Blog: Has Bournemouth’s summer recruitment left them short?

Disclaimer: my objective in starting this topic is to stimulate a reasoned argument, since I’m sure there will be individuals on both sides, and maybe even those in the middle.

I left the ground with a peculiar sensation yesterday; generally, after a defeat, the tendency is to look at the manager and point to X and Y, which he should and could have done differently. Every boss is human, and they will make mistakes. Yesterday, however, I left the stadium with the impression that Iraola had executed the ideal game plan with the right individuals in the right positions; he had simply been hampered by a lack of viable options in critical parts of the squad.

Part of me believes that in order to play the style we want to play under him, we needed to bring in another box-to-box midfielder in the summer to rotate with Christie. Scott certainly has qualities, but I am not certain that he can fill that job to the same extent that Ryan can; he simply does not fit that profile of player. The moment he enters our midfield, gaps arise, and he appears to lack the engine to cover territory. He appears to lack tactical knowledge at the moment to play this role; a couple of occasions yesterday, he appeared unclear about where he should be putting himself, leaving his guy with an acre of room to exploit. I believe that forcing him into this style would just cost us more money; we signed an agile and technical player to play in a physically demanding system. We already had one of those in Traore; how did it finish up?

I also believe that the centre-forward scenario has let Andoni down. We have now played four league games with virtually only one fit forward available, and we have generally suffered without a centre forward on the field (last week being an exception). That lack of a focal point harmed us against both Newcastle and Chelsea; the board was aware of Unal’s injury and must have known that Evanilson would be unable to play ninety minutes right away, so why did we leave ourselves in this situation?

Not to add the fact that we only have one natural left back in the squad; this hasn’t hurt us yet, but it could if Kerkez is injured.

When we look at our direct competitors, it appears that Iraola is managing with his hands tied behind his back. It appears that most, but not all, are better equipped in terms of squad depth. If we are serious about pushing for Europe (Foley’s comments), how can we hope to do so with our current squad depth? At this level, the margins are razor thin, and it’s difficult enough without being underequipped.

RobTrent
Short-term (Unal) injuries cannot serve as the foundation for a recruitment strategy.

I believe we’ve done well, but we haven’t solved the Christie dilemma.

Evanilson, on the other hand, requires more time, and I am hopeful that he will regain his form.

The signings of Huijsen(/?) and Arougo(?) appear to have improved the squad’s strength.

So, overall, I’d say it’s been very decent. Not perfect, but what is?

Neil Dawson
The issue was not with the transfer window itself. Signing Alex Scott, Tyler Adams, Hamed Traore, and Romain Faivre for 90 million euros was a disaster in terms of recruitment. The result was that we simply did not have enough money to spend, forcing us to limit who we sold, as do many other teams. We won’t get that money back, either.

We wouldn’t be in this situation if the money had been used correctly or recouped. At this point, the players signed by Simon Francis and Tiago Pinto appear to be quite good. There are no expensive or injured misfits, but they have far less money.

SF|1899
If our goal is to compete in Europe, our recruitment has fallen far short. If the goal is simply to stay up, I’m delighted with the hire.

I believe that as fans, we are more critical of moves, most likely because we cannot afford flops or long periods of “adjustment” to the league, nation, language, weather, and so on. Chelsea, Manchester City, Villa, and other clubs may easily spend £100 million on new signings, and if the results are unsatisfactory, they will spend even more the next window. We can’t do it.

We may also have larger expectations for new hires because we are unaccustomed to spending such large sums of money. Evanilson was signed for £40 million, and everyone expects him to be twice as excellent as Solanke. The reality is that they’re probably on the same level, and we only paid that much because Porto understood how desperate we were for a new striker.

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