Negan

13 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

I like their humour. Still I suppose one needs a giant sense of humour living in a shithole like Middlesbrough.

I went to a friends house recently and his wife lived there for two years. So we had a game ti see which was the worst between Boro, Newport (South Wales) and Stoke. Boro a close second to Newport!

At least you can buy a big detached house with a large garden, garage and driveway for 300k. That gets you a shite 2 bed terraced house in knowle here… know where I’d rather be 

18 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

I agree completely.

But how was he going to find this out, without at some point picking O'Leary??

 

Begs the question was it even worth finding out? 

5 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

It's called competition for places. 

Now we just need it in every other position too. 

Yep and we found out Bentley doesn’t really have much competition. Shouldn’t have sat out as many games as he did. I do trust Nige but felt like he got this one wrong. 

He is genuinely a big part in the jigsaw to getting us top 6 in the league. If we can get a full season out of him we’ll be laughing. There’s a really good spine to this team that needs to be built on. Williams in the middle will be crucial to it working. 

Yep looking back now it’s absolutely crazy why he’s been sat on the bench. Sure he has the odd mistake but he wins us WAY more points that he costs us. Ffs Nige don’t drop him again because the drop off in quality is huge…. Felt a lot safer with him in there today. 

Really does depend on who puts what on the table. Imagine if we get 10m-12m for HNM he'd be off as we won't want to lose him on a free. I imagine Semenyo would fetch the same, 20 million is unrealistic unless he can score about 5-7 goals with similar assists before the end of the season and Alex Scott you would think would be our "big" source of income with him being 18 and English, so 15-20m would probably be enough to see him leave. If all those offers came in we'd be silly not to take it. 30-44 million in potentially which not only solves our money problems but leave us with money to re invest. Im not totally against the idea of selling them. I'll be getting a season ticket again regardless of who wears the shirt or what league we're in because im a f*****g idiot. 

1 hour ago, Supersonic Robin said:

 

If anything, I think the opposite of this may be true, at least for Pearson - I imagine he's far more likely to be praying that we're able to keep Scott, Semenyo, and Massengo through summer.  These are players that we should really be trying to hold on to if we have ambitions of progressing over the next few years.

Our aim in Summer should be (and almost certainly is) to offload most of the higher earners at the club (Wells, Palmer etc), such that we're under no financial pressure to sell the young talented trio. 

In a perfect world we’d move on the likes of palmer, wells and baker. Probably looking at about 1-2 million for all 3 but considerable amount of wages freed up. Be amazing if we can keep all 3 of our young talents but I think we’ll almost certainly lose one, my money would be on HNM at the moment. I expect Bentley will be sold as well, So if we could shift the dead wood, get a nice few quid for HNM/Bentley and the likes of Kelly, Webster and Brownhill are sold, it might just ease our money woes. The only problem is if we want to progress next season we need about 5/6 players in and they need to be ready to hit the ground running. Can’t really afford to bring in any more Tanners and Atkinsons.

I know they said we wouldn't sell our best players but I think the club are praying Semenyo and Scott continue their good form and bring us some serious money in during the summer. Along with Massengo those 3 going would more than balance the books and whilst they are all very good players we wouldn't be far worse off without them should we recruit the right players. Relying on Webster and Brownhill being sold is a bit hopeful. I do think Kelly will go, especially if bournemouth fail to go up. Newcastle and the Eddie howe reunion seem likely. 

Those sort of songs come during good spells at the club. When we’re getting served inconsistent football it’s hard for everyone to get behind the team as one. Not ideal but that’s the reality of football. You can’t force these things, they just happen. 

Do agree with a lot of the things you've said but personally think a play off charge next season is still a bit far fetched. This season was all about surviving and keeping us in the league. Next season I'd say would be the true beginning of the rebuild. A mid table finish with good football and hopefully a more solid defence. Id say the season after would be when we "go for it".

Just can't see us brining in the players during the summer for us to get in the top 6. Maybe the winter World Cup might help us out a bit with a rest, or it could stall our season and take any momentum we might have. Right now I'd be happy with a top half finish next year where we win games convincingly and cut out this pathetic run of conceding in the final minutes. It's been the first time in about 3/4 years I'm enjoying the football again. I can take a defeat or draw if I've just watched the lads give their all for 90 minutes and actually entertain us, which is what we've been getting. It's quite comforting knowing we're in safe hands with Nige, I genuinely trust him with our club going forward. 

7 hours ago, Calculus said:

Yes, I'm sure they're thinking the same thing. Trouble is that we'd then be without them. Develop potential and then sell once they get any good ain't going to get is to the Prem anytime soon.

But it helps keep our clubs head above water. I know they said they’d rather take a points deduction than sell our best players but if Semenyo and Scott were to go, we wouldn’t be much worse off overall but a lot better off financially. Be a shame to see them go but we’re in serious need of cash coming in. Might be a painful summer window I feel. 

