At best sideways - at worst ....................... starts to look like we are not a premier leagues club in how we handle all of this new fangled transfer malarkey1
I can kind of see the logic behind BJ going IF Brady is deemed first choice LM now that MO is back at LB then maybe Bradders will want to head somewhere to give him more minutes on the pitch. I personally feel that he still has a lot to offer NCFC and it would be a surprising move if he were to be allowed to leave. I would certainly get shot of Grabham and recoup what we can for him. I don't see the sense in keeping him and letting RvW and possibly Hooper go out on loan but obviously AN does not rate Hooper to the point of actually playing him up top with CJ. I can't imagine that AN will be happy with the options he currently has either at CB or up front.
He has played 3 games for Arsenal and 1 game for West Ham, but that's still not a lot of PL experience. I'm hoping it's not true, but all this talk is worrying me.
From what I've read, and if this deal does go through, then you are the only two people I've come across who have that belief
I seriously cannot believe that some people seem content. Whilst all of our competitors are signing Premiership quality players we are buying nobody and, as it stands, our squad will contain 9 players who couldn't get a game in the Championship last year. IMO, if we don't get a couple in during the next hour we will be in real trouble.
Hey, I'm not saying I'd necessarily get rid of him, I just don't think AN rates him as good enough to start regularly in the Prem.
If we do not get a striker we could be in really bad trouble. If you happen to be a clogging midfielder in a club that is favourite for the drop then an over the top challenge on Cameron Jerome looks like really profitable business from here!!
If true, this could create a huge split in our club and greatly prejudice the likelihood of us avoiding relegation. We need battlers for that.
I love CJ, he had a superb year last season, but to be honest I'll be amazed if his goal tally is in double figures by the end of the season so they might be better off leaving him alone.
I dont really get the argument of Olsson back, and Brady 1st choice LM. 1, We need cover and options. 2, I don't see him as a left winger. Johnson would do a good job in the Centre.
They are expecting 2 more signings at Bournemouth.....Grabban? I did see them linked with Will Buckley earlier today.
Call me what you will on fingers-in-your-ears, but I simply do not believe we would even consider selling Johson unless he handed in a transfer request. I know I'm banging on about it, but IMO the only player we really need is a better finisher than Jerome. Whether we've got that, we'll soon know, but I don't see anyone that we could have bought who could guarantee that, so at this late stage I can't see what would get people comfortable with the squad we have. We already knew we had some dross that would be difficult to offload, but in the last few days the club has done quite well (Grabban aside) in doing that. We can't have anyone leaving though, certainly not Johnson. Would be happy with Gayle and/or Walters, but Hooper definitely shouldn't be leaving unless one of them comes in.
We have offered Gayle a 4 year contract, and clubs are hammering out a deal. And just said that Naismith bid is not dead. They were the only 2 things on SSN report from the ground....Like I keep saying...No defender talk. S**t.
This window we've signed four players who will probably start most matches for us this season (Brady, Mulumbu, Dorrans Mbokani) and we have not lost anyone who would reasonably be expected to start for us. That for me is positive. It is not the club's fault that Grabham has behaved so poorly. Had he not behaved as he did then we would be sitting with three strikers whom AN rates. that said if Hooper leaves and Grabham becomes an outcast then we are definitely short up front. If Mbokani does not cut it then we are heaping a lot of pressure on CJ who, whilst he is playing pretty well currently, is not the clinical 15 goals a season man we really need to keep us up. The other negative is the lack of quality at the back. We are consistently conceding from opposition set pieces and whilst the return of MO will undoubtedly help we are, I feel, relying on Wisdom to hit the ground running (and tbf there is every chance he will be a more secure RB than Whits) but if anything happened to Seb then our defence would be even more of a worry.
I'm not sure I even understand what this means? I can only assume you are referring to R Bennett, Andreu and Lafferty? Possibly E Bennett, but that can't be right. Who are the other five/six? It seems to me that we would never get rid of R Bennett (given our CB options...) and it's pretty obvious the club has been trying its hardest to offload Lafferty and Andreu, but you can't force these moves. I'm pretty happy with our back-up options - our bench and full squad looks stronger than it has ever been in the last five years. I accept that the first team has not been strengthened as much as I'd hoped, but that's because to improve on virtually every position we needed to shell out £7m plus and we simply don't have the money for lots of that, nor does it seem players in that bracket really want to come to us too much. Rather than worrying about the squad, we clearly can compete in this league, we are a better team than c. 5 others in the PL and therefore have every chance of staying up with the squad we've got. Of course, I'd love it if we signed a couple of classy players, I just don't see it happening and I don't think it will necessarily help us stay up all that much more (look at Mings getting injured for Bournemouth - same could happen for us...)
Good post - I agree that CJ is the most worrying part in that he's got a heavy load. I don't doubt for a minute that the club will be working hard to identify a striker for January in case Mbokani fails, which just goes to show how sensible the loan deal for Mbokani is. The way football is now, we generally rely heavily on the midfield for goals too, which helps alleviate something of the pressure on the strikers. Wisdom looked good IMO. He's defensively sound, so I'm quite comfortable there. Ideally another CB but I'd rather the club didn't waste £3m on a guy who won't be any better than what we've got.
This is exactly what I think as well, and if it's got to the stage that he wants to leave then there has to be something wrong in the dressing room at the moment - the absolute last thing we need!
Who are you thinking about? That's a risk for all clubs. I can't think of a player who doesn't currently have a quality replacement in our squad (as compared to last time we were in the Prem). The time we are in trouble is if there are two injuries in the same position (you remember when we were relegated we had tons of central midfield injuries, completely messed us up) but I don't see how you can legislate for multiple injuries to the same position.
