Smirking_Saint

Ive said what Ive said, regardless of commitment he is our 3rd best CB on our books. As per playing regularly he was replaced by a Bournemouth side that struggled defensively before January and we’ve been trying to offload him for about 18-24 months I applaud his commitment and his vocality, but I want to see ability first

Without going into huge details, I get to hear plenty from the training ground for one reason or another, I have been privileged to have been invited to a couple of games in the board room both home and away in the past The general whispers around Tella, and most of the squad are that they’re relaxed. Comfortable with the clubs vision and under RM.. there were a few challenging characters at the end of last season, but most are gone or have relaxed. Tella himself is happy here, but I think potentially happy if he moves, there is no perceived ‘push’ to move to Burnley at all As for Burnley, I don’t really understand why you think he’d get a ‘larger wage’ with you, comparatively speaking we are a bigger club with deeper pockets, and likely looking to tie up new signings into relegation clauses… Id suggest realistically you are at risk of relegation, but in terms of the three promoted clubs you probably are that level above but still Now of course my next statement will have a level of bias, but I don’t think its too far away from reality. If we look at the potential placement of both Burnley and Southampton in 5 years its hard to argue the latter club is likely more upwardly mobile, in terms of size and budgets All of this is before we even talk about having to live in fucking burnley

You’re also skint.. so theres that too

I think this is it, Im hoping they are resisting performance related bonuses as, in all likelihood, considering is WHU and a 28 yr old JWP its highly unlikely ro happen

Most of the time I feel like you want this situation so you can have another dig at the club

Not really sure why someone would laugh at this, its a pretty reasonable and objective view. Im sure Stephens would be a reasonably decent CB at this level, but out of those still at the club he is 3rd out of four with Lyanco being the worst He is a purely reactive defender whose main positive, if sifting through fans opinions, is that he i occasionally gets in the face of opposition players… a nice enough attribute to have, but I prefer ability (See Lyanco) Im not entirely sure what’s happening with ABK, he’s spent time in Germany during pre season.. potentially getting rehab ? Either way I see Bednarek and one other for our defence this year, if that one other is Stephens then so be it, but of the two Id pick Bednarek, because by every metric except ball progression he is the better player We hace enough experience in the squad anyway, what we need are born leaders, both Bednarek and Stephens have shown this in the past, so thats a good start… if we lose JWP we’ll need an adequate captain to replace him and arguably a further voice in the middle of the park but the closer it is to Sept 1st the less likely I think it is that JWP leaves

Wages and I don’t think he wants to play in the champ TBH a loan could work out, shame for us but we keep a good young player registered for next year 🤷‍♀️

Coady wanted to stay north, and to be honest Im still to be convinced by that signing, Im not sure Id of been that happy with it personally Winks.. he could be a good player at this level but again its a bit of a risk for me and Im not sure he offers anything more than Smallbone Mavididi is decent enough, I think thats a solid signing at this level but we have an abundance of wingers I doubt we were in for any of them really, theres no links to them this year, in fairness our deals have clearly been kept close to our chests.. ive only really seen Edwards, Manning and Charles and of those three with signed two A striker worries me, thats all really, because I think the rest are a ‘see who leaves’ sort of deal.. but Im not sure we can cope with Arma/Che… as good as they were when we bought them, im not convinced they can regain that confidence

Who have we lost out on so far ? The only players we had competition for were Charles and Manning

I think someone scammed you and sent some made up entry requirements… but um… good luck

I mean you’ve named 4 that don’t even play in the same position for a start

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8 ?

I imagine there was a bit of a conversation but I think Downes wants to try his luck for WHU this year, doubt he’ll move until late or Jan

Injured

Well… yes and no I suppose… the strategy is they present less risk, for instance Edozie/Larios/Baz’ values probably don’t depreciate as much as those we spent on Onuachu, Aribo etc Im not sure how much I hang my hat on ‘sign experience’ although it is significantly easier in the Champ.. because historically our ‘ready to go’ signings have been absolutely terrible But after all that is said, I do think we need to bring in one or two heads with leadership abilities to help galvanise us

Sort of, the main difference is Piroe will probably play in Italy next year

Thanks for the info though Turks…can’t believe it though

Towards the end of last season he was certainly pushing to leave, of the French quartet I believe it was him and Diallo that were the most vocal Perraud is generally well liked around the place though so outside of the group dynamic it felt a bit off Ive not heard much for a little while so hopefully he is one of the lads whose thoughts had changed towards a more relaxed approach… although… our persuit of Manning sort of felt as if 2+2=4

I didn’t get to see the AZ game so I can’t really comment, I thought (maybe wrongly looking at your comment) that the FBs seemed higher in the highlights ? What I noticed in the other friendlies though is that in transition the No.6 drops into the back 2 to create a 3 and the FBs tuck in infront of that… occasionally pushing wide for an overload.. the two ‘no.8s’ push forward into No.10 positions A bit like this

Yeah I agree, although we seemed like we were pushing the FBs forward yesterday and not utilising them as inverted WB/CMs so.. dunno Either way I think 40m or so for Tino is silly money for a guy with an ACLr

Perraud, Onuachu and maybe Mara, I think Sule or Tella will stay.. don’t think we’ll lose both Im still on the fence about JWP… WHU seem the only choice atm and they know it

Ive not seen it yet but the 5 second clip I saw from AZ’s feed looked like KWP was beaten too easily and the goalscorer ghosted past the LB/CB… so looked pretty poor Ill need to see it properly though