Transfer goss and rumours, Summer 2016.

Some of my family are still out there until Wednesday. I might pass that on. Thanks mate.

 

Palace to follow up the signing of Benteke with Remy on loan?

Wow. That a double striker signing they would be for them!!

 

This transfer window has increasingly become about keeping players rather than buying new ones I think.

To have kept all our players bar Redmond (and of course Van Wolfswinkle) is a very impressive outcome.

Those players include Howson, Brady, Naismith, Olsson, Pinto, Jerome and Klose. Leaving aside personal views on any individual in that group, they are all players who have been decent performers at a higher level or very decent performers at this level and would therefore almost certainly found themselves a club should we not have worked hard to keep hold of them.

We have brought in Canos and Pritchard - so, if you like, two players to replace Redmond. We have also been able to start integrating younger fringe players into the first team e.g. Murphy x2, Maddison and Toffolo.

Assuming Oliveira materialises, and we manage to land one more striker (and Lafferty leaves), I'd say that is an excellent transfer window and leaves us with a seriously impressive squad.

Whether our manager, coaches and players can make the most of the situation remains to be seen but on the subject of the transfer window (assuming the above happens and we don't lose anyone else) I'd say it's a bloody good result.

 

That's 'the $64,000 dollar question!!!!'

 

Well said Dorset. Most of us said at the start of the window that hanging on to our best players was more important than bringing in new ones, except for a striker to replace Mbokani. I'm happy with replacing Redmond with Canos and Pritchard and also with the chances being given to our young players at last. Saturday was awful, to be sure, but at least it was brightened by Jacob's performance and more game time for Canos and Josh. Oliveira seems to be a done deal, now, which pleases me no end and we have yet to see what Pritchard will bring to our attack. Good window for me as well. Another striker would make it a great one.

 

We've now built a squad to suit AN's style of play and need to make it happen now. I still think we will.

 

If Saturday is AN's style of play.......................

 

Hopefully, he was as pissed off as we were FML.

 

Hope does not come into it, he better have them back in training this morning stuff it no holiday after that !

 

He just needs to drop Whittaker and probably Naismith!!!!
Though I'd love to see a 4-4-2 occasionally.

 

To some extent I agree with you that we have retained some good players at this level and added some good quality.

If you look at individuals retained, purchased & contracts extended we have done well, the trouble is this seems to be at the expense of building a quality team. For some positions we have too many very good quality players at this level competing for the same position and lack depth in quality in other positions. One of the effects of this is we have ended up playing far too many good quality players out of their preferred position, which I would suggest underminds confidence, saps the players moral and weakens the team. An example is AM we have 4 championship quality players who can play this position (Naismith, Hoolahan, Howson, Pritchard) and at least one very promising youngster (Maddison). At present to accommodate Naismith, Hoolahan & Howson we have to play 2 of the 3 out of position and because we have too much cover in that position, Maddison who is someone we should be bringing on is struggling to get in the match day squad let alone on the pitch. The situation is going to get even worse when Pritchard is fit. On the other side of the coin we have Olsson at LB, however as soon as he gets injured we have to put Brady in his place and lose argueably our best midfielder who would be a star in, most championship teams in that position. In the striker we are well short of depth in cover. Jerome gets injured but rather than play Lafferty or Morris in that position, we decide to play Naismith out of position, even though he is playing far from well in his preferred position. If we're not going to play Toffolo and Morris to cover for injuries then why not let them get experience and game time out on loan. An as if it isn't bad enough we are just a single long term injury to Klose away from writing off any chance we have this season from automatic promotion. No doubt if he does get injured we can always get Martin to play out of position as CB rather than cover for our best RB, Pinto. AN still hasn't grasped the nettle of the captaincy, preferring to retaining Martin in the role even though when everyone is fit his level of performance shouldn't justify him being in the starting 11. Then there's Whittaker (although the flack he gets is not always justified) who with a fit Pinto and Martin on the bench should not make the match day squad. It can't just be a coincidence that Martin (last season) and Naismith / Whittaker (this season) seem to continuely get played when their performances don't justify it, when others don't get a fair crack of the whip. In truth somethings got to give. I have heard several reports of players argueing with each other on the pitch at Birmingham and I suspect that despite everyone toe the party line, it's not a happy ship at the moment, I'm not surprised we are struggling to recruit a striker. Blame needs to be put fairly on AN, not that everything is down to him and the board, players and other coaching staff need to take their share of the blame. I'd give AN 4 games to learn his lessons form last season and this and if he can't sort things out then the board should buy him a bike and telling him to get on it.

 

I think we definitely need to see two up front, certainly in the majority of home games. I'd go for 4:1:3:2 because I don't think we need two holding midfield players all the time. I'd probably shift Howson forward to play in the middle of the three to provide a little bit more tackling ability, but leave Tettey to play the sole holding role.

 

I agree that they need to be dropped, but that won't be enough to sort out our issues.

 

That sounds like an excellent idea, as we are setting up too defensively.

Agreed, but it would be a start and I'd like to see Canos given another chance - how MANY chances has Naismith had????

 

Can't argue with much of that really, I do think we have got too many players in some of the attacking midfield positions, especially when you think we still have Jarvis to return. Maybe there's still a departure or two on the cards.

 

Trouble is that didn't mean hanging on to all our players. We needed to retain our best players (Klose, Howson, Brady etc) make some astute purchases (Pritchard, Canos) and give some of our younger players a go (Murphy's). So far we've retained our best players, made some astute purchases and seem to be willing to give some of our younger players ago, what we haven't done is had a clear out the dross (Whittaker, Turner etc) to make space / funds available for more astute purchases

 

And that's partly why we're in 12th place in the table!!!!!

 

Just off the top of my head, for the three attacking midfield roles we have:

Jarvis
Josh Murphy
Brady
Howson
Hoolahan
Maddison
Jacob Murphy
Naismith
Pritchard
Canos

That's 10 players for three positions (assuming I haven't forgotten anyone) which does seem about 2 or 3 too many.

Most likely departures?

Brady I suppose, but then after that? Naismith I should think.

 

........ and breath

 

This is a very strange transfer. In terms of money and Club he's going to.

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/tra...-in-13m-deal/story-29664204-detail/story.html