I'm only surprised you don't say it more fella as - CPL and predictions leagues aside - I like to think I'm generally 'spot on' about most things
Sorry to spoil the love-in but I have to disagree. I am not obsessed with the 25 man squad but do feel that we have to accept the financial consequences of it and the value we get out of it. Correct me if I am wrong but I think that all of our players out on loan for less than the full season are either back here or will be back by the end of Jan which means we are back to having 26 senior players before we sign anybody else. In a 25 man squad you will have 5 players with little chance of getting a game except in a dire emergency. Buy a couple of new players without selling anyone and we end up with 8 players being paid for never playing or only being dire emergency cover. Add in Korey Smith, Francomb and Adeyemi who will not get a start and you are up to 11. You can argue that some of these players are not on high wages but I doubt if Surman, Fox and many others come into that category and add up the wages for these 11 players and you get quite a considerable outlay for a Club of our size for very little benefit. You can also say that we can loan them out but how long did it take for Lappin to go and how long was he away? I am not saying that we should not buy if it would strengthen the squad but I am saying that we need to get rid of a few first and that can be easier said than done.
honestly, you've massively over-egged this. it really isn't a major issue. its not ideal if we have players not involved, but not a big deal. we are talking about adding maybe two new faces this january if we are being realistic. players on bigger wages are not going to be left out anyway so i really find your position on this bizarre. our manager has never mentioned it and there is a reason for that!
Like 1950Canary, I also feel that the 25 man squad is a factor. CH has done a great job in insuring that there are at least 2 quality players at each position, including the 12th 'hole' position. That is 24, and the 25th is Lappin as 3rd option at LW or LB (I'm not counting Kane, Smith, Adeyemi and others who are <22). That is the strongest squad of players I can remember since I started watching in the early 70s. Now within that, Lappin, Chris Martin, and/or Fox might have to stand aside if new players are brought in (say Graham for Martin, or Kayal for Fox), but players outside the 25 can still play in the cup or go out on loan to cover their wages. the club also has to prepare for the possibility (hopefully remote) that relegation does happen and other clubs come looking for our best players. The so-called 'fringe' players could then come back into the equation in the Championship to cut costs. Either way, there doesn't seem any great imperative at the moment to sell.
Thank God for that, I thought I'd misread it and was going to have to plough through it again! As far as I'm aware, we don't have to declare our second half of the season 25 man squad until the January window closes!
yep. there really is very little concern over this and certainly no need to get anyones knickers in a twist!
marouane chamakh has signed on loan with Wet Spam until the summer thank god we haven't wasted our money on him, as he was linked with us.
So Wet Spam are doing a sort of QPR in terms of picking up other teams' misfits - Carroll, J Cole and now Chamakh
Only hope we get a new striker in before Newcastle game - we need to win this game. If Holt is ready then this would take the pressure off.
