficient quality to win enough matches to challenge?

This summer should be Dowlings and Jenkins final chance to stamp their character on the squad. I imagine Jenkins is focused on costs and the Gayle decision is sensible from that perspective. From a football perspective, how Dowling operates, firstly appointing a head coach then helping that man rebuild the whole squad with energy, youth (and hopefully quality) will determine whether these two go down as complete failures or not.

Other clubs have found success by building a team instead of relying on individuals. We used to build teams this way until Pulis. Lets see what happens this summer? I have a feeling there won't be much goodwill or patience left if we're focused on costs at the expense of rebuilding with quality and having a real push!?

[Dan]

I believe i'm right in saying we've only signed 2 players permanently since 2014 who were under 25 (Oliver Burke and Callum McManaman who never played for us anyway).

That is one of the reasons the squad has got in the state it is, buying players in their prime not only costs a lot more in wages its meant the squad never was really regenerated, its always been an old squad ticking over. For about 3 years its been a desperate situation for us to address this but we never have. It doesn't have to be a squad of 20 year olds, but there should at least be a mix - something we've sorely lacked in our transfer policy.

[Fritzl Palace]

Sadly, for all those people who said that they didn't want us to go up, it will now come home to roost just how costly missing out on promotion will be for us. Fully expect to see us dismantle the current squad with the likes of Dawson, Hegazi, Gibbs, Harper and J-Rod all moving on, allied with all the loans that have now returned to their clubs, which will leave us with a starting XI boasting the likes of Bartley and Townsend together with the budget signings we make of a similar, poor, standard.

We are in for a fallow few years, chaps.

[Atomic]

Sadly, for all those people who said that they didn't want us to go up, it will now come home to roost just how costly missing out on promotion will be for us. Fully expect to see us dismantle the current squad with the likes of Dawson, Hegazi, Gibbs, Harper and J-Rod all moving on, allied with all the loans that have now returned to their clubs, which will leave us with a starting XI boasting the likes of Bartley and Townsend together with the budget signings we make of a similar, poor, standard.

We are in for a fallow few years, chaps.

Those you've quoted as likely to move on got us relegated and failed to get us up again. Have you not realised they are not all that great anyway?

(Except Hegazi).

[darbolina]

I'm not so sure Fritzl, the same players many of us (me included) thought were good enough to stay up and get up this year simply weren't.

Time to move on for all concerned. Let's try to get as much money as we can and buy midfielders who pass and move, defenders who can  play a bit more and overall players who seem to want to play here and together. It was no secret many of those we're now going to get rid of didn't really want to stay last summer anyway which might have helped us to finish the season in the championship again?

I'm actually hoping that we can finally be decisive and rebuild with intent instead of treading water with this squad as we have for a few years. The big problem for me is the board who've shown time and again that they struggling to make the right decisions.............hopefully they'll eventually get one right!! Law of averages and all that!

[Fritzl Palace]

Those you've quoted as likely to move on got us relegated and failed to get us up again. Have you not realised they are not all that great anyway?

(Except Hegazi).

If you think we have a better chance of getting promoted this season without Dawson, Hegazi and Gibbs at the back, you will be in for a rude awakening when the season kicks off. We failed to appoint a manager this season and still finished fourth with the squad we had, imagine if we had an actual manager in charge for the duration.

[Atomic]

If you think we have a better chance of getting promoted this season without Dawson, Hegazi and Gibbs at the back, you will be in for a rude awakening when the season kicks off. We failed to appoint a manager this season and still finished fourth with the squad we had, imagine if we had an actual manager in charge for the duration.

Nothing to say we'd have finished any higher than we did.

[Fritzl Palace]

Nothing to say we'd have finished any higher than we did.

Nothing to say we wouldn't...

[Mr Cynical]

The last time this club had an upheaval in terms of playing squad it was nothing short of a disaster and was overseen by Alan Irvine. We need to appoint someone with transfer nous who can oversee a big change in this playing squad. That is key.

Joleon Lescott
Craig Gardner
Chris Baird
Sebastien Pocognoli
Ideye Brown
Cristian Gamboa
Jason Davidson
Georgios Samaras
Sebastian Blanco

That window was a total disaster and we never really recovered in my opinion.

Was this the summer that Peace took a step back and let Jenkins have the reigns?  A short-lived experiment.  I'm getting deja vu, but without the security blanket of Peace (wanting to sell a PL club).

[gazberg]

To not appointment a proper manager for over 12 months straight is the 2nd costliest mistake after extending Pulis contract.

[SirTonyM]

Patience is not a word used in football anymore but if people genuinely want an overhaul of playing staff / manager etc it will take time. Norwich and Sheff Utd had
to be patient (but shows what decent coaching can do). It may well get worse before it gets better. The disaster that was the Pulis and Pardew season is not coming home to roost...

[OldburyWBA]

Patience is not a word used in football anymore but if people genuinely want an overhaul of playing staff / manager etc it will take time. Norwich and Sheff Utd had
to be patient (but shows what decent coaching can do). It may well get worse before it gets better. The disaster that was the Pulis and Pardew season is not coming home to roost...

I think we're still reeling from the likes of Irvine, Pulis was brought in to do a job which he did but then stayed 12 months too long, when he went we were back to where we were when he came and needing another Pulis type, instead we got Pardew. We had a chance once Pulis had cleared a few out to move on but we went back to the same old of rewarding the old guard instead of clearing out and starting again. We were banking on going up and to be honest despite the lack of experience in the dugout were not far away which makes you think if we had made plans to replace Moore when we did we could have had that extra bit to go up and also used the January window a bit better bringing in another striker instead of Montero who was a waste of a signing could have made the difference having that option off the bench at times.

[paulosull]

Bit of uproar on twitter re the Gayle news, people don’t seem to be able to grasp that just because we’re not splashing out 55k/week and swapping one of our most valuable assets(rondon) for him that we will be in trouble next year. There is a mid ground, just like in 2007 where we buy younger and cheaper players. Downing has even hinted at this. Also bare in mind dowling only joined in September so last summer has nothing to do with him. In January we bought in loans to top up the squad, everyone thought it was good business at the time.

Now is a time to trust in them, if they mess it up they will pay with their jobs. Hopefully we are looking abroad as that is where the value is, however there are plenty of players in leagues 1+2 that are good enough. Hopefully as well our academy will be used more, youngsters can only prove themselves if they are given game time.

terrible business in January transfer window by Dowling and his recruitment team Holgate the only plus with Johansen getting up to speed in late April early May when season was over. Don't trust his judgement to be honest.

[darbolina]

 :-*Yes, the squad in January badly needed some legs and quality in midfield and attackers especially after losing Barnes. Dowling bought in Murphy, Montero and Johansen - enough said .

He has some serious work to do to earn the fans trust..........

[AlbionFan]

Trying to be balanced and fair, none of us fans know his actual remit and what constraints he is working to and under.

I can’t see our owner and board giving him reasonable “carte blanche”, so his hands are tied. I wouldn’t be surprised if he jumped ship at the first opportunity

[WBArgo]

Was this the summer that Peace took a step back and let Jenkins have the reigns?  A short-lived experiment.  I'm getting deja vu, but without the security blanket of Peace (wanting to sell a PL club).

I believe it was our first season post-Ashworth which shows - only one signing was decent, Lescott. I imagine most of the others were from the Ashworth 'model' but chosen by others and it just didn't work.
Obviously we will be trying a more low-budget approach. That's not to say it will or won't work, but I imagine it will be based on more lower league/foreign players.