Yep, Jones clearly knows how to get the best out of him as he had good numbers at Luton as well. I assume it involves him getting the ball in early from deeper positions but haven’t watched him play for either Luton or Charlton
All those managers that we slag off and have already been sacked by their new clubs this season? Juric played him a dozen or so times. Rusk played him too.
Hence me saying that I suspect he's levels better, along with the fact he's an international right back.
Are we seriously saying that losing Bree is/was a problem. Sulemana is doing well too. It really doesn't matter.
He looked great against Liverpool, and I look forward to see him playing again. But Downs is also an international, so that’s not necessarily a mark of quality.
For me, the issue is not about any one individual player coming or going, but about the large scale changes being made every summer. I’ve said through the whole window that I believe we only should have brought in 3 or 4 players. And now I sort of don’t want us going up this season, because I know it would mean replacing the whole team again.
I wonder how much change would happen if we don’t go up though? Either way we could be changing half the team minimum
That is a fair comment. My only worry about not going up is having the better players cherry picked and having to start over again anyway…
Yeah, obviously depends on this season and performances but I can see us needing to get rid of a few due to wages then you have the younger players who may attract interest from the relegated sides or promoted sides depending on their performances across the season. Someone like Charles will only have one year left on his deal come next summer
Probably. I don’t think anyone can convince me that not going up is a better option tbh. I don’t buy this whole “build over a couple of seasons” as i don’t think it’s possible. Add in that Still likely gets sacked if we don’t go up (maybe if we lose in the playoffs he stays) and it doesn’t really add to building something/continuity. Going up and having the same season as last year is still better than not going up if we want to be a regular PL side again
If we go up, we have to forget the signing for the future policy and get a few experienced players in. I am not a huge SR doubter, but that seems to be something they are ideologically opposed to. So I could see last season repeating…
Yeah Charles is the obvious one. If we can get him to sign a new contract, then at least we would get £30m for him. With the likely £20m from Ramsdale, that would be a decent amount. Everyone else is either on a long contract or hasn’t played well enough for other clubs to show interest. I think the team would remain mostly the same, with the addition of some more youngsters breaking through and hopefully a bloody striker.
I would be shocked if we don’t get a striker in January. Unless Stewart suddenly becomes robust and Downs somehow comes good on the short term.
Or we start playing a way that suits Archer. He’s scored a couple playing in a way that doesn’t suit him so I can see him scoring a few if he just starts every game. Issue then is where do you put Armstrong, not sure if Fellows can play from the left but that would be an option with Azaz as the 10. Archer Fellows Azaz Armstrong Should be pretty potent as this level, with decent options on the bench for the 3 behind (who all could score a fair few as well)
A while ago Still said getting crosses in doesn’t mean they have to go in the air. We cannot play counter attack, which would suit Archer best, but we can certainly get more balls cut back in the box than we are. When we played well against Derby, which was in spurts but enough to create a lot of chances, we did create a lot of nice interplay along the ground. So, yeah, we could get Archer more involved.
Can you imagine SR replacing half the team without parachute payments? Shudder the thought. If we haven’t got a striker now we definitely won’t then.
