Speaking of free agents, I heard we have an interest in Browne. I wonder if he's one we snap up. Norwood would definitely be welcome. Maybe not as mobile as we'd want?
Depends how you look at it really, they got worse last season compared to the season before and a big part of that was Simms being dreadful the first half of the season. It's easier to sign players who are ready when you are shopping at a higher price point. But they still failed to replace the big two that left effectively in my opinion. Torp, the midfielder they signed, had a poor season.
I always felt McNair best position was as an 8 or a 10. He scored a few goals for us at the end of the Championship season playing as an advanced midfielder. Boro seemed to play him at RB/CB a lot which wasn't playing to his strengths.
Coventry develop the players too though (something we were doing really well too but has obviously stagnated over the last 8 months or so). Gyokores was not the player he is today when they signed him (in fact our fans would be in meltdown if we were buying now a player with his exact career record at the time they got him from Brighton). Hamer too. Even Wright and Simms looked hopeless in their first six months there before Robins and his team started to make their mark. Numerous other examples there too. It’s such a fundamental part of the model but one that is often neglected when people are speaking about it. The idea is to identify players that are undervalued (whether that be that they’re young and haven’t had much exposure yet a la Cirkin or Ekwah, are performing in a lesser league so need decent scouting and data analysis to spot them like Hume or whether they are good players that have lost their way like Clarke, Roberts and Pritchard) and to give them an environment and the coaching under which they’ll thrive. Makes the head coach situation since Mowbray even more baffling as it’s (obviously) absolutely pivotal to the success of the whole thing.
He was linked a few weeks back. He’d be a cracking signing, the experienced profile I feel were massively lacking.
"The Model" is still ongoing and working, there are quite a few players who could go this summer if the right offers come in, unlike Cov with Gyorkeres where the players profile had risen significantly above the clubs, it would have been nigh-on impossible for them to keep him, for us Clarke is approaching that but not quite in my opinion. All these young players; Ba, Aouchiche, Seelt, Aji, Jewi, Pembele, Hemir, I could go on and on.. these players are far from the finished product, they could end up better than the player that is in front of them in the team right now, and selling players is the natural process that allows them to step up and prove it.
Haven’t seen enough of him to say but stats wise he’s a player that is probably described as a “ good all rounder”. Not brilliant at anything but better than average at most and not really poor at anything.
He is an all round midfielder, gets about the pitch well, good on the ball and passes forward (its one of the 1st things i look for in CMs) Knows the league and still has room to grow imo, him n Neil would be class together
I'd be surprised if the Browne link is real, he was on £19k at Preston who offered him "their biggest ever offer" (let's guess at 25-30k), which he turned down. Our biggest earner is allegedly Jack Clarke who is on less than £19k. edit:: He's a cracking player mind.
Appreciated, lads. We don't have enough quality partnerships in the side so Neil and Browne sounds excellent.
Alex Scott signed for Bournemouth from Bristol City for £25m and earns 35k a week. Adam Wharton signed for Palace from Blackburn for £20m and earns 40k a week. I would hazard a guess that this is the sort of wages required to keep him at Sunderland and I just don't see us going there.
Probably right but hopefully wrong. Nice signing on fee maybe, and bit less on the wages? Thinking the levels we pay, it would take some decent sales / other income to kick our wage ceiling up a notch.
tbh I doubt he'd sign an improved deal even if offered. He has no need to. He's actually incentivised to run his contract down so his value / our asking price comes down.
You’re right unfortunately. A much better deal should’ve been offered a year ago imo. Maybe it was, we’ll probably never know.