Just how mutch? "Cardiff paid an undisclosed seven-figure fee for Mutch when they signed him from Birmingham in 2012. At the time Peter Pannu, their vice-chairman, claimed that the St Andrewâs club had inserted a heavy sell-on clause."
Tob, welcome to the mad house. Yes, saw Daehli from when he joined us last season. It's one thing to go past the first player as Daehli does but he then tends to get caught in possession and any benefit from his first move gets lost. Whether he is quick or just plain skillful is a moot point. Personally I think, yes, he is quick over the first 5 yards but after that he cannot sustain the pace. That being the case he needs to get his head up after beating his first man to play the ball off to others running into better positions. Mutch tends to move from deeper positions so after getting past the first man he has more space and can then drive forward so sustains his initial speed for longer. We are probably saying the same thing but coming from different points of view. Anyway, all now irrelevant to us as he looks like he will sign for QPR today. Wonder if we will have the same dbeate over Adeyemi?
Got his England cap before he came to us. From memory, he got a call to join the England party when he was with us because they had some injury problems at CB (can't remember who). He never got to kick a ball though. He is a good CB for a 22 year old and the unwritten "CB law of averages" would say he'll get better with age. He didn't necessarily cover himself with glory last season, he was caught out a few times though it could be said he was trying to cover for others on occasions. I don't mean this disparagingly, but in Premier League terms at the moment, he's probably found his level with you.
The 2 players I didnt want to lose were Mutch and Marshall. Caulker is a very good player but prone to mistakes. Turner got slaughtered by some fans last season but I reckon he made far few defensive errors than Caulker. In fact I reckon Turner is a better defender. Of course Caulker is by a mile a better footballer who will improve defensively. As long as Rio isnt Totally shot Caulker will learn a lot. If Rio is shot QPR could have problems.
Still a baby in CB terms, he'll learn loads from Hill,Dunne & Rio. I've got high hopes for him. His goals will be welcome as well. He's already scored a good one at Loftus Rd, a bastard last minute equaliser for Bristol City!
Yeah I think a good signing for a year and will be good for Caulker. Did look past his sell by date last season for a team at the top but should still retain enough ability. Id be more concerned about drawing with the Wurzels. Their best player is one of the worst to pull on our shirt in recent times so they must be bad.
Thanks for the welcome, mate Yeah perhaps we are saying the same thing, thought it was worth pointing out that Daehli is actually the quicker player though. Its more a question of looking at an indirect vs a direct player. I disagree with the notion that he should necessarily pass after beating the first man, his dribbling is actually insanely good and players like that are one of the most exciting things in football. He is so young that he will get better and better at those runs, let the kid express himself, be creative and we will reap the benefits. I believe the initial statement was that he could provide the service now that mutch is gone and i agree with that. I mean we are sitting on a player that is a regular feature in those lists of the most talented youngsters in the world. His one-touch play, close control, technique, creativity and flair is gonna be golden for us this season We do need a Mutch type player too, but as it looks as if Ole is taking care of business with Adeyemi i am not too worried. I understand that Adeyemi is a tough tackler, has a good engine, decent link up, pace and is a physically imposing player. And you be pleased to know he makes surging runs too . A midfield with him, Whitts, Noone and Daehli and possibly Dikgacoi sounds promising. I think we have lacked that player that can really boss central midfield. Mutch is awesome but i don't blame him if he wants to play PL football. He looked a bit disinterested in pre seaon and you don't want to keep a player that isn't motivated to play in the championship. So wish him the best at QPR.
We'll have to agree to differ on what Daehli does when he gets past his first man. For me, too often I have seen him run into opposition and lose the ball when we need to retain it and other players have moved into better positions. But he is young and will certainly improve. Perhaps a little ambitiously I liken his style to Luca Modric - and he's done okay for himself. I don't know if you went to Yeovil pre-season but Mutch made a real difference when he came on second half and provided the link we missed in the first 45 - when we were pretty awful. As for Adeyemi, looks like we are making a real play for him (and he wants to come - as Sparkey I think said elsewhere, maybe the wages on offer to him has something to do with it) although the style you describe possibly fits more in the holding role. All will be revealed in the days ahead.
