I laughed first then had the same thought. The pedant in me says his penalty was on target but blocked by the keeper.
This transfer window was going to be tricky anyway, but this makes it moreso: "As for when the actual starting gun for trading sounds, it’s not entirely clear. Fifa stipulates 12 weeks of trading must take place, with the international window commencing around June 9. But with England opting to close early, it means the domestic window will also open before everywhere else – effectively around May 17." Transfers could start in a few days and given the number of foreign players we already have, shopping in Europe is going to be restricted as there is this to keep SW and DF's lives interesting: "EFL rules next season will continue to demand seven players in any matchday squad of 18 being homegrown: three years before the age of 21 signed to an English or Welsh club; plus the introduction of at least one club-developed player registered with the club for at least a year before the age of 19."
I didn't switch on to see the love coverage until the 3rd round of penalties. The Ireland keeerk was slightly unlucky with his save, but he did infringe!!!
We should have 8 or 9 by my count: Murphy Lewis Husband Raggett Matthews Godfrey Thompson Cantwell Morris Am I missing any?
That looks about right, Suffolk, but you could add Watkins if he stays and Phillips as well (who has made the bench for cup games). It's having 7 in every match day squad that's the tricky bit. As for the 1 'homegrown' player, the list shrinks to: Murphy Lewis Matthews Cantwell Morris That looks possible as well, but both rules will affect team selection every week.
Would Idah class as the second catagory "club developed player", but need another 2 years to become homegrown? At 17 he will qualify if we keep him that long. Unless as is now being proposed the age restriction is reduced to 18. others missed but unlikely to feature, would of course be: Martin, Jarvis One curious thing, why are Scottish and NI players excluded when Welsh are included? I assume because of the seperation of the footballing leagues, but this strikes me as something that will one day attract a legal challenge as they are British. This would make it much easier for us with; Hanley, McLean, Hopefully not Naismith, McGoven Bah!
I have just checked Wiki, and Grant Hanley surely qualifies as "home grown". He has only been associated with Blackburn, Newcastle and us, never played in Scotland.
I suspect that SW and DF are caught between a rock and a hard place. With the overall financial position being made worse by the loss of the parachute payments the first priority will be to reduce the size of the squad and the wage bill. As far as I am aware the only member of last years squad who is out of contract is Wes. We only had 3 in on loan last year and I suspect that 2 of those will return if we can arrange it. There are several youngsters who need to be brought into the squad next season and we also have McLean coming in. Unfortunately we also have the likes of Martin, Naismith, Jones, Franke and Wildschut returning from loans and whilst I can hear the cries of ' sell them ' you can only sell if some other Clubs want to buy and are prepared to pay at least near to the wage they are getting here. Add Jarvis, Oliveira and McGovern to that list and you have a lot of deadwood in a financial situation requiring more sales than buys and a situation where the sales have to occur before the buys can take place. Unlike us the Board will roughly know the financial outcome of last season but even if they broke even last year - and I have my doubts that they will - and the sale of Maddison covers the external debt from the season before they still have to reduce the budget to cover the loss of the parachute payment. The in/out activity in the next few weeks will undoubtedly be frantic but I suspect that a lot of fans will be seriously disappointed with the outcome and our fortunes next season will probably depend upon how quickly the likes of Raggett, Cantwell, Godfrey, Thompson and McLean produce the goods.
