To quote someone from over the road....a lad who's never played below Championship isn't better than a lad who's always struggled in Championship and has hardly lit L1 up?? Hmmm. More of a Leadbitter replacement in my eyes anyway. Injuries are a slight concern, but hopefully does a job.
My point of view is he's a decent signing. And I think he's probably a step up from Power and Scowen. Is he as much of a step up as I'd like? Probably not. But he might be better than I expect and he might be worse.
said it afore and i am happy to repeat myself, none of us know what has gone on/is going on behind the scenes...we may have many bids or made hundreds of enquiries but just because we ask about a player does not mean it will even get past that initial stage, depending on circumstances a club may want a request to speak to a player, then the club has to talk to see if he is up for a move, then some negotiating might go on which could take a while until both parties agree, after that there comes the personal terms and agent waffle to get past IF agreements can be reached there is the medical, only when all that has been sorted will a club eventually sign a player, none of this is likely to happen in a 'few days'. add onto this that there will have been holidays (club, player, agent) plus the added drawback this year of covid upheaval and the euros, i agree that even filling some squad places would have helped calm us fans i feel it is vital that the right deals are struck for our first 11 (more like first 15 at least) then plug gaps. another midfielder with a good pedigree looks to be close, 31 is no age now although the injury scare could be a worry (kirchoff was handled well, no reason to think this lad cannot manage the same)...we might already have a deal in place for another defender just waiting for the day he can move, yet another young lad may be coming to join him with the experience coming from the lad we have apparently been looking at/working with for a while...hopefully it will all fall into place quite quickly once all the cogs start moving.
Yes i know but he didn't have to defend against 6 foot plus League 1 strikers that will try and bully him and out muscle him with their weight advantage. He needs abit of backup and protection along side him if we are planning on making him a first team regular. I saw Flannagan get bullied numerous times last season so he is certainly not the answer.
Michael Owen was up against 6ft 2 brick **** house, elite, rough, defenders. I'd say that's way tougher than going up against league 1 players. It seems City are really keen on this kid so he they must be confident he can handle this level at least or they wouldn't send him here, surely.
Its a different story all together being a striker mate. Owen used his pace and agility to beat defenders, the same as many other small world class centre forwards. How many small defenders do you see? Centre backs ideally need to be big and powerful, id say that was pretty obvious really and the reason why City are sending him to us in order to toughen him up in a league that is full of big strong players.
Asked a Blackburn mate about Evans. He said if fit he will be very good in L1. Says he wins the ball back loads and is a decent passer as well. Said probably a better footballer than you would think based on his reputation. Maybe a replacement for Scowen by the sounds of it? Good luck to the lad, hope he smahes L1 for us.
Im chuffed the City kids coming he's meant to be shyte hot. My only worry is him being bullied and having some protection next to him
Clearly not, but players like him get sent down to our level to toughen up physically and mentally. Its a win win situation for both clubs
Fractured skull and surgery that followed has skewed it. He's basically played 30+ games for years mate. Not as big of a concern hopefully.
He struggled with groin and hamstring all season last season. That's the concern for me. The skull will have healed.
Fair enough, seems to have had some groin injuries as well which may catch up with him in time but again we’ll have to see how it pans out in relation to the squad at the end of the window.
It's these quotes from the chronicle back in May that I'm just not quite onboard with in terms of trusting / hoping this was all part of the master plan. You could argue both these players fit the "top players at third tier level" category, but definitely not the last line in bold. Johnson wants to play a different style of football to that of his predecessor Phil Parkinson, and that will involve a recruitment revolution over the summer. He wants to bring youngsters through the ranks, but combine those with 'top players' at third tier level. "You need players who can play at a high intensity, and you need robust players who don't get injured," said Johnson.
That's easy to say but is part of the reason the two lads have stepped down from championship level their recent records form and injury wise. I think Johnson is the type of manager to get the best out of players that need a bit of confidence.
Absolutely, I hope you're right and think both could be excellent signings. I'm just pointing out the obvious discrepancy between what LJ said he would look for and what we seem to be targeting. Doesn't make it bad. I also think the signing of Xhemajli as our first "data based signing" has set unrealistic expectations amongst our fan base as to the type of player we will sign. And lets not forget he was signed at a brilliant age, using data, with tonnes of promise and re-sale value and then got injured instantly himself.
