Sure it was against Bradford when big Billy splatted their keeper and he was carried off. An outfield player went in goal, but typical of the time we didn't have a shot on target after that.
I agree with you but in the same respect, we just cannot compete with Rangers. It's not a financial thing either, they're just a doing great at the minute and their renaissance has been pretty spectacular. Even if they didn't want him and he went to the Championship, we'd really struggle competing there. I don't think we're looked upon particularly well domestically right now, we've signed a number of unknowns and we certainly aren't a safe bet
With respect I think that's unfair on me. As the above post I've quoted shows, others tend to try to instigate or continue discussions that have been left. As the below shows.. There's a bit of cognitive dissonance on here. If I had made a similar comment but the other way around, there'd be an outcry of "Let it go FFS" "Syd stop clogging up the thread with this ****e" etc. but Orange goes back for another bite of the cherry (along with the above post quoting a post from 12 hours prior) and just gets a round of likes. This isn't meant as a woe is me style post, but there is a bit of a difference based on whether the post is something you agree with or not, when Chazz and others have pointed out that merely offering up a difference of opinion is kind of the idea of a message board. As long as everyone treats each other with respect, there really shouldn't be an issue with discussions taking place. If people don't want to 'wade through' discussions around our players or potential signings in a (shock horror) transfer thread, they can just refresh the opening page's post to get confirmed signings.
I think our reputation domestically is probably growing though, particularly with Seri's signing. I think players that would have dismissed our project a month ago would be looking at us in a different light now.
I'm sure it is, but we still won't be seen as a safe bet. I think Burnley are a bit of a mess, but they'll probably still beat us to a domestic player 80% of the time. I'd imagine it's one of the reasons why we haven't brought in more domestic players plus they are significantly overpriced
Disagreement is kinda the point. Quite why you're holding up someone who serially gets personal as a paragon of debate whilst having a pop at me I've no idea, but if that floats yer boat... 'cognitive dissonance' and all that.
I actually think they're not as much of a mess as I thought they'd be. Kompany getting done early, being able to sell players on his vision for the club, and making a few good signings will have settled their nerves somewhat. Norwich seem to be the ones doing worst of the three relegated clubs, don't think they've even signed anyone yet?
They're about to sign O'Hare for £9m. Don't get me wrong a decent player but £9m, that's extortionate for a kid with 5 goals and 8 assists. It's completely insane and there's no surprise we're shopping abroad. Pelkas seems to be about £3m, it's just a stark comparison. They seem to be going pretty young though. Trying to bring in a 19 year old keeper, their defence will be very young too. Long term, it'll probably be alright but it seems pretty high risk especially with a gaffer with limited experience. Norwich are steady though, still got a good squad of players, not saying they'll be top 2 but no major overhaul.
They'll be paying inflated fees because they're coming down from the PL no doubt, but I guess I mean they're not in the sort of mess they were a few weeks ago with 15 players having left and a lot to sort out. I think this is going to be one of the most open seasons in a while since none of the three relegated seem an obvious candidate to bounce back. We've set ourselves up as well as any to give it a crack if things fall our way.
I'm expecting a pretty rough start. I don't think Tufan, Seri and Oscar will be 100% match fit for the first few weeks. Sinik can't have done much in the last week either, and I'm not sure if Tetteh has had any pre season at all. That's not mentioning any more incomings either. If we can be around the top 10 at Xmas, we can look to push on in the new year. There's still around 6 weeks to go of the window and we'll know how we're shaping up then. We're still wafer thin for me in many areas though
What makes you say that about Seri and Oscar? Assume they've been training and will have played decent minutes across our pre-season games by the time things kick off. Tufan certainly won't be ready, although Slater and Docherty might be enough to start with if need be. Sinik will be an interesting one and might take a few weeks to get up to speed, although I suspect all these players are training with us they just can't say so officially without a permit. I think the same can be said about Burnley, Watford etc. who are bringing in a large portion of their squad now, so it's not as if we'll be behind the 8-ball too much even if new signings need to get up to match fitness. Tufan might be good for a 20 minute cameo anyway, and with the 5 subs it gives us an opportunity to get them up to speed quicker than we would have been able to last season.
Glimmer of hope then? We can't nor would we wish to replace a 25 man squad in a single window. Honestly thought Elder looked a different player on sat. Yeah, it'll take time to get maximum potential from a relatively new group. Think we should expect improvement on 19th though at very least.
We're up to about 9 though aren't we if you include Allahyar and Baxter, I'd expect us to get to 12 at least. I'm not Elder's biggest fan but I do prefer him to Coyle who I think is pretty poor for this level. Tonnes of endeavour but no end product, and his winger constantly gets in behind him. It happened against Malaga too frequently and they weren't a good side. When you play 3 at the back your wing backs are so important, the last time we had success at this level with a back 3, we had Brady & Elmo who were both fantastic. I think reverting to a back 4 suits them both though. Regardless, we've become too accepting of mediocre players as a fanbase. What does confuse me is this summer we've shown brutality in letting go Smallwood, Eaves and Honeyman who all did well for us last season but we've kept Elder and had no links to a RB despite letting go players who performed better at this level.
I wouldn't include Ally or Baxter as they were part of our squad last season. It'd be like including Fleming and Ingram because they've signed new deals. New players in the squad are Fig, Traore, Seri, Tufan, Oscar, Tetteh and Sinik at this stage (if I'm not forgetting anyone). That's roughly a quarter of a squad which is about right. We'll no doubt be adding another 2-3 but wouldn't want to be changing too much more than that. I don't think it was 'brutality' we were happy to keep Smallwood and Eaves but neither wanted to be a squad player. Eaves (and I think Tan) referenced this when Eaves left, that he was told what his role would be and he was happy to leave. That suggests we were happy to look at keeping him. Elder was probably told he would have to fight with Fleming for a starting spot, but as he had to do that end of last season already I don't think that was particularly news to him. He'd want to be playing a fair bit with Australia making the WC so I'm actually a bit surprised he wasn't pushing for a move. RB is an odd one as you say given Emmanuel's issues and Coyle's limitations. It's why when that rumour about spunking 5m on a LB came out I was so surprised when RB is clearly our weaker position as things stand.
I'm content enough with Coyle and Elder. Neither are world beaters but won't really let us down either. It is the question mark over cover on that right hand side which concerns me though. I'd rather not be looking to Longman or Williams as RWB should Coyle get Injured or lose form.
Will be interesting to see if the narrative on Elder slowly starts to shift as I started the window saying exactly that. He's not going to be a PL quality defender some day like Fleming likely will, but he's solid enough depth and reliable if he has to play a few games in a row. He's also cheap, and saves us having to scout a new cheap back up option and take the gamble that they'll fit in ok. He's a safe pair of hands, so to speak.
Coyle looked pretty decent against Malaga. Defensively and Offensively. Scored that beautiful goal as well.