You're correct. This was the status Jan 30th: City’s ‘homegrown’ players – 12: Angus Gunn (loan), Sean Raggett, Grant Hanley, James Husband, Jamal Lewis, Harrison Reed (loan), Marcus Edwards (loan), Louis Thompson, James Maddison, Josh Murphy, Matt Jarvis, Marley Watkins Loaned ‘homegrown’ players – 6: Remi Matthews, Russell Martin, Adam Phillips, Ben Godfrey, Todd Cantwell, Carlton Morris Players who don’t qualify – 17: Michael McGovern, Ivo Pinto, Christoph Zimmermann, Timm Klose, Marcel Franke (on loan), Marco Stiepermann, Mario Vrancic, Tom Trybull, Alex Tettey, Kenny McLean (on loan), Wes Hoolahan, Onel Hernandez, Moritz Leitner (loan), Yanic Wildschut (on loan), Steven Naismith (on loan), Nelson Oliveira, Dennis Srbeny
Talk from Webber/Farke and some journo's a few weeks ago was that the senior squad are looking at something like 4 in, 4 out. Quite whether that includes the impossible task of offloading Jarvis et al., I'm not sure. I believe Jones is also out of contract this summer and will be leaving. I don't think Maddison will be the only first teamer we sell this summer, because as you say the wage bill needs addressing. Pinto and/or Klose are likely to be the "surprise" departures in my opinion. The 4 departures then being Oliveira, Maddison, Pinto, Klose, with 2 strikers, a RB and Reed returning. If the club shift Wildschut, Jarvis, Martin, Franke, Naismith then I'm not sure we'll see too many more in as a result. For every 2 that leave, maybe 1 in?
I think that is a fairly accurate assessment overall. The other list you produced shows 35 players on the books with 4 in on loan and Wes reducing that to 30 as of now. If we get Gunn, Reed and Leitner back again we are back to 33. We cannot possibly in our financial position carry a squad of more than 25 and possibly slightly less if we cannot shift the high earners which means that we have to shift 8 of the players before we can even start thinking about recruiting which is a problem in itself but one made worse by the fact that the players we want to shift are those which other Clubs may not want or could not afford even if they did. Even if we managed to sell 8 we then have to sell again on the basis of one in/one out. With this sort of turnover I just cannot see how next season can be anything but another season of consolidation. Even though there seems to be no logical alternative I wonder whether the fans are prepared to accept the reality of our situation.
I'm not sure the financial situation is as bad as has been suggested. Surely once we were relegated the budget was adjusted going forward to allow for the end of parachute payments. The drastic changes last season did much to turn things around. The wage budget has been reduced but we still need to sort out remaining issues, especially the high earners still on the books. IMO we'd be better off using players like Naismith, Martin, McGovern and Jarvis rather than loaning them out for a fraction of their salaries and buying new players to replace them. SW may talk about the mistakes of the past, but it was he who gave Martin an extended contract last year. With the players returning from loans we have a reasonable squad going forward. The sole exception is up front where we need at least one striker, two if Oliveira leaves. Beyond that, the aim should be to replace any others who leave and bring on youth players where appropriate. That leaves a squad of around 26-28 players many of whom are young and on reasonable wages. Beyond that, a policy of 1 in for every 1 out would be reasonable as we now have an experienced squad capable of competing for the play-offs. If Maddison does go, then we should use the money to restructure long-term rather than looking for a quick fix.
Thought that might be the reply, Canario, but Martin is a reasonable back-up at RB rather than buying another RB. If Pinto leaves, then we will need a starting RB and the same at other positions. It's not ideal, for sure, but we need to be practical in our situation.
If we can loan out Martin, Jarvis, Naismith and get someone to contribute £10k p/w to their wages, that's £1.5m over a season. Whilst we could include them in our squad for next season, none of them have been needed this season, and none of them would be first choice next season. I'd rather we used that £1.5m to sign and pay a young RB who might be able to grow into something over the course of a season. I hadn't realised both Pinto and Klose only have 12 months on their contracts. If we want to sell them, this is our last chance to get a significant transfer fee. I can't see either signing new deals.
I have the feeling, based on team selection for the last few matches, that Pinto could be sold and an attempt made to get Reed, possibly permanently. DF obviously likes him as RB and with Trybull, Tetty, Godfrey (back up RB? ) and Thompson as DM's this would be his main position. If this is the case I believe GH (not that one ) should be team captain.
Southampton avoiding relegation (just) could help us with Reed, whose 100% commitment every game and is ability to play RB or CM makes him a useful option. I'd be glad if we signed him, allowing Pinto to move on and with Godfrey providing back-up at RB, though his main position is DM. Should that happen, then Martin going out on loan makes sense, but the savings would only be £400k (40 weeks). I also agree about Hanley as the new captain.
