Nathan Baker. Any fresh news or rumours

[DT The Optimist]

Been out  a while now and little information  coming out or leaked from the club re Bakes. He has been a big miss as at this level he was good…when fit.

while we all wish him well, IF it transpires that his footballing career is over in the pro game would the club be compensated and how would the value be set. Was he not initially a 4 Million signing…then resigned for nowt.. Just wondering as I would rather have a fit Nathan Baker than some Compensation that does not reflect the mans worth.

With the state of the finances how is his value worked out..
 

 

 

[GrahamC]

Would expect an announcement to be made once the season is over, probably at the same time as the retained list.

Obviously he has a contract for 22/23, so the insurance situation will be key.

Doubt that compensation is available, more a question of whether it compensates in any way for his wages.

[NcnsBcfc]

I wonder if there is some sort of precept for this sort of medical conditions with regard to insurance?

Seeing more, and more athletes in both forms of Rugby, and other contact sports (American football being another example) having to retire on medical advice from these sort of alleged conditions.

Sad times. We miss him at the moment.

[BTRFTG]

His health comes first. 

For now, let's leave it at that.

[Davefevs]

To the OP, there is no amortisation cost to consider, that was already at £0 last summer and therefore he’s treated almost like a free transfer.

7 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

His health comes first. 

For now, let's leave it at that.

yep.

[Dollymarie]

He got married yesterday

[Bristol Rob]

7 minutes ago, Dollymarie said:

He got married yesterday

The concussion is worse than I thought.

[Simon bristol]

4 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

The concussion is worse than I thought.

Yep, something is affecting his judgement 

[The Bard]

3 hours ago, JonDolman said:

I think having Kalas, Klose and now Atkinson back with Cundy as 4th choice means we are fine at centre back at the moment.

Problems have been elsewhere on the pitch imo.

I think it would be best for him to retire from the game if a head injury keeps him out for over 5 months.

Sorry but if Nige thinks we're okay at CB we're in trouble.  To my mind it's the route of our problems, especially with regard to leadership.

We need a Wes Morgan.

Personally I'd accept a reasonable offer (£1/£2 million):for Kalas in order to sign a captain and leader at CB. Kalas is not the long term answer.

 

[DT The Optimist]

13 minutes ago, Dollymarie said:

He got married yesterday

Good bit of info…good luck to him..

 

4 hours ago, Davefevs said:

To the OP, there is no amortisation cost to consider, that was already at £0 last summer and therefore he’s treated almost like a free transfer.

yep.

So IF  his career is sadly over someone somewhere will pay off his final years ? Not from club. 
you never know, he might be back but guess wait and see. 
As I pointed out in OP , wish the guy well, but of interest to City fans, like any other injured player. 

[grifty]

3 minutes ago, The Bard said:

Sorry but if Nige thinks we're okay at CB we're in trouble.  To my mind it's the route of our problems, especially with regard to leadership.

We need a Wes Morgan.

Personally I'd accept a reasonable offer (£1/£2 million):for Kalas in order to sign a captain and leader at CB. Kalas is not the long term answer.

 

Pearson hasn’t said we’re okay at centre back. JonDolman did. You quoted it. His post starts “I think” and you’ve turn that into Pearson thinks, so we’re in trouble.

Amazing.

[DT The Optimist]

5 minutes ago, The Bard said:

 

Personally I'd accept a reasonable offer (£1/£2 million):for Kalas in order to sign a captain and leader at CB. Kalas is not the long term answer.

 

Did we not pay £7 Million for him….NP likes Kalas…cannot see him leaving

[Merrick's Marvels]

1 hour ago, DT The Optimist said:

Did we not pay £7 Million for him….NP likes Kalas…cannot see him leaving

He'll be going into the last year of his contract this summer.....

Fwiw, my priorities at CB would be:

1. Aerially dominant

2. Excellent communicator

3. Leader

Not sure how many of those boxes Kalas ticks. Well I do actually - not enough of them.

Given that Tanner and Pring look like the future at full back and given at least one, if not more, of Scott, Massengo and Benarous will make up our midfield for the foreseeable - that's a lot of young, naive, promising apprentices in the team. 

What young lads learning the ropes need more than anything is older heads guiding them through games - and when I say guiding I mean talking to them, non stop, for 95 minutes.

That's why, for me, the team needs at least one, if not two, CBs who are excellent communicators. I'm not sure we have a single one.

The absence of leaders - vocal leaders - in a team that is relying so heavily on it's young players, is a major negative for me. And just another example of a dysfunctional set of players who don't gel as a squad. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Merrick's Marvels

[Davefevs]

37 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

He'll be going into the last year of his contract this summer.....

Fwiw, my priorities at CB would be:

1. Aerially dominant

2. Excellent communicator

3. Leader

Not sure how many of those boxes Kalas ticks. Well I do actually - not enough of them.

Given that Tanner and Pring look like the future at full back and given at least one, if not more, of Scott, Massengo and Benarous will make up our midfield for the foreseeable - that's a lot of young, naive, promising apprentices in the team. 

What young lads learning the ropes need more than anything is older heads guiding them through games - and when I say guiding I mean talking to them, non stop, for 95 minutes.

