Just saw on the FFC website that damien duff's achilles injury hasn't cleared up and has had to have surgery on it. This is a shame as he had been superb in the games running up to it, getting regular goals and assists. Saying this, our squad can clearly cope, with davies and dempsey in good form and kakuta having a few more games. Its apparently a similar injury to what forced bobby to play the europa final practically on 1 leg, so they say he'll back in time for pre-season which means its no major loss. COYW!!!
Its a pity,and we dont want to see any of our players injured,but lets be grateful that it did not come say 4/6 weeks ago. Re Kakuta I would like to see us seal a deal for another season, and possibly do a loan deal with some of the overloaded player clubs. I do feel that in the close season MH has to have some sort of a clear out,amongst our also rans. and splash some cash on a couple of new signings. Views on who should go ?.
Aside from EJ & Kamara, I'm not sure who has to be cleared out. JP & Gera will be gone too and the only other potential player is Greening. Not too bothered by him as a squad player though, now we've realised he's not good enough to start.
It is a shame, but at least Simon will get some good game time. Gera is now a definate gonner- I haven't seen him play for a very long time! I fancy Dembele as quite a smilar player to him, perhaps a little more skill and creativity, but less direct play. Gera will be missed- he was the star of our Europa run.
I'd be happy to see Kakuta stay, but generally speaking I'm not a big fan of us taking players on season-long loans. I'd rather see us invest in a permanent signing, so that we get the longer term benefit if someone turns out to be really good. We want good young players who we can bring into the team and build a side around for the next 5+ years, or (if we have to) sell at a massive profit; not good young players to bring in now and then see shining for other clubs without bringing us any financial return.
It's too bad for Duff, but at least by getting the surgery now he'll be back sooner in the summer for training and the early games. And as it's been pointed out, it's good for Davies and Kakuta, too. Davies is a very good player and deserves to play more. Kakuta would be a good sub with 20 minutes to go in the game. The clearout - I can see Hodgeson taking Gera, AJ and Greening off our hands. He'll probably be tempted to take Pantsil, too.
I think you may be right about Roy going for his old favourites here DR, but if I was a WBA fan I'd be getting worried - would he be behaving like Sanchez in strongly favouring players he knows? That's not how Roy did it when he replaced thunderbirds 13 at Fulham. On the subject of Kakuta, a loan may be the only way we'd afford a player of his potential. Our youth squad is promising, but it'll be a little while I imagine before many are ready to step into the first team. Rf's in the know about that.
