Official Summer Transfer Rumours Thread 2020-2021

[DJMortimer]

11 minutes ago, wilyfox said:

Reducing squad size would be a good start. So much wasted budget. 

 

I don't think it's that excessive any more. Which position do we have a big surplus in?

[gurujuan]

1 minute ago, DJMortimer said:

 

I don't think it's that excessive any more. Which position do we have a big surplus in?

Keepers for a start

[DJMortimer]

11 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

Keepers for a start

 

One goalkeeper too many hardly makes for a bloated squad.

[Jim]

18 minutes ago, prowl said:

The fans stuck by the club in the past, I can't see that changing. Obviously gates will drop for L1 football but the majority will still turn up.

 

Not sure about that. Being relegated to League 1 once is unfortunate. Twice is silly. Three times is utter stupidity and that’s why I think a lot of fans will tell Chansiri to ‘stuff that’ 

 

His appointments of Monk and Lukuhay have been on the level of Irvine and to a certain extent Turner?

[Guest wilyfox]

10 minutes ago, DJMortimer said:

 

I don't think it's that excessive any more. Which position do we have a big surplus in?

 

We have 8 strikers. 5 on contract, 3 on loan. That should never have been allowed to happen. They're an expensive commodity and a waste of budget. 2 in the team, 2 on the bench. After that, dip into the u23s for cover. No value in having 4 on their arse in the stands. 

[nbupperthongowl]

11 minutes ago, wilyfox said:

 

We have 8 strikers. 5 on contract, 3 on loan. That should never have been allowed to happen. They're an expensive commodity and a waste of budget. 2 in the team, 2 on the bench. After that, dip into the u23s for cover. No value in having 4 on their arse in the stands. 

Unfortunately most of them aren't up to the job either, Fletcher excepted

[gurujuan]

7 minutes ago, wilyfox said:

 

We have 8 strikers. 5 on contract, 3 on loan. That should never have been allowed to happen. They're an expensive commodity and a waste of budget. 2 in the team, 2 on the bench. After that, dip into the u23s for cover. No value in having 4 on their arse in the stands. 

I’d like to see more emphasis on getting the U23s squad up to scratch, so that it could be used to supplement a smaller first team squad. Inadequate recruitment at that level last year, meant the squad wasn’t as strong as in recent times. We did promote a lot of the successful U18s last year, and perhaps some of them haven’t progressed in the way we’d hoped

[WalthamOwl]

27 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

Keepers for a start

Goalkeeper department definitely seems to have quantity over quality. For me we need a new number one for next season. 

[DJMortimer]

17 minutes ago, wilyfox said:

 

We have 8 strikers. 5 on contract, 3 on loan. That should never have been allowed to happen. They're an expensive commodity and a waste of budget. 2 in the team, 2 on the bench. After that, dip into the u23s for cover. No value in having 4 on their arse in the stands. 

 

Well that's sorted if 3 of them are about to go back to their clubs (although at least one of them is a midfielder). 

 

The days of first and second elevens and then scrabbling around the Academy in emergency are long gone, and with good reason. Using 20-22 players in a season is bordering on unheard of these days.

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by DJMortimer

[WalthamOwl]

17 minutes ago, wilyfox said:

 

We have 8 strikers. 5 on contract, 3 on loan. That should never have been allowed to happen. They're an expensive commodity and a waste of budget. 2 in the team, 2 on the bench. After that, dip into the u23s for cover. No value in having 4 on their arse in the stands. 

and apart from Fletcher none of them are up to it. Can’t wait to get rid of the majority of this squad. 

[malek]

4 minutes ago, gurujuan said:

We did promote a lot of the successful U18s last year, and perhaps some of them haven’t progressed in the way we’d hoped

 

Why do you think so ? We constantly get told how highly likes of Liam Shaw and Conor Grant are rated highly by our management, and both had good season.

 

Waldock, Dawodu and Borukov did ok by their standards.

 

O'Brien sadly spent lot of time out injured and only player who I feel underachieved was last season's U-18 captain Isaac Rice.

 

 

[Guest wilyfox]

15 minutes ago, DJMortimer said:

 

Well that's sorted if 3 of them are about to go back to their clubs (although at least one of them is a midfielder). 

 

The days of first and second elevens and then scrabbling around the Academy in emergency are long gone, and with good reason. Using 20-22 players in a season is bordering on unheard of these days.

 

 

Windass sees himself as a striker. Monk said he considered Da Cruz a striker. Forestieri's best season by far was alongside Hooper as a striker. All 8 are strikers, even if some can fill in other positions.

 

Bournemouth & Burnley got up with modest size squads. Norwich & Huddersfield also. I don't agree with fat bloated squads. They breed discontent. You can't keep everyone motivated and actively involved.

 

Name one club that had/needed/used 8 strikers in one season achieving success. Some only needed 3.

[gurujuan]

2 minutes ago, malek said:

 

Why do you think so ? We constantly get told how highly likes of Liam Shaw and Conor Grant are rated highly by our management, and both had good season.

 

Waldock, Dawodu and Borukov did ok by their standards.

 

O'Brien sadly spent lot of time out injured and only player who I feel underachieved was last season's U-18 captain Isaac Rice.

