Just got in from Bromley .First half dreadful and by and large second half OK. Minus's Roger Johnson seems like he may be back in favour Final ball poor through out. Pluses for me Tony Watt was decent enough as was Holmes and loved Solly running 40 yards in a revenge attack to take out Bromley player. Can never read much into friendlies it's all about fitness levels being achieved. Bromley were more up for it and have the biggest twat of a manager since Pardew he really is a knob .
In all honestly Slade would probably have learned more from this defeat than the 4-1 at Welling. Either way, early days yet, and the squad is not the one we will have when the season kicks off.
These freebies are similar to Murray's final season - you know, when we had no more clothe to cut from.
From what I have heard, not very good. I think he would be an alright signing, as a squad player, assuming he hasn't dropped off too much since being at Wolves . I assume the rest of our signings will be the likes of Buxton, Foley and Crofts. Thoroughly underwhelming. Outrageous to think some fans were going on like we will piss the league after welling, considering Our squad, courtesy of CL. Goalkeepers Stephen Henderson 2017 Nick Pope 2018 Not worried about our goalkeeping situations as we will surely keep one of them. Right Backs Chris Solly 2017 Need cover. Foley will do, he can also play in midfield. Hopefully Chris's body holds up. Centre Backs Roger Johnson 2017 Harry Lennon 2018 Patrick Bauer 2019 Jorge Texieria 2020 Tex is going. Johnson is an embarrassment. Question marks over Lennon and Bauer fitness. Wouldn't rule out Bauer going missing again. Signings need. Left Backs Morgan Fox 2018 Tareiq Holmes-Dennis 2018 Not worried about left back. Can't fathom why Fox is linked with Champ teams. Think he will do well at league 1 though, maybe it can be to him, what our league 1 winning title season was for Solly. Probably not though. Right Midfielders Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson 2019 Ricky Holmes 2018 JBG is off. Jury is out on Holmes. Central Midfielders Alou Diarra - 2017 Johnnie Jackson 2017 El-Hadji Ba 2018 Ahmed Kashi 2018 Jordan Cousins 2019 Cousins gone. I doubt we will see Kashi in a CAFC shirt again. We will be lucky to get 40 games between Diarra and JJ. I think Ba could do a job in league 1, but wouldn't count on it. Serious investment needed. Left Midfielders Callum Harriott - 2017 Cristian Ceballos 2018 Zakarya Bergdich 2019 Might as well replace CC with an empty crisp packet, would give the ball away less and wouldn't cost a penny. Birdpoo is seemingly gone, good riddance. Harriott will be dangerous at this level. I assume THD could also fill in at LM should Harriott get injured. Strikers Tony Watt 2018 Ademola Lookman 2020 Lee Novak 2019 Nicky Ajose 2019 Watt and Lookman will be sold. So another two strikers needed. I assume KAG would/will be one of them. So we currently have a squad of 23. I imagine between 5-8 players will leave. Can't understand all the optimism. I have read some truly baffling posts on CL and ITTV about how we should be happy that we have a British manager and British players. Why? It's what should of happened from the beginning, or summer 2014/January 2015/summer2015/ and whenever Karel got the job. As for the players signed, not particularly excited about them, they have both failed previously at Champ level (although Ajose was only young) and a 29 year old winger who has never played above League 2. If we go up, we will be in the same position we were in when we got bought, but with less fans (for the moron Reams, who says attendances will be down due to being in league 1 - we had almost double the amount of fans in the ground in our last stint in L1 than last season in the champ)and exponentially more debt. Also lots of long serving staff who know the club inside out have been ****ed off, so not only does the playing staff need serious investment, so does the non playing staff, especially the medical department. I'll warm to Roland when he gets rid of Katrien and has competing in the Champ. Or better yet, when he pops his clogs
Just as I have typed this, we have been linked with Paul Taylor. 28 year old striker who hasn't played in a year. Has scored 43 goals in about 150 appearances. 30 of them being for Vauxhall motors and Montegnee. Montegnee being in the 8th tier of Belgium football. Maybe Karel is still involved?
Out of interest - wheres it being reported? I know at the time they were eager for it not to get out.
You would hope so! It appears Slade's honeymoon period is over. We should be buying the best talent of league 1 and 2, not old journeymen. If we go up , we will need to buy half a squad for the fourth summer in a row.
Interest in Watt confirmed by Slade also. Slade is good working on a budget, but other than Cardiff, it's been with clubs who have been... lets say of modest ambition. CAFC fans need to know the team is competitive to win the league at this level. Having a squad ''capable'' of play offs will see him come under pressure fast. I'm going to try and wait to see how the summer pans out. If the deals prior to player sales aren't included in the JBG, Cousins and potentially Watt/Pope money then it leaves Slade in a healthy position (should a fair amount be provided).
Think it's out of his hands. Following cousins departure, clubs will fancy getting him for less than a million.