Just looked it up and he's out of contract in the summer. Just as well. Had a stinker of a season at Shef Wed. Only made the match day squad 4 times since October, Keen eye you've got there Gus.
Lens will not be coming to play for you in the championship, I'm far from convinced he's the player you'd want anyway. On the plus side you'll get £5-10m for him surely. Matthews, who knows. Take Gouffran! He's not premiership quality but would be an absolute steal (£1m tops I reckon and low wages) and tore the Championship apart for half a season - after 20odd games we had won every game he started (about 15 games) and only dropped points when he wasn't in the team. On a serious note I can't think of a reason why this deal wouldn't benefit everyone.
We may be forced to loaning Lens out again if nobody will match his wages. Depends if we've been learning any lessons in the last couple of seasons. I'll not commit to who's going as there could be a few on more than they're worth even after the wage reduction clauses have taken effect.
I started a new career mode on PES (footy game) the other day and it took me a few moments to remember who Matthews was when I was casting my eye over the squad, I thought he was highly rated at some point but I guess he's not any good. We still have M'Vila playing for us which pained me a bit.
£1m? Gouff's out of contract isn't he? They could snap him up for nowt. Yeah Gouff smashed it for the first half of the season, and looked good enough to be back in the Prem again, quality dropped in the second half, so he won't get a new contract, but he was still solid. The mackems could do a helluva lot worse.
Oh is he? Fair enough, I think he's a very good player for a promotion chasing side - he was one of our more consistent performers.
Think a lot of our fans will look at the players you have/had and think "They were **** in the prem so why would we want them" - I'm hoping that whoever is in charge has plans, much like Rafa did at yours, to get promoted and not to build a team to keep together going into the premier! We need to look to get the right players - we have a few youngsters and hopefully a few we can keep hold of - (Watmore, Gooch, McNair, Love, N'Dong) which would be very useful in the championship (to be honest, Watmore would've made a difference in the premier league if he hadn't done his knee!) and build around them to make the squad good enough to come back to the Premier at the first time of asking. We are going to be the biggest club in that league next season so there should be no reason we can;t attract the right players
In both of the recent relegations we've had, the key part of building a team to get back has been getting rid of the arrogant egos who think they're above the championship and building a core from the players who actually want to be there and fight. In '10 we got rid of Owen, Viduka, Martins, Duff, Bassong etc, and this time around we sold Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Janmaat etc, and both times the team was better for it, and could properly focus on the tough challenge ahead without a bunch of aloof arrogant pricks around.....seems you have a few players yourselves who have given up already and would just be a waste of space in the Champ, so a clear out is key. Gouffran was very good when he started with us in the Prem, full of effort and scoring lots, then had a very bad few years, but Rafa turned him around and he's been a major asset in the championship - grafter and a regular goal getter who's scored some ****ing belters this season. Would be foolish to overlook him if he's available.
My future son in law an Owl fan reckons Buckley is woeful - (even though he's been injured for most of his time there) So does not bode well - we do not need anymore sick notes
