No Hope reporting that EH two top targets both from Bournemouth... "Bournemouth pair Lloyd Kelly & Philip Billing on NUFC list ahead of summer. Kelly is free & has good relationship with Howe. Makes a lot of sense, but there will be competition Billing was top midfield target in Jan if NUFC sold. Could now depend on Joelinton stay/go" I just fail to believe this. It's got to be an elaborate bluff so we can go and snare better players from the continent - SURELY?
I can well beieve both. Kelly without doubt, because he's well known to both Howe and Ashworth, plus he is free. Seems to me Howe has finally realised Bruno should be further up the pitch and so they need a dedicated defensive midfielder, Billing would be cheap and is another one known for his plodding work ethic. I'll be honest, I was expecting/hoping for more inspiring names when we were taken over by a wealth fund worth £250bn.
Who knows, we'll see on 1st September. Think we may prioritise a CDM, penny seems to have dropped with Howe that we're too easily got at in midfield. LB desperately needs attention as does RW. Kelly's an interesting shout because he's a left back/LCB type but better than Burn. 6'2, but quicker. I wouldn't be against having him in the team and Burn as backup. RCB, maybe we'll spend on that lad from Sporting. CDM and RW then needs attention but at a far better level than Billing. I can imagine they'll try and offload Almiron again and seems very likely Joelinton is being sold, which is one I just don't quite understand unless he's going to get £60m+.
I don't know much about Kelly, I thought he was supposed to be ok. Billing is a donkey, Philips looks like he can't be bothered with football. Both are lazy and slow. I'd be somewhat disgusted if we went for either. 2022 was really good for signings. 2023 was poor. Not sure what went wrong in that period, but they need to be a hell of a lot better this Summer else some of our decent players will start to want out.
If Howe had his way Phillips would be here... that should set everyone's alarm bells ringing even if his Burn crusade hasn't. The club shouldn't let him have any involvement in recruitment because the future of the club is more important than him trying to prove points. Howe is a coach from league 2 so let him coach ! He's not going to have a clue about top level players.
Interesting table on BBC: Fewest starting XI changes - Premier League 2023-24 Team & rank : Starting XI changes : Players used 1. Aston Villa : 32 : 27 2. Cry Palace : 35 : 26 =3. Everton : 37 : 25 =3. Newcastle : 37 : 30 =5. Tottenham : 40 : 27 Surprised we've had 30 players to play matches tbh, but more so that we've made 37 changes in 24 games - that's an average of nearly 1.5 changes a game we've supposedly made. I really wasn't expecting it to be that high but surely that must be 100% injury/suspension based. Can't think of a time a player has been dropped due to form this season?
So you believe everything you read in the press. Given your job I would have thought you would know better.
