GrahamC

4 hours ago, David Brent said:

I don’t imagine he was ever seriously linked with the job here.

Probably not, because we’re consistently risk averse.

Appointing Dean Holden, FFS.

Alkmaar aren’t a big club, so if we wanted we could appoint this “type”, who could turn out to be the next De Zerbi or the next Jan Siewert, but we never do.

Huddersfield look nailed on to me, 1 point from the last 9 available & taken a couple of hammerings.

If they win today they could well drag Birmingham down with them.

Sheffield Wednesday’s last 2 look tough, so can’t see beyond them or Birmingham to join Huddersfield, depending on their result today.

1 hour ago, grifty said:

I understand. You could say Mebude was a loan to view if he's any good. He's not, so nothing lost. TGH was signed on loan under Pearson no? He's been injured a bit and Knight Williams/James has been in form so no need to break them up but provides good competition/cover at worst.

Twine is another loan to see if he's good enough. If he really enjoys his loan that could knock a few grand a week off any wages demands. Fee yes would be expensive.

It will be an interesting summer with regards to transfer targets!

Time will of course tell but replying to your last sentence, I really don’t think it will be.

Twine permanently & a striker from the Belgian or French leagues & that’s your lot.

18 minutes ago, spudski said:

I enjoyed that. 

What crossed my mind, about the sacking, and that it wasn't amicable, is what reason they gave to Pearson on sacking him.

He says he finds out post sacking by public interviews that it was down to results and worry re deconditioning of players. 

It's obvious he didn't want to go...so what was there reason to him.

He says he's a manager, and obviously relied on his coaching staff to coach. 

In the same breath, he says he's concentrating on getting back to full health and reading between the lines wouldn't take another job on until ready. 

So did he feel with his health situation he could still manage us using his Coaches. 

It raises those questions in my head. 

Obviously none of us know, but my take is they told him they didn’t think he was physically able to do the job & his view on this was what you said in your last but one paragraph, Fleming & Euell were his coaches & so they could do “day to day”.

The club were scared of saying anything health related publicly, so came out with the story about poor results & even if you consider that we had a large number of players unavailable, that’s at least factual, but JL then bizarrely decided to add the “deconditioned” comment, which was far more disputable.

Certainly if you believe his version of events, they said one thing to him & then another to the public.

I listened to about the first half hour (at which point I sensed they were running out of questions) & thought it was good.

Big difference between believing all the answers & appreciating the questions being asked.

Certainly find it barely credible we don’t have a budget set by now, the explanation that we don’t know who is staying is a red herring.

Really can’t see the point though in mentioning for the millionth time that we didn’t put a sell on clause in for Andy Cole to someone who if he was alive back then, was probably at infant school.

Different board, entirely different time, just like the regular mention of John Ward/Benny Lennartsson, it really is ancient history now.

4 hours ago, LondonBristolian said:

I think the problem is that, however many players you sign, there's always a risk of an injury crisis. Admittedly we are quite prone to them though!

For me, a lot depends on some other questions

1) Are Murphy and Stokes part of the squad next season?

2) Is Knight-Lebel seen as a long-term squad option rather than a short-term bench filler?

3) Is Backwell, Seb Palmer-Houlden, Yeboah or anyone else going to be becoming part of the squad?

4) Can we get Naismith, Atkinson and Benarous fit and playing regularly?

5) Will Conway stay?

 

In theory two new additions could take us to around 27 players and that could be enough. Certainly many more than 28 and the squad starts to be over-filled with players who aren't playing if there isn't an injury crisis and that can be a bad thing. 

I think two players is enough if there are no departures beyond James and King, we're confident on Atkinson and Naismith's fitness and four of JKL, Murphy, Stokes, SPH, Benarous, Backwell and Yeboah (or others) are ready to be squad players. But if we're not able to get the numbers up through those players who are missing or not ready, two won't be enough. 

Obviously guesses but these are mine;

1. Stokes yes, Murphy no.

2.Yes.

3. Seb P-H yes, Backwell possibly, Yeboah no.

4. Presumably we are expecting the first two to be available (if still here), the latter would sadly be a real leap of faith.