That's why, for me, the team needs at least one, if not two, CBs who are excellent communicators. I'm not sure we have a single one.

The absence of leaders - vocal leaders - in a team that is relying so heavily on it's young players, is a major negative for me. And just another example of a dysfunctional set of players who don't gel as a squad. 

Agree with almost all of that, but I don’t necessarily agree that it needs to be “older heads”…I’d go for experienced…and that might be younger than we normally associate, if they’re good enough to have played enough.

Nothing wrong with Caulker

I’ve been mentioning for a while we have no natural CB “screen”…neither Williams or James are screens.  Both can play deep, but their positional discipline is weak compared to someone like Pack.  A good CB has to be a good communicator, they also need to tell their screen where they want them too.  It’s a two-way thing!

[phantom]

3 hours ago, Dollymarie said:

He got married yesterday

Congratulations to the happy couple 

Nathan has had it rough recently, about time he had something go his way 

[Baldyman]

10 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

He'll be going into the last year of his contract this summer.....

Fwiw, my priorities at CB would be:

1. Aerially dominant

2. Excellent communicator

3. Leader

Not sure how many of those boxes Kalas ticks. Well I do actually - not enough of them.

Given that Tanner and Pring look like the future at full back and given at least one, if not more, of Scott, Massengo and Benarous will make up our midfield for the foreseeable - that's a lot of young, naive, promising apprentices in the team. 

What young lads learning the ropes need more than anything is older heads guiding them through games - and when I say guiding I mean talking to them, non stop, for 95 minutes.

That's why, for me, the team needs at least one, if not two, CBs who are excellent communicators. I'm not sure we have a single one.

The absence of leaders - vocal leaders - in a team that is relying so heavily on it's young players, is a major negative for me. And just another example of a dysfunctional set of players who don't gel as a squad. 

100 % ! I’ve felt for the past 2 seasons that Kalas is an issue . Way too quiet and “ leading by example “ isn’t enough . We need an on field “ manager” and we simply don’t have one . Think back to the likes of Flint, Shaun Taylor , and Louis Carey . Real vocal leaders on the pitch . Beacons that the younger lads can rely on . 

[GrahamC]

10 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

He'll be going into the last year of his contract this summer.....

Fwiw, my priorities at CB would be:

1. Aerially dominant

2. Excellent communicator

3. Leader

Not sure how many of those boxes Kalas ticks. Well I do actually - not enough of them.

Given that Tanner and Pring look like the future at full back and given at least one, if not more, of Scott, Massengo and Benarous will make up our midfield for the foreseeable - that's a lot of young, naive, promising apprentices in the team. 

What young lads learning the ropes need more than anything is older heads guiding them through games - and when I say guiding I mean talking to them, non stop, for 95 minutes.

That's why, for me, the team needs at least one, if not two, CBs who are excellent communicators. I'm not sure we have a single one.

The absence of leaders - vocal leaders - in a team that is relying so heavily on it's young players, is a major negative for me. And just another example of a dysfunctional set of players who don't gel as a squad. 

Interested in your view of Klose, I know he will be 34 in May & he needs to stay fit, but I’d suggest that he ticks all 3 of those boxes.

Baker, who NP obviously likes, only definitely ticks the first & possibly the other two, the last would be maybe more by example, I guess.

I am a bigger fan of Kalas than you, so if we could do a deal that suited us (or bluntly cannot shift him) would have no issue with him staying, we then need the right type alongside him, which is back to my initial question.

All supposition but my hunch is HNM is off this summer & Scott is probably the one of the 3 with the highest ceiling, so it might be the case that only Benarous (& then maybe as a squad player) is around relatively soon.

Edited March 9, 2022 by GrahamC

[cidered abroad]

4 minutes ago, Baldyman said:

100 % ! I’ve felt for the past 2 seasons that Kalas is an issue . Way too quiet and “ leading by example “ isn’t enough . We need an on field “ manager” and we simply don’t have one . Think back to the likes of Flint, Shaun Taylor , and Louis Carey . Real vocal leaders on the pitch . Beacons that the younger lads can rely on . 

Carey and Taylor, yes.

Flint a definite no. Didn't organise just slagged those who made mistakes.

Agree about Kalas. Almost every promotion team in the past, had good leaders.

Jack White, Jack Connor, Geoff Merrick, Rob Newman.

[Baldyman]

9 hours ago, phantom said:

Congratulations to the happy couple 

Nathan has had it rough recently, about time he had something go his way 

Ladies . If your hubby to be turned up for the big day in a pair of trainers , wouldn’t you be slightly concerned he was planning on legging it ?

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

12 hours ago, The Bard said:

Sorry but if Nige thinks we're okay at CB we're in trouble.  To my mind it's the route of our problems, especially with regard to leadership.

We need a Wes Morgan.

Personally I'd accept a reasonable offer (£1/£2 million):for Kalas in order to sign a captain and leader at CB. Kalas is not the long term answer.

