Somewhere more competitive for a man of his talents? But yeah, get what you are saying if LAs your thing.
If Armstrong leaves I wouldn't be surprised to see Long retained for one more year assuming we can agree to a suitable wage cut. We need to sign 2 strikers realistically and that will be 3 if Armstrong goes. And unless one of those can also play in one of the 10 roles it will be challenging to convince people to join as obvious backup As it stands the hope would be for a relatively big money striker to go into the lineup and then a cheaper prospect / loan to challenge. So for example (just using current rumours) - this tall Austrian as the big money one and then Adamu (same agency) as someone who can push Adams to be his strike partner. And then the 4th slot as Long or Armstrong. Because in the above example if we have the first three who would join as likely 4th choice? Or if they weren't then you immediately ruffle the feathers of the "prospect" signing and/or annoy the loan club It's similar to how I think we are likely to have a tough time finding someone who will be the backup right back (even on loan). And would have had a tough time signing both a number one and number two goalie in the same window if we had let both McCarthy and Forster go - which is why we didn't
It does seem odd, we wouldn't announce the release of Long if we're not interested in keeping him. And With this "overhaul" we are certain to bring in 2 strikers, so it makes sense to loan out Armstrong, would of been better to loan out Armstrong to One of the promoted teams though!
I don't think we did announce his release. In the retained list it was mentioned talks were ongoing. Likely for this reason - we are unlikely to be able to sign 4 strikers this summer By next summer either Armstrong comes back with some form (albeit from the championship again) or one of the young players is ready to step up to a backup spot
Well if we aren't going to play him, it would give good experience to the player to either come back here, or get the money back foe him in a years time. Let's be honest, Doesn't seem like he has a.huge future here.
Yes - that isn’t announcing his release. And unless he has another club lined up from 1 July he might even be with us for training. We’ll find out soon enough
Completely agree. My memories of us in the championship and watching a few games this season is a lot of crunching tackles. Not to say those at the top like Bournemouth Fulham etc play nice football but plenty of lower league teams play aggressive football for the draw. He has openly said he just wants to play continuously to stay fit for Wales. Not to say the MLS will not be aggressive but he will not be targeted the same way he would be if he were in the championship. Plenty of managers/players biographies have openly said they have told players to go in for strong tackles of the star player to show whose boss and limit their effectiveness in the game. For someone who has had lots of injuries not sure why he even looked at Cardiff to start with.
I expect that is the case but he likely won’t go for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the offer is for 1 year at 50% and he is stalling
I can’t work out what’s going on with Armstrong. He either hates it here or he is really really bad. If we’re talking about loaning him out and keeping Long. That said several managers have rated Long highly.
Or could be that we don’t see him as first choice and he doesn’t want to stick around as 3rd/4th option
Well it's hard to say, we haven't seen him play that much, but in training Long must impress more right? I've never had a problem with long as usually people around him gets the goals, so his all round play is more valuable.
