All the stories about Ade have been negative this year, it seems. It is what happens to a highly paid striker who doesn't score, it's as simple as that. I honestly can't recall good press for a single person of that description. I had the feeling Ade would end up being useful last year, when he ended up as our leading scorer after being frozen out for much of the year, and I'd be far from shocked if he wasn't useful again this year as well.
I think the stories are almost uniformly negative because football knows him - he has previous, as they say here.
Pretty much the main reason I thought Ade should be sold this January was because I thought Poch didn't want to play him. Now it seems that Poch is happy to pick him I'm very much okay with him staying. He's simply one of our best players - Sherwood recognised that and got results with him. I also think that his on-pitch lack of application is somewhat over-stated. Sure the fact that he does stuff like, at the last minute, decide that he's off to the ACON after all, or sort of have to go home at the end of November and somehow he's not fit to play again til January is annoying and frustrating. But if we can just get another five good months out of him he could be a real asset. Long term I'd want him and his dramas gone, though.
This. So would i, considering Lennon can't get a look in. We'd be continuing to assemble Team Belgium, with Hazard the obvious next target. But I'd take even money we stand pat this window, or close enough as don't make no nevermind.
Apart from his antics against West Brom (the penalty fiasco) and the fact that he's a bit injury prone - mainly hamstrings, I don't think he's a good fit for us. I'm pretty sure we can do better.
The Mirror are claiming that we're due to complete a £5m deal with Swansea for Kyle Naughton. Probably good for both clubs, as he can't get into our team and their right-backs haven't been up to much this season, from what I've seen. Leaves us rather light on homegrown players though, especially if Lennon goes too.
Walker, Rose, Townsend and Mason would be it. Next season will be so much easier, as Kane, Davies, Carroll and Pritchard all qualify.
Still HG this season, just cause they're U21 doesn't change that. Also gives us less space in the squad. On balance a good thing, as we have too many players imo.
Hi Spurcat, hope your well buddy. Poch has recently stated that we wont be buying players this month and instead turning to our excellent youth set up. We have seen Winks and Onomah make their debuts, bench appearances and training with the first team. Can you tell us more about Sonupe and Oduwa, how are they regarded by our coaching staff and are they ready to break into the first team squad. Sounds like a good loan for Veljkovic, lets hope he actually gets some games this time round. He certainly looks a class act.
It won't make it easier at all. We don't have to have any HG players, just no more than 17 non-HG over-21s and no more than 25 over-21s in total. We actually have spaces in our squad, just no spaces for non-HG players, which does limit our potential transfer dealings a bit
See http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2014-15/sep/premier-league-squad-lists-2014-2015.html
It's chaos at Charlton at the moment. Started the season well and looked to be pushing on, then fell apart. The results disappeared, they sacked Bob Peeters and have replaced him with someone that their owners already sacked from Standard Liege. Aside from being a random Israeli that nobody's ever heard of, they forgot to get a work permit for him, so he can't even do his job. They got absolutely pummeled by Watford on the weekend and shipped five without reply. That might suggest that Veljkovic has a good chance of getting into their side, but their centre-halves are amongst their most experienced players. Tal Ben Haim and Andre Bikey have both had a fair amount of time in the Premier League and you'd expect them to be pretty well paid, too. Perhaps one of them's on the way out?
The Veljkovic one is a bit baffling, as PNP says, but playing in that side would certainly put him through his paces whether it's in midfield or defence. I still think we should've left him at Boro though, Karanka has got them doing very well.
