chiknsmack

...losing it, then pressing and winning it back. We should do less of the first part and more of the second.

Not to go all MLG on you, but there are still European options (Netherlands today, Scotland/Belgium for a couple more days) plus Turkey. https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/transferfenster

Until next season when we don't get promoted, go looking for Prem loans, and clubs say to us "We don't trust you to give them game time, so we'll loan them elsewhere". If Peretz gets injured and Long is the replacement we're fucked. If Ramsdale is the replacement, we're fine. If Peretz stays fit and Ramsdale sits on the bench (or at home) we're fine. In an ideal world we get Ramsdale off the wage bill and bring in a roughly Peretz-level backup, but how much would one cost? Possibly more than Peretz, knowing they're not coming in to be #1 and so aren't putting themselves in the shop window. Outside of the ideal world I'm happy with the expensive insurance policy of an elite backup over fiddling about to maybe save a couple of mil and maybe have a decent chance of promotion in the worst case scenario. https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/transferfenster

Kayi-Sanda has a very good eye for a pass and good technical skills. Apart from still being a teenager, the problem he's had is that he's right-sided and so hasn't been able to break into the side (THB is ~PL-quality and has that spot locked down, while there's bugger all between Stephens, Wood, and Quarshie on the other side so they've all seen play). He's a perfect replacement for this aspect of THB's game. Not so much the leadership and set piece threat, but. --------- If THB goes to Villa, what are the odds of Mings heading the other way? 33 years old, in the last year of his contract, fighting for the third CB spot against two players the club has brought in this window. A loan with Villa covering a good chunk of the wages?

Marco Silva has rocked up at Benfica and already upset some of the players, including their highly-rated Ukrainian National Team keeper. If he leaves on a loan-with-obligation as he's apparently requested they'll need someone new, and if they're talking to us about one player maybe we should bring up another. (They also don't have Champions League this season, something I've seen others use in arguments for why they might be able to sign THB).

He still looked clumsy and uncoordinated. Will Lankshear: England youth player. Two seasons in the Champ. In the first he didn’t score in 346 minutes. In the second he scored 11 in 2,883 minutes, so ~260 minutes per goal. Divin Mubama: England youth player (but has played for the U21s while Lankshear hasn’t). One season in the Champ. Scored five in 1,635 minutes, ~330 minutes per goal. So Mubama is younger, less experienced, but in his first Championship loan wasn't much less effective than Lankshear was in his second. Spurs were happy to sell Lankshear, City had no interest in selling Mubama, which tells you what the clubs think of their respective players.

Not a bad shout. I'm one who thinks we don't really need a Shea replacement (Bragg is his replacement, leaving ~1,400 minutes for O'Brien-Whitmarsh, Williams, maybe Akachukwu and Sesay, and whoever else). But the cheaper option of a sweetheart deal from the sister club for Dennis to compete with Bragg for the third spot is interesting. Dennis is in the last year of his contract, so that would need ironing out. He'd definitely be more than adequate as Bragg's backup. Bit expensive for that role though, and there's no role ahead of Bragg available (unless we want to block the pathway for him and all the rest of our youth midfielders for some reason).

AM, but can play elsewhere in midfield. He popped up on the left of the attack a couple of times in preseason too. Playing Matsuki as an 8 today was an interesting idea; against inferior opposition maybe we don't need two holding mids and can play an extra central attacker? It'd be a way to use more than one of Azaz/Dobbin/Matsuki/Archer, instead of Dobbin being Azaz's competition for the 10 role, Matsuki being a backup winger (not the best fit), and Archer being a backup striker (also not the best fit since he's not in the Larin/Stewart mould we want). It didn't work with Matsuki (maybe he's too lightweight, maybe BBD incessantly dropping into left midfield instead of playing as a proper striker didn't help), it hasn't worked in the past with Azaz who wasn't mobile enough, and maybe it isn't necessary when the best name to fill the blank in "Azaz + Downes + ______" is Jander. But perhaps Akachukwu would be an option. He's got decent size about him for one thing. Last season Downes, Jander, and Charles shared around 8,800 minutes. Bragg had 1,000, then there were around 400 minutes in central midfield for a bunch of others. This season we expect Charles to leave, Bragg to get his ~2,500 minutes, leaving 1,400 minutes for the rest. Akachukwu and O'Brien-Whitmarsh have put their hand up for some of those minutes, and while I'd expect the latter has seniority and is a better fit for a more box-to-box midfield role, Akachukwu has impressed me even before today's goal.

