Farke , Smith & Wagner clearly see Aarons , Handley & McLean as 3 of the starting 11 . I find it bizarre that someone who follows Norwich City would single them out for criticism. Unfortunately for Robbie Kenny just signed a new contract, Handley is still club captain & Max seems to want to be at Carrow Road too.
English full-back Max Aarons, 23, turned down offers from two unnamed Premier League clubs on deadline day in order to help Norwich earn promotion back to the top flight. (Sun)
From a club perspective, as long as you're confident in his ability/potential and that his injury concerns are manageable, now is probably the cheapest time to lock him in long-term and secure his value. His current playing time and injury record don't earn him a top tier contract within the club right now. He's not playing/scoring regularly, but I think his role is going to grow over the remainder of the season. He might well be earmarked as our Pukki replacement if we don't get promoted. Should he explode next season, he could be on a bargain wage with high sale value if needed. I think of our current squad, he's perhaps the most likely to be able to command a £30m fee? Given that ship seems to have sailed for Aarons.
Wow, you rate him highly, or at least his potential. I feel much less optimistic, although I can see that he has lots of qualities which a good coach might be able to develop and I recognise that so far the club has not covered itself in glory in how it's handled his development. He needs playing time. Obviously I hope you're right DH. EDIT: My worries about him are less about his technical ability than his general attitude. I don't mean he's lazy or difficult or anything like that; I just feel there is a kind of passivity about him on the pitch that he needs to change.
Idah has been with the club since he was 15 & did well in the youth set up , exploded onto the scene with that hat trick 3 years ago in the FA Cup. A combination of injuries, lack of game time and average form have limited his development. Ireland having enormous patience with him during his dry goal run despite playing well . He seems like a thoroughly decent guy in interviews , humble not flashy & eloquent. He's built like Rashford tall , quick and bulking up . He is good with both feet , works well as a foil or target man and can play both flanks . His goalscoring record is not very good but he put one away recently with panache. As DH said , he is probably at his lowest price & offering a 5 year deal pretty much guarantees a profit on his development & a sizeable chunk paid back to the academy. Also if Pukki doesn't stay at the end of the season we would only have Sargent, plus we don't have Hugill's wages anymore. Idah was on £23k week
I agree on his development, he's been unfortunate with injuries, and that's led to him being fit in the Prem when we couldn't really afford to play him, and injured in the Championship when he could have. It's a shame that he'll reach 22 without having played 20 league games in a season. A loan would have been ideal. I think he's been on the verge of breaking through as a first line option for a couple of seasons, hindered by the fact we've not really had to worry about who our first choice striker is since August 2018.
I think we missed an opportunity to loan him out in our first PL season, it was a mistake to keep him at the club although he would have only been 18/19 he looked ready for men’s football
Pundit view of what Marquinhos can bring to City's play: https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/p...-city-claim-after-arsenal-transfer-agreement/ The gist is: "He’s quick, he’s very skilful, he’ll beat a man and he’s got two good feet. He can deliver crosses, he can score goals. It’s just he’s not at Arsenal level just yet, so he needed a move."
Championship side Queens Park Rangers have signed former Bristol City striker Chris Martin on a deal until the end of the season. The 34-year-old became a free agent after leaving the Robins on transfer deadline day.
Rangers now rumoured to be looking to sign Gunn after his “problems” at Norwich. For me we should make him number and build from him.
I think we find ourselves in a very similar position to when Webber first came in, this team feels at the end of a cycle and in need a of a rebuild. Build the team around Gunn, McCallum, Mumba, Omobamidele, Sara, Gibbs, Sargent, Idah, Rowe and perhaps a few of the others - Tzolis, Nunez, Lungi. Aarons deserves a Prem move and the money from his sale could fund several new players.
Tzolis, other than being unfit hasn't shown a thing here or at Twente. Lungi I presume would be backup LB? As he certainly hasn't played well in DCM role when given the opportunity. Don't see Idah being the 20-25 goal striker we're looking for. I also think Aarons funding several players is over ambitious, he'll gain us what £12-15m at most, given the cost of decent midfielders, strikers and defenders we require, I suspect we'll need to offload Omo too.
Very hard to judge these players when they only get 5-15 mins per game, they need to be given a run of games - by that I mean 5 successive matches. Tzolis is very raw but there could be a player there - he excited against Bournemouth and did well against Arsenal and Liverpool but was then banished. I think Lungi could play DM or LCB - he played very well at CDM in the PL for a couple of games before his injury against Wolves and always played well at LB, he has always struck me as a player that was calm on the ball, not flashy but also decisive in the tackle which we need in a DM. Idah as with Sargent has struggled for proper minutes as Pukki has been the undisputed holder of the strikers shirt, he really needed a loan but he was injured. I feel both deserve more chances to play in their preferred position, Sarge showed he was capable in the spell of games that Pukki was injured for. The previous successes we have had have been built off cheap/free players eager/determined to succeed, that can work again without breaking the bank - providing you pick the right players...
Who picked our players during Lamberts reign? I would guess it was Lambert himself. That team was certainly better than the sum of the parts. Gunn recruited Holt, Wes was also here before that, but the majority came during the Lambert tenure.
I haven't seen it reported on here, but the club have confirmed that Alan Russell has left the club by mutual consent to explore other opportunities. Sounds like he possibly wants a crack at management perhaps. He wasn't at the game on Saturday and the players all ran to Andy Hughes in celebration of the set piece goals that we scored.
Athletico Madrid, RB Leipzig and West Ham are apparently keeping an eye on Gabby Sara. I hope we can keep him, it feels so long ago since we had a properly functioning midfield as we do now