Transfer goss and rumours, Summer 2016.

By all accounts Godfry has been one of our best youngsters so far in PS too!

 

Pritchard would be an upgrade on a lot of our midfielders, and if Brady leaves or gets injured we have no one who can take a set piece who can beat the first defender. That's all I meant. A great young talent who would add to a weak area of our squad.

Iv said many times we need defenders. We went out and signed a GK again. Didn't need that either. But it's about squad depth. If he is available and we are interested, I think he would add to our first team.

We arnt linked to any decent defenders. If we were, I'd be keen for us to push on with that deal.

 

I only remember Brady scoring 1 free kick.

 

Godfrey has been the surprise package this pre-season despite being only 18. He looks comfortable wherever he plays and AN is obviously impressed. He did a good job at RB in the second half against Ruban Kazan and though primarily a CM, he can play at CB as well. I suspect a loan is more likely to get him the experience he needs, but it'd certainly be an indicator if he makes the breakthrough now.

Meanwhile the odds on McCormack coming to City have dropped to 1/10 on SkyBet and 1/12 on BetVictor, against 16/1 for Villa and 20/1 for Newcastle.

 

We paid a decent amount for him from York. Going up to ~£1m if I remember correctly. Was highly rated, glad to see he's impressing I like the idea that we build our team in a more long term way.

Betting odds are rarely based on insider info, more just weight of rumour leading to increased amounts being bet. When the odds of something happening are starting the rumour then it becomes a cycle with no new information. There are times when odd change rapidly and unexpectedly, generally because someone puts down a large bet on something previously unreported.

 

I'm a bit confused by this thread. How could one player be supposed to keep us up. Messi couldn't have done that!! Newcastle spent a lot more on individual players than we did but it didn't save them. Our defence was leaking 2 preventable goals a game after Klose was injured - was Naismith supposed to score 3 a game to overcome that? I think/hope he will come good this season but there is little doubt that his name will be one of the first on the team sheet. The general opinion is, quite rightly, that we must retain Klose, Olssen and Brady. We also seem to want an additional striker and CB along with AN other. Add to these 6, 2 goalkeepers, Pinto, Bennett, Martin, Whittaker, Tettey, Howson, Jerome, Dorrans, Naismith, Jarvis and Wes then you have 19 players and that forgets about the likes of Bassong, Turner, Mulumbu, Ofoe, Lafferty and RvW. Where is the room for all these youngsters that we all want to see? In reality how much can a Club like ours afford to pay to players to sit in the stand? Just a thought!! If this appears strange I apologise as I must have accidentally pressed something and don't know how to get rid of it.

 

I think you can point to nearly every area of the squad and say you'd like to see improvement. Arguably Alex Neil might privately say the same. Based purely on the rumour-mill and current business, it seems like our approach thus far is to address the positions where we simply don't have the numbers, with any other changes likely to be based on one-in, one-out.

Pritchard appears to be a quality young player, probably available at a reasonable price. But as predominantly a central attacking midfielder he'd be in competition with Hoolahan, Maddison, with Andreu, Howson, Vadis and McGrandles also an option there. I don't think given our relatively limited finances, it's a position we can afford to strengthen unfortunately, particularly without player sales.

CB seems to be a key area for improvement for some people, and as others have said I think we run into the same problem that we'd need to shift Martin, Turner, Bassong, etc to both free up funds and make space in the squad. Unfortunately we appear to have accumulated a lot of players you could not unfairly describe as "undesirable", but without the ability to move them on we can't recruit in those areas. How Alex Neil uses these players and our youngsters to augment the genuine talent in our squad is going to be key to our season.

 

Don't forget Naismith tends to play in behind a striker as well, Canos can play there too.

 

Very kind of you squire. Not sure he'll be quite so enamoured with your crime-ridden shantytown after reading this
http://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/n...934?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

 

Probably just paper talk...but with Cresswell now injured for West Ham there is talk of interest in Olsson or Brady to replace him.

 

I thought Cresswell was a full back?
I saw enough last season to suggest Brady isn't.

 

That rumour smacks of lazy journalism to me. Big Sam was supposed to be interested in Olsson two years ago, so now that Cresswell is injured, Bilic must be the same. West Ham was supposed to be after Brady as a winger earlier, so they must be even more so now. If Brady leaves, it's more likely to be to Everton, according to the bookies anyway.

 

Just read that Brady to Everton is a strong rumour and a payment of between £6-7m should secure the player in time for the new season! Somebody is having a laugh or is totally ignorant of the fact that Brady cost NCFC at least £7m last season. There is no way that Brady is going anywhere for less than £15m so Everton need to step up to the mark to secure his services. Can't see Pritchard coming to CR on loan too many others queuing for the position unless there is a bit of a late clear out. McCormack or another striker (looks odds on) and a possible replacement for Brady is all I can see happening. Still, I was never any good at predicting transfers!

 

Tonight's line-up against Coventry:

McGovern; Whittaker, Bennett, Bassong, Olsson; Howson (C), Dorrans; Canos, Hoolahan, Odjidja; Lafferty. Subs: Rudd (GK), Pinto, Toffolo, Godfrey, Thompson, Mulumbu, Maddison, Jo. Murphy, Ja. Murphy, Morris

Interesting that Wes is in but not Brady, and Lafferty will start up front!

 

Thanks RER - looking forward to watching the game pretty much from the half way line (Area K) and hope to see most of the subs involved.

 

Looking forward to a match summary afterwards, BH
Hope you get a good game.
I went to a pre-season a couple of years ago that finished NCFC 6 Bury 3!
If I'm not wrong, Martin Olsson scored

 

Anyone know of a stream for this match?

 

Haven't found any CC. I'm following the Pink'un coverage instead.

 

I think that feels quite second string apart I'd expect Brady is intended to play the Hanover game which will be the harder game.