It's food for thought, I almost never say "we must sign this player", I ask for thoughts, when I get pavlovian responses I ask for introspection, that's all. It works because honest introspection will naturally reveal things that you didn't expect.
On the Dan Neil contract stuff, I wonder if the issue could be his role in the team? With all our signings, maybe he's been told he'll likely be a squad / rotational option and isn't keen on it? No clue and I would have thought he'd be the type to be happy to fight for his place but I can't really see any other reason he wouldn't sign the contract...
The lads are just back, for all we know it's all done and they're just waiting for a specific date to release the news article.
Can't see that....he's team Captain.......he'll fight for his place if he has to. My instinct would be something more fundamental....salary,contract length,etc.....he's probably had his head turned by an agent?
But the same folk are saying how important it will be to have O’nien around the squad for his leadership and personality traits etc.. which I agree with by the way but you can’t surely believe that then think it’s not a good idea to have a premier and champions league winning captain who also captained the national team around a group of young lads developing season on season. It’s not all about the on field contribution for me.
Little point speculating on the Neil situation. Too many rumours and too much guesswork. I just hope he signs a 5 year deal and fights for his place in our exciting project. He definitely has his part to play in it.
Good points, he was getting subbed in the last few games which enabled us to bring on more attackers. Im sure he will have no issues with this. Regarding wanting a challenge quote, maybe that was in answer to the future if we failed to get promotion? We will never know. As Fell says, local lad come through our Academy, captain of the team, now promoted to the premier. What could be better?
Hand on heart not trying to wind people up but definitely want people to think outside the box and willing to offend if necessary.
Any player who's never played in the premier league who expects to be guaranteed to start in the premier league is a bit daft really. And I don't think Neil is daft. He'll know he's got to earn it and i'm sure will relish playing alongside better players.
Players still need to be able to contribute on the pitch, the issue with Henderson is his wages would have been too high for someone who likely wouldn't have started many games If RLB doesn't think he fits into his team/system then there's zero point in signing a player just because they are good in the dressing room
Nah,can't see this. We have a great dressing room as it is....some characters in there...I'll wager we've paid particular attention to this with our new signings.
Not signing Henderson is probably my favourite thing we've done this summer. So many promoted teams fall into the trap of past it players because of the fallacy that is experience. You have to be able to contribute on the pitch, that's where it matters.
