I suppose it depends on what you are looking for in a full back. Giles provided 11 assists in 47 games for Boro. In 26 games this season the left back has scored 1 and provided 3 assists. Giles would seem to offer more quality balls into the box.
How is there any debate on Giles man, geezer is a gigantic step up from Jacob and Coyle playing out of position
For context on the attacking quality of Giles. 11 assists in 47 games last season. Coyle has 3 assists in 90 games in the championship. I think the need for good quality fullbacks has been apparent for a long time. Let's hope Giles completes.
I don’t want to admit I know who that is…, but I think Ken was more boring! Plus I can’t be arsed to read this thread as to why she was mentioned in the first place. Now I have a hangover!
Giles is a good signing. Over £4 million is still a lot of money for us though. I’m wondering where the sudden influx of cash/FFP headroom has come from that we went from the owner saying we have to be mindful to spending £5 million on Philogene and over £4 million on another player. Not that I’m complaining. We seem to be making a lot of high-profile loan signings in January which to me is indicative of a real push for promotion this year. Carvalho, Giles, rumours about Ömür and others suggests that ownership and management want promotion this season at any cost. If we don’t get promotion, I wonder where that leaves us in the summer. Carvalho, Morton and Delap will return to their parent clubs. Luckily none of our best players are out-of-contract. Jones, Greaves, McLoughlin, Slater etc. are all contracted to 2026 and Philogene is contracted to 2027. The likes of Tufan and Seri are contracted to 2025. The only out-of-contract players have been poor or bit-part like Christie, Traoré and Docherty. Still not sure what the plans are for Sinik and Allahyar. Both have talent but are looking like expensive duds. Metz probably won’t activate Estupiñán’s option and I can’t see him playing for City again. I think in the summer, regardless of what division we’re in, we need a right-back, couple of strikers and a defensive mid at a minimum.
He can be coached to defend better, hopefully Liam can improve that part of his game. I seem to remember defending wasnt a strong part of Robertsons game either but he turned out ok.
I could be wrong but I thought I read at the time that Metz have an obligation to buy in the summer with a fee already agreed.
And his thoughts on returning to the Premier League? "One hundred per cent I can be playing there next season," he says. "If I keep doing what I'm doing, I can be, yes." From Philogene’s article in The Athletic today…no pressure lads
Vinagre has played a lot in the premier league, Europa league, Portuguese top division and made appearances in the champions league but didn’t play here because he’s **** at defending. With Philogene in front of him and Seri and Morton playing the deep midfield role he did not have much protection and the same will probably be true for Giles. If he’s another attacking full back that can’t defend he will presumably have the same problems giving away cheap goals. The same reason Christie has had such a **** time on the opposite side this season. We leave our full backs exposed and they need to be solid defenders.
It's a loan so barely any FFP impact this year, deferring it all to next year. Effectively just bringing forward next windows budget, which I think makes sense with this sort of signing.
Keep in mind obligation rarely means a literal obligation, it usually has a trigger clause, e.g number of appearances or minutes played. We'll be protected in case of serious injury I'd assume.
Coyle is often very high with Jacob slotting round to make a back 3. Now Giles will be able to do this with Coyle doing the other in reverse. It’s a ridiculous signing for the level, especially with how we set up.
