imo, IF the club look to a new skipper and IF we sign him, it's goes straight on Xhaka. Once again imo,09s minutes are limited unless he adapts some of his playing style in the PL, because his shenanigans will cost us more than advantages us due to VAR.
I’m not a big fan of new signings being given the captaincy but I genuinely can’t think of anyone better than xhaka should he come in, case for Hume or Ballard but ballards fitness is a concern and Hume’s still a young lad
Remember when Cana was signed and got the armband? I don’t mind it personally. I think Xhaka would be perfect for the role.
Sorry, could people stop talking about Xhaka, please? I come to this thread to see people argue about data analytics, not learn about Sunderland transfers.
If he was unhappy, he could have replaced him in the summer or Jan. Instead he had him as his captain. He had his man Le Fee in second half of season. Browne was fit later in the season. Samed got fit. Aleksic was kicking his heels. But aye, he kept him as captain, in the most important position on the pitch, most likely because he valued everything he brought to that team.
I would have said Ipswich or Southampton. It looks like Ipswich are about to sign Hackney which leaves open a position at M’Boro. That would be a good move for Dan. It keeps him in the area and he’ll do a decent job there.
Talking of if Dan Neil should get £40K plus a week for the new contract, does the fact that he has been on a low wage and we haven't had to fork out a big fee have a bearing? We have committed big chunks of cash for Le Fee, Diarra and Sadiki and £40K (or even 50) a week for Neil would be a lot smaller than those.
He gave him glowing praise on at least a couple of occasions too - talking about how critical he was for the team and how he wanted to play. If Neil was guilty of slowing things down, that was likely by instruction.
Ipswich are talking about spending £20m on the Teeside Dan Neil. For me there's real value in keeping him, even as a hedge. There's still a more than slim chance that we may be in need of Dan Neil players in 26/27 - and that is assuming he is unable to acclimatise to the PL, which is still entirely possible.
Sounds more and more positive doesn’t it. Still hasn’t sunk in that we could have a player of his stature in our first season back.
I really like Dan Neil and he deserves a pay rise in line with what everyone else is getting but all I’ll say is if it was performance based off what I saw a lot last year I don’t think it would be a big one
BTW, the hotel Malaga and Xhaka were in is called Citizen M … … and I can prove it for the cost of the room if anyone’s up for it
I think Hackney is a better player than Dan, if we are being honest. There’s a reason Hackney was being selected for England U21’s and Dan was never handed a chance. If we don’t bring in Xhaka or enough midfield cover then we’ll have to keep Dan. My personal opinion is I just don’t think he’s got the attributes to be a premier league player.
For the moment there haven’t been any transfers for days, just waffle and bickering … … there’ll be a new one along any minute. Let’s hope it’s a transfer, not the waffle