We haven't shown much ambition over the last few seasons, since Malky was given some funds to win promotion.
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Despite our “Promotion is our target” statement I don’t think we can be said to be walking the talk. Maybe that will change in the next couple of days.
Are any other clubs doing so?
If so, who will be successful?
We haven't shown much ambition over the last few seasons, since Malky was given some funds to win promotion.
We had a soft transfer embargo until a few weeks ago and since this has ended we are signing players all over the place. Whether it works out or not I have no idea but our owners are showing serious ambition. Joao signed today for around £5 million and Puskas believed to be signing tomorrow for £9 million.
Finding a direct link between "football ambition" and "money spent" leads to pissed off Newcastle fans or Bury fans worried about having a club. Every football club has the ambition to get promoted but some clubs are more like Swansea are currently where their restricted budget means their ambition is on the basis of well-funded academy stepping up to produce cheap stars. Derby have had high hopes for several seasons based on money spent and got absolutely nowhere.
Leeds have a squad of sbout 19 players
I thought Derby were supposed to be fu¢ked if they didn't go up last season. What happened to that?
We spent most of last season preparing for the championship and we succeeded. So far I haven't seen many signs of us preparing for the Premier league. Will still be there on Saturday mind you.
I think Derby County are ring fenced from the ffp rules.
Derby have lost Mason Mount and Harry Wilson, who were their best players last season and just signed a has been striker who's legs had gone two years ago. Leeds just sold their best striker for £7m with no replacement lined up yet, their best young player to Spurs for £8.5m and also sold their captain centre half earlier in the window. Leeds have signed a number of players from lower leagues on loan as well. We have probably spent more than both of them this summer. Fulham and Villa are golden examples of how not to run a club, by throwing money at it. Theres ambition and then there is stupid ambition which teams like Fulham and Villa have in spades. Our squad is now considerably better than it was two years ago.
Bamba is injured and we've sold Manga. We've replaced them with the glacially slow Flint, and Nelson who is unproven at this level.
We had Bryson, Halford, Grujic, Damour and Gunnar in 17/18. We had Gunnar, Camarasa and Arter in 18/19. We've replaced them with Vaulks. That's it.
We look like we're going to lose Cunningham, so we have no left back cover.
We're stronger out wide (although if Hoilett isn't the same player that's debatable) then we're probably breaking even out wide, and we've got Bobby Reid. Our inability to see us strengthen has seen us stay the same in goal, left back is the same, Peltier will be 34 by the time the season ends, so we've gone backwards there, we've sold our best centre back, we have THREE centre mids, which is frankly laughable, three attacking mids (including Paterson), good wingers and 6 strikers. It's a mess.
Theres ambition and then there is stupid ambition which teams like Fulham and Villa have in spades. Our squad is now considerably better than it was two years ago.[/QUOTE]
I'm not negative at all about City certainly not on this board but that is plainly not true. Our midfield is threadbare Bacuna, Ralls and Vaulks is not a dynamic midfield by any stretch of the imagination and if we don't add to it with some class in there (I think we need 2 players) we will not control many if any games. I honestly think Neil thinks Paterson is going to be the answer in there and whilst you cannot doubt his enthusiasm and commitment he's not exactly a dominant CM. We have pace out wide and by the looks of things with the signings of Gratzel and Vassel (if it happens) up front pace up front though we have no idea if they will find the net regularly - I think Vassel is going to be back up to Gratzel as Neil isn't going to change his tactics - there will be no room for Madine, Bogle or Ward by the looks of things as we will only play one up front
Our defence and midfield are definitely slower and we have no idea if our forwards are going to be reliable goal scorers as we haven't seen them
No panic yet as I'm hopeful for our next couple of games but this transfer window has been poor IMO