I agree. I'm saying him and Cresswell should be sent out for a season to the Championship to get some real experience. Brighton sent Ben White to Newport then us and ended up with a 50 million pound defender. We could do the same with these two. I also think McCallmont would have done a decent job in midfield this afternoon.
This is what gripes me. We already knew Bamford was a grafter and he holds the ball up, we accept he isn’t prolific. We then signed Rodrigo, we thought to displace Bamford but he’s continually squeezed in somewhere out of position despite not being able to find the back of the net and never being prolific. Roberts is another grafter but he’ll never be prolific, I doubt he’ll ever hit double figures. Harrison I’ve made no hiding the fact I’d not have activated his purchase clause, I was pleased we signed James as I assumed he was replacing Harrison but wondered why we’d signed him over a central midfielder. Instead James rarely starts and ends a game in position, he’s squeezed in along with the other players who rarely find the net. I worry as Bielsa says he only wants players better than what we have, if we really can’t find better than Klich, Roberts, Rodrigo or Harrison then someone is walking around with their eyes closed.
I agree in principle, but am starting to get so pissed off with llorente dicking about,l on the ball and hitting 30 yard reverse passes to the opposition that I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather have one of them and send him back to Spain for a few quid. He seems to have regressed.
He was more worried about his looks, I’d send him out on loan then cash in on him, he’ll never make it at Leeds
I hear you. I'm kinda hoping that Llorente's problem is more the lack of midfielders giving options in front of him forcing him to play riskier passes out wide.
it wasn’t lack of effort. He just doesn’t look good enough to me from what I’ve seen. But but then he’s only had a few outings and Phillips was shocking at that age when he played in the first team at championship level… so I don’t like to be dismissive. You have to trust the coaching staff to know what levels they’re at in training and where their ceiling is. Lads develop physically and mentally at different ages.
I’m kind of hoping that too. You can see that he’s got all the attributes to be a top centre half…. Except seemingly the fairly important one of knowing when to do a cruyff turn and when to go row z
I thought the club handled Harrison very well. Initial season he took his time to settle but then had a decent 2nd half to the season. We got him back for the promotion season when he was a bit hit and miss but had some very very good games and had key moments. Last season we loaned again and the return of 8 assists and 8 goals was an excellent return in his first season at this level. He had grown every season he has been with us. All that points to the low risk signing so we splash out and buy him. This season has been a massive disappointment for him and the club. However, I think it was the right call to sign him given the info we had.
Greenwood ran really hard, maybe too hard, the first 15 minutes. He got physical with the defence and looked OK up top. I think he ran out of gas once the adrenaline wore off. He made a couple of bad decisions too. The main thing I noticed is that he (correctly) tried to dart in front of defenders at the near post on a few occasions but they just held him off, blocked him off or just swatted him aside like a fly. I think he is nowhere near physically. I don't even think sending him on loan would help at this point as he wouldn't get a game. I'd get him on the weights everyday and have him running up hills. By next season he would have more strength and endurance to wrestle with these boys. He might then become an asset worth loaning out.
Harrison joined us on loan from City in 2018/19when we paid a loan fee and had a buy option for £8m. Harrison stayed on loan in 2019/20 where we delayed the buy and loaned him again, so another loan fee with a buy option for £10m. Harrison stayed with us on loan again in 20/21 with another loan fee and a buy out of £11m. Season 21/22 we actually triggered the buy out of £11m so in total we will have paid not far off £20m for Harrison including 3 loan fees
with respect Doc what we paid in loan fees to do a job in a given year ( and likely help with ffp) isn’t really irrelevant. We had options to buy that it didn’t suit us to take up… and then when we did, most people thought we got good value. It’s interesting looking at West Ham and palace. For all the talk of paying premiums for buying British based players, you can do worse than just buy the best players/best talents in the championship every year. I was desperately hoping we’d get Bowen, Benrahma, eze, olise. We weren’t a realistic option for Bowen as we weren’t in the Prem, but With the exception of eze who’s crocked they all look good value now.
