RedNachos

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

One Brighton fan suggested Potter leaving halted his chances.

Makes some sense, under Potter Brighton began to  stockpile young players (very successfully mind) so that shouldn't be too much of a blackmark on his career for not getting chances there.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but there seems to have been past interest from clubs more competitive than ours: https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/07/09/report-leeds-want-to-beat-rb-leipzig-to-sign-brightons-haydon-roberts/

Past links to Leipzig (despite them being a cancerous business model) are a pretty good sign, as recruitment of young players there is often very sharp. 

Wonder why his stock has fallen - if it has?

1 hour ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Initial fee looks closer to £500k than a £1m. 

Probably a bit misleading to describe him as a "punt". He's a player in his prime who has spent the last 3 years playing at this level. Pretty much as "safe" a transfer as you can get really. 

Does he improve us? Almost certainly.
From a squad point of view, we have 2 fit senior CBs going into next season (Vyner & Naismith). So, obviously, Dickie is an improvement in terms of cover relative to having nobody.
From a starting XI point of view, he's probably an upgrade on Vyner. That's no disrespect to Vyner at all, he improved massively last season and is a decent option. However, as mentioned earlier in the thread, Dickie was being linked with £10m moves to the Premier League 12 months ago.**

** (Imagine if I'd told you 12 months ago that we'd be discussing whether Dickie starts ahead of Vyner!)

I don't think the word "punt" is an entirely false description of the transfer. In my mind a punt doesn't necessarily have to be the hit and hope business of an Arnold Garita or more recently Stefan bajic, wherein there is very little risk and a very attractive, yet difficult to obtain, upside, but rather I think we have near certainty in Dickie being an accomplished Champ level centre half, but also the possibility of him reaching levels where previous premier league interest is justified. The club are doing businesses with the safety net of securing a good standard defender, but could also hope to see this 'punt' reap greater rewards and levels than that.

I think overall, this is a very sensible but forward-thinking move for both parties and I'm glad this signing hasn't been a "saga", but something from obscurity, yet something with decent levels of thought from the club put into it.

Bad week for people called Phil

A friend of a friend of a friend recently got chatting with Kingy at a wedding, and a bit of news about his club status has been relayed to me with the knowledge that I'm a keen city fan. Apparently he's been offered a 1 year deal by the club but is currently stalling negotiations on the basis that he still lives in Leicester and his wife and himself are unsure about commiting to the city of Bristol. 

Take that how you will .

In an era of Tv where synthetic personalities are taking over, having a genuine, skilled and passionate guy in a leading role for sky is so refreshing (regardless of how long he's been on the air). Certainly opened my eyes on a serious issue that i've been relatively sheltered on here.

Hats off Mr Stelling

Why is Sykes still on the field? Already not looking up to it but growing increasingly more tired. Would’ve kept wells on put cornick on the right

Wells looking nice and sharp but slow days at the office for sykes and james 

Not entirely convinced by his figures, but most definitely a player with good quality technical attributes for the league. Would imagine that leaves us playing a 3 up top with him left, Wells through the middle (which has been a long time coming) and Weimann right. Sensible but not awe-inspiring.

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Very little mention of his performance tonight on the MDT.

Bar a couple of mis-times headers early doors, he played really well.

Positionally he played as the central man tonight.  Why?  He has played there before (Fulham home 1-1 v Mitrovic one occasion).  For me, it’s because had he played him LCB3, Millwall would launch everything right / right of centre where Vyner and Naismith would be less adept in the air.

Playing him central meant he would be able to cover both Vyner (R) and Naismith (L) without needing to be too far out of the middle.  It meant Millwall couldn’t just go straight down the middle.

This is not dissimilar to Flint with less adept CBs aerially in Ayling and Williams in 14/15.  Some Lg1 teams want to bomb down the middle, but Flint ruled that out.

Well done Rob, little bit of credit to Nige too

Don’t see how Nige gets any credit - dropped him due to a personal vendetta. Then through popular demand  recalls him and he peforms.

Seriously frustrating, taking a core rule and element of football out the equation is mad. The throw-in has been a historic part of the game and you only need to look at the liverpool throw-in coach to know it's a complex part of football to those who actually watch the game, as oppose to the 'american soccer fan' who'll tune in to the world cup semi's and tweet about how they should turn it to kick-ins.

It's for that extra pay-per-view in America rather than the working class season ticket holder and it's ruining football. What a spineless group of mugs run a game loved by so many.

19 minutes ago, WirralRobin said:

Sykes is the Scott Wagstaff of 2014/2015 right? Versatile, always gives hundred percent, good squad player, who will mostly come off the bench....

Always gives a 100% is not what ive heard from an oxford mate, the other two im very encoursged by though.

Am I the only who's feeling mildly sad at this, he came to us with an exciting air around him, and has shown sparks of excellence. However, through injuries and positional problems, he's never reached close to the potential I've longed for him to acheive.

By all means the right choice for us to let him go, but leaves me with a 'what could have been' feeling.

Our best kit in a long long while, massive fan of that. good work from Hummel again.

Apprehensive when I saw his age, but should Klose depart this could be an extremely good bit of business. Could bring that leadership and experience Klose had while being versatile and off the peak of his career.

Excited to see his run out in re season and where Nige sees him fit (multiple positions or not).

happy with that and love the Luton lot’s meltdown!

