Davefevs

1-0 up Chukwumeika from close range just before h-t. the goal scorer has been a bit sloppy at times.

Just Google “u19 England”

Double D-utch I assume!

All fair points, although I like Wells’s movement. We are gonna have to wait and see….all good debate though.

I notice supermarkets are saying they are selling copious amounts of popcorn in stores in EFL club locations!!

I take solace from the team that evolved over last pre-season to the team that moved to 9th in the table after 8 games (12pts), that looked solid, if not exactly exciting….without Semenyo, but Scott not at RWB but in a midfield role or off Martin, Joe Williams in a team with James, Atkinson looking an assured signing, etc, etc. Add Naismith and Wilson…plus Sykes who I’m trusting of the recruitment team…etc etc. I’m not one who watches to see end to end stuff. I saw us grinding stuff out in those early weeks, I quite liked it. Injuries then hit, first Williams and King…Baker for a bit, then James too at various points. I shan’t be making predictions until I see our squad and 23 others around the end of July…plus witness our pre-season! ? I’d rather Semenyo wasn’t injured, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like he will be out all season either.

The flint in the lighter will spark imminently is the threat!

All about opinions ?. Does Wells, Martin, Weimann, Scott (plus maybe Sykes) lack power (I take it you mean power as in goalscoring power rather than physical power per se?). I don’t call it optimism, it’s just reflecting back on my thoughts over a period of months about the lack of balance we had last season…plus I don’t think Nige really wanted to play a back three either. But we are gonna have to wait and see. All part of the fun. Never easy being a City fan is it?

As a simple answer, yes, that might be true. I guess the better, more complex answer, is one where Nige plans to evolve a system WITH Semenyo that works at both ends of the pitch, or one that takes “key-man dependency” out of the equation. In particular our 3 signings, where does each fit in with that master plan. I’m so intrigued to see how pre-season pans out…albeit gutted Antoine will be missing from it. Looking back at last season where we went through pre-season into the first part of the season playing 4411/442, you wonder how that might’ve panned out with Semenyo, Martin, Wells and Weimann vying for those front-two slots? Maybe he would’ve gone 433 straight off the bat. Who knows. Not sure if I’ve answered your post or not….let me know if it’s a bit hypothetical / ambiguous.

Dasilva’s shin “splints” were eventually found to be a small fracture weren’t they?

Can just see a meme of Trevor Birch holding a golden share over a shredder!

I wonder if he may have “done it” v Sheff Utd in the penultimate home game???

Wow, that’ll help goodwill.

Posted this in the Semenyo thread on the transfer sub-forum.

Their home shirt is nice too.

The more honest answer would’ve been: I signed Andi who’d spent his last few seasons playing wide right (Derby and Wolves) but the player himself says his best position is a striker, which I agree with having looked back at his time at Villa, and that’s why we’ve signed him and where he’s gonna play. No fake news there….that’s what was said (paraphrased) when he signed. The contention comes from Lee himself that half a dozen games into that season, having initially seen Andi score regularly playing as the main striker, Diedhiou came back from gob-gate suspension, and not long after Andi got shifted back out onto the wing, a position Lee played him in a lot of the time for the rest of his tenure as City Head-Coach. Is any of what I’ve written untrue? I’m not trying to be clever either, just seemed a strange claim. I will give Lee lots of credit for Bobby Reid, but to claim he turned him into a 9 1/2 is disingenuous to say the least.

Not sure if I posted something similar on this thread a few weeks ago (or on some other platform), but… …unpopular opinion… …although Antoine’s injury is a blow (or life without him had he been sold - the thrust of my previous post) , it happening now, pre pre-season might not be as bad as many might think. Why, you may ask? My gut feel is that WSM is a bit rigid in what it means for the rest of system. Great as it is offensively, it creates problems defensively / without the ball. You can’t leave any of the three out, and therefore when we’ve played with a back 3, it means two CMs often left with too much ground to cover, but also leaving our WBs exposed at times too. To play a back 4 we needed Williams to play as a front sweeper, I.e. dependent on one player, who has had injury problems. What we need to stop thinking is “we’ve got nobody to replace Antoine like for like”. Why does it have to be like for like? What if we suddenly decide to play two number 10s instead (Weimann and Scott for example) behind Martin or Wells. Different skill sets required for that role, and it might also help us defensively too. We could go with two up top and a conventional three man midfield behind. It creates opportunities. Pre-season is gonna have a different look to it now…but I don’t see it as doom and gloom. We reached 9th in the table early last season before injuries struck. That was without Antoine too. Love him to bits, he’s the goat, but I don’t see a cause for panic. Not just yet anyway! ?

They’ve signed David Marshall.

#squadgame The pitfalls of naming a best eleven!!! Hope makes a swift and full recovery.

I don’t think there was anyone.

My gut feel is that these allowances are a case of “here’s what you are allowed to claim without anything to back it up”, I.e. if you want to claim more, as other clubs have specifically annotated in their annual accounts, then you must provide documentary evidence. Audited accounts may be classed as evidence???

Shame about Lucic, thought he had the perfect physique to be a top keeper. Could play off either foot, albeit a bit erratic. But didn’t have the application to go with it.

Yep, agree.

Nixon was adamant the other day that £21.4m was the price, there was no negotiation downwards!!! ???