Villa - £55M Newcastl If they get Canos for 2.5M, I'll be bloody annoyed. Especially after seeing them just bring in 12M!!
Well, if AN is prepared to let a promising ex-Liverpool youngster leave after giving him precious few opportunities (and in one of which, he shone and showed genuine potential) for the same money he was signed for, that blows all this "dynasty" bollox out of the window!
I'm a bit surprised that we'd be willing to sell Canos so soon but Jacob becoming a first team regular and Jarvis returning to fitness would seem to limit his chances of progressing. If we get back what we paid for him (assuming no 'sell on clause') then it could free up money for a new player elsewhere. I thought he'd go out on loan to Brentford (it'd make no sense to loan him to Leeds), but perhaps Brentford want to splash their cash.
Well, I didn't say that exactly, but Toffolo is back at Scunny for the rest of the season, Canos looks like he's off, Maddison's future T.B.C. - but I wouldn't rule out a return north of Hadrian's wall just yet. Then there's Godfrey and McGrandles, who are deemed not fit to feature...so the "dynasty" = Jacob Murphy - who may well be off for decent money by the end of the month, if the goss pages are to be believed. As Ferguson (I think) once said, 'if you're good enough, you're old enough'
From The Guardian, Brentford turned down West Ham's bid of £12.5 m for Hogan. The Bees want £15 m https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jan/10/west-ham-united-scott-hogan-brentford-striker
Unfortunately Cromer - AN hasn't read that script!!! And yes, the 'Dynasty' seems to be crumbling in a heap from what I've seen.
Good on you Brentford! This is what I'm saying about Norwich. They have all the money, if they want a player, they have to pay! So push them for every penny! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo.../West-Ham-12-5m-bid-Scott-Hogan-rejected.html (I don't think he's worth 15M, but he's obviously worth it to them, and if West Ham want him, he'll have to be worth it to them too.)
So Spuds maybe after Jacob, meaning that we will likely keep hold of Canos? I'm sure clubs are interested in Jacob, but what price would any of us consider acceptable? For me, he has just signed a new contract and we have in theory no wish to sell, so I would like the club to hold on for £20m. That feels utterly ridiculous for a player so unproven and inexperienced, but the games gone barmy and we need to get all we can for our best and brightest youngsters like Jacob. I would rather keep him, but if he has his head turned, then I would hope we can get bucket loads of cash for him! Bah!
Asked about Canos in the Pinkun, AN said: "It is nothing against Sergi, he is a good lad who trains well. Why has he not been involved? Jacob Murphy is what it is down to. You have one position wide on the right and I think he has been a stand out for us and his emergence has been excellent. He has six or seven goals and could have had more with the chances he has had, he averages about three or four shots per game, his pace is electric and, unfortunately for Sergi, Jacob has shown up really well. His brother is just as capable and if I am being honest at the start of the season we didn’t know if we could depend on them or not. We had two great prospects so we signed Sergi to complement that. I was hoping between the three of them could fulfil that void left by Nathan (Redmond) and Jacob stepped up to the plate." As for the 'Dynasty', the next generation (21 and under) might look something like this: GK: Matthews, Killip RB: Godfrey, Ramsay CB: Efete, Crowe LB: Toffolo, Middleton CM: McGrandles, Grant, Hlynsson, Cantwell DM: Thompson RW: Jacob, Canos AM: Maddison, Jaiyesimi LW: Josh, Lewis S: Morris, Eaton-Collins I think a few other teams would be envious of that.
Quite right Suffolk, and I left Cantwell out as well. What's Middleton's main position? GK: Matthews, Killip RB: Godfrey, Ramsay CB: Efete, Crowe LB: Toffolo, Middleton CM: McGrandles, Grant, Hlynsson, Cantwell DM: Thompson RW: Jacob, Canos AM: Maddison, Jaiyesimi LW: Josh, Lewis S: Morris, Eaton-Collins I think a few other teams would be envious of that.
Just don't understand why we have such good depth of cover in midfield positions when our CB depth of quality is so poor. Surely we'd have been better off not signing Canos, not extending Whittaker and Turners contracts, selling either Bennett or Bassong and using the money to buy a decent CB.
He He ! Send that note to the Head of Player Recruitment or whatever their fancy title is ......................
As AN says, Canos was signed because Redmond's exit left a position to fill. Jacob had been on loan at League One Coventry and though he did well there, most of us thought that Josh would break through first. Jacob has taken his chance far better than any of us predicted. At 19, Canos is a player with potential, but still only that. I'd like to see him go on loan to Brentford for the rest of the season to get the experience he needs like the twins and Morris did last year and Maddison and Toffolo are doing this year. As for the CB issue, all of us would love to see a quality CB coming in to play next to Klose, but that isn't going to happen on our budget (or even with the £2.5m we paid for Canos). It might if Brady leaves (though it'll still be difficult and we'd have to find another LB as well) but if Jacob leaves we'll lose a huge part of our threat up front. The key to getting back into the promotion race is to score goals like we were doing earlier in the season and like we did against Brentford and Derby at CR. Clean sheets in those games, plus against Villa and Brentford away show that the defence can perform, but to do so we need more goal-scoring so we can dominate games the way we should be doing.
I generally agree with you RER, but I'm not sure I agree with you saying that the defense can perform because they have mustered 3 clean sheets, they have been far more frequently awful and have shown general disarray most of the rest of the games. We might just as well say the attack are hopeless because we failed to score against Brentford, Birmingham, Derby, Preston, Wednesday and Brighton! It's not like our defense was imperious in those games where we got a clean sheet, Brentford were abysmal in both but we still coughed up chances, Likewise derby. Our defense has a lot to prove before we can be treating as anything other than our biggest weakness. It's still 5th worst in the division. Bah!
The problem is getting through to the senior team/squad. Some may be ready for promotion, but in reality, they have very little chance of ousting the current incumbents. The problem is, why is this so?
Because there's too much pressure on results. You cannot have your cake and eat it. I would love to see youth teams put out in games, but they would probably get a hiding and then the fans would moan like hell. Then in the next breath the fans wonder why hardly any youth players make it through into the first team. I had an interesting experience just before Xmas. We were invited (my youth team I coach) to play the NCFC under 9's and 10's academy side at Colney by their academy operations manager. We obviously went and it was a great experience even though we lost very heavily in the first game and then lost again in the second by not as bigger margin as the first. They have some VERY, VERY good players in that team. They rotated 20-30 players all the way through. I was chatting with one of the coaches there and he said that statistically none of those lads would go on to make it as a pro, let alone playing in the NCFC first team. I was amazed, you literally have churn through hundreds/thousands of kids to find any that will turn pro.