So it's Ward, Pearce and Henderson as the trio we are after from Pompey. If Pompey were financially sound I could see no reason for any of these lads to up sticks and come to ITFC, especially not in January anyway. However they are struggling in the finance department, and I could see a bid of £2,500,000+ doing the job, bearing in mind Leadbitter cost that alone I believe. In addition, I get the feeling that as all three of them are targets, it may increase our chances of getting them, obviously know each-other and formed partnerships on the field, sounds stupid, but almost a case of "Are you going to jump ship to Ipswich? If so, I am coming too!" Anyway if we get them would our back 5 look like this... Henderson. Ward. Pearce. Sonko. Cresswell. In my opinion we need to get rid of Sonko for next season, formed a decent partnership with Collins but has always looked like a disaster waiting to happen. Not sure if Ward would become full-time left back, seems like a versatile player, not entirely sure where his best position is? Goalkeeping position has become a bit of a farce, the sooner we get a decent, permanent number 1 in the better! Let's just hope we can persuade these lads to join the revolution of sorts (The one that should have happened in summer before Dad's army rolled in). Moving away from defence, thoughts on this lad from Crawley? They have just signed Sanchez-Watt from Arsenal which could increase our chances of landing him.
If we get all 3 players i will fly back to the UK and give Mr Ivan Campo a blow job!!! Would be fantastic but we won't offer enough money, Jewell has said he won't pay over the odds but i think he is out of touch, he is not offering anywhere near the odds!!
" In my opinion we need to get rid of Sonko for next season, formed a decent partnership with Collins but has always looked like a disaster waiting to happen. " Completely disagree. Our goals column with him in the team is HALF what it was with him out of the team. Ipswich fans chanting " Sonko is Superman " and LOVING him at literally every game I've been to. Yes, he had a shocker vs Leeds, he admitted that. He's been outstanding in many of the other games. Wage wise, he's fantastic value. Reading offered him 10% of his current wage to stay, he turned around and offered to take a 70% wage drop....... he's probably on around the £5000 mark here.
If we pull this deal off it will be brilliant and I will be alot more confident that we will stay in this league this season. Come on get it sorted so at least we can talk to the players so we know one way or the other. I see Leicester have put another bid on for Morgon of Nottingham Forrest, perhaps if this happens a deal for St. Ledger could still be on the cards. As for Sonko, I'm not a fan, he's better than Delaney and very good in the air but can often be positionally poor and is very poor when the ball is at his feet. What ever happens in the future we need at least 2 decent CB's because none of the defenders we have with the exception of Smith who could still potentially have a future are good enough. Collins was to Sonko what McAuley was to Delaney and they both made each defender look better than they actually were but Delaney and Sonko made especially McAuley, and Collins worse defenders than they actually were.
"Collins was to Sonko what McAuley was to Delaney and they both made each defender look better than they actually were but Delaney and Sonko made especially McAuley, and Collins worse defenders than they actually were" My head is spinning.....but i think i know what you are trying to say PTC. Basically, Sonko and Delaney are sh!t LOL. I agree, we need 2 or 3 very good CB's...Smith, Delaney, Sonko...neither of them inspire any confidence. And getting both the Pompey players, and their keeper for anything less than 3mill will be a minor coup for us.
Sonko is NOT ****. Look at a previous article, and look at the goals tally we've conceded with him in the team, then look at the goals tally we've conceded without him. I'm not going to say he's brilliant, as he isn't, however he's certainly the best we currently have by some margin so lets not slate the guy.
Sonko looked like Carlos Puyol when he arrived but his weaknesses have been exposed more recently As for the Pompey bids, personally I think we're putting all our eggs in one basket. Because Pompey may still be taken over they are obviously not going to accept any bids until the last possible minute, either rejecting our bids if taken over or accepting in the dying moments of the transfer window if no take over. We could easily be stuck with Smith and Sonko at CB until the rest of the season as I get the feeling there is no plan B as usual with our poor management
Westlake, Sonko is a likeable guy, and puts in some decent shifts, but he is proving to be a liability, in taking the club forward we need two centre backs that can for a partnership over a few seasons.
Yes that is what I was basically saying although Sonko is considerably better than Delaney, although somehow actually worse with the ball at his feet than Delaney which I find incredible. And yes I think Collins and especially McAuley got slated alot on here but I think that they were made to look bad by Delaney's and Sonko's poor positional play. Sonko probably atm is our best CB which is really really really worrying. If we managed to sign someone like Peace I wouldn't have quite such a problem with Sonko playing but he's the most experienced CB we have and the owness is on him to lead the defence. I certainly hope Sonko is only a stop gap, he's not good enough to take us forward and without decent defenders around him he's a liability. Svendust I have to agree with you on that. I can't see Pompey accepting the bids unless they are too good to turn down or their situation doesn't look like it's going to be resolved before the transfer window shuts. I hope we are wrong though. If we manage to get all 3 for anything below the £4 million mark I think we've got a good deal. Tbh if we paid £7 million in the end it could be worth it because if we get these 3 players in we won't be relegated but if we fail its very concerning.
PTC You say that if we paid £7 million for the Pompey 3 it could be worth it because it could be the diff between relegation or staying up. I totally agree, i was talking to my Dad today and we both agreed that we should make them an offer of £5 million, which would probably be accepted straight away. The reason being that it could make all the diff to our season and also because i fear we have thrown all our eggs into one basket once again and if we miss out on these 3 then thats it for the transfer window. So lets make it a no brainer for Pompey and give ourselves a fighting chance of staying up. Saying that, i know we will fail on this one, 100%!!!!!
Spanish-I sort of agree,however we are all forgetting the vital question. Do they want to play for us?
Be careful what you wish for...... So just assume we do land these players, it would be interesting to see Edwards back in midfield, might give us an extra dimension. I agree though, we should go for broke and come up with a decent offer for them to avoid Pompey delaying till the last minute and both parties losing out.
