I know it's unlikely, I guess I'm just trying to fit in Eustace and Taylor back into the team without dropping their replacements, who dont deserve to be dropped. As much as we all (most) want the youngsters to get games, it's nice to have experienced back up in a few positions too!
No wingers, not going to happen.It should be more like this ( at the moment) -----------Loach--------- Doyley--Nos-Maps----Dicko Yeates--Eust-- Hogg---Forsyth ----Sordell----Deeney
It's strange the impression you get when supporting from a distance! From my infrequent visits, reading official match reports, forum discussions and televised games etc, I get the distinct impression that the main reason Hodson is keeping Doyley out of the team is that he is head and shoulders above him when it comes to getting forward. Am I that wrong?
No, I don't think you are wrong BB. Hodson has the ability to put in some good crosses from what little I have seen. I did read a comment about what we have been missing while Lloyd has not been playing. In his outing in the cup it was said that his passing was dreadful and if you were sat in the UR you were not safe.
On quite a lot of occasions he is too slow or unwilling to get forward....especially with the ball. He can put in some good crosses, but he's not perfect..I wouldn't say he is any more reliable than most of the team. Doyley actually runs forward with the ball, and helps move attacks along. Yeates isn't the fastest player and he struggles to push attacks on as well so for me we should play Doyley.
You are not wrong at all BB. Lee is far better at going forward than Doyley. His crosses were great when he first started and despite slipping a bit he still whips in a mean ball!! Also he is better at backing up the wingers and offering them support. I noticed when I was with H one day that he is not affraid to overlap and get ahead of the winger when he can.
As a bit of a 'calm down' from the 'Great' 'Fantastic' comments, just wonder why Sunderlands new manager is obviously happy to let him go for presumably not very much money- and chances are didnt even see him play.He's only dropped one division. If you who are making the comments are shown to not just being over-enthusiastic will you be naming him The Wizard Of Nos.
I take your point Nick, but I can say with certainty that O'Neill has attended at least one recent Watford match in person.
I would suggest for 2 reasons - firstly that "only dropping one division" can make all the difference in quality and expectation - O'Neill will be looking to keep and sign players capable of performing in the top half of the Premiership week in week out - that is a standard vastly above the lower half of the Championship. Secondly Nos only has 6 months left on his contract and Sunderland would rather take "not very much money" now as against nothing in the summer - assuming that O'Neill would not want to offer him another contract for the first reason above. Sound business for all three parties I suggest......
Happy for him, hope he gets many starts, he was great for us, we made him a great player and I would love for him to still be at Gillingham.
North,I think ONeill had been out of the game so long any visit to the Vicarage could have been to check on Nathan E. Ny Nos has obviously made a decent enough start,but lets not have the 'he's God already' people getting on his back if he has a bad game....has been known to happen before !!
'Ang on a minute tho!Just read,apparently on good authority that he was on £35,000 week at Sunderland and Watford are destitute ? How much of a pay cut would he realistically take,or does he like the club colours so much he's doing it for pocket money. Doesnt seem to add up
Largish (for Watford anyway) signing-on fee probably. Also don't forget Nos's contract was up in the Summer - so presumably Sunderland paid a percentage of his remaining wages (to encourage him to go now rather than in 6 months time) plus he could not have expected (at his age) to get anywhere near £35K in any new contract. He's being realistic - which is a good thing surely in these financially straitened days?
Well if he's buying property down here it might just cost him a bit more than the North East,so this must just all be so he can tell any grandchildren that he played in the same team as Lloyd Doyley
I think Noz was keen to get regular first team football and as he said it feels like home here. He was always a fringe player at the Black cats, and saw that he was a popular player at the Vic and had gelled with the team very well. I think 6-7K would be acceptable for him within out structure; he is not young and was nearly out of a contract so an agreement has probably been set out where Sunderland met a portion of the cost. Either way, he is a fantastic signing and this could be the start of something great for us!!
If the £35K a week is to be believed he will have taken a significant drop! I can't see we would have broken our wage structure as the whole idea of the wage structure was to get our running costs down more in line with our turnover. However, much like when Taylor joined us I suspect he knew he was just the wrong side of 30, was unlikely to get another contract as good as before, especially as he has not been playing at Sunderland, and accepts the drop to be playing. lets be honest, even at £5k per week it is still £250K per annum, so not too bad! I wouldn't be surprised if there was some element of a signing on fee as well. With less than 6 months on his contract I wouldn't have thought the transfer fee was very high, and we as a club couldn't have afforded a high fee anyway. But is he was on £35K a week with 6 months to go, Sunderland will have saved something like £750K wages... that would have been far more attractive to them than trying to get an extra £100K or so transfer fee from us!
