Dusic

This is largely ludicrous. He was a supporting coach for a spell at the end of a carnage season. Zero of that should be placed on him. As for performances, it depends what your expectations were. I recall that most of the time he was on the pitch, especially near the start of the season he was pretty good. His pass to Dibling was probably the best moment of the season. But its pretty inconsequential now. In our Lg Cup game at Goodison he played the first 45mins and as there wasnt much of a crowd you could clearly hear him directing the play on the pitch - in a way that is fairly unusual I thought at the time. Pretty sure he will have a positive impact and most importantly sure that Will Still wants him as part of his team - his experience is different to the other coaches.

Pretty much everyone in football, whether fellow players or managers he has played under absolute rave about him and his influence and leadership. Thats from people like Rickie Lambert, Jose Fonte, Danny Welbeck, James Milner, Andrew Robertson, Steven Gerrard, Levi Colwill, Matty Fernandes, Tyler Dibling, Mauricio Pochettino, Jurgen Klopp, Graham Potter, Roberto de Zerbi. Thats enough for me to think he is certainly worth having around versus being bothered about a Daily Echo advert over 10 years ago.

Another tenuous link to Sturm Graz Scottish RB Max Johnston via Football Insider but this interview with him today indicates he prefers to stay in Europe: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/napoli-interested-max-johnston-on-sturm-graz-future-champions-league-test-amp-scotland/view/news/455924

Key thing is a relatively kind start until the chaos of the transfer window goes away. Otherwise bring it on.

Retired as a player...set to be confirmed as part of the coaching setup? Despite some opinions based on how he left it is clear that a.) He knows ball and has worked under some top managers and b.) Players respect him and his experience

Good SR scouting to sign him for Goztepe on loan with an option in the first place and then make a big profit. Definitely some value to be had in South America so good we are starting to utilise it with Alcaraz, Juan, Welington etc. Low risk and potentially high reward.

Urban myth. When his involvement with Sport Republic and their takeover at Saints became public it was seen as a coup due to his positive influence at Brentford. Also has to be said he has done well with Goztepe. Clearly made mistakes here but also quite difficult to know exactly who has been directly responsible for what. Now that we are in the Spors era that clarity "I am responsible for all football matters" is helpful.

He scored 11 goals and got 13 assists in the league last year and was pretty much always available so different from Walcott or Lallana. From a footballing point of view he would be a class apart in the Championship. The issue as others mentioned is that he will have absolutely no interest in it. Not sure why I have even wasted a post writing about it to be honest.

Exactly, the whole point around our recruitment issues of recent years is that we just haven't recruited good enough players. In fact, many of our more "experienced" signings have been worse than the younger players we have signed. Nobody moans about Fernandes lack of experience because guess what, he is good. Taylor had loads of PL experience but 3 managers didn't rate him and Livramento with no pro mens football was one of our best signings of the last decade. When you bring in a whole new recruitment setup it is up to them to develop a record and reputation and just because we signed Mara once it shouldn't mean we never sign a 20yo striker ever again. Clearly the optimal model for us is to identify, develop and sell talents whilst having senior pros to provide a stable platform - a signing like O'Brien for example would add a player in their prime. But these days young talents are wanted by everyone so you have to either take a risk on someone who maybe hasnt quite fufilled their potential (like Willem Geubbels who Monaco paid €20m for ages 16), or just get them earlier before someone else does (Daouda Traore or Kayi Sanda) in the hope you can develop them. This is also where the multi club system can be effective if operated well. I am sure there will be a balance of ages but the main thing is just to sign a higher proportion of players who are actually good enough - just like we did when we were well run and just like Brighton, Bournemouth etc do now. AFCB will sell 3 of their back 4 for way over £100m this summer and none of them had any experience to speak of when they signed. Currently for the Championship we have quite a lot of players who gave played a decent amount at this level anyway so not even sure this is a gap: McCarthy, Bazunu, Bree, Stephens, Manning, Fraser, Smallbone, Downes, Brereton-Diaz, Armstrong

Judging by what Alfie House said after that in Quarshie discussion then it sounds like Damion Downs. Basically said Quarshie is big, strong quick and the striker target is too. I think the original source linking us with him is a good one too seemingly he is the one we want.

We have been linked with O'Brien quite a few times previously - for sure when he left Hudds for Forest and then I think again before one of his loan moves.

Over 200 apps later KWP is a decent shout for this, certainly in more recent times.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/21877134 Norwich signing Van Wolfswinkel - they are getting good business done early.