Hopefully someone prints them out and takes them to the fan meeting.

Largely agree with the comments on yesterday's (second) game. Dobbin good, pissing about at the back bad, BBD won't fill the Stewart-shaped hole in the squad. I do want to point at that it was a much better second half, largely IMO due to Downes playing further up the pitch. Downes man-marking the oppo 6 cut off the ball into midfield and forced the opposition wide. When the ball was won, if it went back to Peretz he immediately looked to go long, partly because Downes and O'Brien-Whitmarsh weren't right in front of him giving us the numbers to play keep-away at the back.

We had the right idea but the wrong execution. Couldn't get Palmer, O'Reilly, or Bobb. Got a handful from the next tier down in 2022 (Lavia paid for Bazunu, Edozie, and Larios) but missed Rogers. 2023 got THB on loan and Charles, again missing Rogers who went to Boro. Rogers scored 4 in 5 for Citys U23s vs ours, so I don't know how easy he was to miss. He did a hammy at Bournemouth in 2021/22, was recovering at City for the first half of the next season (the sweetheart deals on Edozie and Larios in return for letting Romeu go to Girona were that September), then went to Blackpool and scored 1 in 20 in the Champ. In an alternate universe we liked what we'd seen from him at U23 level and didn't mind a punt on him coming back from injury, so took him instead of Edozie or Larios. In which case it's not "And we paid how much for Edozie and Larios?" but "We robbed City for Lavia and Morgan".

A red t-shirt with Midnite on the front? Someone's been spying on someone's training...

There's a difference between "signing better players" and "making better signings". JWP's good enough to start at the top of the Championship, but not good enough to start in the Champions League. I think someone who might develop into the latter would be a better signing than JWP, even if not a better player next season. It's Oli McBurnie all over again; do we want someone good enough for this level but not for the ones above, or do we look for a YHGTI diamond in the rough and risk ending up with a Downs? I'd rather take the risk in this case when we already have Jander/Downes/Bragg in midfield, have a couple of other academy players who could benefit from 900 minutes or so of Championship football, and have a scouting team that found Fernandes and Jander in back-to-back years so have proven they can find good young midfield prospects.

Still every chance he signs with Saints. Just because he lawyered his way out of a one-year deal on the same money he got last year doesn't mean he wouldn't sign a longer deal for the same money. He'd be a safer bet for the club than bringing in an unknown who could be anything from Larin to Downs. And we know the club wanted to sign him up using the clause, so the club doesn't actively want rid of him.

Got the result right, but otherwise this aged like milk. What a game.

Mentioned him on here a couple of weeks ago, looking at tall strikers in the last year (give or take) of their contracts (there's a club option for another year in Rodriguez's).

A different article along the same lines: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/worldcup/fifa-canada-cyle-larin-horse-woodbine-june-14-9.7235013

I mentioned him a couple of weeks ago in the New Strikers thread.

The club had the right to activate a one-year extension but (in their complacency) didn't. It's complicated by the deadline for the club to do so being dictated by when they played their last game, and the club not knowing the second playoff semi was the last game until a few days later. So I'm not going to be too mad at the club for failing to activate the extension when they were (possibly) thinking that we could get promoted and then not want Stewart around for the Prem. (Even though I think he's good enough for the Prem.) I'm also not going to be mad at Stewart. It's not his fault the club didn't lock him down and, having failed to lock him down, it's not incumbent upon him to sign a one year deal with the club with the already-agreed conditions. Maybe he resigns with us for a year and gets a pay rise or a signing on bonus he otherwise wouldn't have. Maybe we give him a two year deal instead. Maybe Hearts give him a pay cut but the security of a three year deal. Maybe he scores ten goals at the World Cup and replaces Lewandowski at Barcelona. He might end up back here. I think there's a good chance he ends up back here. I'd love for him to end up back here. The fact that - as of right now - he won't be here next year isn't something to get upset at him or the club about.