5. No.

1 hour ago, mozo said:

If you had to guess do you think he'll leave on free next year?

Wouldn’t we still be able to get compensation in a year because of his age?

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

 

Bottom line for me is that if we come out of summer with Williams re-signed, Twine signed permanently & James gone in addition to the other known deals, then I don’t think we’ll have enough if it’s Tommy out and #9 + younger player in. Ideally I’d like to see us do better than Twine in that #10 and get a 9 to augment Tommy as opposed to replace.

Think it is highly likely that’s exactly what will happen.

Williams stays, James goes, Bird replaces him. Twine signs & we add a number 9 from Europe.

If Conway goes then we add a second striker, though I’d think that player would be another viable starter, not “one for the future”.

Beyond this if Bajic gets fed up with being on the bench every week & returns to France then a back up keeper joins.

Cornick & Naismith would be 2 wild cards to depart, in either case if they did then because we must run on the second lowest squad numbers in the division we would have to replace them.

6 hours ago, TDarwall said:

I think we're in for a disappointing day. Steve Evans is the sort of manager whose style we often struggle against & I expect them to be incredibly obdurate. Aligned to that thr players will be aiming to impress the new boss.

An early goal would change the dynamic entirely but I can see it being pretty drab otherwise as they will see 0-0 as a moral victory.

Agree, his first game in charge was a 0-0 draw v Birmingham, which by the standards of their season is probably one of the highlights.

The ball is going to be in the air an awful lot when they have it & Evans is out of the Warnock school of low possession, loads of time wasting managers.

Not expecting too much in truth.

5 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The Scott point is an interesting one. Did he make the leap a year too soon or has he made the right call.

He has had injuries and that wonderful assist v Fulham on Boxing Day but highlights have been modest for him.

Conway certainly isn't PL ready yet, a higher ranked Championship club never know.

The lone striker thing, quite a lot of clubs now play just one through the middle. Yes I know 4-3-3, 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 all have different characteristics and the service to our strikers has lacked at times this year.

Overall sadly I don't see him signing. Having said that the play until May 2025 and take a Tribunal I'd be inclined to favour.

The rumour is that Scott went from being on £4k a week with us to £40k a week at Bournemouth.

He’s been on the pitch for at least part of 18 Premiership games so far this season.

I’ll be amazed if he has even a moment of reflection as to whether it was a year too soon.

As for Conway, like you I’ll be shocked if he signs another contract with us, & think that his next destination will be better than some on here.

Wolves have been rumoured of late, plus if either Southampton or Ipswich went up I could see him at either of those.

46 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

I'm going to play Devil's advocate a little here. Whilst there's plenty of good reasons to be sceptical of the board's willingness to spend, bringing in "one or two" doesn't automatically equate to spending less.

The "one or two" are presumably a striker and a permanent solution to the Twine loan (i.e. either Twine or a player who can play the same role). Strikers and attacking midfielders are the two most expensive positions to sign and there is a valid argument for saying "let's concentrate all our resources on those two positions" rather than spreading the budget thinly and therefore spending less of the budget - whatever that budget is - on the two key positions.

With Bird coming in and if no departures, I honestly think that our defence, full backs and midfield are not in urgent need of signings and - whilst there is certainly a case for competition for Max O'Leary, I think O'Leary is good enough as a goalkeeper. Everyone is upgradeable of course but I'd be relaxed going into next season with our current defence, our current goalkeeping options and our current midfield (plus Bird, less one of James or Williams, with a possibility Murphy or Stokes will be ready to compete for a place).

However I think we need to get the striker and attacking midfielder correct and I think doing that is far more important than several signings. Obviously all this depends on how much the board are actually providing as a budget and if it is sufficient but I'm going to judge the club on how much we're prepared to spend rather than how many players we're prepared to spend it on. 

Agree.

In summary if we pick up cover for Max (almost certainly an out of contract keeper with Championship/L1 experience), a number 10 and a striker at circa £3m each, that’s our summer business done unless Conway leaves or the likes of Cornick or even Naismith are moved on.

