According to Walsall forum Up The Saddlers, Walsall captain George Dobson is close to signing for Sunderland. And while normally we might take such forum posts with a pinch of salt, Walsall supporters suggest the forum poster appears to have information coming from someone in the club because he has revealed six of the seven summer signings to date. According to the forum post, Dobson could join Sunderland as early as this week. The 21-year-old came through Arsenal’s academy and can play as a defensive midfielder or a centre-back. Despite his young age he was Walsall captain last term.
Young age to be captain, we could do with players able to play more than one position, let's see what happens, at least that's two decent rumours in the past 24 hours.
Walsall was relegated after our loss to Southend, presumably making their young 6'1'' captain available for transfer. Who knows, maybe someday, we will look at that loss as an important turning point in our fortunes. Dobo has the look of an O9'er to me.
I don't have an issue with picking the best/stand out player from a relegated team. Hardly an individual fault they got relegated. When your in league 1 guessing it's difficult to attract players from similar or better teams.
We desperately need some investment because Donald clearly hasnt got the cash to pay for top league 1/Lower Championship standard players. We're a big club, players should look at league 1 as being a temporary thing and want to join us on our journey. Wolves were signing players like Neves and Costa in the Championship because they knew promotion was inevitable.
You have just nailed all of our problems in one post. We clearly do not have the money for any top signings (not sure how the Grigg deal was eventually agreed but think we threw all of our eggs into one basket on that one). We are a big club, massive for League 1, but promotion is by no means inevitable. Players look at us and see a team relegated twice in 2 seasons. A player will have to choose whether he wants to play for a club higher up the leagues or if he wants to play for a big club in a lower league but with better facilities and crowds etc. I know what I would choose but I am slightly blinkered.
The money we got for Maja pretty much covered the whole of Griggs transfer fee. We took a risk and expected him to take over where Maja left off and fire us into the Championship. Unfortunately it didnt work.
Starting at the top Grigg, Watmore and McGeady , and sort the back 4 out, we are over run with midfield players. We need a couple of good signings , not a load of cast offs.
A Wallsall fans view of him.... https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/20...out-what-potential-sunderland-signing-is-like
So we now currently have Dobson, Leadbitter, Mcgeouch, Power, ONien, Honeyman, Embleton, Robson and Mumba all battling for 3 places, with only 4 pre-season friendlies .
Let's say that Dobson is similar to O'Nien, personally at this level I'd prefer two O'Nien's at CM than Catts and Leadbitter from last season so it'd be an improvement. Having said that no way do we need that many CMs.
Ive never seen Dobson play so its hard to comment but if he is similar to ONien then i dont think theyd work as a parnership. It would be like trying to player Lampard and Gerrard togeather at a much lesser level. I honestly cant understand why we signed Leadbitter?
Maybe not but we'd have to give it a try, I think lots of running and energy would help shield the defence more than the sloths from last season.
It would mate, but both players could also be caught out of position leaving no protection for the back 4. Id prefer to play a holding midfielder that sits infront of the defence to allow ONien the freedom to get forward as much as possible. Im not sure how Ethan Robsons going to fit in our team because he's also similar to ONien and Dobson, and Jack has already said Ethan is a big part of his first team plans. Throw Power and Honeyman in the mix aswell and i am totally bamboozled in trying to work out what Jacks trying to create for next season?
https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...t-on-dylan-mcgeouchs-sunderland-future-451969 Mumba will obviously go out on loan now by the looks of things. A year in League 2 will do him good just like it did for Embleton. Power only signed permanantly in Jan, along with Leadbitter so their obviously staying. Things could be looking bleak for Honeyman now. Hopefully we will get a half decent fee for him.
