Davefevs

No, because I think he’ll go this summer

Yes, and…..your point??? I would tend to trust the Head of Medical, wouldn’t you? And they’d done similar for the previous 5-6 international breaks according to Fleming. And had been successful in reducing muscle injuries with a small squad over the time the medical team had been in place. Not sure why the “laugh”? Yep.

Kinda with you there Jeez

I was trying to understand FJM’s insinuation, but I think you’ve worked it out. Sounds like Jon just “made it up” to give him an excuse for Nige and Rennie. And as for suggesting caused on purpose, I’ve read it all now. My word!

.see London’s post

Most “bosses” would support their “staff” through illness, wouldn’t they?

And this is why I’ve always remained neutral on Tins re the sacking…mainly because I’d heard nothing about his involvement. So I had no beef with Tins. And I still don’t, although once sacked, Tins would’ve played a big role in choosing LM. Again no issues with that per se…only the bits about whether it fitted the “front foot, high press…..” remit. But I will argue (debate) with anyone who says Tins had nothing to do with LM’s appointment. That’s kinda his role, innit?

Just to be clear, when I used that term earlier, I didn’t mean one not to challenge straightaway, but one who’d be a bit more willing to not start every game. As per my other thread, I think someone like Max Dean could come in play off the bat, but he’s probably not gonna start 30-40, that will be the premise of the main no9 signing. So yes a viable starter (nice term), but younger…and cheaper. Will be interesting to see where Bell fits in when he is back from injury, especially if we persist with 3421.

Ta. Is that because they’ve reached the age that they don’t get a shirt anymore? If so, I imagine they’re at an age where the SS is mire where they’d wanna be anyway?

Firstly, agree with your earlier post, as I said not black and white, more a generic thought process on ins and outs. If Tommy goes, and we bring in Dean, then that also gives scope to improve elsewhere, so not necessarily just one out / one in. There’s too many moving parts really to be categoric. Re @ExiledAjax, we can’t afford for our no9 or no10 to fail. They are the key signings. If we get them wrong, then I think opportunity to kick on becomes so much harder. Back to you Silv. I’m just gonna ignore Mebude’s loan, opportunistic and poorly sold. So we signed 4: - Bird - Stokes - Murphy - Twine plus TGH made perm. 4 out of those 5 were on the radar before LM signed. So I think we have to wait to see who the no9 is before deciding whether the profiling has changed under LM or not. I also think that Stokes and Murphy have more of BT’s influence than LM’s due to their age. So we are really left with Bird, TGH and Twine as players to go through what I’d call the “first team recruitment process”. Add to that the number 9, and any others we sign as others depart. LM does make a strong play about physicality, runners, etc, so interested to see who comes in. Good to hear Knight describe Bird yesterday too.

this is Wide and Attacking midfielders (inc no10s) in the Championship. 6th out of 184 who’ve played 500+ minutes. As for Smyth at QPR, I think his average is increased to the 100 times Pring fouled him at Loftus Road!

Silv - I think the 9 and 10 come in regardless of whether Tommy leaves. If Tommy leaves we may bring in another forward, but might be one more for the future (see my Max Dean thread). So Twine goes back - we are one down. The new no10 (might be Twine) comes in, numbers back up. New no9 - an extra squad member I think King goes - one down, but replaced by Bird, numbers back up And I think we keep one of James or Williams, so one down, but with Knight moving deeper that accommodates the duo of Stokes and Murphy as squad options. Of course if both go, then I think we will add a player, but I think that will take budget from elsewhere if it requires a fee, hence why I think we will try to retain one, likely Williams. So, in LM’s eyes: - the 9 improves us - the 10 improves us (Twine or whoever) - Bird improves us Everything else is a reaction to who leaves if anyone. I know it’s not as black and white as I paint it, but if those 3 players improve this squad / 2 players if you count Twine as already here, then I do think that can be enough of a difference-maker. The margins ARE fine. I don’t think LM thinks he’s getting 5-6 players on top of the scenario I set out above, nor is he getting oodles spent, but he he does exoect his squad for next season to have 2 to 3 (see above) players that improve the base he has now. Hope that makes sense. Where this changes is with the possibility that certain players leave, e.g. Conway, Naismith, Pring, etc, who might all have suitors for different reasons.

We are gonna have to see aren’t we? Would be good to know how many ST sold in SS for 23/24 season, versus for next season (24/25), and how many POTD that leaves. Not that I’m in conversations with many fans, let alone SS ST holders with kids, but I haven’t seen much “traffic” on OTIB saying - I’ve relocated to the Lansdown family area. That’s not to say they haven’t, but I do wonder whether the thought of never getting a ST back in the SS might’ve persuaded some to suck up the price increases. Out of interest, does anyone know the capacity of SS and how many ST holders there were last season?

Please don’t. remember: #feelingsupersonicgivemesammieszmodics that went well didn’t it!

Club tweeted yesterday. So 4k renewed between the timing of GM’s numbers given to FBC and yesterday.

Announce Twine, Twiney, Scottie, Twinesy and Twiniesta for half of them!

It’s called choosing your moment isn’t? LM is smart to know when he can use these comments or not. Nige used to also. On a good run, it’s exactly the time to push home what you want. Like you I think it’s the 9 and 10 in, and everything else is a reaction to outgoings. But the size of squad won’t be massive.

19….20 next week!

I’m sure he does.

Come off it Ross…How many Dickie POTS threads have their been, how many Jason Knight threads, Haydon Roberts threads? All crediting recruitment, how great a deal they were financially. So, no, there isn’t just a focus on the negative, there’s more than plenty of positivity about recruitment, it certainly outweighs one thread on Mebude, and some. Within these 9 pages there is credit for recruitment.

Imho Matty James has far from “had his day”, but that’s not that I expect to see him here next season.

Between us we’ve covered most, not always in loads of detail, depends what he’s said. I have made notes on every LM interview, pre and post-match, club or media. I started doing it with Nige to jog my memory of what he said and when he said it. For LM I was trying to build an emerging view of him and his team over that initial 20 game period I’d given myself, so as not to jump to conclusions. FWIW I’m not fussed by the tone of his voice, Nige wasn’t much different either in his delivery, more interested in what he says. Generally I like the detail he gives. I don’t think he’s a bluffer, I’ve always said that…I think he has good foundations. Most of my issues with him were translating those foundations onto the pitch at Championship level.

I do like the thought of the 15 second down idea though. If you’re down that long feigning it, you are effectively gonna have to have 2 mins off the pitch.

Isn’t that the lesson though? They went overboard in their comments when signing a young player. How many of us would’ve minded had they said, “we think he’s a talented boy, but he’s struggled over in Belgium for x reasons, so we are taking a look at him. If he does well, we’ve agreed a deal with Westerlo, because we want to protect ourselves”. That type of thing. But we got a load of spin, and in some cases lies. Spin is ok, lies is unacceptable imho. It hasn’t worked out, but it’s also cost us a few quid to find out. I’m generally ok with that, because I doubt it cost us too much (few quid in last sentence). There is another intangible cost, re it’s possibly cost an academy player some experience of the match day set up. And it’s possible to view a window / multiple windows overall yet still critique an individual signing. You’re making out because it’s been generally decent (agree, I’ve been a big advocate of recruitment improvement over 2.5 years) we mustn’t call out individual deals. And nobody expects it to be successful every deal, but just like we can say how good a signing Dickie was, why shouldn’t we say how bad a signing Mebude was. OTIB has been fine being critical of individual signings in the past.