Yeh not good reviews about this de brock But let’s give the lad a chance More competition it can only be good
@Eddie bin Nesta al-Glesga @Mind The Duck Heard anything about Sinclair coming here? It seems a bit far fetched to me...
The thing is Vince it depends how much Celtic want rid of him. 25 grand is a big wage for a Celtic player. I'm sure we could manage 10k - 15k at a push, if Celtic are willing to subsidise the rest of what he's on.
See Will Buckley and Liam Bridcutt have joined Bolton. I know they're in difficulties but didn't think it was that bad.
All coming from Sunderland sources but he's no future at Celtic if Lewis Morgan can get on the bench before him so mibby no.
So, thought I'd provide a summary of the window now that it has shut and my two pence (again). Ins: Burge - free - back up keeper, seems handy enough in the cup competitions Lynch - free- not yet fit, decent pedigree for this level and will provide competition for places once up to speed Willis - free- a good signing for this level, an improvement on Flanwin McLaughlin - free - been played out of position so far but once he gets his favored RB position another good singing for this level with international experience De Bock - loan - signed as first choice LB but no real knowledge of him to be honest Dobson - £200k - young lad with decent pedigree for this level, previous skipper at Walsall, good for competition in the middle McNulty - loan - looks to be the little terrier we needed up top, very handy signing, just a shame there is no option to buy built into the loan agreement Outs: Kone - £1.35m - part of the rotten core, good riddance and a fee received (nothing like the £30m we had from Everton mind!!) Honeyman - £400k - a surprise to see him go but maybe for the best for all parties, slightly meagre fee IMO Catts - free - wages the main reason he was released, a miss as a leader IMO Oviedo - free - wages again, no real miss, should have been better than he was Baldwin - loan, with Lynch coming in no real miss, I think the club is too big for him Love, Ruiter, Stryjek, James, Matthews, Loovens - all released - no misses there at all. My Verdict: A really difficult window to analyse for me. It's clear we've had no money to spend as we've only actually paid for Dobson out of everyone incoming and that was for peanuts. Couple that with the likes of Catts & Oviedo leaving for wage reasons Jack Ross has had a real shoestring to play with. Is our first choice team now stronger than our first choice team last season? That is the big debate for me and it's very close. We still have the likes of McGeady, Maguire, Big Jon, Leadbitter who should all be more than enough to get us out of this division. Couple this with players starting to come good after their first season settling in, Ozturk, McGeouch & Grigg we should still have more than enough quality.
Agree with most of that - but Leadbitter last season and so far this has been poor defensively. Can pick a great pass and land the ball on a sixpence (younger ones look it up!!) but he has been caught in possession and conceded silly free kicks both last season and this. I don't think he's great in the DM role personally! Suppose time will tell.
Leadbitter would be a better attacking no doubt, but atm we have few options in the defensive role, so who would you play instead, we are missing Catts badly in there and he should have been replaced with a defensive midfield player as soon as he left, our midfield players are too similar and give us few options for any meaningful change. Robson and Mumba maybe but have no experience and are unlikely to be risked by Ross. But this is a problem he has made for himself showing poor judgement when it comes to team requirements, even Maddison is another attacker a good one no doubt, but a quality defensive midfield player should have been the priority.
I don't think we're missing a defensive midfielder at all. Our problem is Ross' aversion to what is now tactical orthodoxy and his insistence on playing formations that leave us outnumbered in central midfield.
Must've been hard for you to say that about Catts Not sure who I'd play in there ahead of Leadbitter - I love Leadbitter and what he does for the club - he's one of us. But he isn't a DM as you say - I thought we looked better on Tuesday against Burnley personally with Dobson and O'Nien in midfield. I'd would certainly have kept O'Nien in midfield as his energy is infectious. he has that drive that Cattermole had and is an annoying little twat for the oppo too. That's why I couldn't work out moving him back to RB at the weekend. Maybe now we have a proper LB he might end up in midfield? Who knows.
I said before a ball had been kicked that our midfield two should be Dobson and O'Nien for their energy and I stand by it now, bit of youthful exuberance and from what I've seen they get on well off the pitch.
So we have brought in 1.75 million and spent 200 grand. We've also brought the wage bill down enormously. I'll choose to believe that Stewie Donald has done this to prepare the club for the new owners spending money, in January.