Team For 18/19

[JasonM88]

3 hours ago, fishy said:

Because he's by far out best player this season 

No he’s not 

[Mr Popodopolous]

7 hours ago, AshtonGreat said:

I agree about Bobby. Although he has only had one really good season, so I don't think the price tag would be as high as suggested. I'd price him around £8million, with Bryan £3.5million and Flint £2million.

I think we can get more than that for those players (last year of Reid's contract though, could that keep his price artificially low?

Can we afford to let his contract run down- all used to be so much simpler pre FFP- necessary evil though it is)!

In a market where James Madison is being touted as a 30 million pound player this summer, those prices really sell us short tbh.

[fishy]

6 hours ago, JasonM88 said:

No he’s not 

Everyone has their own opinion. I personally think he's been our player of the year.  So will agree some won't. 

 

[AshtonGreat]

6 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I think we can get more than that for those players (last year of Reid's contract though, could that keep his price artificially low?

Can we afford to let his contract run down- all used to be so much simpler pre FFP- necessary evil though it is)!

In a market where James Madison is being touted as a 30 million pound player this summer, those prices really sell us short tbh.

To be fair, James Madison was the US President. He's worth at least that.

I don't think Bryan is a £10million player (to answer another poster), and a lot's happened since we were offered £6million for Flint.

If Bryan is worth a lot of money, Flint is worth a lot of money and Baker is our best defender, why are we shipping five goals at home. Hmm.

[Carey 6]

15 hours ago, ZiderEyed said:

I honestly think our back 4 next year will be:

NEW RB - Vyner - Kelly - NEW LB

I think it’ll be Pisano/New RB, Wright, Vyner, Kelly. 

Like I always said Vyner was never a right back, I’ll always say Kelly isn’t a centre back, despite what he prefers himself. 

I don’t see Magnusson as a viable option moving forward as a CB either, he’s just not physical enough. I know the days are gone where centre backs were hard ***s & not much more, but you do need to have a little bit about you.

Unless Kelly beefs up a bit, I can’t see him playing there & doing as well as he has done so far at left back. 

 

[Olé]

There have been a few threads like this and I honestly don't know about this continual assumption that Flint is off.

I know the new contract is meaningless but I do think there has been a shift in the thinking at the club since the issue at the start of the season, and everyone has seen that the original expected outcome re: Baker and Flint has not materialised, and has now gone in the opposite direction with the way that Baker is "playing" now versus Flint. If either of them looks like their head is elsewhere it is not Flint, and if you had the choice it isn't Flint you'd sell.

The new contract was an indication of that, but also I thought the truth about that Birmingham episode, which was cloaked heavily in rumour and innuendo, is that Flint was and is committed to City and the issue is that it wasn't reciprocated by City/LJ at the time. I just think it IS now, and he is at a stage in his career that his value is probably higher to us with what he has proven he can and does do, than to anyone else who would match that value.

In other words, the sort of club that could pay what he is worth to us, obviously needs to believe he either can represent a proven Premiership first team player, or at least more than the solid Championship player that he is for us; and/or they need to believe over the course of a 3-4 year deal he will represent an investment that increases in re-sale value. As good as he is for us, I'm not sure another club could be confident of either of those things.

At the end of this season he'll be 29. At the end of a contract with a new club he'd be 32/33 and unless you've established him as a proven Premiership player, you would not be recouping whatever it is WE value him at now and will expect someone to pay. Which is why I don't think he'll go. As much money as is thrown round, clubs are not frequently in the business of spending big sums on players they can't account for as assets with retained value.

(I've pointed this out before on here, but transfer fees are the biggest red herring in football as a business. Sky Sports News likes to wet themselves about it, but it really is no measure of a club's intentions. If you're buying assets that are early in their useful life and going to improve, the transfer fee is retained value on your books. Your only real outlay is wages, which is why salaries / signing on fees are the true measure of your means, as it is for us).

Incidentally, Joe Bryan neatly represents the exact opposite of Flint in these terms. Regardless of some of our concerns about his defending, he is clearly at a different stage of his career where he has obvious attributes, is still developing, and other clubs would expect to retain and improve upon whatever they pay - so it IS the optimal time for a deal to be attractive to both City (how much more can we really add to his value) and another club. 

Bryan will go and Flint will stay. Bobby Reid of course, is a no brainer to whoever can tie him down. I doubt it will be us but it would be the deal of the summer if we could.

[cidered abroad]

12 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

Because Korey is our best player....

As a defensive midfielders,I completely agree with you. But when he goes anywhere near opposition goal, he freezes. I've lost count of the dozens of times he gets the ball just outside the box and seems clueless about what to do. (Man U excepted)

Any midfielder at this level should be getting half a dozen goals per season.

