Agreed. Lee Cattermole has again been the subject of overnight twitter rumours. Are we getting both then ?? When fit he does. Some would try John. Watch out for Mr Erik for starters.
Bruce staying quiet on Amalfitano rumours, I wonder if the fact that it's a loan appeals to SB's budget?
-*-*-- /* I think he was saying that the prozone stats are pointing to a deeper lying catenaccio defensive strategy simultaneously relying on added speed on the flanks, driving through from an old fashioned inside left position while managing to use right wing feints to draw out the opposition flanks leaving space for the speed of Aluko and Sagbo to provide space for Graham to finish using his aerial prowess.
I think the problem is that our player budget for buying unproven championship players appears to be around the £2m mark. Most championship clubs are holding out for bids double that amount for their star larkers and bridcutt falls into this category. That is what we would be doing had we missed out on promotion and fending off bids for Chester, aluko and Brady.
The idea of a set amount of transfer funds is off the mark. We have a budget, but the Allams have said all along that they'd go the extra mile to sign a player, provided he makes an improvement to what we already have. If we wanted Bridcutt we could get him, but we seem to be doing our transfer dealings behind the scenes to avoid competition from other clubs. I'd have thought a loan for Chalobah, Ibrahim on a free or Amalfitano on loan would be SB's preferred choices, but you never know. If Cattermole is available at the right price we might go in for him too.
Steve Bruce said at the weekend that nothing was imminent so I suspect he is still playing the waiting game on palacios. Rumour has it that stoke are still looking to bring in additional midfield recruits. I expect this will be our sole deal on transfer deadline day with cattermole already on board for the Chelsea opener.
The list is done twice - one at the end of August and one at the end of Jan. U21s are exempt but in our squad that only applies to Brady. For this season you have to be born on or after 1st Jan 1992 to qualify as an U21 player. I'm not sure how it works with free agents though. For example last time we signed JVoH after the window closed. I'm guessing you can't do that any more.
You may not be that far off the mark come sept. 1st We wont have any issues with the 25 man squad regulations. SB has a great mix and blend at the club. How about a cheeky bid to Wolves for Bakry Sako. His moves away have broken down and is still try to get out of Wolverhampton. Well worth a punt imo.
We will if we sign three more players. I know that's unlikely to happen but that's the point. The 25 man squad limits us to two more signings before we have to start booting people out.
You can sign free transfer players any time you like, provided that they were free transfers when the window opened. I'm guessing that JVoH was released by Celtic and the end of the 2008/09 season before the transfer window opened. It'll play a major part in choosing our squad, because we will have to ommit some players. It's why you see bigger clubs bringing through more youth players, so that they don't take up much space in the matchday squads.
I'm aware of the free agent ruling as it was when we signed JVoH. What I don't understand is how this fits in with the predetermined 25-man squad. Can you just add to it later if you have free spaces? This could be important to us in a couple of months.
