Fabrice29

He's doing exceptional things for a kid his age. If you aren't excited by that or you expect more, considering his age, experience and the team he was in, then that is on you.

Why would you expect him to excite the crowd "many" times? 18 and in a shit team that since Xmas wasn't set up to play to his strengths. There's only 4 teenagers who scored more than him in the PL and 3 of those are older than him and 3 of those had played in the PL before unlike Tyler whilst the other had played for Roma and now plays for Madrid. I don't actually think it's that hard to see why people rate him highly.

Well otherwise you're confused about something that hasn't happened. Maybe the 4th most minutes and 5th most starts of any teenager in the most elite league in the world has something to do with it? The only 3 above him for minutes play for Real Madrid, Newcastle and City now.

And Elliot presumably isn’t wanted or needed at Liverpool right now unlike Dibling. Let’s see that happen first shall we? There’s no further money to be made from Eze after his next move unlike Dibling to be fair.

Writing a reply to this actually hurt my head so yeah sure. More of those players please. except, that’s not how valuations work because one of those two players will presumably be of use to their current club next season and one likely won’t.

In half a season he got more assists than anyone else in the side apart from the two Armstrongs. Missing.

Not wrong but a) you did say experienced (I cba to quote it but your final post on the previous page) and B) an experienced, championship player with a track record in this league is going to be someone like Armstrong who has failed at a higher level or someone who isn’t wanted by a PL side if we’re signing him. I’m not sure that’s progressive and we’ll be in exactly the same situation next season as we were last season in that instance. Signing players with potential is not a bad thing, you’re aiming for them to progress with you if we go up. If you could name some names with the Championship proven record that would sign for us and won’t leave us in a position of needing to strengthen if we go up then I’d be happy to listen. I think I recall you name dropping a league one striker last week.

We signed a whole bunch of players with PL experience. Cornet, Fraser, Ramsdale, Taylor, BBD, Archer and Lallana. They all have PL track records. Including quite a lot of relegations btw but individually they have produced in the PL. That’s why calling for track records on its own is daft imo. It doesn’t actually get you anything in the long run. But if track records of the Championship is what you want then I’d point you in the direction of our squad already tbh. But it’s not a shiny new signing so it doesn’t count I suppose.

We should be selling Armstrong and BBD at least. If Archer goes too we’d have to replace yes. Idea that it has to be experienced seems daft to me, especially considering we signed plenty of that last summer and it rarely worked/works but that can be a debate for when it comes to it.

We currently have Archer, Stewart, Armstrong and BBD on our books. Any of which, if we had signed this summer, would likely satisfy your ‘marquee’ or ‘solid’ one. I said a while ago on here the strike force needs to have a new feel about it next season and see no reason why a young player with potential would not help that. Signing someone with potential is good and compliments our current options.

I merely responded to the claim he was crap, I didn't respond to the comment he would have produced for us last season. Well, like I said, he played quite a bit less than all of them apart from Sulemana who he completely out performed. So yes, I think his contribution stands out.

I'm not sure what you're trying to point out here but all it does is prove he was pretty good for us that season once he came and minus the two Armstrongs, Adams and maybe Smallbone, he was probably our most productive player given his minutes (could also throw in Alcaraz too given CA played more and produced less). And yeah, Sulemana has been garbage but weirdly still considered as a mis managed talent on here.

Course you could have mate, thats why nobody else did.

No. Only Stuart Armstrong and Adam Armstrong delivered more assists than Brooks for us that season. He played 1029 minutes. Only Sulemana, McCarthy, Mara, Rothwell, Holgate, Tella, JWP, Sam Amo, Stewart and Dibling played less than him. The idea that he was doing bugger all is nuts. As is the idea of signing a "luxury" player being a bad thing.

You seem to get annoyed by some very minor things

Fitted the bill when he first joined but based on his recent appearances for us I'd say he no longer fits that criteria. Best thing he could do is get somewhere he's guaranteed a spot every week so he can build up that physicality again, not sure we are in a position to be guaranteeing him that.

We literally had the top scorer in the Championship last time we were in it. The idea that we haven't been attacking or trying to score goals is insane but if you really want to peddle that myth then I don't think expecting a multi million pound striker to get into the team, contribute or at the very least ensure his 2nd touch isn't a tackle 75% of the time can be considered expecting too much. The ones that dropped him quite quickly seemed to know what they were doing with him. 40 appearances in 2 and a half years, 4 goals and 3 of those probably should have been prevented with better goalkeeping. But yeah, mismanaged.

Just one person replying to you with some factual nuances about the game you mentioned isn’t people getting ‘so upset about it’

The new way of recruiting and game model was always going to bring these types of signings. Physical attributes and off the ball qualities are high priorities again so will always lead to trying to find gems in a cheaper market. We have plenty of proven Championship players in our team already and people seem to forget we spent last summer topping up on PL experience only for quite a lot of them being underwhelming. Biggest risk is the focus on the off the ball qualities will lead to us neglecting the on the ball stuff like we ended up doing under RH in the end. Hopefully with enough joined up thinking in the building between Spors and Still and combined with the proven quality we already have we can avoid neglecting that but these types of signings were always going to happen under this way and are a natural part of the game model changing.

Probably worth looking at the stats of all the players whose role in the team was to not get a shot away and recycle possession only.

The lad was the top scorer for us. I wanted Armstrong gone two summers ago when we first went down but the moment he starts banging them in for us he becomes a central player for us and he rightly deserves another crack in the PL, in a team he’s central in. We had to recruit better in the summer but not move on our best players.

If we had moved Armstrong on last summer there would have been uproar. Especially considering our recruitment last summer was piss poor anyway, I don’t think there’s any evidence we’d have replaced him effectively. We’d seen him not perform in the PL but we were playing a completely different way and he’d spearheaded the team to promotion. Trying to move on the striker who got you promoted would have pissed off the squad, manager and fans. It wasn’t worth the risk. We definitely could have done better in not relying on him but moving him on would have been madness.

I don’t think those players are comparable to Armstrong in anyway tbh. Armstrong has attempted the step up twice with us already. He was also the main goalscorer unlike Sharp. He’s been shipped out already in January and will need convincing he’s part of the squad again. And yes, you can obviously sell players once we’ve gone up. But given we signed quite a few players who had experience of playing in the PL last season, some of which were rarely seen, I probably wouldn’t risk that with our top goalscorer.

Imagine selling our top scorer that got us promoted ffs 🤣 This place continues to amaze. Think people massively misunderstand motivation in humans if you think we can ask Armstrong to just get us promoted again and score all those goals like he did last time but also realise he’ll be sold in the summer if he does. To get performances out of people next season you’ve got to convince them they’ll be part of a 2 year cycle at least. Just like the last time we were trying to get out the Championship. You either commit the players to the journey or you sell now.

Didn't he stop scoring the last few months?