As Hilts says Turner is a far superior defender but he's a **** footballer. This board is quite split on Caulker, personally I didn't rate him, others do. I'm really interested how he'll do playing for you. If I had Dunne, Hill and Rio though I'm not sure he be starting many games. He certainly needs an experienced leader next to him and you've got those. I think his lack of aggression means the other Cb needs to make up for that too. It's why he played well next to Williams at Swansea.
Are you sure we are talking about the same player? If there is one thing Daehli is not, its wasteful in possession. He is extremely hard to knock of the ball. This is backed up by statistics which shows his passing accuracy is consistently extremely high and his runs are successful. In one match (at Stoke i think) he had the most successful runs of all the PL players, 5 successful runs where he beat several men. Sometimes its also about the other players making themselves available by getting into useful positions. That didn't happen all too often last season as the team had Malkys defensive attitude ingrained it often looked as if they were scared to go forward as a team, players like Daehli made promising runs only to find themselves with no one to pass the ball too. I think sometimes he just dribbled an extra man or two because there wasn't anyone to pass too. I thought Fabio and him linked up well at the end of the season but i am expecting this to improve generally now they have had the preseason to gel. Ole wants us to bomb forward as a team, the exact opposite of Malky so no wonder they weren't always on the same wavelength last season. Adeyemi plays as a box to box or holding midfielder. Could come in handy, we have a lot of good attacking players, we need that player that can boss midfield in front of the back four and link up both ways. I don't know if he is as good as Mutch in attack, but he sounds promising.
Yep, same player. If you read my comments I am simply pointing out some flaws in his game, which are to be expected for a 19 year old. If he didn't have them do you think he would be playing for us, or Man U would have let him go? I have emphasised that he is learning and surely my comparison with Luca Modric indicated I think he has the ability to be a very good player over and above the good player he is now? I am certain he has the capacity to improve. I agree with you that he and Fabio could tear teams apart down the left - provided someone is covering fabio's run - same goes for Brayford when he takes off down the right. OGS may want them to get forward but someone else has to take responsibility for defensive cover. As for statistics, I prefer to believe what I see. He has been guilty of running up blind alleys - this happened on a few occasions at Yeovil for example. Yes, it could be that others have not made themselves available but if I can see that he has a tendency to run into trouble then you can bet your house that opposition scouts will have seen it and tell their players to crowd him out if he gets past the first man.
The statistics tells you that his ball retention is up there with the bests its a pretty accurate statement about his ability to keep the ball. I only pointed to that because of your claim that he will loose the ball. Gunnarson will loose us the ball, Daehli with his superior ball control keeps the ball in the team and is the type of player you want in a possession based team. If i were to point out flaws it would not by any means be ball retention, runs or his football brain, i consider those the strongest qualities in his game. The obvious thing is the physical aspect and his shot. Especially the latter needs to be improved. Of course at 19 there is hopefully plenty of improvement ahead, so far bags of potential and the biggest talent in our squad by miles. We shall see how good he becomes, if he fulfills his potential then happy times for Cardiff ( if we can keep him). If it was up to United they would have kept him, the club has also had enquires about him over the summer from other PL clubs. Not for sale and doesn't want to leave Cardiff for now. I look forward to him and Whitts providing plenty of service to the strikers this season. Back to Mutch do you reckon he will go straight into the starting line up at QPR?
We'll just agree to have a minor difference over Daehli then? As for Mutch, don't know and don't care. If he has gone, good luck to him but I don't know what competition is there in his role at QPR. You seem to have an inside track on things at City, has he gone yet?
Heard rumours it is as much as 50%. If that is right then City have to pay £2.5m back which could be used to sign Adeyami? Incidentally if it is 50% then that was dreadful negotiating by City.
That £2.5m or however much the sell on clause is belongs to Brum once the QPR deal is done, any Adeyami deal will be totally separate. If the sell on clause is anywhere near those percentages and Brum are asking £3m for Adeyami we might as well just tell QPR to make the cheque out to Birmingham City FC