I'm also gutted about Middleton, but I believe that under 18s have more leeway to move. Murty was his coach with the under 18s before moving to Rangers so there's a natural link there. Middleton is Scottish and plays for the national team, so that's another reason for the move. As the EDP put it: "It is unclear at this stage whether a fee was involved although the club have said there is an “additional sell-on clause related to his future development”. Academy manager Steve Weaver admitted the club couldn’t offer Middleton first team football and the Scottish giants have made their move." First team football seems to be the main factor on top of the other reasons, but we should be entitled to compensation as well as a future sell on payment. We lost Angus Gunn in a similar way and that's just the way it goes. PS for DH: Phillips went on loan back in December.
Agree about HITC, OCF, but I'd be surprised if Zimmerman would leave now, having followed DF over to us. He has really progressed and seems really committed to the cause. Edit: Dave Freezer's take on Zimmerman: "Yeah we've seen that but at this stage it looks like they've put 2 and 2 together to see if they can make 4. Eddie Howe was reportedly at Griffin Park on Saturday to watch Brentford's Chris Mepham during City's 1-0 win - with the Bees apparently turning down a £5.5m bid. Zimmermann had a good game but a step up to the Prem, having signed from the German fourth tier last summer and then signed a new deal last month, seems very unlikely."
Perhaps this helps put the Middleton move into perspective: "City plucked Jamal Lewis from Luton’s academy in 2014 and the Northern Ireland youth international has made his first team breakthrough at Carrow Road in recent weeks."
So Grabban might get another chance to score against us in April - "BREAKING: @AVFCOfficial agree deal with @afcbournemouth to take Lewis Grabban on loan for the rest of the season, according to Sky sources" Edit - 400 minutes to go!!! And COUNTING
Still not even a whisper of a striker. Looks like we have to go with 1 out of form striker, and one German kid who could even take a year to get use to the country and the style of football. As long as not a single one of our strikers (2) pick up a single knock for the rest of the season. We should be able to avoid relegation!
Interesting reading some of the tweets ew Middleton to Rangers on this article - http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/01/3...murtys-former-club-norwich-to-sign-winger-gl/ I definitely agree that he has potential and still gutted that he's gone!!! I'm still confident that we'll finish in the top 10.
Or get suspended - or both. Don't forget we still have Watkins as back up (unless he goes to the Robins or Bluebirds )
We really are going to go with Olivera and Snrbey (or whatever he's called) aren't we. We have managed to drastically weaken our squad again, how many windows in a row have we done this?! We are still totally skint though hey? Despite so many windows of profit in selling class and bringing in average, and after all our Premiership seasons. If we sell Maddison in a minute, I bet we will still get told we are in trouble and need to sell more. After Madders, we have no other assets left to sell.
In the words of Michael Winner "calm down dear" worrying will make you ill and not make a scrap of difference.
They will sell every first team player and U23 player before they even think of Screeny McScreenface!!!!
My number one ex used to tell me off for not worrying, I used to say, "if you can prove that worrying makes any difference then I will worry, otherwise I will remain calm and seek a solution
.....But when you cant seek solutions because it is in the hands of buttf**ks, killing something you love?
Rumour has it that he's looking for a move back to South Korea on a free with NCFC agreeing to pay for shipping and electricity and we are looking at loaning a 32 inch Bosch from Radio Rentals as a replacement.
In the plan to sell key assets and buy in lower league Germans and free transfers, I don't know why no one at board level has thought of club identity, and club relations to the fans and the City. Fan favourites, and youth team players we have waned to be given a chance for seasons just getting chucked out for free or cheap, and replacing them for hundreds of thousands with inexperienced, German, lower league players. Who so far, have been very hit and miss, with the result so far being solidly below par. You could say "well if they have released Middleton and Toffolo etc, then they can't be good enough"....Right, but Franke etc are much better because they are German and we paid a lot for them? If Franke and Husband are in the managements plans (so they don't lose face for signing them in the first place) I can't see Toffolo doing any worse a job, and we wouldn't of had to pay a combined 3-4 Million for him. If Toffolo is sh*t, which he isn't, and came through our academy. Then why is ok to keep playing sh*t that this structure have paid for? We heard the other day about the home grown rule being a worry. I think we a pretty screwed. Most of our squad can barely speak the language.
Jesus Christ: https://twitter.com/search?q=#ncfc&src=typd We all said we were too weak and needed to strengthen up front. (like every window in the past 4+ years.) We have weakened that again in this window, and the board feel we are done! I honestly thought we would add a decent loan striker at least to Jerome and Olivera. At the very least, and go with 2 strikers who know the club and will try and kick on, but have a player to play when they have a knock or low on confidence. Ideally, we needed 2 strikers in on top of CJ and NO. I am stunned at how poor this club is now. Can you Imagine his Nelson has another one of his many injuries this season in the next game?! Is he even fully fit yet after the last? He doesn't look it!