Nothing like the fanciful £15m-£18m mentioned on a podcast but enough to strengthen us in the obvious areas.

Williams possibly, Conway no chance.

1 hour ago, eardun said:

Won’t be open for moves/sales yet: 

RENEW YOUR SEAT DEADLINE
12pm Tuesday, April 23^rd

MOVE YOUR SEAT
Between 10am and 5pm Wednesday, April 24^th

MEMBERS SALE
10am Thursday, April 25^th

You can buy a seat that’s not currently taken at any time.

You don’t have to wait for move your seat day, that’s specifically for seats currently held by ST holders that are becoming vacant.

I renewed, switched stand (along with 4 others) back on April 10th.

1 hour ago, 1960maaan said:

I really think he has talent, but whether bad attitude , laziness or just a bit of a Billy Big Suds he does seem to have to move on a lot. You kind of hope that one time would be a wake up call and he'd make the most of his talent. 
Maybe next time.

Since breaking in to our first team he’s had a loan at Ipswich, who didn’t want to keep him, a move to Sheffield Wednesday where he fell out of favour very quickly (16 starts) & now he’s out in the cold at Charlton.

There’s a pattern, you asked if it’s bad attitude, laziness or Billy big bollocks?

It’s all 3, as @Northern Red said he’s heading out of the football league at this rate.

Pearson told him he was a waster, he was right.

39 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Thangam Debbonnaire (sp?)

Explains why she was wearing their abomination of a shirt, election year.

8 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Rovers are currently getting a worryingly large number of mentions in the second reading of the Football Governance Bill (because the MP for their area is shadow DCMS Secretary).

Is that Darren Jones?

11 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

As much as young & hungry is said I don't think an older 'hungry' player would be dismissed if they have the quality & still pull the physical levels we require, more then just a case of are they the right fit. 

Hope so, but not how it came across.

54 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

He talks with great passion and depth about the academy doesn’t he?  From a first team point of view, it’s a bit more “we’ve got a plan” without really going into much depth about what the plan entails.  Some of that I put down to the two interviewers, they didn’t ask questions to allow / offer Tins the chance to expand.

The “plan” clearly involves “young, hungry” players.

He says the same thing about six times..

Certainly makes the point that we won’t be signing “31 year olds looking for a last big payday”.

This is a very simplistic answer, the likes of Wilbraham & Wade Elliott show that you can get real value from older players.

Dismisses the question about the value of King & James very swiftly, too..

54 minutes ago, Henry said:

Is this the Tony Wilkins one? Find it really strange he’d make to be associated with him. 

Is that real?

Christ.

4 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Is this on Spotify only?

Believe so.

Definitely worth a listen.

Tinnion comes across as the right person to be in charge of the Academy structure & his point about how our overall recruitment has improved is spot on, but you have to be blind to think he’s qualified to be a Technical Director, really unprofessional in some of his comments & can’t help himself in revealing fees we’ve paid.

Completely innumerate too, as his comment on the 2 Coventry signings shows.

Last point, he says on numerous occasions that we’re bringing in “one or two” this summer, so even if TC’s possible departure changes that, it will only be slightly, there clearly won’t be a large number of arrivals.

12 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

sounds like Scooby Doo.

If it wasn't for those pesky kids…

Perhaps when he takes the mask off it won’t be the janitor, it will be a competent chairman..

Sorry, a bit too far fetched.

1 hour ago, Lrrr said:

Maddox and Kane at least weren’t released though, they were pinched through EPPP

None of those 3 named has made it at Championship level, either.

Kane had one season at it earlier in his career, Maddox never got near it & is now a sub at a team about to exit the Football League.

Scott was let go by Cincinatti after 4 games.

1 hour ago, Redstart said:

Get Warnock in there

Aberdeen would give him a glowing reference, 2 points out of 24 in the league..

Return of Michael Duff?

No.

Vince Harper got back in the league via Eastleigh & is now at Exeter.

Conor Lemonheigh-Evans did the same at Torquay & is now at Stockport.

Exceptions to the rule & no-one has made it at Championship level yet.