He was.. based on what he had identified, he’d tried to bring in Balogun at Sheff Utd
Is this the player he told to find another club and told to stay away from pre season?
He pulled the rig from under his own.. he said Mowett was the best we could have done replacing Tavernier (who we were told was leaving last summer)
Muniz wasn’t signed as a development striker, Forss won promotion with Brentford & Hoppe had a decent season in the Bundesliga.. enough to earn a move to La Liga!
Still, Dwight Gayle & David McGoldrick preferred over them THREE?!?!
Balogun - Doesn't mean he tried to bring him in here though, horses for courses and all that. I actually don't think this was one of our bad deals either way mind, we just got in on him too early, had we kept him for this year he'd have possibly been better than anything else we have, and certainly better than Forss or Hoppe, and with a brighter future. Not saying we could have bought him though, zero chance of that.
Did he tell Chuba to stay away? Why would he do that, he'd probably never even seen him train or play. I bet that's an instance of the club telling him "you don't want him back", but then we had to bring him back as we had b***r all else. Anyway, Wilder got more out of him in 10 minutes, than anyone else previously had.
Mowatt was probably about 10th on the list, he was probably being kind to the recruitment if he said that, the "we" including the recruitment team and Gibbo etc. Mowatt was the best he was given by the club, doesn't say a great deal about what Wilder wanted. You can bet your hat that nobody in their right mind would even think he could replace Tav, not when Wilder basically made Tav into our best player.
Muniz is 21 and largely unproven, he's a development striker, and will be until he's developed, which is a few years yet. Limited stats for Fulham who scored over 100 goals does not give a good indication of player ability. All we know is he couldn't get in the side because of Mitrovic, and that Fulham also didn't want him this year, no shame in that mind, Mitro's unreal and Fulham are in the Prem. I still think Muniz is possibly good enough for what we need mind, or at least he started that way. certainly good enough to be one of first 3/5 strikers in a side pushing for playoffs.
A team with Forss starting a lot of games up front wouldn't have been promoted in 20/21, and wouldn't in 22/23. Toney got Brentford promoted (31 goals), and Forss was nowhere near Toney then and isn't now anywhere near where Toney was 3 years ago. Forss only started 6 games, and some were at left wing. His goals per minute were good, but of course Brentford create a lot of chances and were not exactly defensive.
Gayle
was far more proven than any of them, but that is no guarantee he could still do that mind, there was more of a guarantee he couldn't, and there was no indication that we wanted him as our main man, other than the rumour mill. McGoldrick was possibly looked at as more of a second fiddle hold up player, but again, there's no certainty that Widler wanted him, especially as a starter. He might have spoken to him as he could see we were getting nowt else. Then Chuba filled that role well, and ended up scoring too, so the need for McGoldrick greatly decreased. I expect he was only spoken to as Wilder knew him, and knew we could get him for nowt (which is what the club seemed to be interested in spending on players Wilder wanted).
Having seen what we bought in summer, and what Wilder was expecting us to get, my bias on transfers is heavily towards blaming the club for the players we sold, the quality of players we bought, and the quality of the players we didn't buy. I'm not saying we had the money though, maybe we did, maybe we didn't, but I get the impression Wilder was expecting us to be spending the money we received on actual proven quality. This isn't an excuse for Wilder either mind, but he didn't seem to be able to adapt well to the Tav loss, and lack of a proven no 1 striker. I still maintain that in the earlier games this year we were playing more than well enough to be much higher up the league, but the bad luck went on too long, and self doubt and lack of confidence set in, which Wilder couldn't break.
They're all to blame, Gibbo, Recruitment, Wilder and the players, they should have all done much better, and the only way to correct it was to press the reset switch, but there's no proof that doing that will, anytime soon.
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