I knew this would be peoples' reply. I wasn't creating a dichotomy. You're suggesting I said that our only options were the 2 CMs with 0 experience in the Championship or try to find someone with experience exactly equivalent to Alex Mowatt (who we obviously couldn't afford anymore). I didn't. I said they had 12 months to find a suitable replacement with Championship experience. If the only option we could afford was 2 CMs with 0 experience as professionals then, as I said above, we shouldn't be in the league. (And we won't be very long).
Hecky said it years ago we have one of the smaller budgets so to sign a championship experience player pay the transfer fees and wages are well out of our reach so we have to give young players the chance to step up from league one etc. A free transfer or loan signing would have been a idea in the summer though to replace mowatt though.
I think Benson can play - but he does seem a little lightweight at the minute. It would be good if we could play him in midfield with a proper tough *******, but the choices we have are 19, 20 and 22. That our 4 current available central midfielders are all 22 and under is criminal recruitment when you think about it.
I was replying to the part of your comment where you said, The inference being that if we'd have paid the wages we offered Mowett a suitable replacement could have be found. The fact is that Championship players with Mowett's experience and ability who were on his wages are few, because they are already on far more money and are at better clubs. They certainly could (and probably did) look at players who had more experience at first team level, and maybe there was a player like Mowett was when we signed him from Leeds, although that was a great signing at the time imo. I'd agree that it's a gamble finding someone who is going to hit the ground running, although they have signed players from recognised Premier clubs with some sort of pedigree, largely gone are the days of 100k signings from division 2 teams. No more bargain basement Rochdale signings!
There's nothing implied at all, it's a direct question: why not use the record breaking wages Mowatt was offered to sign a suitable CM? 2 21 year olds with no experience as professionals are not suitable replacements and cannot be costing the equivalent of Mowatt's supposed "record breaking" wages. I didn't say: sign a Mowatt replica, which is what you think I'm saying. Again, they knew Mowatt was leaving for (at least) 12 months so if they tried and failed to identify and sign a replacement over that period then they are incompetent. I am not saying that a Mowatt replica with the associated costs or 2 20 year olds who have never played professionally were the only 2 options we had - I can't believe the club could not have signed a capable CM in his mid-20s with (at the very least) 2 or 3 seasons in the Championship. But, again, if the best that we can afford is 2 CMs with 0 professional experience then we are in the wrong league. (As is being proved week in week out).
We can't afford a capable CM in his mid-20s with a min of 2 or 3 season in the Championship. That's why we couldn't keep Mowatt. We couldn't even afford what Doncaster were asking for Ben Whiteman. Our only options for experience would be to find a signing with lower league experience, then the question would be whether they're good enough for the Championship, a loan, or a Solbauer like signing from overseas. I agree that we should've been planning for Mowatt's exit, but unfortunately we had a CEO happy to stick his head in the sand, because he knew he was leaving. And the fact the board didn't realise this is biggest act of incompetence.
I would honestly take a League 2 experienced player at this moment in time. At least they wouldn't try consistently to pirouette out of defence, like Gomes. Also, I'm not sure I agree that we can't afford a central mid with some Championship experience. I don't expect you to know the answer obviously, but how can we afford to have 7 strikers on the books (3 of whom are new signings) but can't afford just 1 decent Central Midfielder? Was it the plan to start the season with only Palmer, Gomes and Benson as the only options? It just seems insane.
I agree that the squad balance is all over the place, and I would've wanted a midfielder with experience at some level, 200+ EFL appearances would've done, because only bringing in Benson and Gomes, to replace Mowatt and Kane was foolish. We needed another midfielder even before those departures, highlighted by the number of midfield appearances that Halme made last season. I think we'd need to break, or at least change the wage structure to bring an experienced Championship midfielder in. And to be honest, I wouldn't have had a problem with them doing that to keep Mowatt. I've never really bought into this idea that the rest of the squad would go knocking on the door demanding the same. Otherwise everybody in the Swansea squad would be up in arms about being on a quarter or less of what Ayew was in. Similar at Brentford with Toney.
