Thought Vestergaard was much better last night but agree we need a centre back. And probably a left and right back too. 
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Well themās the breaks Baz, we done well with Fonte, Clyne, Lovren, Alderweireld, Bertrand and Van Dijk and itās hard in todayās market to keep finding the gems for under Ā£20m. Bednarek was a good buy in my opinion and I think he will get better, not too fussed if Hoedt doenāt play for us again, jury is still out on Vestergaard. Good to see Valery getting some game time, been very impressed with him but he has his work cut out for him at the moment but also will be learning lots.
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You donāt those luxuries like time in the League to bed players in, all our previous great defenders have gone so maybe that policy only benefits to shareholders and not actually the team, club and fans?
Its a gamble policy and doomed to eventual failure.
We also donāt have the luxury of spending Ā£50m+ on an established Premier League centre back, a gamble in itself, so I guess if you have to gamble you do so on what you can afford, which tends to be a cheaper centre back from abroad, who will need to time to bed in. Not ideal I know but what would your alternative be? If we put in a Ā£60m bid for someone like Maguire you think we wouldnāt easily get gazumped on transfer fee or wages by one of the top 6?
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Weāre the 7th highest payers in the League I think, that is a shit return for that and we also spend far more than most, the alternative would be to mix it and buy older players with little sell on value, what is wrong with signing players in their 30ās?
Not sure how accurate this is but has us ranked as 11th for player wages, most official report I could find was the financial reports for 2016/17 which had us 8th highest payers.
Just to weigh in on the debateā¦ before Ralph was appointed I listened to a Radio Solent chat with Adam Blackmore and essentially he said āselling VVD for Ā£75m is great but in this market, we should be looking to replace him for Ā£30m or Ā£40m to ensure the gap in quality isnāt too large.ā
I found it hard to argue with to be honest. Thinking we can do it with Ā£15m - Ā£18m players is probably an issue of naivety. As is spreading the money recouped from past player sales too thinly on quantity rather than quality. However, I am choosing to be blindly optimistic that the club have realised the error of their ways by getting rid of Les and appointing a classy manager with a plan and philosophy. So hopefully the same will rub off on our recruitment endeavours too.
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