GrahamC

Atkinson said in his interview last week when he signed his new deal that his injury was a “7 to 9 month one” which means he’s not going to be back much before November at the very earliest. Agree with lots of the rest, the decision on whether we keep Kalas or not will determine whether we bring in 1 CB or 2, McCrorie seems highly likely to arrive but no one really knows if we see him as a RB, RM, CB or DM, the answer to which will become clearer based on our other signings. Aside from up front (where we won’t be signing Ashley bloody Barnes), you could make a good case for adding someone in every area, but I doubt we will.

I reckon we’re about a fortnight away from the retained list; Dasilva, Taylor Moore, Owura Edwards, Owers & Buse all probably released. HNM leaving for compensation because he’ll turn down whatever we offer. Then during the summer Scott & Wilson will go, I expect & possibly Bajic, Idehen & Sam Pearson of those under contract. Incoming probably the 3 mentioned by the OP, after that it will be interesting to see what happens with Kalas, I had him down to leave last week but after his inclusion on the subs bench v Burnley & Pearson’s comments I’m not so sure. If Kalas stays then a midfielder & possibly a keeper in if Bajic moves on. Don’t expect anywhere near as many in as some on here & the expenditure will be dwarfed by the incoming fees too.

Personally I think his biggest flaw was taking us virtually to the bottom of league one, getting hammered by Peterborough, defending like a cubs team at Coventry & scraping draws at home to the likes of Colchester, Shrewsbury & Leyton Orient & basing your entire game plan around the brilliant but mercurial JET. He did make some good signings but was singularly unable to get them to win points in the third tier & despite having Baldock & JET (who I loved) up top, I think we could easily have got relegated again if he had stayed. It didn’t matter that he had no personality, we were dire under him.

Derrick Williams too.

100%, plus for the first time in a while a bench with cover in every area of the pitch with Kalas available. Like you I don’t think he does sentimentality, so be interesting to see who is involved at QPR, can’t see a value in involving those who are off this summer in a dead rubber, I expect Mehmeti to be the 18, therefore.

This is getting really tiresome. In the first half when I thought we were too passive, he twice came closest to scoring, once when Peacock-Farrell arsed around with the ball & he robbed him, second time when he had a snapshot which went just wide. Some in here are ******* obsessed, he could find the cure for cancer & they’d still moan. I actually thought Bell was decent yesterday, won a surprising amount in the air (our goal came from this) & I’m not seeing much between him & Memehti at present. To me Sykes has far more of a cause to complain about not starting games than he does.

I actually don’t think we’ll have considerable transfer funds, even if Scott goes. My guess is a maximum of 5 in & a small percentage of the money we would receive. What we will have though is greater sums than so far under Pearson, where it is worth pointing out his total expenditure on fees is around what LJ spent on Kasey Palmer alone. I’m no FFP expert but also believe that the Semenyo sale was partially because we were so close to breaching it that we couldn’t take the risk. Whether by necessity or design our recruitment under him has been far more efficient, Sykes for nothing, Tanner £300k & the one big money signing prior to January (Atkinson) looks far shrewder than many we spent similar on previously. Those that haven’t worked out, Simpson obviously, Wilson arguably certainly don’t come into the Engvall, Adelakun category.

Long Ashton? Absolutely no excuse.

Me too, unless someone has offered us a fortune for Pring, it doesn’t make sense otherwise. Joe is both academically & in a football sense far smarter than average but still an intriguing potential positional change for him.

I haven’t done so yet but despite him being clearly selective about certain decisions (MA especially, LJ to an extent) do you think it is possibly that as you approach your latter years you do become more reflective?

Realistically the majority of sides who come up do, look at Rotherham & Wigan this season, there was a year recently too when all 3 of the promoted sides went back down, Sunderland are an anomaly, basically a Prem sized club that found themselves in L1. Obvious to say but the biggest challenge is getting players to move down there, footballers are often a conservative bunch & many don’t want to go so far away from everything. I suspect the smarter Argyle fans know all this & avoiding relegation will be the main aim next season.

Agree with every word. My only other slight concern is where do we see him playing. As yesterday showed Pring is probably in our top three performers & once Scott leaves will arguably rival Conway as our biggest asset. Left back is nailed down then & as everyone seems to believe the Wimbledon kid is a done deal as his cover, we don’t need (or can afford) 3 in the squad. Bryan can play elsewhere but our current formation really doesn’t lend itself to him playing in front of Pring, he could play centre mid alongside James & I’m sure he would do well, but that’s not somewhere that he’s played a lot in his career. If this is true there has to be a plan but just like McCrorie, it isn’t immediately obvious.

I can’t remember all of them, one of the last few was his excellent play for our winner at Stoke but I get the impression you aren’t interested in facts.

He come on as a sub & scored the winner last week, was that “poor”?

Actually thought all 3 subs that came on at the same time improved us, Williams used the ball well & Sykes has come on so much this season, his first touch is so much better & he is a threat going forward. Push by Wells.

Absolutely past it, all he does is run around. I mean when he came on all he actually did was provide an excellent assist, have a goal disallowed, come as close as anyone to equalising after a brilliant run & put one on the obnoxious Connor Roberts. Bloke’s a total passenger, get rid Pearson.

According to those who have looked on the website it hasn’t been yet. Without saying too much here I can think of a few people at BCC who might just make sure this application is pushed through a lot quicker than the average house loft extension..

Good question. When I watched him against Rangers he played RWB, according to Transfermarkt this season he’s played CB 15 times, DM 10 times RB (RWB) 8 times & RM 5 times, so pick the bones out of that! I have no idea but we aren’t shelling out our highest fee under Nige without a plan.

To be fair he’s responsible for every player that he ever played alongside, managed or spoke to’s success. But not for any who didn’t make it, oh no that was all completely down to them. I get why the media like talking to him, he provides plenty of copy but he’s an obnoxious delusional narcissist who is only walking free because he can afford incredibly expensive lawyers.

Must admit in my initial desire to take the piss out of the one behind the goal I completely missed the “structure” to the right, that basically is a bus shelter, isn’t it? Looks ridiculous. With regards to planning permission it isn’t my field of expertise but I’m sure you can carry on with all preparatory work in advance (if you’re brave you can actually crack on without it at risk you’ll have to dismantle). There are huge backlogs outstanding as a result of the pandemic but replacing one structure with a similar height one is highly unlikely to be contentious & so provided it does get nodded through I can’t see it being a problem. Looks absolutely shit, though.

Plus “I’m naturally disappointed with our league position but can see signs of progress”. “Please don’t mention Mark Ashton, Geoff”.

“Running towards adversity”?

When Kelly & Webster left us Semenyo was still out on loan at Newport & yet to experience his mediocre time at Sunderland. Scott was not even a professional & over 18 months away from his first league game, so this is rather a selective “let’s pick every player we’ve sold whose done very well” list. Flint for instance was absolutely brilliant for us, we sold him for £7m, within a year the club that bought him from us sold him on at a massive loss. Life really doesn’t work like that, we know that some of the money was spent badly & we accumulated too many players but this is just fantasy football stuff.

It’s going to be Pulis on his return with Stoke levels of abuse, then..

Reckon he might bottle it?