You can say what you want about Huddlestone underachieving but he's still one of the best passers of the ball in England. He had a poor season last year but that doesn't mean he's rubbish and if he left he'd be a massive loss for us. Like Scholes, he's a very intelligent player and he has the ability to play brilliant passes almost effortlessly, though not as good as Scholes obviously. What he does in games often goes unnoticed but you'll notice it if he goes because we'll be a significantly poorer team without him.
Thought hudds was quite steady, passed it well which youd expect i think where he lacks is getting into space quicker and demanding the ball back seems too causal in the sense il get the ball when it comes to me if that makes sense lol Odubajo looked impressive think hed do a better job and be more dangerous than elmo in the rw slot, clever on the ball and strong and direct. Liked akpom and thought jelavic got in his way alot need a poacher to play alongside him, as he likes to come deep turn and run think gray and akpom would be one hell of a strike force, youd have the same problem with aluko alongside akpom both would drop deep to pick the ball up. Hayden looked very leggy think the pace and intensity of the championship might of suprised him a little but will get up to speed Dawson and davies immense promotion will be based on keeping those two fit Mcgregor say no more how many chances does a keeper get?
Maybe people are just disappointed he's not as good as we thought he was. It doesn't mean he's poor though. He's much better than we can afford to replace.
I thought he was distinctively average, coulda been booked about 3 times! Conor Coady looked a decent lil player mind. I never saw Hayden against Huddesfield, but he looked slow off the pace yesterday, him and Huddlestone in midfield makes us look so immobile. I wouldn't be disheartened if Huddlestone left, Dawson can do what he does with his long range passing, all Thudd seems to do recently is shift ball to the side and needlessly kick the ball into touch. Meyler looked far superior to both our midfielders when he came on ( I dunno if thats because Wolves tired). The saddening part is Quinn and Meyler would of been perfect this year and a able minded Livermore, but its not too be. Interesting Diame has made it back just before the window closes too..... Why was Elmo so narrow too? Worst game I have seen him have for ages.
Powell confirms bid accepted for Smithies, who is now in London for talks with QPR. That's them out of the running for Bentley then.
Agree 100%! We could do a lot worse than have a bid for Wayne Hennessey from Palace, he's now their 3rd choice keeper.
This buy out clause business isn't very clever at all. As I understand it once the number is met, the player can leave and there's nothing we can do about it even if that point comes at 16.59 on deadline day. Ironically, we've released the players who could have become first team regulars e.g. Quinn, Rosie, McShane etc. All we can do about it now is keep our loan numbers down and hope to fill the gaps when the window opens again in September. In the meantime we badly need to sort out the Gray purchase (or not if we're keeping Hernandez) and get a new keeper!
Not sure why everyone is losing their heads over these release clauses. The only two I can think that we've lost because of these release clauses are Chester - for 8m - and N'Doye, who we were resigned to losing anyway. My belief is that for players like Hudd and Elmo, their release clauses will be very healthy, if Chester's is anything to go by.
I'm hoping that's the case as Huddlestone and Elmo are two of our best players. I'd say we need another attacking midfielder and maybe a defensive one. I mentioned it before but Rami Rabia wants out at Sporting Lisbon and I think he'd do well in the Championship. We were interested before and Bruce thought very highly of him.
All this criticism about release clauees is laughable!! Do people really expect a player to sign a contract with a clause that they could lose 50% of their wages and not offer anything in return? The clause help both parties, the player knows he has a way out should we be relegated, the club jnow the minimum fee we ciuld get. I can see huddlestone, diame, jelavic and hernadez all going and bringing in over 20 mil in the process, also reckon Dawson will possibly go to. hopefully we could use the cash for: Gray bridcutt landsbury hooper think this would about balance the books, give us depth in squad, and be more then able to push us forward
It'll certainly be interesting to see if we raid the Egyptian market again. Now that we've been relegated there's plenty of their players that can do a job at this level. Speaking of keepers, I've always rated Sherif Ekramy, what's he doing these days? Was in Holland last time I saw him play...
