Saint Mikey

When he signed for WBA it was reported he wanted to stay in North, wouldn't have changed with his next transfer. Same for Maguire I thought.

According to this article would command a '7 figure' compensation fee, but that seems a bit steep for a player without any 1st team appearances: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/exclusive-millwall-striker-abdul-abdulmalik-training-with-league-one-outfit-portsmouth/

Relevant to this ongoing saga - who was the last player we signed from Utd, either directly, loan or free transfer? I can't think of any players, but there must be?!

You do realise that all those players you've mentioned retired years ago and couldn't compete even at this level. The idea is that you find a player that can still play and can demonstrate coaching and leadership on the pitch. You need to find a player coming to the end of their career that's happy with just playing U23 football and learning coaching. I admit that I wouldn't have personally chosen Olly, but looking at his career stats he's played almost 350 games (admittedly mostly at League 1 & 2 level). That's a good chunk of experience to pass onto the young lads coming through.

Poland: a mixed bag with Boruc, Bart, Hajto, Saganowski, Raziak and Kosowski. Uruguay pretty poor with Gaston and Tejera.

Also Federico Arias, the ‘torpedo’. Didn’t even make an appearance.

Seems an odd one to me. They have Allan, Doucoure, Delph and Davies. Not sure Winks would improve that position markedly above any of those.

Depressing? Time for a bit of perspective maybe? I think it was depressing when we signed garbage like Anthony Pulis, Jordan Robertson, Romain Gasmi and Tommy Forecast. Players that were never good enough for us, barely played (if at all) and showed we were utterly desperate. Looking to sign a promising young player from Utd and a player who scored 28 goals in the Championship is not in that bracket.

When on song, Vesty gave us a really good way of turning defence into attack. Firstly through the long diagonal to KWP, secondly, the quick ball into midfield and thirdly his ability to bring the ball out himself. Whilst I think Salisu has been promising, certainly defensively - I haven’t seen him do this and wonder if it’s in his locker?

All becomes clear now. Obviously the reason he left out Ings, JWP and Bertrand before that. Can’t be any other explanation. 😐

I won't. I hope he scores an OG and gets sent off all inside 20 mins.

I didn’t see it at the time, but have since looked up the BBC coverage and am now outraged. #wanttobeoffended

Agreed. I'm willing to be shot down here, but I don't think he'll have a long Premier League career. He has some good attributes: pace and work-rate, but you need much more than that in this league. I think his technical quality, first touch, decision making and composure aren't good enough. They could improve, but at 22 that is less likely. Oxlade-Chamberlain, for example, was a superior player aged 17. It's seems like a Josh Simms situation to me, but I hope I'm proved wrong and it's just my opinion.

I heard he nailed Ralph's shoes to the floor and cut off a leg from his suit trousers. Don't think we'll be seeing him in the 1st Team for a while...

Transfermarkt estimates a combined £17m, but agree £25-£30m is more realistic once you factor in Premier League premium. Impressive stats and good ages. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/abdallah-sima/profil/spieler/776798 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/adam-hlozek/profil/spieler/552057 Anyone know how the recruitment from the Czech League is affected by the new work permit rules? Wondering if it's even possible?

This surprises me. I heard him on the BBC 72+ podcast and he said that he'd had offers, but was waiting for the 'right' opportunity, stressing the need for the right club and owner. God knows why he thought they're the right club given the state they are in, or maybe the offers had started to dry up?! Did a very good job at Lincoln, but was out of his depth at Huddersfield - although they were in a basket case situation, admittedly.

He has top end pace, something we lack in the squad. He gives us a real outlet playing in the position he did today. Feel like his close control and ball retention needs to be better though and this is probably why he hasn’t had more opportunities to date. As the team is crying out for the pace he possesses.

Neil Heaney was decent for us before he decided that he could do better. Career nosedived after leaving for City.

'KFC Bargain bucket-load'

Although showing glimpses as a wing-back, it’s never looked like he had the quality for this level IMO. He’s a young player, so maybe he’ll progress but he looks to have too many deficiencies. Poor first touch, poor positional awareness and concentration - added to a questionable attitude, doesn’t make it very likely. We’ve been blessed with exceptional young full backs at this club: Bridge and Shaw were particularly stand out at a very young age, even Dodd was decent and went on to make nearly 400 apps at this level. Valery is miles away from these players and I’ll be amazed if he ever amasses 100 Prem apps.

Echo other's comments on this - great listen! Thanks Ben for putting this together...

Agreed. I'm sure there's plenty of his behaviour he regrets, but who can say they haven't made mistakes? I'm glad he's turned a corner and is putting his focus into a worthwhile project. He isn't the only high profile player to have gone off the rails in this way, but Claus is an example from a previous generation where no planning was done for retirement and hopefully subsequent generations have learnt from this. It isn't enough to be financially secure, you need a purpose - especially if you're used to the adulation of fans and comradery of a dressing room. Once that's gone, it can leave a massive void and if you have an addictive personality then it'll be a slippery slope.

Don't think this will affect us in any meaningful way. If you think about the recruitment of young players from Europe in the past 10-15 years, then only Morgan and Valery stand out as players to make the 1st team. Valery (IMO) is not PL standard and unlikely to play much for the first team much again - could we have found a young British/Irish player that could have done as well? I appreciate we have Jankewitz and he may turn out to be decent, but he hasn't made a 1st team appearance yet. In the past we've done well purchasing younger capable players who've made 1st team debuts elsewhere: Stephens, Best & Blackstock. Whilst also buying players (or paying compo) who were much younger like Lallana and Walcott. So we could go back to this approach when there are gaps in our academy or because we find a good player playing for someone else. I think teams like Chelsea and their loan army, Arsenal, City, Liverpool and Utd will all be affected. Maybe Wolves with the model they have now. But how much is it likely to affect our recruitment, given how many younger players we've purchased from Europe and brought through to the 1st team?

Long's contributions from the bench are getting a joke now. His lack of goals/assists are well known, but does anyone have an idea of the other stats from his recent appearances: interceptions/tackles/successful passes/chances created? In the last few games, it looks like he's barely touched the ball.

I would have thought that the only change would be the playbook. The rest of the strategy would remain in place, we would work with the new manager and hopefully only tweak the playbook to their requirements. This would then be implemented across the Academy, B-Team and 1st Team. The players would have to learn some different tactics/positions - but as pro's you'd expect them to adapt to that. They would have played numerous roles and systems already and would expect to throughout their career. The key would the appointment of another progressive manager who has a philosophy that the whole club believes in and players thrive in. Appreciate that it's easy to say and not so easy to put in practice.