 

 

I don’t think any of them are yet ready for first team consideration, and maybe they shouldn’t be. I’m sure they will be better next season What I’d like us to do, is blend them with a few more players released by Premier League clubs. Probably our two most successful to come out of the development squad were Brunt and Whelan, signed from Boro and Man City respectively. In recent times, Clare has been someone who’s gone on to play regular Scottish Premier League games Of course we still have to develop our own, but we can’t ignore a route that has proven successful, not only for us, but for many other clubs

[Bluesteel]

3 hours ago, Tommy Crawshaw said:

 

He's been at the club 7 years now and I don't think even his biggest fans could argue he's been a success here.

 

We rarely win when he starts games so why hang on to and waste money on a player who is only useful to bring on for 20 mins or so.

 

Time to say adios, I'm sure we could find someone  from League 1 or 2 or even Scotland who would be a better option.

 

Let's face it if he was say a Blackburn player who had been there for the last 7 seasons with the same scoring record and we were proposing to sign him, then most on here would say we were mad.

I don’t know the stats but when a player has mainly been brought on as a sub it’s not going to make the scoring record look any good. But anyone who watches knows he does make an impact when he comes on against deeper lying defences. When he started games he got an ok amount of goals including double figures at least once, that’s all I am saying. Not that he has suddenly become Lewandowski.

 

If he’s only used 20 mins and is on 20k a week move him on. But if he’s affordable and we have a lot of business to do, keep him as we will need that kind of robust and committed player in the team. I am not sure a league One/SPL player would do as well if starting but if we just need a target at the end of a game then maybe it would be cheaper.

 

I could see Nuhiu going to a Preston, millwall, Birmingham or as you say Blackburn and doing a solid job 

 

[DJMortimer]

2 minutes ago, wilyfox said:

Bournemouth & Burnley got up with modest size squads. Norwich & Huddersfield also. I don't agree with fat bloated squads. They breed discontent. You can't keep everyone motivated and actively involved.

 

Name one club that had/needed/used 8 strikers in one season achieving success. Some only needed 3.

 

According to Soccerbase, Bournemouth used 5 forwards in their promotion season, Huddersfield 6 and Burnley 8 (although a few of them made a modest number of appearances). In Norwich's case they essentially relied on 3, but that is increasingly rare these days. I happen to think 5 is the right kind of number for all reasonable eventualities unless you regularly only play with one up front (perhaps using wide attackers instead). A couple of long term injuries and you're scrabbling around in these days of strict transfer windows.

[malek]

1 minute ago, gurujuan said:

I don’t think any of them are yet ready for first team consideration, and maybe they shouldn’t be. I’m sure they will be better next season What I’d like us to do, is blend them with a few more players released by Premier League clubs. Probably our two most successful to come out of the development squad were Brunt and Whelan, signed from Boro and Man City respectively. In recent times, Clare has been someone who’s gone on to play regular Scottish Premier League games Of course we still have to develop our own, but we can’t ignore a route that has proven successful, not only for us, but for many other clubs

 

I mostly agree with you.

 

But if players I mention are touted as future first team players now is the time to have them involved with the first team squad.

 

I'm not saying that they should start 30 games next season, but to train with first team, travel with them when U-23's are not playing, getting them on the bench and giving them some playing time when appropriate.

 

As you said, we don't want to have large first team squad, but smaller squad would demand our U-23's to step in when needed.

 

Also, there are plenty of young players from Premier League 2 that would improve our first team and that would jump at chance to join us in search of regular first team football at good level.

[DJMortimer]

3 minutes ago, Bluesteel said:

I don’t know the stats but when a player has mainly been brought on as a sub it’s not going to make the scoring record look any good. But anyone who watches knows he does make an impact when he comes on against deeper lying defences. When he started games he got an ok amount of goals including double figures at least once, that’s all I am saying. Not that he has suddenly become Lewandowski.

 

If he’s only used 20 mins and is on 20k a week move him on. But if he’s affordable and we have a lot of business to do, keep him as we will need that kind of robust and committed player in the team. I am not sure a league One/SPL player would do as well if starting but if we just need a target at the end of a game then maybe it would be cheaper.

 

I could see Nuhiu going to a Preston, millwall, Birmingham or as you say Blackburn and doing a solid job 

 

 

135+134 appearances, 47 goals in all competitions. Nowhere near proportionate to the amount of abuse he's received.

[yeadonowl]

7 minutes ago, DJMortimer said:

 

135+134 appearances, 47 goals in all competitions. Nowhere near proportionate to the amount of abuse he's received.

Could easily see him and Pelupessy ending up with Dross at St Pauli

[Guest wilyfox]

5 minutes ago, DJMortimer said:

 

According to Soccerbase, Bournemouth used 5 forwards in their promotion season, Huddersfield 6 and Burnley 8 (although a few of them made a modest number of appearances). In Norwich's case they essentially relied on 3, but that is increasingly rare these days. I happen to think 5 is the right kind of number for all reasonable eventualities unless you regularly only play with one up front (perhaps using wide attackers instead). A couple of long term injuries and you're scrabbling around in these days of strict transfer windows.

 

Maybe sporadic apps made by fringe players, but you could name 8 or 9 of Bournemouth & Burnley's starting XI every week before the teamsheet came out. They had a remarkable level of continuity in their side - where as we seem to be constantly rotating these days. We don't have effective combinations like we used to. 

 

In my opinion, we've really missed Hooper. He paired well with others, Fletcher & Forestieri inparticular. 

[Jim]

6 minutes ago, yeadonowl said:

Could easily see him and Pelupessy ending up with Dross at St Pauli

 

I think he'll end up somewhere in Germany or maybe in Eastern Europe? Wasn't he linked with an Albanian club not that long ago? I would be surprised if he stayed in this country?