18-12-2020, 21:40
(This post was last modified: 18-12-2020, 23:59 by Slick_Footwork.)
Regarding the backing of Bilic or lack of it. I guess it's open to debate...
On one hand, we did spend more than several other clubs in the league. On the other hand, it seems you need to spend an absolute fortune to be competitive when promoted into the Premier league now. We spent a lot on acquiring players on loan last year.
Personally I'd have liked to have seen him backed more.
BUT... given the limited budget, the players Bilic identified were not right. The guy was blind to what we needed. I saw the same naivity before, under Tony Mowbray.
For me it was absolutely paramount we signed a defensive midfielder in the summer. You simply can't go into the Premier League without a defensive midfielder. And while Jake can tackle, he is a box to box player rather than a defensive midfielder. He doesn't have that natural defensive awareness to sit, track and cover. As for Sawyers, he's a good ball player from deep but I've got shoe boxes with more defensive awareness than he has... at least they wouldn't shy out of a tackle.
With that in mind, why on earth did Bilic identify Krovinovic as number one target? Firstly, he was only bit part last season. Secondly, he's just neat. Pretty much the same as Sawyers.
Then we added Gallagher to the mix, who has been superb. But again, his position is the same as Krovi. Why sign 2 players who operate in the number 10 role, when you don't have a defensive midfielder at the club?
I'll tell you why... Dowling wanted Gallagher, Bilic wanted Krovi.
IMO this is where the relationship started to break down with the board. Dowling didn't want to prioritise Krovinovic, he saw Gallagher as a better option but Bilic insisted on it and continued to press for it. You could see in Bilic's interviews that it was getting personal the way he was pressuring the club publicly in saying "I ask about the progress of the transfer every day", "he's the number one target that I want" and such. The board had no choice to sign him, he'd made it public that if we didn't get Krovi, he hadn't been backed. His signature was do or die!
That's probably why Bilic didn't even pick Gallagher in the squad for the Southampton game and threw Krovi straight in. He wanted to show that his man was the best man for the job and Dowling's man wasn't needed. Bilic said in his interview that Gallagher "wasn't ready", well we knew he was fit because we saw him play a full 90mins in the cup against Brentford 2 weeks before. Had it not been for the fact that we were so terrible against Southampton that it was actually harming Bilic's reputation not to pick Gallagher, Gallagher would probably be training with Kipre right now.
And that's why I still have hopes that Kipre might actually be good. I've only seen him play in the cup,so don't really know how good he is, but clearly Bilic favouring Bartley over him can only be a finger up to the board. In the games against Wigan last season, we saw they were defensively very stubborn and organised. Again, we saw the same thing in the Tony Mowbray era with Mulumbu. He didn't get a look in the year we were relegated under Mowbray when we had a soft centre. Then when Di Matteo came in and he picked Mulumbu, it was clear the player with the bite we needed in midfield was already at the club!
So yes, I established by reading between the lines that the relationship with Bilic and Dowling was strained ages ago. That's one of the reasons why I was surprised he lasted as long as he did after the shocking results. I guess his fallout with Gibbs and playing Phillips at full back was probably the final straw for the board. But the final straw for me was long before, where he failed to identify the right players put his 'mates' over what we actually needed.
In the end, Bilic did get who he wanted. He got Krovi after his public pressure. He got Grant. Probably didn't want Gallagher, Kipre and Button. But got those he pressued for nevertheless.
And shock horror, Krovi isn't a starter like he wasn't last year...
That my friends is why Bilic had to go!
On one hand, we did spend more than several other clubs in the league. On the other hand, it seems you need to spend an absolute fortune to be competitive when promoted into the Premier league now. We spent a lot on acquiring players on loan last year.
Personally I'd have liked to have seen him backed more.
BUT... given the limited budget, the players Bilic identified were not right. The guy was blind to what we needed. I saw the same naivity before, under Tony Mowbray.
For me it was absolutely paramount we signed a defensive midfielder in the summer. You simply can't go into the Premier League without a defensive midfielder. And while Jake can tackle, he is a box to box player rather than a defensive midfielder. He doesn't have that natural defensive awareness to sit, track and cover. As for Sawyers, he's a good ball player from deep but I've got shoe boxes with more defensive awareness than he has... at least they wouldn't shy out of a tackle.
With that in mind, why on earth did Bilic identify Krovinovic as number one target? Firstly, he was only bit part last season. Secondly, he's just neat. Pretty much the same as Sawyers.
Then we added Gallagher to the mix, who has been superb. But again, his position is the same as Krovi. Why sign 2 players who operate in the number 10 role, when you don't have a defensive midfielder at the club?
I'll tell you why... Dowling wanted Gallagher, Bilic wanted Krovi.
IMO this is where the relationship started to break down with the board. Dowling didn't want to prioritise Krovinovic, he saw Gallagher as a better option but Bilic insisted on it and continued to press for it. You could see in Bilic's interviews that it was getting personal the way he was pressuring the club publicly in saying "I ask about the progress of the transfer every day", "he's the number one target that I want" and such. The board had no choice to sign him, he'd made it public that if we didn't get Krovi, he hadn't been backed. His signature was do or die!
That's probably why Bilic didn't even pick Gallagher in the squad for the Southampton game and threw Krovi straight in. He wanted to show that his man was the best man for the job and Dowling's man wasn't needed. Bilic said in his interview that Gallagher "wasn't ready", well we knew he was fit because we saw him play a full 90mins in the cup against Brentford 2 weeks before. Had it not been for the fact that we were so terrible against Southampton that it was actually harming Bilic's reputation not to pick Gallagher, Gallagher would probably be training with Kipre right now.
And that's why I still have hopes that Kipre might actually be good. I've only seen him play in the cup,so don't really know how good he is, but clearly Bilic favouring Bartley over him can only be a finger up to the board. In the games against Wigan last season, we saw they were defensively very stubborn and organised. Again, we saw the same thing in the Tony Mowbray era with Mulumbu. He didn't get a look in the year we were relegated under Mowbray when we had a soft centre. Then when Di Matteo came in and he picked Mulumbu, it was clear the player with the bite we needed in midfield was already at the club!
So yes, I established by reading between the lines that the relationship with Bilic and Dowling was strained ages ago. That's one of the reasons why I was surprised he lasted as long as he did after the shocking results. I guess his fallout with Gibbs and playing Phillips at full back was probably the final straw for the board. But the final straw for me was long before, where he failed to identify the right players put his 'mates' over what we actually needed.
In the end, Bilic did get who he wanted. He got Krovi after his public pressure. He got Grant. Probably didn't want Gallagher, Kipre and Button. But got those he pressued for nevertheless.
And shock horror, Krovi isn't a starter like he wasn't last year...
That my friends is why Bilic had to go!