 

I disagree that centre back is the root of our problem, though clearly our problem this season is that we are conceding far too many goals.  While I don’t absolve the defence from blame, if a team is conceding too many goals I always look at the team as a whole.  Are the wide players linking and covering for each other, or are the full backs being left exposed?  Are the midfielders protecting the centre halves?  Are the attackers holding up the ball and preventing it going backwards all the time?  Are the team as a whole defending set pieces effectively?  Sadly I suspect the answer to most of these questions is ‘no’.

Look at Saturday.  Sam Bell had a torrid time but if you look at the first Birmingham goal, ok he is caught upfield, but who is covering for him?  My son plays right back in his youth team, but if he pushes up then other players know it is their job to tuck in behind him.  It really was a schoolboy error, but not necessarily on Bell’s part.

You don’t concede as many goals as we have this season solely because of dodgy centre backs.  We’ve tried various combinations and formations at the back and we still concede goals, so the problem seems to me to be the way the team as a whole defends, or the way the team is set up.

i don’t have the stats to analyse this in detail, but I suspect that the problem is more in midfield than in defence.

[Son of Fred]

13 hours ago, Dollymarie said:

He got married yesterday

Another headache

[weepywall]

13 minutes ago, Baldyman said:

Ladies . If your hubby to be turned up for the big day in a pair of trainers , wouldn’t you be slightly concerned he was planning on legging it ?

Well she certainly wouldn't catch him if he did...she would trip over those flares.

[Davefevs]

8 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

I disagree that centre back is the root of our problem, though clearly our problem this season is that we are conceding far too many goals.  While I don’t absolve the defence from blame, if a team is conceding too many goals I always look at the team as a whole.  Are the wide players linking and covering for each other, or are the full backs being left exposed?  Are the midfielders protecting the centre halves?  Are the attackers holding up the ball and preventing it going backwards all the time?  Are the team as a whole defending set pieces effectively?  Sadly I suspect the answer to most of these questions is ‘no’.

Look at Saturday.  Sam Bell had a torrid time but if you look at the first Birmingham goal, ok he is caught upfield, but who is covering for him?  My son plays right back in his youth team, but if he pushes up then other players know it is their job to tuck in behind him.  It really was a schoolboy error, but not necessarily on Bell’s part.

You don’t concede as many goals as we have this season solely because of dodgy centre backs.  We’ve tried various combinations and formations at the back and we still concede goals, so the problem seems to me to be the way the team as a whole defends, or the way the team is set up.

i don’t have the stats to analyse this in detail, but I suspect that the problem is more in midfield than in defence.

Agree.

Structural issues in the way we defend as a team.

Easy to think of a basic 442 shape w/o the ball, the two banks of 4, shuffling across to the side, never allowing overloads, etc. Which is what we had early season.

Then I look at the recent games with a diamond / front-sweeper (call it what you like) and the shape w/o the ball is bad, the midfield too narrow, leaving either FB exposed.  We aren’t stopping the opposition CBs / FBs getting forward.  In my simple world, our strikers should be splitting and we should be driving them into the centre of the pitch, into congestion / numbers.  The Forest game wasn’t just Spence (RB) getting forward, but McKenna (LCB) too…so it wasn’t an issue on one side only.  That points to a team issue.

Then the 352 / 3412.  At times we’ve seen both WBs isolated.

The games (only a few games back believe it or not) where we played well in that system were games where we got our WBs high (to stifle our opponents building out) and our CBs were comfortable to play wide and cover the channel in behind.  Kalas is an athlete and can do that no probs at all, as can Pring.  I was surprised how well Klose did in wide areas defensively.

I’m still not comfortable with Weimann in the hole, but that’s a pros and cons debate, because we might lose his goals / assist output if we constrain him.

But overall the early season stopping our opponents getting to the halfway line and building territorial pressure seems to have gone in the main.

[SecretSam]

13 hours ago, Dollymarie said:

He got married yesterday

Hope he didn't dive into that like he does most challenges

[phantom]

2 hours ago, Baldyman said:

Ladies . If your hubby to be turned up for the big day in a pair of trainers , wouldn’t you be slightly concerned he was planning on legging it ?

I understand they are having another ceremony later in the year

I am guessing this was more registry office kind of event, but the other maybe will more "traditional" attire?

[Bristol Rob]

12 minutes ago, phantom said:

I understand they are having another ceremony later in the year

I am guessing this was more registry office kind of event, but the other maybe will more "traditional" attire?

You make it sound like he got day release from prison!

[DOZZYBCFC]

According to this, they got married in January.

[Bristol Rob]

21 minutes ago, DOZZYBCFC said:

According to this, they got married in January.

Maybe he forgot.

[OneTeamInBristol]

20 hours ago, JonDolman said:

I think having Kalas, Klose and now Atkinson back with Cundy as 4th choice means we are fine at centre back at the moment.

Problems have been elsewhere on the pitch imo.

I think it would be best for him to retire from the game if a head injury keeps him out for over 5 months.

There may have been other smaller problems elsewhere on the pitch but the overriding blatantly obvious one this season has indeed been the defence.

We've conceded less than 2 goals on only 2 occasions since the 4th December!

[Red-Robbo]

13 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

Maybe he forgot.

 

I think it was because they couldn't have family down for the wedding in January, so they held a celebration ceremony now.