The recall option on Liam Cooper does not kick in until January. 2 Jan options. ""LIAM COOPERS OWN WORDS"" He is at Huddersfield until then for now.
weve got enough cover in other positions at the moment, with our wage bill im sure he'd rather spend money elsewhere anyway, chester and hobbs arent injury prone so they wont miss many games.
IF, VERY BIG IF, thats was to be true thats an Upgrade on Ayala. Somehow i have doubts, but you never know with NP anymore. He does appear to have very good contacts within the game and a very good reputation.
Convinced we will see a few more faces in on loan throughout the season, it just seems to be NP way of doing things.
Trust me theres nothing ok about Kilbane being able to "play" centre half or anywhere on the pitch for that matter, Hes way past it at championship level not good enough in his best position never mind centre half!!
OLM: Has your source hinted at if there are to be any outgoings or is the squad we have now likely to start the season?
Kilbane, Ghilas, Oli and Bullard, though the latter two are obviously dependant on someone coughing up most of the wages, or a permanent deal. There may yet be one or two of the lads going out on loan, I'd put Oxley top of that list, he definitely needs competitive games, but if Emerton isn't going to get a look in with the first team I'd like to see him out on loan too. I'd also send Atkinson out on loan, but only to get rid of him, he's not good enough for the first team and I can't understand why we've given him another year.
Sonny Bradley is meant to be pretty promising and as we need CB's wouldnt hurt to see him go out, Yeah i like the sound of Emerton had a really good pre-season last year but didnt get a look in.
Agree about Atkinson, also dont think it would do Devitt any harm to go on a short-term loan deal. He showed some promise last season, but think it will be harder for him to get in the team this time around, so a loan to a good L1 side (such as Huddersfield) may bring his game along a little further.
Kilbane's not going to be our backup CB cover then? phew! In all seriousness it does seem that we're lacking a bit in that area, NP and Walshy must believe in the youth being adequate cover. At least until January when we can recall Cooper if needed obviously.
at least we have 3 centre backs..i remember towards the end of 07/08 we only had 2, and it was hold your breath time everytime turner or brown went down...one game at sheff united we had to play livermore there...
never through that much of devitt, always felt he was too keen to pass when there was an option to get at the full back. when brady (from what we hear) and stweart are in full flow i think the gulf will be apparent. a loan would leave us short on wide options though. COYH
I think the fact that we have Hobbs, Chester, McShane and Bradley will probably be seen as enough, Evans has also played there and Cooper can be recalled in Jan if required, so we should be okay, but I'd play Bradley ahead of McShane at centre back(and East ahead of him at right back).
I've not seen either of them play so can't really comment. Macca was never that bad at RB though was he? I even remember a couple of Messi-style runs through a few Prem midfields albeit with little or no end product. Having said that if East is considered good enough, it's obviously in our best interest to test him in the first team and see what he's got when it matters.
