General Sports Thread

Hmm, interesting. If we can re-sign Mattison (who's a free agent) I'm absolutely fine with this. I rate Mattison and he'd be cheaper than Cook. Vikes desperately need to create cap space.

 

They need to cut a number of the older high earners. Kendricks/Cook/both Smiths/Thielen/Tomlinson all need to restructure significantly or go. None will have any trade value and all are earning a wedge this season. Not sure how many picks the Vikings have in this years draft but pretty sure they only have 1 pick in the first 3 rounds so unlikely to make a huge impact without giving up future draft capital to do so. Kwesi would be an idiot to do that as this team isn’t good and will be worse when you cut a lot of the main players, and have a first placed finish team schedule. Accept that this year will most likely be **** and make moves to build a competitive team in 2025, the Wilfs won’t do this though as they don’t really care about winning the Super Bowl as long as the team is “competitive”

 

Alonso is a serious contender to win the GP this weekend!

 

Don't get too excited just yet! Let's see how qualifying pans out, and the RBR is hugely quick on the race runs. I think he definitely has a chance of a podium though, which is great to see. The new tech director at Aston, Dan Fallows, is an old university mate of mine (Southampton Uni!) - he's done some job there so far!

 

And same old same old for Ferrari!

 

Good to see Aston Martin being competitive, where "competitive" in 2023 likely means "competitive with everyone but Red Bull".

 

Alonso …..just brilliant

 

Finally, England have dropped Farrell, with Smith in at fly-half. Farrell has been a great player for England, but his kicking has gone to pot lately and Smith deserves a shot.

 

Smith’s game has also suffered because of Farrell too, as when they play together with Farrell at inside centre, Farrell still tries to run the game.

 

I confess I don't follow domestic rugby at all, but from what I've read, Smith and Lawrence have been the form guys in the Premiership so should be starting alongside each other.

 

Worth a go, certainly. I’m not really au fait with the Premiership these days, as Bath don’t really seem to be part of it!

 

My only doubt with Smith is that he seems to get brushed aside too easily, in games I have watched, when he makes tackles, but he is certainly a very exciting player to watch.

 

If the Vikings new front office wanted to take the team in a new direction then they could really do something quite radical: trade/release Cousins and sign Jackson. Obviously there would be a lot of bridges to cross to even get close to a deal. Ravens have placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Jackson so they could match any deal the Vikings would offer and simply keep him. I really can't see it happening, but having an offence led by Jackson and Jefferson would be mouth watering.

 

Yeah zero chance that happens, they couldn’t afford Jackson even if they found someone stupid enough to trade for Cousins with his contract.

Kendrick’s has been released which is the first step of clearing some cap space. Still lots more to do but linebacker is their biggest weakness now especially as Hicks is surely going as well.

 

Also just seen that Zadarious Smith has asked to be released and posted a goodbye message on Instagram

I thought they would trade him this off season but sounds like he just wants out completely. They have also been awarded a 6th round compensation pick for player releases.

 

Vikings have so far refused to release him.

 

He’ll go I’d imagine. Vikings need cap space and he wants to go, seems easy enough. Only thing will be if they can get anyone to trade something for him, which is a possibility.

Leaves the defence even thinner though and edge rusher is now a huge need along with corner and linebacker. The only edge who is half decent is Hunter who only has a year left on his deal and this probably will be his last year

 

Thielen being released now. No surprises there given his age and his salary. Sad to see him go though.

 

Not surprising but still sad as his story is great and he’s been a Viking his whole career

Dantzler being released is a surprise, still on his rookie deal and, whilst he wasn’t that good, would’ve thought they would’ve kept him around

 

I see that Football Focus has been replaced today by a programme called “Bargain Hunt” - a tv crew follow the Saints FC scouting team to find a team to compete in the Championship next year.