Would assume Moncur and Cannon are gone? Wonder where they'd go though. Got to feel for Slater too who seems to constantly miss a trick on game time in the Championship but has shown he is quite a capable player. But yeah, did mention them (and Jones) before as options in midfield, it just feels a bit light on. Unless of course that if Honeyman goes we're going to sign a replacement for him, it feels like a bit light on the bench if Traore gets injured or needs a rest.
I think Slater will have a great year, he did very well for us last year and actually stepped up well. We don't really have any other cover for the deeper midfield roles so he should get plenty of minutes. This is where Honeyman misses a trick, he can only really play as the furthest forward midfielder and he looks lost when he's played a bit deeper. We definitely need another AM, they must be pretty confident of getting someone if they're happy to sanction GH's departure, although we're still more than a month away from the start of the season
I wonder if they saw Twine as his replacement - young developing player who could play off the bench and offer a rotation option may well be the best way to go.
The 20m that went to funding and running the club over COVID you mean? The point was they replaced Bowen and didn't just bring in a free signing, they spent up on a promising young player (who may or may not work out). I think it's a bit slack and re-writing history to suggest they didn't replace players, they just didn't spend big. Just like I'd be surprised if Honeyman's replacement ends up costing near or more than we get for him.
Twine is a wide player isn't he? Then again we were pushing Honeyman wide. Maybe he just doesn't fit the desired system?
It was a programme of disinvestment. They were looking to sell the club and pay down the debt, rightly or wrongly and it got us relegated. Thankfully were at a different stage of an ownership cycle now. On George's replacement? Again, time will tell.
Definitely, I know Twine played off the left a lot for MK Dons but he'd probably have played in GH's no.10 role with us. I get why George is leaving, he's seeing 3 midfielders come in and us going hard for someone in his position must set of alarm bells. There's no doubt that the Allams cocked that up completely by not replacing him. We lost Grosicki too which was a hammer blow. We should've spent £6m on 3/4 players to improve the team which would've kept us up. The reason the money had to go towards COVID was largely because we got relegated and the TV revenue dropped significantly.
They clearly banked on us not dropping off as sharply as we did and thinking we were already safe. January window is notoriously difficult to buy in so suspect they thought by bringing in a smattering of loans and Scott that we would be able to get to the finish, and then reconsider in the summer where investment was needed. I think there are plenty of things to whack them for, but that's a pretty harsh one.
In the context of a programme of disinvestment of which the Bowen/Scott transactions were a part. It's not harsh, it's what was happening.
This is getting a bit circular now. Moving on, as some have said, with Honeyman leaving, it really does become quite a significant portion not only of the squad leaving, but also of the squad chemistry. Another reason we need the players coming in sooner rather than later and forming relationships and an understanding with the rest of the team.
Yes and it was a bad call. January is a mixed month, you can get some great deals for players out of favour or with only 6 months left on their deal's. What the Allam's were poor for was squeezing every last penny out of a deal. The never seemed to realise that this means deals take longer to get done. So by the time Bowen and Grosicki were sold, there was little to no time left. Whereas, we'd have been far better of taking a little less money but getting the time to replace them. We didn't need to go mad and a even a few quality loans would've done the trick but they were so keen on penny pinching, it completely bit them in the arse. Man Utd do the same and it's a constant cock-up, and a reason why the never do the volume of business they need to. We're well on with our business, but we're clearly being practical with it too, we need them in early to bed in but we can't be overly stingy as players will go elsewhere and we saw this all too often under the Allams
