Summer window

indeed it’s like I said last night, with the current rumoured outgoings we’ve lost nobody from the last squad.

But I’d love to see the mood of the squad. Id bet many of them are asking some of the same questions we are. And there will be some who will have read the tweet from ORourke saying that “Clarke and others are unhappy with the direction of the club” that I think will definitely cause some further unrest. It wouldn’t be human not to.

They’ll get on with it I’m sure. Not for one second saying they’ll all be arguing etc about it but it must feel an utterly bizarre place on a day like this.

 

But that's the balancing act KS has to make.

 

I just like his spirit and I think it adds something. Someone else will benefit from it. Someone I don’t like. Massive shame. I get the wage issue to some expect, he’s possibly on higher than he deserves to be in comparison to others because of where he started. We definitely need to replace his first team experience but I doubt we will.

 

I know a lot of people are angry and pissed off at the club but I have to admit I’m pretty annoyed and disappointed in some of our players.

You look at where, in particular, Roberts’ and Clarke’s careers were when we took them on in L1, both floundering and they were at risk of disappearing into oblivion. Neither did huge amounts to repay that faith in that season (though they were good in the playoff semis (Clarke didn’t even start the final I don’t think)) but we took another leap and took both on permanently. Where they find themselves now is down to that faith we showed and the foundation and team we’ve built around them that has allowed them to flourish and have the seasons they had. I appreciate it’s attributable to their own hard work and skill too and that they’ve repaid a lot of our faith with that but they hadn’t been able to show any of those qualities or attributes at any of the other numerous clubs they’ve lurched between so again our coaching, development and set up has aided them there too.

Some of that applies to Stewart aswell as we’ve given him the opportunity to showcase his talent better than he was afforded at Ross County and we’ve developed him as a player. I guess the difference with Stewart is that his career was probably on an upward trajectory even without us.

My long winded point is, with that in mind, it would be nice if the players demonstrated an ounce of gratitude or goodwill towards the club.

I know it’s a short career and they’re entitled to seek the best financial reward they can but Roberts must have realised by now that there’s more to contentment than just money, so to hear he’s itching for a move now is sad.

Clarke is the one I really have beef with though. He’s sitting on a long contract already which he was happy to sign. Yet we have Ian Harte out disruptively tweeting just before big matches, briefing the press a la last night with O’Rourke and obviously actively touting his client out to other clubs (it’s evident now that the low ball offers from Burnley at and around £10m weren’t coincidence - I wonder how they knew to bid that amount?!). It leaves a completely foul taste in my mouth.

Clarke won’t be going anywhere so I desperately hope he continues to show his usual effort and application or I’ll have as low of an opinion of him as I have had of any of our players since Rodwell.

 

On Gooch my feelings are it’s a shame he’s gone, still does a good job when called upon. Think he’d have played 30+ games this season.

But also that we’ve done well to get £1m for a player we’d normally end up just releasing.

Hopefully his squad place from last season is simply replaced by Huggins this season. I’m guessing that’s the way Speakman etc have it mapped out on their whiteboard

 

Well so far we are seeing established UK experienced based players getting told to move on. Let's see what's brought in

 

To be fair Huggins is very versatile too, just also very fragile haha

 

Agree with all this but it’s also what would make me really interested to be a fly on the wall at the club. If morale is as low as it FEELS like it is (in my opinion) then you can start to understand why players would want out. And also why fewer would want in.

 

Gooch is the first person people slag off when we lose or play badly but all of a sudden he’s gona be a huge miss and we shouldn’t sell couldn’t make it up.

 

https://x.com/safcsource/status/1697507736139755730?s=46&t=bFwez-5oi7CdxUG56_1QKg

Haway the rumours!

 

My prediction for today:

Outs - Stewart, Roberts, Gooch, Pritchard, Batth (no smoke without fire on last two…)

In - Rusyn, Aouchiche, Buckley, Amad (yep thought I’d throw in something positive) plus one other random loan we’ve not heard of

 

Fully agree. You can sign a contract and still leave. That respects the club as they get maximum fee. Harte is vile, agents are vile and the business of football generally is vile. That’s our kids role models being greedy spoilt bastards.

 

scored four and assisted 6 in European competition this season already. Sounds decent

 

6ft1, experienced, midfielder. Checks the boxes for me

 

In the instances I mention though, particularly Clarke, how do you avoid that low morale? The only way is to sell him to Burnley as that is what he presumably wants since he’s had his agent actively encouraging bids from them from the moment the playoff semi ended.

It’s not viable to compete with the Prem teams on wages (Burnley would apparently double his current package). So then you have to rely on the players acting professionally and returning some of that good faith.

I can imagine it’s difficult to see those additional wages being waved at you but he didn’t have to sign the contract he did with us, it works both ways, and it was beneficial to him to have that on those terms at that time.

 

It's an example of the hard-headed attitude now being taken to run this club. We don't want him after next June,so we're not going to make another offer. Even with all his qualities,his versatility and his attitude,he's not a first choice anywhere in the side.
If he goes now,we get something for him. As for the player, in the light of that,it's in his best interests for him to go now. He's 27 not 28,he can get a decent contract somewhere else now rather than kicking his heels with us for another year and perhaps ending up with a poorer deal.
It's a shame to see him go...he's one of us and been great for us.

 

Yeh agreed with all of it. Clarke / his agent leaking that to O’Rourke last night was bad form. That’s why I’d like to be a fly on the wall. It moved away from rumours of players being unsettled to a respected journalist very clearly parroting what an agent has told him in a very specific way. Can’t have impressed many.

 

My take on gooch, we can 100% replace him with a better player- dont think gooch suits the possession based style TM wants to implement. Can we replace his heart = No. Can we replace his versatility- probably not.

Tough one as i do like him but it does seem a good move for all involved. He gets a longer contract, stoke get a good squad player and we get a million pounds to hopefully reinvest into making our team/squad better

 

https://sempreinter.com/2022/10/20/...elder-miguel-crespo-turkish-media-report/amp/

10 months ago, sounds like this would be a coup

 

Going to Fulham I think…