The signing of a keeper quitened us down a bit and Gradel still being at the club at this moment in time has also kept us all quietly happy. However I was reading comments today that Lonergran wanted to join 6 weeks back and it was personal issues and not wages that delayed his signature. So who were the three premier league players Bates wanted and believed we would be signing? We have one more friendly game before the season starts, okay we might sign a couple of the players on trial but I cannot believe we are going into a new season with the same defence as last season, weaker in fact if you consider we had Lichaj and Naylor. Granted Kisnorbo is back and fingers crossed he stays injury free but for Grayson to openly blame the defence for our failiure last season, selling kasper who was an okay keeper and replacing him with one who I can't see being an awful lot better isn't exactly curing the problem. Are we happy with the squad, can we survive with the attack that we have until Somma and Bechio return?
Bates has said 2 players will have joined the team by this weekend. He hasn't specified whether they'll be trialists or permanent.
I thought I read somewhere he wanted to sign three premier league players, might have been wrong as all I can find now is http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14049277.stm saying 4 players total. Worrying if it is the two on trial as I would have liked a new defender to get excited bout.
I think Bates said in the YEP today, that the 2 players that we are signing/trialling are from Prem clubs.
Wouldnt suprise me at all if we dont sign anyone else. Like the idea of taking James Mcfadden though. He can start up tops for us then move into the midfield when Becchio is back
One of the players has always been Johsntone, even last season, but he's gone to Festa along with everyone else.
Simon & kissa were discussing it on another thread Originally Posted by Youll-Never-Beat-Kisnorbo did I hear a rumour that we where after James McFadden? Yeah, Uncle Ken said he's meeting the agents of two midfielders in Monaco at the weekend. He said they had good CV's one of them could also play up front, and McFadden has just been released by Birmingham and has the same agent (who happens to live in Monaco) as McCormack. Hardly conclusive evidence but it makes sense. Seems viable we will at least speak with his agent & Birmingham are in financial troubles
Bates said one of the 2 midfielders who's agents he was talking to could also play up front, and McFadden having been released by Birmingham (I think, either that or they want him off the wage bill) + his agent being the same as McCormack's and living in Monaco means lots of people think it could be him. It's hardly conclusive evidence but it's not completely unbelievable either.
You're very welcome . The quote about good CV's suggests they're not the trialists, as, however good they may be, neither Osbourne or Mendy have what I would call good CV's. Possibly Clingan and McFadden?
Also the thing with the 3 PL players was a Bates quote from a month or so ago where he said we'd missed out on 3 targets to PL clubs. Westwood and 2 others I'm guessing.
This is Bates' full talk about transfers lifted straight from the interview: "We’ve got one or two other positions we are looking at actively. I spent most of last night on the phone with agents representing two more midfield players, both of whom are rather good. In fact, one can also play up front. So hopefully we are going to get those across to Leeds this weekend. The agents are coming to see me today in Monaco so hopefully we’ll get those across and have a look at them. They both come with good CVs. As I said, we don’t sign players on videos or recommendations, we like to have a look at them because that’s the way you can find out about their characters as well as their skills and their attitude to the game. We need to come out fighting and I understand Simon said last night that we were lethargic in the first half well that was the same criticism against Sheffield Wednesday and in many games last year when we didn’t start playing until the 46th minute. It has to be addressed very quickly. The players that we want are in keeping with that philosophy." He also interestingly appears to suggest the possibility of playing a friendly in India later in the season.
I hope im wrong but 2 of the "premier league players" could quite feasibly be Osbourne and J-Lloyd Samuel. Osbourne - I dont know enough about to pass comment but i saw Samuel several times whilst he was on loan at Cardiff last season and to see he was poor would be an understatement. With 1 pre-season game left we can assume that apart from a few quid for Lonegran there was no "money" to spend and you can expect 3-4 loan players to come in before the end of the window. Teams loaning out players and who actually have money to spend will want to finalise their incomings before allowing players out hence why we will not bring in the loanees until right towards the end of the window. Looking like a mid to lower table finish with the present squad simply because teams around us have strenghthened and so far, i stress so far our business done has been average to say the least.
Really/ Please go into detail about how so many teams have strengthened so much for us to drop so far? And I'll say again, he didn't say we were going to sign 3 PL players, he said we missed out on 3 targets to PL clubs. The 2 players supposedly coming in are both midfielders and his wording suggests neither are on trial.
any player bates says we are getting he is fair to them----he lets them sort there o.a.p pention out first
You're welcome . i wonder if this India thing is an idea to keep the rest of the players sharp during the international break?
