White will be a flop and Emery had a better reign no matter how many times you post on here Mikel.Fantastic. Very pleased with this signing, addressed a very important need and got it. We badly needed a CB with composure, quality, and personality on the ball, and whatever people say about Saliba we just did not have that, him being 20 years old and partnering a player in limited experience in Gabriel.
You have to say in two transfer windows since the new regime took over from the disasterclass of Em*ry and RaĆ¼l "Three Fids a Day" SanllehĆ, we've made quite a lot of important first XI signings needed to get us to the level required for top 4-6 competition.
Add in Ramsdale who it is early days but looks promising (despite all the vitriol directed at the idea of his signing... ), Lokonga who looks a decent midfield partner for Thomas in the immediate and long-term, Saka's evolution into a sort of Iniesta like playmaker who is more often than not the one to unbalance the defence with his movement on the half-turn and in half-spaces (see our goal today), ESR's emergence as a glue player and ball-carrier who speeds our play up in transitions and links midfield and attack in dangerous situations from wide and half-spaces, and Pepe's major development under this regime (gone from looking like an absolute flop to one of my favourite players currently), Tomiyasu who it is early days but looks a promising RB signing, and you can see that we've basically re-built the XI from top to bottom (minus #9, and even then the regime has had a big hand in him staying on and not leaving) from the absolute disaster that was inherited under the rudderless and shocking technical planning under RaĆ¼l and Em*ry, which really only rivalled in its incompetence that of the regime we took RaĆ¼l 'Three Fids a Day' from.
- RCB with quality and composure on the ball who can cope with the demands of playing out from the back in a possession style: check.
- LCB with quality on the ball and defensive characteristics necessary and major projection: check.
- CM with quality on the ball and tactical intelligence defensively, and press resistance and needed quality to improve our play both in possession and in transitions, while providing tactical and defensive quality: check.
- CAM with quality, composure to link midfield and attack in the 10 space, and play the final ball: check.
Results need to accompany this season no matter what, there is absolutely no excuse for anything less than 6th, and personally my reasonable expectation would be 5th, with my best case scenario being pushing for top 4. But people need to look at what this regime has done so far, putting aside all the anger and the ranting and raving and with a cool head, and re-assess. If we do finish top 6, or 5th, as I expect, this season, then this regime deserves a lot of credit from where it has taken us, in the absolute disastrous state it picked us up in.