And to you, HMQC. Let the lunacy commence Norwich are considering a move for 26-year-old Sion and Guadeloupe right-back Dimitri Cavare as a replacement for Max Aarons, who continues to be linked with a move away from Carrow Road. (Jeunes Footeux via Norfolk Live) https://www.norfolklive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/norwich-city-barnsley-max-aarons-6425442
Cavare wouldn't be expensive (£1-2m). The Pinkun thinks we already have enough cover in Byram, Williams and Mumba. The rumours about Hourihane (CM/DM) and Davis (S) would probably be more likely, given Smith's Villa connections.
The more I think about Hourihane, the more I start to think he might be a good signing, although saying that I haven’t seen him play for a couple of years.
Just no more teenage loans. We need experienced, battle hardened players. We act like a nursery for wealthy clubs.
I think especially in the premiership teenage CBs/DMs are more a liability - can work in the championship due to the lower level
Keep seeing Leeds or Villa could be after Cantwell. Also keep seeing £40m!!!! That would be absolutely insane. We would be laughing all the way to the bank if that happened. I know it wont. It will be £15/20m max
I didn’t realise that Pukkis contract expires at the end of the season, we have a year extension but I think it’s likely he will leave in the summer while he still holds value.
Surely he'll be offered a contract extension but it's hard to know if he'll accept it. If we survive he would still be a key player as a starter or impact sub. We would try to sign a PL quality striker but that is always a gamble. If we're relegated, he would be our best chance of promotion. 26 goals last season speaks volumes. Without Teemu our promotion chances would drop dramatically. Either way he's worth far more to us than his current TransferMarkt valuation of £4.5m.
He’s entering ‘one last pay day’ territory and may have some suitors in the PL who would be able to increase his wages as a backup to their starting front line. This will be controversial but we arguably need to start building around another striker for the next phase of squad development, no matter which league we are in.
Sunderland went down that route after relegation then were relegated again and have been in League One ever since. Recruiting a new striker capable of scoring more than 20 goals won't be easy on our budget.
Our budget should be massive in the Championship! We will likely sell Cantwell £15/20m, Aarons £25/30m and one or two others (e.g. Hugill). Along with parachute payments we should have plenty to recruit a striker, a defensive mid, a left back and a CAM Our squad should look something like this: Krul, Gunn, McGovern Mumba, Byram Hanley Gibson, Omobamidele, Zimbo, Tomkinson Giannoulis, new LB Mclean, Lees-Melou, Rupp, Sørensen, new DM Tzolis, Sargent, Rashica, Placheta Dowell, new CAM Pukki, Idah, new ST Looking at it, we would actually have a decent Champ squad again! Providing Smith can get a tune out of them! Brereton from Blackburn (if they don't go up) should be a target.
I've been thinking this too. Pukki is great at what he does, and we'd be even more lost without him this season, but his skillset is built for Farkeball. He needs through balls to feed on, he can't play with his back to goal, isn't a threat from crosses, cutbacks, etc. To get the best out of Pukki you need a playing style which requires creative passers capable of through balls. That's Cantwell and Dowell, but not really Rashica, Sargent, Placheta, Tzolis. If we want to continue with the attacking style developed by Farke, we need to sign Pukki, Cantwell to new contracts, find a new striker who can challenge Pukki for starts and play similarly, and find a way to add the physicality needed to allow us to compete in the Premier League. Alternatively, we lean into the kind of 4-3-3 formation that Smith used at Villa, and look to sign a striker with more physicality, use wingers to create chances and pose a greater goal threat, and use a midfield 3 with defensive solidity and the ability to work box to box. Arguably the key signing for that approach is a striker and perhaps a central midfielder. I think the talk of the "next phase of squad development" (which is clearly needed) really summarises the failings of the summer. Last season's squad could have been bolstered whilst maintaining the playing style with the addition of essentially a new spine (a CB, Skipp replacement, CM upgrade, Stiepermann-type upgrade, Pukki rival), but the feeling was that that version of Farkeball had run its course. Yet we didn't build a coherent attack. Nobody to create for Pukki came in, nobody to get on the end of crosses either. We didn't need to be in this mess of figuring out how to play with the pieces we now have, but the summer business seems to have prioritised the quality of the individuals signed, rather than how they fit into the first team picture. It's a bit baffling considering Farkeball was built on a squad that was more than the sum of its parts.
This was and still is my concern about sacking Farke and hiring Smith. The 'bounce' did produce a win and two draws before it evaporated into the current run of losses. Now we have Farkeball players and a manager who favours a 4-3-3 formation those players are less suited to with little chance of change in the current transfer window. One solution could be changing to a 3-5-2 formation or similar where the WBs provide the width, but that is less suited to the likes of Rashica, Tzolis, Cantwell and Dowell unless it is tweaked into a 3-4-1-2 formation to add a playmaker behind the strikers, which would at least suit Dowell and Cantwell (if he stays). A 3-4-3 formation might be a better compromise but that means a weaker midfield defensively, especially if it doesn't include a dedicated DM. How S&S come to terms with these anomalies as they search for a solution will be the ultimate test.
Not at all controversial, Suffolk. Assuming Dean Smith remains up for the challenge, a crucial component in the rebuild will be a forward player able to take and hold on to passes from deep. Pukki could still operate alongside such a player though (as he does for Finland).
