As a side note on Cirkin, it’s not a sexy way to use the Clarke money, but I’d be pumping that into extending contracts for the likes of him and Neil.
Thought there were a number of good performances last night and dont want to single people out but for me Cirkin and Jobe were exceptional. Jobe forgot his shooting boots but his movement, strength and possession retention was exceptional. He;s trying to get out of his brothers shadow and whilst hesistant to say it, there were shades of Jude last night and I think thats a massive compliment. He's so economical with the ball, safe, steady and confident, wonderful footballer and only 19. Cirkin, enough said, fantastic player who has hopefully but a chequered injury spell behind him, has it all for a modern day full back, the combination of an engine, ability to drive, technically sound and can defend against top wide men, stellar. I thought we were very good value last night, sitting back in our shape once we took the lead isnt for me, personally id have a bit more bit before they even get into out third but got to trust the gaffer and at the end of the day, the two goals they scored, the second in particular were bad luck/our fault. Impressive stuff and momentum into the break, get our unfit lads back for depth and were golden. Finally thought mundle was class, effort, determination and tenacity. It won't always come off with wingers regarding end product but got to respect the grit.
best thing for his career imo would be to get back into centre mid for real, aligns much better with his characteristics for me
Dan Neil wants £20k a week and we're not going that high. Also we didn't have a manager and that probably made things less secure.
for perspective any idea where that sits amongst teams in the championship disregarding teams that have been relegated from the prem?
I don’t tend to think there’s big money value in January. It’s primed for an opportunistic PL loan or two plus a Mundle or Ekwah type signing. The advantage we’ve got is that there aren’t absolute glaring gaps in the squad as things stand. With an acceptance that the summer will bring a further injection of funds one way or another I hope we can get over any sort of impasse with Neil. Thinking about it, that may be another thing that’s impacting his form right now.
Interestingly , he is now out of form and not guaranteed a place to start, wonder if his expectations are realigned.
The realignment that should be taking place could have a big bearing on SAFC. Feels like there’s a world where Neil plays his entire career at safc now. I was probably of the opinion that he’d outgrow us (or outpace us) but I don’t feel like that now. May be worth paying a little bit of a premium for that. Confident that they’ll handle it properly though one way or another.
It always amazes me how many people haven’t learned this. Some people have no concept of form and apply recency bias to every assertion (negative and positive).
Agree. I was the same. But with us playing him as a CDM he doesn't stand out in any game now. Looks run of the mill. In the CM he was the essential battery. IMO anyway.
I think it’s just a case of adding to his game imo. Truth is our ‘plan a’ means it doesn’t make all that much difference if he’s a 6 or an 8 when defending. Either way he’s one of two. And in possession he’s a passer and not a runner or ball-carrier imo so is better orchestrating from deep. He needs to sharpen up and offer more protection when the game is disordered, but that’s an experience thing in my view. It’s worth persevering with for me - so long as we don’t make weird 5-4-1 shapes our norm!
It's high, there are clubs who pay that and more who haven't been in the premiership in the last few years but their squads are usually structured differently, we have a large, young squad on lower wages, you can have a smaller squad on bigger wages.