Matsuki isn't a winger; he's MUCH better centrally as competition for Azaz. We'd be better with Scienzas on both sides of the pitch and on last seasons performances Fellows ain't it. So trying to find another Scienza as a Fellows replacement is a good idea. I don't think this guy in particular is a second Scienza, but I'm glad the club is looking to improve on Fellows. This view might be a bit harsh on Fellows who definitely has ability, but his production last season just wasn't good enough.

Coventry had three very good strikers last season in Wright, Thomas-Asante, and Simms. They probably go with those three as good enough for the Prem, but if they bring in another then one of the three might be available. Two of them are going into the last year of their contracts, and the one most likely to be available is the youngest, cheapest, and most efficient last season on minutes per goal, Ellis Simms. Might be too expensive though. Looking at other tall strikers going into the last year of their contracts... Andrej Ilic is a Serb who registered five goals and ten assists in the Bundesliga last year. He scored seven in sixteen the year before when on loan from Lille. Forest and Coventry are rumoured to be in for him. If he forces Wood, Awoniyi, or Simms out, those dominoes falling might lead for an option for us. Kevin Rodriguez is in the Brighton system at Union SG in Belgium. That Brighton scouting setup can find a South American or three, and after a knee injury ended his first season there and his second season was shit he went alright (eight in 21) last season. Jesus Ramirez scored 18 in 33 in the Portuguese top flight as sometime captain of bottom-half side Nacional. If you’re not afraid of the German second division after Damion Downs, Isac Lidberg has a couple of good season at that level under his belt. Though you do have to query why he hasn't been picked up by a top flight side. A couple of younger strikers who outperformed his 17 in 30 last season are Mateusz Zukowski and Noel Futkeu. All three have German top flight suitors; Frankfurt have activated their buyback clause on Futkeu and are rumoured to be interested in Zukowski, while Monchengladbach are apparently interested in all three. Looking at the cheap option of free agents, Jonas Wind is leaving Wolfsburg. He’s a Danish international, and he’d be a proper Ross Stewart replacement on the basis of his multiple muscle injuries last season. (Seriously though, if he’s fit...) One for the future is 22yo, 1.97m Serbian Marko Milovanovic. He’s on the books of Spanish club Almeira who are currently in the La Liga 2 promotion playoffs, but had his first season of decent minutes in men’s football (he’s 22) in Portugal last season. Nine in 31 is decent, but more decent when he only played 1500 minutes. The year before he made some bench appearances in La Liga 2 and only played 60 minutes plus in the three Copa Del Rey games, which included a goal and assist vs Sevilla.

They have a stack of CBs, though the best of them is a 19yo being targeted by Champions League and Premier League clubs. If he goes, there's your Sugawara money. Their captain is also a CB, 28yo, came through the Bayern academy setup and is going to the World Cup with Austria. If THB is going (I'm not convinced he is), THB and Sugawara out, Marco Friedl and ~£15m in.

I wasn't making any argument on the merits of Ballard today. I was just pointing out that he is more a poor man's Armstrong than a poor man's Downs, and that he'd been let go because of what he'd shown before last season. I even mentioned that I wouldn't be upset to see him back here on the back of what he did last season. I also wasn't arguing the merits of undersized strikers, just pointing out that SR have primarily signed strikers over 6'1" and ditched shorter strikers like the poor prospect (as he was at the time) Ballard and the proven Armstrong, so it's unlikely he'll return.

And BBD.

No, it's a very clear message that we plan to win promotion next season.