[General Zod]

So opinion/consensus is that Pack, Flint, Bobby, Joe are good enough to be in demand and could  move on, Famara is possibly a 20 goal striker with a full season and Baker is the best defender at the club.  When you add to that the likes of Smith, Brownhill, O’Dowda, Durich and Patto who aren’t mugs at this level.  To me this just highlights that the weak link and fault for our disgraceful and unchecked fall from the top 6 sits clearly with the coaches.  If any part of the set up needs re evaluation in the summer it’s there.  I’m not saying sack LJ but please let’s find the guy and experienced number 2 who he feels happy to work with and who’s critique/opinion he can accept, someone who he can talk through in play tactics/subs with and someone who has seen it all when it comes to loss of form.  For me that’s the only way this club will move on no matter who stays or goes on the playing side.

[fishy]

10 hours ago, Ivorguy said:

My question was in answer to the point made that we needed Smith as captain

I have seen or heard nothing to suggest he can do this job. 

Nothing to do with his ability as a player.

We need a leader on the field capable of raising others' games and influencing tactics

I see.  I missed that. 

[ZiderEyed]

1 hour ago, Carey 6 said:

I think it’ll be Pisano/New RB, Wright, Vyner, Kelly. 

Like I always said Vyner was never a right back, I’ll always say Kelly isn’t a centre back, despite what he prefers himself. 

I don’t see Magnusson as a viable option moving forward as a CB either, he’s just not physical enough. I know the days are gone where centre backs were hard ***s & not much more, but you do need to have a little bit about you.

Unless Kelly beefs up a bit, I can’t see him playing there & doing as well as he has done so far at left back. 

 

 I think realistically we need to wait and see how Kelly fills out yet. He's got the frame and athleticism to play there imo, and I maintain he's better defensively than he is going forward. 

I wouldn't be against that back line though, despite recent performances I still reckon Pisano is a good right back and that Wright is solid for a good championship side. I do wonder about magnusson and hegeler though, Hörður has undoubtedly improved but I doubt we'd get much of our investment back if we moved him on now.

[UREDS_91]

22 hours ago, Fordy62 said:

That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. 

No, the best news is GON - OOC! 

[GrahamC]

2 hours ago, Carey 6 said:

I think it’ll be Pisano/New RB, Wright, Vyner, Kelly. 

Like I always said Vyner was never a right back, I’ll always say Kelly isn’t a centre back, despite what he prefers himself. 

I don’t see Magnusson as a viable option moving forward as a CB either, he’s just not physical enough. I know the days are gone where centre backs were hard ***s & not much more, but you do need to have a little bit about you.

Unless Kelly beefs up a bit, I can’t see him playing there & doing as well as he has done so far at left back. 

 

Not a chance that will we start next season with both Vyner and Kelly as first choices in our back four.

Kelly possibly, especially if Bryan goes and Magnusson stays on as LB cover, but Vyner? Can’t see it (and I’m a very big fan of his).

That back four lacks experience and assumes that Bryan, Flint and Baker all leave, yet we don’t replace any of them!

[Nogbad the Bad]

2 hours ago, General Zod said:

So opinion/consensus is that Pack, Flint, Bobby, Joe are good enough to be in demand and could  move on, Famara is possibly a 20 goal striker with a full season and Baker is the best defender at the club.  When you add to that the likes of Smith, Brownhill, O’Dowda, Durich and Patto who aren’t mugs at this level.  To me this just highlights that the weak link and fault for our disgraceful and unchecked fall from the top 6 sits clearly with the coaches.  If any part of the set up needs re evaluation in the summer it’s there.  I’m not saying sack LJ but please let’s find the guy and experienced number 2 who he feels happy to work with and who’s critique/opinion he can accept, someone who he can talk through in play tactics/subs with and someone who has seen it all when it comes to loss of form.  For me that’s the only way this club will move on no matter who stays or goes on the playing side.

Not as far as I'm concerned.

I reckon we could rebuild the defence around Flint, not so Baker or Wright.

[daored]

On 22/04/2018 at 11:11, Red_Wizard said:

 

16/17 Signings:

 

Tomlin

Magnusson

Moore

Djuric

Engvall

O'Dowda

Taylor

Hegeler

Brownhill

De Girolamo

O'Neil

Matthews

Paterson

Lucic

Giefer

Wright

Abraham

Cotterill

Ekstrand

Lucic

 

17/18 Signings:

Diedhou

Baker

Eliasson

Walsh

Steele

Pisano

Leko

Kent

Woodrow

Diony

 

Red = Poor Signings

Yellow = Jury is still out

Green = Good Signing

 

Just in my opinion of course, but this what I rate the quality of the signings we have made. Does anyone actually trust Johnson, Ashton, and the scouting team to actually be able to improve our team? Again in my opinion, we will be royally f***** if we lose the core players we have before Johnson was here. 

A worry is the number of players we’ve signed, on loan or permanent. I wonder how much we’ve paid out in agent fees etc 

[simon uk]

On 22/04/2018 at 11:56, Davefevs said:

I posted either yesterday or day before that Hegeler is probably one of our most technical players and I think one of our best players if we played a style to suit him.

His touch is exquisite.

The signing of Baker was to cover Flint going, but it ended up stifling Hegeler.

Hegeler is a bit like using a formula 1 car to go rallying, very talented footballer but totally unsuited to championship football. What a waste of a salary.