Have always said once he can start scoring he’d be off to the prem and not to a crap team either like a Watford or Burnley. He’s the right build, has great strength, is quick and has power in his shots too. Best of all he’s young and English. If he can get in to double figures this season and Alex Scott can carry on as he is. They could both be the answers to our financial problems. Which had we not been in I’d be praying for us to keep them and build a team around them but with things as they are, we’re desperate for some big fees. These 2 could very well put us back in the clear, or close to it at least. I’m sure lansdown and co are thinking the same. 

42 minutes ago, VT05763 said:

Think we should stick to 3-5-2.

We have been much better in every aspect since switching to that formation, suits the players we have.

I would however play some more defensively minded players in the wing back roles.

 

                              Bentley

                Vyner     Kalas     Atkinson

HNM   ?                                                 Pring

                         King     James

                                Scott

                Semenyo     Welimann

 

 

Dasilva at RB and HNM where king is… that’ll do me. 

9 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Don’t think McInnes was exactly blameless, he already had Pitman (who bafflingly he rarely played) & Stead, but thought signing 2 more forwards in Baldock & Davies was needed more than any competent centre half.

Signed Richard Foster, Mark Wilson (who couldn’t run), social secretary Jody Morris plus Stephen Pearson & Stephen McManus on loan & then bleated about a lack of funds, well you spent it all on strikers, mate.

To be fair McManus for the few games he played in his first loan spell was absolutely immense, I can remember being excited when we got him back again but the damage was done. Watching Liam Fontaine and Nyatanga that season, along with foster.... you'd be lying if you aren't suffering from PTSD now. Martyn Woolford, Stephen Pearson, Ryan Taylor, Neil Kilkenny, Jody Morris.... Jesus wept we must have been part of some sort of sick social experiment to test how loyal/stupid we were to keep going every week to watch these players 

Don't fancy our chances against Fulham but you'd expect Blackpool to beat Hartlepool so you're probably right. Shame really! 

Jesus Christ.... To make it worse if you win you've got to fork out for a holiday to get your reward  Everybody is a loser here, especially the club. 

There will be quite a few giving him a call to ask if he’s interested, wouldn’t be surprised to see him go to Norwich. I’m not exactly Pearson out but I do hope we’ll be asking him if this is a job he’d be interested in. Things carry on as they are I can’t see Nige still being in charge over Christmas. 

It would be Kodjia. Bobby I wouldn’t really class as a “Striker” and to be fair we got lucky he had such a great season. I’ve been saying it since we sold Kofjia to Villa that we’ve never replaced him. We’ve tried and failed, Wells on paper should have been that replacement but what a waste of 5 million that’s been. We definitely need to be bringing someone in with a bit of strength and pace in January. 

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

That’s not true - 2 managers in 7 months were “seen off” - LJ in July 2020 and DH in February 2021 - where did you get “3 managers in 18 months” from?!

It would be on the assumption Pearson would be sacked as per the theme of this thread. Should have made that clearer

I mean he’s alright. Would you complain if you bought a tractor to a speed race knowing you’ve got 2 BMW’s in the garage. Silly to give him a role which he can’t physically and technically produce for. 

I’m just living in hope that it gets better when it’s 11 of his players on the pitch…. The manager of course takes blame but these useless bastards have seen off 3 managers in 18 months and the footballs not got any better. It WILL not change with ANOTHER manager. Players are more to blame. 

50 minutes ago, old_eastender said:

"green" maybe, in terms of few 1st team games, but they would give 100% effort & commitment, something sadly lacking from some "anything but green" players!

Do you remember how last season ended? whilst it was great to see the youngster get game time we couldn't win because of the lack of experience and quality. All well and good saying they'll show 100% effort and commitment but they aren't yet championship quality. Weimann can't be dropped imo, we need his energy and pace. Agree with Martin not starting, would like to see us go with a more free flowing, attacking forward line so Wells and Weimann could work. Just feel like Nahki has been given so many chances to earn a starting spot as a striker and he never takes it... 

If its another long term injury we're honestly best trying to get rid in the summer. We keep so many of these types of players around for too long. I can already see what will happen now. He'll have injuries on and off until theres about 6 months left on the contract, he'll stay fit for those 6 months, earn a new 3 year deal and then get an 8 month long injury. It's honestly gutting as he's clearly a decent player, but how many games has he actually played for us now? 5? Reliability is needed, can't afford to carry someone who can only help you for about 5% of the season. Think we have to cut our losses with him. 

He's going to be our Mr Dependable. Will always get 7/10 every game and chip in with plenty of MOTM throughout the season. He's that missing ingredient we've lacked in the middle for years. Him and James with a creative goalscoring CAM in front of them and we'll be good to go for 2-3 seasons.