Well, there you go. Even Delap’s catching criticism. Unlike Greaves and Philogene, I think Delap could play for a top six club at some point. Like I said, Greaves would’ve been better off going to a team like Brentford or Fulham as second fiddle, biding his time until he got his chance and Philogene should’ve stayed with us for an extra year. Philogene’s agent is a massive bellend and thinks his client is much better than he actually is.
I said at the time I thought greaves could have done better than Ipswich and as you say it’s not helped him develop at all
Depends. He’s better than Charon makes out but he’s not ‘future England international’ material, no. I can actually see Delap getting an England cap at some point but not Greaves. Charlie Hughes obviously has a lot of great qualities but also room to improve. I actually think a lot of his flaws are the same ones Greaves had at the same age. On the ball, I think Hughes’ composure and passing range is better than Greaves’ even now. However, Hughes has a mistake in him and his positioning and anticipation, especially at set pieces, needs a lot of improvement. That should come with more games and experience at this level though. I thought Greaves was the finished article at Championship level as far as centre-backs go but the gulf between the Championship and Premier League is evidently even bigger than I thought. I’ve seen Greaves for Ipswich and he looks like 2021/22 Championship Greaves in terms of positioning and marking. He loses track of his man a lot and looks very exposed. I don’t think the move to Ipswich has done him any good in terms of his development. I can’t see any other Prem teams looking at him this summer. At worst, he ends up like Karlan Grant at West Brom (a big money Prem signing that is good in the Championship but never lived up to the price tag).
Yep, I’m in that category and one of the many ailments my parents bestowed upon me is arthritis, which means a number of my finger joints are swollen and are really painful when they get cold. Although I’ve never worn gloves playing football when I was younger but each to their own.
Reading the Ipswich criticism of Delap recently as well and it’s strikingly similar to some of the comments I posted on here about him at times last season. Great player with lots of potential, I love his confidence in his abilities and he’s a really dynamic striker but even last season I thought he could be incredibly frustrating. He’d dribble past two players effortlessly and I’d be in awe and then he’d try to take on a third and lose the ball even though our wingers and midfielders were in acres of open space for a pass, precisely because he stretched the opposition by beating the first two players. It’s obvious Rosenior and now McKenna never got through to him about that side of his game, when to hold onto the ball and when to release. I think Ipswich’s problem is they signed too many big fish from small ponds and they all want to be the main man who shines in the Prem. Delap, Hutchinson, Philogene, Clarke etc. are all very talented players but they all seem to believe their own hype. When you’re a newly-promoted team that will inevitably be in a relegation scrap because of the huge step up, you need players to all work as a unit rather than individuals.
The thing that might elevate Charlie is having someone who's been there and done it next to him. Having said that his partner has been excellent ever since he came to the club, but is perhaps not a teacher per se and behind Hughes in skillset.
I think he could learn a lot from Jones about the positional discipline, defensive reading of the game and decision-making (when to step up, when to hold the line). However, I think his passing range and ability with the ball at his feet is far above that of Jones, Egan and McLoughlin already so he doesn’t have much to learn from them about that.
It's a tough gig when you've got Leif Davis and Dara O'Shea either side of you. They are total dogger.
For what they paid for him, Davis is a top player... id have him here today HHH. Look what we got paying 4 times as much.
Maybe but their fans seem to think Greaves is their worst centre-half. That might be the price tag raising expectations but the consensus seems to be that they think Burgess, Woolfenden and O’Shea are all better.
He's all over the place whenever I watch him play. Got a good delivery but looks out of his depth in the prem.
They would know better than me but sounds like they're throwing a bit of a tantrum now the reality has really set in.
Of all the promoted sides I'd say Ipswich might have had a chance it they had done a better job recruiting defenders. But if they're are now turning on Delap then maybe I'm talking out my arse.
I think its a realisation how far away they are from safety and maybe worrying about a team being dismantled. They ought to be singing Delpas praises, he's where the moneys coming from in the close season.
Just seen that Chelsea have agreed a deal to sign Dário Essugo for €22 million in the summer. They need to be transfer banned from signing young defensive midfielders for like five years. They’re just hoovering up talent. They signed Ugochukwu (£23.2M), Caicedo (£100M) and Lavia (£53M) in one window last season. Why do they need that many young defensive mids? Ugochukwu’s barely had a sniff for them and has played more games for Southampton on loan than Chelsea. They’ve also got a very talented holding midfielder in Andrey Santos on loan at Strasbourg who is due to return in the summer.
