Of all the arguments that I hear people around me make about this window, there is just one that drives me to genuine frustration; this idea that we will have progressed the team if we sign Idah and Bernardo on long term deals.
I am literally gobsmacked that anyone can make that argument and attempt to defend it. There is absolutely no merit to it.
I try to deal here in facts as much as possible, so here’s the fact; we finished last season with both players at the club. They were crucial to the double triumph. We know this is true. I want them back at the club because we are materially weaker without them.
On that point, everyone seems broadly agreed so far. But then we get into this pointless, mindless, debate, the idea that we will be somehow stronger if we sign them both. Ask the manager that one and I guarantee you he’ll laugh.
If both players are at the club when next season starts then that’s maintaining the strength we already had.
There is no metaphysics here, but let’s talk some for a minute. If you assume that even a parallel universe will follow the same basic fundamental laws as this one does then there’s not even an alternative reality somewhere where that isn’t true.
Bernardo was part of last season’s team. Idah was part of the team from January onward.
The squad was better for having them in it. We are weaker at the moment because they are not. If we go out and sign them both all we’ll have done is restore the strength of the team to what it was when the last campaign ended.
The bald fact of it is that this gives the manager the same set of options he already had.
You haven’t strengthened if all you’ve done is give the manager the same set of options.
To do genuine “strengthening” – i.e. making something stronger – you have to go beyond those two and add a couple more first team players to the mix. The number of people who have asked me if it’s standing still not to sign them is equally bizarre; that question has an equally obvious answer and I’ve already said it; we are weaker than when last season finished.
I have heard those of us who are stating the obvious called out for our “reductive thinking” and I have to admit, I genuinely wanted to laugh.
I’m afraid that pseudo-intellectual claptrap isn’t going to wash. There is not some great complexity here that most of us have failed to understand or comprehend. We are not simplifying something that would otherwise be impenetrable to mere mortals. I think it’s people trying to bend reality with an argument which doesn’t contradict the basic facts which attempts to overcomplicate what is as straightforward a common-sense issue as you’ll get.
It’s all well and good that some of them say that they “understand” our point, I cannot in all honesty say the same about theirs, and nor can I pretend than an acknowledgment that we’ve said something that is both coherent and logical is anything exceptional.
Others keep on repeating this mantra about how “yeah but they would be our players” and I get that, but the equation does not change one iota.
If both are in the starting eleven for our opening game of the campaign, alongside Schmeichel, and there are no other new additions, that will meet the textbook definition of having stood still, even if we had to spend money to do it.
And that would be an unpardoable disgrace after all the talk of how this window would be different.
Shame on our “leadership” that right now, it’s actually the best many of us dare to hope for.
Neither player was, or seems capable of cementing a starting place in the team. If O’Riley goes, which seems inevitable, we will definitely be a weaker side.
We needed 7 players at the start of the window. Keeper, 2 left sided defenders, holding midfielders, 2 wide players, and a striker. We have signed a back up keeper and possibly a keeper. Even bringing Idah and Bernado back, we are still 4 players short. This board must go, they can’t continue to underfund the team, just because Lawell thinks he knows best.
I would argue that, even if we manage to complete both of those signings, we will be weaker than we were at the end of the season simply because we’ve now sold our 3rd place striker.
And that’s assuming Matt O’reilly isn’t sold between now and then.
Gòing into CL group matches with Scales and Taylor as half of your back 4 is standing still and begging to be punished. No matter who else we might sign. That is our weak link at the hghest level and we will get punished and that is unforgivable. No harm to the 2 lads but thats just fact
Need full back big McKenna aberdeen strker leciestet nidane get them in
Full back McKenna aberedeen sriker leciester midfielder namdame
James, perhaps an easier way to explain this to SOME PEOPLE is this.
if you have 5 £1 coins to spend but what you want to buy costs £6 you don’t have enough money. and if you loan sombody £2 then you have even less to spend. But when you get the £2 back you now have £5 again, so you are back to where you started, still unable to buy the something for £6.
100% correct. No matter what it is you’re talking about, strengthening means adding something that isn’t already there!
Winner.
Should get the Green Brigade to print off flyers with your statement on it
addressed to the ‘Happy Clappers’ Glee Club of Board apologists.
You often talk sense and hit the nail on the head, but with this one you’ve hit every head in every nail in existence, and I could not agree with your comments more. If we needed 4 players before to move to the next level, or even to just progress the team, then we still need those 4 players, nothing has changed.
Absolutely correct. These players were in the team last year. People are conning themselves if they think it makes the team better by signing them. No mention of a left back. What is the board up to. Whats wrong with the aberdeen striker, hes still young. 6 million for a proven striker is peanuts nowadays. Celtic have had great strikers from scottish clubs ovèr the years. Wallace, deans, mclair to name a few. They seem to want players for peanuts. If they sign anyone in this window. They will be second rate, same as last window. Dont hold your breath. They dont have any trouble selling tho
We need 4 more first team ready players. I’d prefer to avoid loanees tbh.
Idah I’d walk away from now.
Che Adams on a free right now, that would be a nice bit of business.
We wouldn’t have stood still if we have barnardo, Idah and kasper,. We will be weekend than last season because we have also sold Oh
The same with weaker without. No question. .
Why are we surprised by this inactivity? Same every year and the hope kills us. Our board drive the bottom line for the shareholders without the emotion their customers have. The fact that the team from Govan are a busted flush further supports the “Board’s” “just enough” strategy and remember PL has precedent for this. A question we should be asking is our relationship with our Board and different from the one held by them across the city? I fear the answer is No!