Agreed. Very good player but nowhere near available enough whether it be through suspension or injury. A new CB needs to be in on the 1st January and ready to play immediately.
I wonder what the stats are since post-Ramos on CBs alone/pairings on injury + suspensions. Jan + Toby rarely seemed to me to be injured or suspended (Dawson I think was another) .
Based on those coming back from injury and international tournaments we could field a whole different team by end of jan. Optimistic we’ll get through the next two though then luckily we only have a couple of league games and fingers crossed the fa cup is kind to us in January. Shame our winter break is the second week rather than the first week. could be high scoring tomorrow as Brighton aren’t great either
I'm slowly starting to agree with this position. If rumours that Real are interested are true, I'd sell for big money in the summer and reinvest it. We showed with VDV that the talent is out there and gettable.
He'll be on the bench, I'd say with 95% certainty he won't start. Dier started over him vs Wolves and came on against Everton over him too. Right now, somewhat bizarrely and stupidly, he's behind Dier and Emerson in CB pecking order. Hopefully we loan him out in January to give him some minutes. Probably should've done a Dele/ Udogie deal and let him stay with Blackburn for this season.
If Phillips is already better than Dier then we don't need another CB next window. If he isn't then he shouldn't play instead of him. Given the choice of signing our fifth choice Centre back on 1 January or our first choice on 25 January which would people choose.
Why is the Beeb reporting that Udogie is suspended for this game? I thought it was a one game suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards?
We seem to have a number of targets and no doubt have a preference. Do we go for the one we can get earliest or the one we prefer?
Ideally get the one they prefer as early as possible. I know it’s not that easy but getting a new CB asap could really make or break the season
I’d imagine - providing the player wants to join - we can sign any of our targets at the earliest, it’s just down to paying their asking price.