To be fair to the guy it was by all accounts he who got £50m for Lavia which now seems pretty good, especially as the bidding there started at almost half of that according to reports. Sounds like Atalanta genuinely want Sulemana so no point just accepting their first offer - literally nobody in football would do that. If we end up getting around £20m for Onuachu and Sulemana then its a pretty good outcome compares to what would have been likely last summer. Juric playing Sulemana regularly and him showing people he can play 90mins back to back without injury has created a market for him - the best thing Juric did for us.

Interesting point on Dibling and if I recall was similar with JWP. I guess in an odd way there is less pressure throwing someone in at the start of a PL season than the end of a season where you are fighting for promotion. In general though the Academy has been one of few things SR havent butchered and most of that is due to personnel, who in this case Wilcox brought in.

Alternatively, Wilcox oversaw the only successful season of the SR tenure. He hired a manager who brought a lot of demotivated players onside and achieved promotion, the target at the outset. At the time it became clear he would leave for Mn Utd we had just ended a club record run without defeat. His role also included significant remit to revitalise a failing academy. He set this in motion, not least through the hiring of Andy Goldie who has been very successful and getting Callum McFarlane from Man City who has done a great job with both U18s and U21s. I'm not convinced that Wilcox shoukd be responsible for his own successor and whether or not we replaced him was clearly not his own decision to make. Equally whilst Dragan said he isnt a "football man" its not like he is clueless, he has been very successful and I am sure was able to judge Wilcox's performance, just as we all do without a background in professional football. In fact he is obviously a lot closer to it than we are, just like the hierarchy at Man Utd who have given him a job and then promoted him, presumably on the basis of what he has done and how he has done it. Not all of this can be reduced to league positions, especially in the short term. Agree to disagree but combined with his very successful tenure at Man City, pretty much every comment made about him from people who work closely with him, I would suggest he is likely very good at what he does and as above showed that in his brief time at Saints.

Anoyher poor bowling display and hardly a new observation but jeez what a player Dewalt Brevis is. Surely will be a superstar player, hopefully in all formats for SA. Doubt he will be available much in England going forward which is a shame - will hugely be missed the rest of this competition.

Per Dragan himself - seems absolutely clear that he valued Wilcox highly: "...then it (structure of the club) started to work (under Wilcox). However you do it (run a club), it is based on people. I really liked working with Jason Wilcox but then we lost him after 6 months so that is an issue, even when we do things right one of the big boys says "Oh I really like this guy from your team so much and I take him". "I have to say and Jason knows this, I was really really mad at him but at the end of the day you get the call from Man Utd then you go. But on the other hand we suddenly lost a man who started building something and unfortunately we didn't replace him quick enough so we went into the PL without a leading figure in our football department and that was very, very costly." ------- To assess he job he did in a brief time (some of which is, and much of which is not visible to supporters) you have to understand the role and I am not sure that you really do. I am sure Dragan does though so will go with his view on it.

From both interviews its clear that despite the stuff pedalled on here Jason Wilcox was doing an excellent job and was a massive loss. Overall good tone from Solak, like that he plays down his knowledge of football but is clear where his skills can help and also that he is respectful of Martin, who he obviously liked - he seems like someone you would want to work for. Positive stuff about the current structure - nice way to draw a linw under last season IMO and good that he recognises we will likley need more investment if we go up again - another indication of lessons being learned.

He hasn't had playing time due to non-selection, but hasn't been injured/unavailable for much time at all since he left us for Villa. Totally different scenario to Lallana IMO (although would be question marks over whether he could do Sat/Tues) - definitely a player who would be a class above in the Championship.

Considering the lack of visibility and accountability that some owners show on a regular basis I will take the fact that Dragan seemingly invited two local journalists for an interview as a good sign. PR? Undoubtedly. But better that than a Gao type who is silent and hidden.

Apart from Andrew Watson, and Master Bates when he has read newsnow.co.uk, there is a dearth of genuine ITKs on here these days. All the proven ones (Guan, kbilly etc) no longer post here and you can see why.

Virtually all of the players you listed are teenagers or very slightly older!

Kevin Theopile-Catherine has shone at Dinamo Zagreb - could he be of use this coming season? Probably not but wanted to make use of my 3 daily posts and remembered his name from when he was at Cardiff.

https://targetscouting.com/2025/01/31/damion-downs-1-fc-koln-scout-report/#:~:text=Downs stands at an impressive,constant physical presence in duels. https://www.bundesliga.com/en/2bundesliga/news/damion-downs-who-is-cologne-s-american-youth-international-forward-23960 Definitely seems to have some decent attributes - one to monitor, especially with a seemingly affordable fee.