Clarke was crap at the end of the season - clarke looks a different player so far Harrison - as above Pontus gone - White we don't know but Bielsa has wanted this kid for a long time so suggest he may have been first choice anyway? Pablo cannot do 40 matches - Costa can do No10 as well as wing but Roberts should be better too and dont forget Bogusz We have many more kids who have broken through this season including McCalmont, Struijk, Davies, Edmondson, Stevens, McCarron,
ATHERTON Colls pulled off a stunning upset to beat eight-time Saudi Arabia champions Al-Ittihad at the Skuna Stadium last night. (The team Leeds lost to 4-2 on Monday) More than 700 fans watched as goals from Matty Grimshaw and trialist Danny O’Brien made light of the pre-match 14/1 odds on a Colls victory. Colls have made fantastic progress in recent years, climbing from the depths of the North West Counties League to compete at the seventh tier of English football for the first time in their history. And it proved to be another landmark night as Grimshaw opened the scoring on 32 minutes with a glanced header from Oliver Roberts’ in-swinging free-kick. The Saudi side, twice crowned the best side in Asia, had plenty of possession but the better chances fell to the hosts. Roberts was a threat on the right and his cross nearly picked out Ian Rowlands a few minutes after the restart. Trialist O’Brien had an effort pushed around the post but waited just two more minutes to grab a deserved goal, springing the offside trap and finishing well from the left side of the penalty box.
All speculation and mostly wishful at that. Well soon get an idea of what class of players we’ve inherited and more importantly will find out what the whole setup is like by end of January. We’d better sort out our second half of season cockups
Sorry but for me U23 is no guide on how good a player will be when put in the 1st team. Championship football is a totally different animal. As always though I hope you’re right.
Serious question Doc, what do you mean by broken through ? 1st team players, someone to bring off the bench, bench warmers or guys who will be in and around the squad. I only ask because same as last season we are over reliant upon unproven players making up the first team squad, they can do a job when needed on the day but are they game changers ? This is just general now not addressed to yourself Doc, are we worse off, I would say we are the same. We have as many reserve goalkeepers as we had at the start of last season. We've lost Pontus and gained White on loan, as an outsider looking in, then potentially we are weaker. We've gained Costa, so that's a positive., although slightly negated by the fact that we expect Pablo to struggle playing as many games as last season, ( and also maybe seen as a Saiz replacement) Clarke and Harrison, whilst no change in personnel, have a years worth more playing experience than they had last season, so that is potentially a positive. The same could be said of Shackleton, although I think he will again been used sparingly ( hence my question about the other U23 players) We sold a fair few players that hardly troubled the the 1st team last year, and according to the guys who watch the u23's we have able replacements for those bench warming positions. Yes we have a couple of short term injuries to first team players, and on that basis we may be slightly worse off for the first game of the season than last term, but overall I would say we are no better or worse than last year, other than 90% of the squad have a years experience of working under Bielsa, and its not very often that we have been able to say that about managers in recent times.
Pontus divides opinion, we have swapped him for White, I’m hoping as White was targeted by Bielsa he is better than Pontus, for arguments sake I’ll go with on par. Harrison has looked good preseason, I’m guessing he will be better than last seasons Harrison, Shackleton a year older, Bogusz ready to break through and Costa isn’t just a decent signing, he is outstanding, £14m worth of talent and we’re not better than last season?
I’d expect him to be rested for a maximum 20% myself. We were so nearly there last season, rinse and repeat this one with the addition of Costa and the increased experience of Harrison, Clarke, Shackleton and we won’t be far off again. I still think we’ll see one more arrival, I’m hoping we’re a bit luckier with injuries too last season was a nightmare. If someone said to me, Costa for £14m or 4-5 new players costing £2m each who I had to Wiki I’d take Costa.
Thought we’d paid 2m initially for Costa on loan. Do you seriously believe well pay the transfer fee if we don’t go up
No i doubt its going to happen. Rads does not gamble so its a loan to maybe buy. Dont be fooled guys wakey is looking out for you.
Well we’re already missing Roofe and Ayling for the start of the season so not a great sign of a change of luck on the injury front. Not sure who our specialist replacement RB is or is it Shackleton out of position or Dallas?
He is with us for this season, a player who’s quality commands a £14m fee. I’m not looking ahead to next season
Too early to assess White one way or the other, but he hasn't put a foot wrong so far. Very cool & unruffled. May be different in the Championship, however. Leif Davis has been playing CB in pre-season, & looks every bit as good there as at LB. Interestingly, Struijk is not getting game time. It's almost as though he's a banker of some sort, and they're testing out other options. I've said elsewhere that Ayling won't get back in the team if Dallas continues with these excellent performances. Shackleton has already proved that he can excel there too. It could be that Ayling is 3rd choice RB & may even feature more at CB this season. Just thinking out loud on that one. It's quite timely that Roofe has been injured right now. 4 weeks, 1 of which is almost gone. The season will be 2 week old on his return. Again, he might not get in the team! Bamford might make the striker role his own, and Edmondson might make even more of an impact than he has already with this gaping opportunity. Totally disagree on the CB situation. We have replaced the CBs. The names are on the teamsheets if you take the time to look. In fact, we've been playing 3 at the back in Oz & over here. So 6 CBs playing. Casey has stepped up from the u18s & didn't put a foot wrong beside White & Davis. Struijk hasn't got a game yet, but I expect him to spend as much time with the 1st team as the u23s this season. How many CBs do you want?
We didn't need any last January. We signed a 'keeper & it was downhill from thereonin, right up until he gifted the game to Direby. So signing in January backfired on us. It's happened before too.
I think history suggests otherwise you went from 1st to 3rd and lost the playoffs but you have your own opinion on it fair play and if signing this goalkeeper was a big part of your downfall and you are still running with him does that not make you weaker in probably the most important position on the pitch ? serious question as previous posts of comparisons seem to have overlooked it
Your first sentence confuses me. I thought I'd said that. After January, we went to Hell on a handcart, after making the one signing that had a significant part to play in our downfall. Are we weaker with him? Falls into 2 parts, last season & this. Last season, yes, I think we were weakened by playing him instead of BPF, but this is a personal opinion & not shared by all. He was potentially better than BPF, but we didn't see that potential particularly often. He was rarely better than BPF, & often worse. This season, I'm not so sure. I think by his own admission he declares that he's learned loads about the Championship. Knowledge instead of assumption is always a good thing, and last season he had no option but to assume. Wrongly, a lot of the time, sadly. From what I've seen so far in pre-season, he seems to have curbed his ways, but I'm not 100% convinced. I will be honest though. In our match against York, I was hurling abuse at him for doing a 2-handed punch away from the goal, when a nice, easy catch was the simpler & safer option. Then I saw it on the telly from a different angle & have to confess that he actually did very, very well. So it's not just him that makes mistake, it's me too! Back on track, I have to finish by saying that he will be a big improvement on him last season self this season. But better than BPF could have been if we had persisted with him? I really don't know. No-one does.