Takes a lot of bollocks to come forward, especially if you look at some of the morons already giving him social media grief. Nothing but respect for the lad though, inspirational to others in his situation.

god help yeovil 

This signing reminds me a tad of Sammie Szmodics. One the club has done their work on early and are hoping to seal the deal before competition come in. Not loving what I'm hearing on the consistency front, as Nige seems to favour consistent hard-working players, over the 'flashes of brilliance' in Massengo and Bakinson.

If his wages are low and its a free I'm all for it though - and I'd love a contract where he is rewarded for appearances etc with extensions, so that we can offload easier should it become clear Sykes won't be part of our long term rebuild squad, but tie him down should he become a hit. 

8 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Ah yeah, forgot to add that article suggests that Bournemouth are keen, watch him regularly.

We know about Celtic's interest already.

Bournemouth can **** off

2 minutes ago, ProfitInMyPocket said:

There isn't anyone better available to fix this mess. 

The club has been heading in this direction for years and it is going to take years to fix our finances. 

Couple poor performances and everyone is out for blood again. The fans of this club are used to quick splurges of money for quick fixes and it has come back to haunt us. We can't buy our way out of this one. 

There is no patience anymore. Just because we spent lots of money in previous seasons doesn't mean we have any right to be a top half side, you have to earn it. 

I'd rather attempt to steadily progress, look at Luton, Blackburn, Huddersfield, Millwall and Coventry for examples. Don't spend fortunes but have been patient and have reaped the rewards and have a good chance to improve next season. 

Look at QPR, West Brom, Stoke, Derby and Reading who have tried to buy their way up the league, it doesn't always work.

I've seen a few signs of progress, I like seeing the young lads get opportunities and some of the players get me off my seat, I haven't had that feeling for a little while. I'm not going to wet the bed just because we've had a few bad performances recently, where was this furore when we had a good run of home form a couple months back? 

If NP decided to up and leave then another yes-man will come in and bow to the almighty lord and saviour SL and who knows what will happen, I'd rather go down attempting to fix the finances and the culture of this club where the players get too easy a ride for below-par effort and performances. 

I'm hopeful the culture can change with SL still in charge but I still have my doubts. 

You sure? I'm sure Huddersfield fans were confused when David Wagner was appointed, and so would we be if Juan Manuel Azconzábal, Fabian Mercidel, Jorgen Isnes or Callum Davidson, but who knows? They might be the answer. The problem with us is we are to small minded, instead of success rate, statistics, play style and recruitment success, we go on the metric of past Championship experience. A manager might have failed at every club they'e been at, but had a good 5 game run at Middlesborough and we'll be foaming at the mouth.

Give someone unknown who has excelled elswhere and just change the mindset of the club in general. 

15 hours ago, billywedlock said:

In the past this level of squad got us relegated. A huge success. NP is doing a miracle. 

So , who is the right man in your view ? 

Did it?  I don't understand the narrative that he is somehow turning shite into gold. He blocked out Dasilva for reasons unknown to anyone who's watched the club and when he comes back in he reveals to Nige he's a championship standard player, he'd shown that already, but NP was too ignorant to use him. And he's now being hailed for 'transforming players'. It makes no sense to me. Similar situations have occurred with players like Bentley, Wells and Atkinson, lads who are good enough for the XI and frozen out with their replacements having subordinate performances.

He's also seen as revolutionising our youngsters, not to me. With a player like Scott, the natural ability while shine through, Nige has not turned Scott into a great 2nd Div player, Scott is a great 2nd Div player, and the same can be said for Semenyo. Massengo was the youngest player to play in the Champions League at one point, and it's only through poor management from Pearson's predecessors that he hasn't hit major heights, he then was given a run of games due to injuries to Nige's favourites that he got games and he excelled. Now though, can't get a start, in my view due to poor man management..

So no he hasn't "made the best of a messy situation", he's made sloppy decisions, and our results have been shite. I just don't believe he's the man for this situation anymore.

7 hours ago, When the river runs said:

Joey Barton's hated for his criminal ways but it's all forgotten with Troy's. 

Booting a defenseless student in the head . I think he should leave the politics to someone else as hes no role model.

I understand where you're coming from, but I'd argue this isn't political more addressing obvious injustice. There needs to be a wider range of viewpoints taught in schools that's a fact not a political opinion.

8 hours ago, Mr Chappers said:

I can think of Klose as a signing, replacement for Baker. Who is the other one? Or do you mean Atkinson?

Idehen

I know this may not be the main priority of discussion on the forum with that terrible Barnsley performance still fresh in the memory, but I have a massive negative that no one has pointed out that I've seen which is the situation with Ryley Towler

At the start of the season he secured a League 2 loan to Grimsby Town, something I was very happy with, as it was clear from his appearances with us previously he needed game experience against higher standard opponents than National League or u23s and he goes there and the feedback is he's smashing it. He looked a very competent, technical player who was growing in confidence and maturity.

Then we pull the plug on that move, blindly expect him (a player doing a sound job in league 2) to come into the side and fix our defensive issues. We realise it's not going to happen and he's been sitting in the reserves since, while we sign 2 centre halfs, and have 2 coming back from injury. With this multiplying number he most certainly won't get a game and if we want him back on loan next season it'll likely have to be League 2 again. 

In short, we've taken a player from a loan spell he was thriving it in to have him just train with the first team, doing god knows what to his development.

I've backed Pearson considering the challenges financially he faces, but you can't bring in two centre halfs and recall Towler, it's a move one might expect Holden to make, not someone with his "experience". Little things can have big consequences considering the restraints on the club and a move like this does leave me wondering if NP is the man for this job.