Davefevs

I actually get what you’re saying. But I also think “what would our midfield look like without him”? I think he’s actually a bit more important than I think some of us realise at times, me included. Bit of taking him for granted. I made that mistake a bit with Brownhill…I don’t want to make it again! ? As for value / fee, no idea. We all agree there needs to be a sell-on percentage, but I also think we should be including the other clauses like 20, 40, 60, 80 appearance pay-outs, or next level(s) international caps. Achieving a Sell-on percentage might be years and years down the line, and although welcome at any point, we have seen with Brownhill, Kelly and Webster, they don’t happen when you need them most. We’ve earned money from those three for things like relegation-avoidance clauses. All good fun to speculate though. ???

PO on the case.

But you don’t have to take what’s on offer. Imagine LJ (or MA) coming out and saying (without naming players names) “we were in for a player who really would’ve been the icing on the cake, but the deal just couldn’t be done in this window because of the situation other club. No other players justified the outlay, so we are gonna go with what we have, and work extra hard to get over the line. We don’t want to waste money on the wrong player.”. Imagine the message that would’ve sent out. LJ - I pick the team as if my daughter’s life depends on it. Also LJ - but I’ll spend money like it’s someone else’s ??? Yes, when you’ve spent £20m+ already. The fact we sold Brownhill tells me we didn’t have £10m to spend. I might be wrong.

Easy as an outsider to say but I’m not convinced Jones’s style (gobby Duracell bunny) is the right fit for a number of PL clubs. Probably best for him he got to the PL through Championship promotion.

This really bugs me. Why didn’t he say no then? As per a chat with our mutual friend…LJ wanted Toney that window. Well, guess what? DMac went on Sky and said he wanted £10m and player loaned back to see if Posh could get promoted. Ok, some of that was DMac bluster, but essentially we couldn’t afford what LJ wanted in the winter window. So you start to explore other avenues. Even if LJ himself told me himself he didn’t want Wells, I wouldn’t believe him. He might have wanted Toney over Wells, wouldn’t we all. But for a manager who has gone on record saying he has final say (not just the once either) to say he had a player hoisted onto him is bullshit imho. Not having a go at you btw. We broke our recruitment model for Wells. LJ knew what he was getting. Again, LJ will have final say. Was excellent on his debut, having not played for 6 months, but LJ flogged him, subbed him because he was knackered, and it ended up in a dressing room argument. He signed Benkovic and didn’t play him too. I like aspects of LJ, but I just don’t buy the “it was a Mark Ashton signing”, much as I’d love to shift 100% of the blame onto him! ?

Agree to a large extent. A club like ours has to grow its performance at a slightly higher rate that it’s individual players. We saw with the SOD / Cotts players plus Bryan and Reid from Academy (that he inherited), that if you can get on an upward turn, grow the team with the odd signing to improve you, you can move forward quickly. But unless you achieve success, those players outgrow you. Always a big Q for me - had we got to the playoffs in 17/18, might the holy trinity of Bryan, Reid and Flint stayed for another run at promotion? We started to look at “established” players in summer 18, Weimann, Watkins and Hunt (plus Webster). Webster was the right model, young at this level with upside. We needed to raid Championship clubs for 21, 22, 23 year olds, making the most of out upward trend. Hindsight, yep, but we went to Eisa, Adelakun, lower League. It was actually the summer LJ recruited the least number of players, just 6!!! And spent the least money!!! But I think we wasted it on Watkins, Eisa and Adelakun. They weren’t going to improve us. Hence why in January we went for the Chelsea not-so-holy trinity of Dasilva, Kalas and Palmer. Going forward, once we get out of this mess left behind, we need to find a way to pillage the weaker teams in this division for their youngsters, sell the HPC and AG to them, sell the culture. You’ve got to get them on “low” wages, so you can can give them another contract to keep them that extra season. I don’t hear enough if that forward planning, the plan should be to sign players who are good enough to grow. Of course the odd senior pro on a free like James and Naismith, but the only way City will do it is to get a good young core and grow together quickly.

Do you mean at City or Hibs? We bought Nahki Wells, we signed Markus Henriksen. ??

Millwall 2022 results:

Away goals rule?

In a back three system, from what I’ve seen of him, I could see the old Holdenball “a six and 2 eights”, where Khadra plays as the Paterson 8…if that makes sense. Weimann the other 8. I think our WBs would need to realise they have to “play inside” sometimes, which they don’t unless it’s with the ball. If we continue with a back three then we could go 3421, two no10s. Khadra would fit that.

? Spud

Big difference in getting the value for money on the pitch for players you’ve signed yourself or re-contracted yourself, than ones you’ve inherited! Hence why we’ve got rid of Palmer etc to save costs. Some players we are only now in a position where we e either a) change our opinion of their ability and / or b) got other players ready to take their place. If Nige is still picking Max over Bents after 13 games, it’s probably (debate, discuss) because he thinks it’s best for the team, and clears his thinking re next season. Don’t forget he needed to make a decision on both keepers, it’s not just Bents OOC. Bentley’s wage was inherited, there’s not a lot he can do about that is there? Humour me for the mo’ with a hypothetical question - Do you play the better keeper on £4k p.w or the lesser keeper of £15k p.w? Had Nige signed Bents for £15k p.w and not played him, that’s a completely different kettle of fish, and a more realistic take on what RG said. You’ve probably got a similar scenario with Pring and Dasilva - a relatively high wage inherited. Massengo, I’d be including him, but as you know a few rumours around that he’s moving on this window. Bentley might be too. Klose, I’ve no idea of his wage, normally I reckon I can come up with a ball-park, but he’s a tough one. Even so, he’s a compromise signing anyway. So, in summary, I don’t really think the same way about it as you, and we shouldn’t be picking players because of their wages either! edit:@chinapigtypes quicker than me! I see it as we’ve got better player in some positions who are cheaper. I see that positively on 4th Jan. We really need to wait and see where we are on 1st Feb, after the window shuts, then we will know what we have, and what wages we are left doing nothing. But I’d be giving Nige credit for lowering the wage bill as much as he has so far.

Either gonna be a war-zone or a slippery slope.

I saw that earlier. I thought others might find it churlish if I posted. ?

Definitely “future manager type” for sure (?). I can see some logic to this, but am also surprised, as I thought he’d want to carry on playing, even down the levels.

Thanks to @Bat Fastardfor this link: https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/walsall-fc/2023/01/04/walsall-seal-loan-for-bristol-city-centre-back-joe-low/

Mike Flynn is manager who Tins will have had plenty of loan dealings previously whilst at Newport.

How many people answer “Max” to the Q - what was the dog’s name in Hart to Hart? It was Freeway, not Max.

According to the rules, yep. Could be Police / SAG involvement in setting that number I guess. Not sure what our capacity is when you take off the top tier of the Lansdown and the netting area in the Atyeo.

They still got Andre Gray ???

I missed the “et al” bit….although I could cover myself and say I read it as El-Abd!!! In terms of: Martin Massengo Bentley Dasilva Moore Kalas Klose Who are the ones that might not be here next season, I reckon you’re talking in the region of £4-5m off the wage bill. All their amortisation will be gone too, leaving us with circa £5m less in costs next season too. So letting them all go reduces our 22/23 costs by £9-10m in 23/24…as a starting point!

Didn’t see this happening. Going back to the old German model! cue pictures of Wagner from X-Factor!

You’d think it’s probably something like £25k p.w (£1.25m) off of the wage costs.

If it makes 10k I’d be surprised. Dunno how many sold, but I’m gonna guess 7-8k???