Phileas Fogg

What's also really interesting is how the youth development system has developed several different styles of forward in Semenyo/Conway/Bell. Semenyo - strong, fast and explosive. Conway - clever movement, natural goalscorer and great at linking play. Bell - fast, excellent finisher and excellent to find with throughballs. It seems that with all three examples, we've managed to find their strengths and hone them really well. In years gone by, it seems we mainly developed players who primarily had the core attributes of good fitness, work rate and attitude. Examples I'm thinking of here are Craig Woodman, Cole Skuse, Joe Morrell, Zak Vyner, Bobby Reid and Joe Bryan. Obviously Reid and Bryan went on to develop into really good players with far more to their game, but the core attributes were what enabled them to be around first team football. Whilst I don't doubt all our youth products in the couple of seasons also have these core attributes, it seems all of them have a more than that, and all of them have big individual strengths.

It's also a real 2006 thing to do.. of all the possibilities you can do to mess around on the internet, some choose to edit Wiki!

I loved Maine Road. Really unique looking ground. Imagine having Oasis support you too? Can't get better than that... apart from maybe The Wurzels

I think the type of player he is, and not coming from a totally conventional academy background, means he still has room to develop however the coaching staff see fit.

Looks great in those clips. I appreciate it’s a small sample, and he’s not necessarily a like for like replacement, but he look to have better technical skills than Semenyo. Pearson has talked about wanting a creative maverick type (ie Knockeart) and this guy seems to fit the bill. The Tinnion tweet all but confirms it’s happening.

I think Johnson did definitely have a good eye for a player. I know people will cite the likes of Diony and Engvall as counter points, but I think Johnson could spot good potential in players. I wonder whether he may be better suited to a more back room role, something around club culture and player ID. A but like what Dan Ashworth or Brian Tinnion do.

There is no need to be so self-deprecating…….

He's only played a full 90 minutes 6 times this season in the league and he was coming back from injury at the start of the season. He had just had his longest run of consecutive 90 mins (4 games) and had scored 3 times. Had he stayed, he'd have breezed to 10. Probably finished somewhere on 12/15 assuming he stays fit. It's really not that hard to just admit you went OTT and were wrong. I thought Vyner would never be good enough for us and wanted him sold, now he looks very solid. I was wrong about that. It's just a football forum, doesn't matter that much.

If I remember correctly, @Dynamite Red has called several things right like this over the years.

Is it? Seems pretty cheap for a player of his ability, proven at this level too.

I think it's very difficult to value players these days post-covid due to the market falling off a cliff. For what it's worth - I think the add-ons will surely be a bit more appetising than "here's an extra 1.5 if we stay up" and this is ultimately why we accepted. I think Semenyo will do well there. I think he will end up having a better career overall than Reid and Bryan. I'm going to miss watching him, loved his pace, power and rapid improvement over the last 18 months. I just hope we can replace him stylistically because we clearly thrive with a player like him in the side.

Before they had money was several years ago now - so would’ve made him early 20s at most. People change.

Is it? He's pretty proven at this level now having had good seasons with Luton. Semenyo has equally had injury issues so it's hardly a unique case. Seems a fairly sensible signing really.

Was going to say the same thing. It's very difficult to value players now, especially if you're comparing them to pre-covid which was obviously unsustainable. I wouldn't even really guess a players worth now because it seems pretty random.

If you looked at Semenyo's stats for this season you'd see he has 5 in 22.. but looks to be leaving for 10m+. Doesn't always factor in the whole context (inclusive of injury, form or anything else).

Didn’t get the bite he was after so quoted his own post to try again.. I respect it in a way, the unrelenting commitment to being an arse…………..

Yep really enjoyed watching his development. I wasn’t as bothered when Bryan, Reid and Webster left.

First time for a long long time I’ve been disappointed about a player leaving

Maybe I’m just grumpy but I generally think our social media content is still poor. They just try far too hard and it usually misses the mark in my opinion.

Good post, true. ‘All you can ask for’ was more a lazy figure of speech really - I think you get my point though. I do feel he does get a harder time than he deserves on here. He obviously benefited from a great deal of patience and financial backing. Ok, care to expand on that?

I can understand why he could seem annoying.. but I don’t understand the will for him to fail at other jobs.. especially those in a different country ! I agree there’s genuine debate to be had over what Cotterill could have achieved with the financial backing and patience Johnson was afforded, but neither of those things are Johnson’s fault per se. The job was probably a bit too early for him, and he almost definitely benefitted from a good relationship with SL.. but I do believe he genuinely cared for the club and tried his best. That’s all you can ask for really. Managers such as SO’D, Coppell and McInnes (who clearly didn’t ‘buy in’ to the club nearly as much as LJ did) don’t get anywhere near as much retrospective stick.

It genuinely made me chuckle - RR constantly bangs on with his bizarre views about the "OS".. and obsessively tries to belittle the notion that some posters might be "in the know" (essentially because he's jealous) yet he posts this ? I respect the brass neck of it in some ways. Another thing I genuinely do like about RR is his dogmatic determination to use the dated olde OTIB emojis (or, emoticons as they were called back then)...........

By his own admission, as long as it's being gone about in the right way with respect for fellow supporters, there's nothing he can critique as he claimed they were his only issues with it. I am pleasantly surprised that the organisers are liaising with the club. I had a bad feeling they wouldn't and things would abruptly fizzle out. Good for them.

For someone who dismisses "wild speculation" this is quite a bold statement. I do believe though, he created problems for himself through recruitment of characters (Tomlin) who were too challenging to manage. Having someone that disruptive and problematic in the dressing room is always going to cause issues that don't need to exist. I completely understand why he wanted to recruit Tomlin, but it didn't half make things more challenging for him.

That point about Stoke is a bit of an odd one. I’d understand if we were talking about a big club that’s genuinely underachieving like Derby or Sheffield Weds.. but Stoke?!