Pre season

VDV was playing as the second striker, which is different to playing as a lone striker upfront, runs are different, especially if running from deep, and who is going to knock the ball down to vdv if he plays as striker? lennon

And yes January is a good time to conclude a deal, there always seems to be an excuse made for Levy in his defence but yes it would have been the ideal time to strike a deal as we was 3rd, arry was still manager and it would have saved hassle, as if it was made clear ade wouldn't budge on wages then we had 6 months to plan for bringing in a striker.

 

Ryan (Priestley, 82); Smith, Ekong (Stewart, 70), Hall, Rose; Carroll (Pritchard, 70), Mason; Falque (Gomelt, 74), Kane, Townsend; Coulibaly (Obika, 61)

There seems to be some continuity between the first team and the XI sides based on formation - and more evidence that Kane is being deployed as a wide midfielder than an out-and-out striker, so the "three is enough" comment The Sun tried to turn into a story doesn't include Kane.

Hall gets another game, yet the tribunal still hasn't sorted out a fee for him (let alone Fryers) - what's the hold up on this one, exactly?

 

I think Kane's being employed in the van der Vaart role, Croydon.
He seems most suited to that position, from what I've seen of him and I'm pretty sure that's where he did most of his damage from for Millwall last season.

Quite an experienced line-up, considering the average age.
Good to see that we finally seem to be bringing through some decent youth players.
Clean sheet for our Aussie trialist Ryan, too.

 

Ekong seems to have flummoxed the OS, though - last week he was listed as one of the Professionals, now his profile has vanished but he isn't in the Academy section.

Come to think of it, we still need to update the squad pics for the reserves - they're still wearing last season's kit!

 

Is this Kane lad a future star for you fellas?

 

Might be, Zingy.
Plays as a second striker though, so he'd be in competition with van der Vaart and Sigurdsson this season, at least.
Did well on loan at Millwall in the last campaign, scores pretty regularly in the youth games/reserves and for the England U19s.

 

Misread the 1st comment, thought it said he couldn't link with a big man. No, I wouldn't want VdV as a lone striker either, its that silly I didn't think I'd actually be reading such a sentence!

And yes there is always an excuse for Levy, (if his mum dying is classed as an excuse) if City weren't interested too much in extensive talks not much we can do. Why does every failure to sign a player land at Levy's feet. There are many reasons out of his or any Chairmans control for a deal to delay/fall through.

 

VDV could work well with Carroll, IF we are going for him.

I'll be very surprised if Kane makes it at Prem level, he just doesn't seem to have enough in his game to get there. Hope I'm wrong of course.

ENIC are acting in typical ENIC mode, while they're in charge we won't be winning the title or CL. Unless of course they radically change their business model, but that seems unlikely.

 

Sturrock view of the Spurs youngsters at Southend last night

Manager Paul Sturrock admitted he was in shock after Friday night’s 6-0 defeat against a Tottenham Hotspur XI at Roots Hall. The Blues were given a footballing lesson by the Spurs reserve team in their final pre-season friendly. Sturrock kept his side locked in the dressing room for half an hour post match and he hopes the result will prove the reality check needed ahead of next weeks season kick-off.

“I’m in shock,” Sturrock told the official website. “I have been in this game for 37 years now as a player, coach and manager and I have never lost 6-0 in my life so this is a new experience for me. “That is though the best team we have played for a long, long time. “They were absolutely magnificent and as a young squad a lot of them have a great career ahead of them.

“I’m gutted with the score and some of the performances and now some people will pay the penalty for that.”

The defeat rounds off an indifferent pre-season for the Blues that has seen them win four, lose five and draw one. But despite the 6-0 thumping the Scot hopes it will prove a positive when the Capital One Cup and League Two season start next week. “I do also feel it has been a difficult pre-season because of the types of teams we have brought here and played in the friendlies,” he admitted. “Spain was fantastic for team spirit and bonding but those types of teams we are not going to meet in League Two. We have got to have a reality check and this is one. “I have been in with the players for 30 minutes and this result will hopefully be a kick up the backside require to enable us to start the season properly.”

Southend next travel to Peterborough United on Tuesday evening in the first round of the Capital One Cup.

 

I guess this whole adebayor affair is frustrating, plus the fact we're so lacking in firepower but in reality it isn't an easy deal to be made and yes of course theres no taking away that was a tragic time for Levy.

 

This was a performance which will possibly not get bettered by any Spurs side this season. Not withstanding that one of our goals was a bit fortuitious, Southend were comprehensively stuffed and by the end, were totally demoralised.

If the side for Newcastle was picked solely on pre-season performances, then Andros Townsend would be a certain starter. Unfortunately for Andros, it isn't going to be that way, but nonetheless, he has been on fire these past few weeks.

Harry Kane deserved his hat-trick, he looked up for this game, and he is clearly a work in progress. Coulibaly remains a bit of an enigma, his touch is frankly bloody awful, yet he suddenly produces a goal out of nothing when he rammed one in from what seemed a difficult angle. He'll need more playing time this season.

This squad has been well coached by Sherwood, and the likes of Adam Smith, Harry Kane, Andros Townsend, Ryan Mason, have clearly come on during their time away on loan. I saw someone say they felt slightly underwhelmed by this pre-season, well if you get the chance, watch this team, you won't feel so underwhelmed if you do.

 

How did Ryan look, SC?
Given the scoreline, it might not be the best game to assess him on, admittedly.

 

I've been at the club for most of the week PNP, as there have been trials going on, so would be judging him from that rather than last night. He looks ok, grew in confidence as his week progressed. One of the concerns the coaches have about our senior keepers, is that none have good enough distribution skills. Ryan certainly seems to have no problem there and he is pretty vocal and looks confident enough on crosses. It wasn't intended to play him last night, but they wanted to see him under proper match conditions, so not sure what the final decision will be as he had bugger all to do really. I assume a decision either has been made or is iminent, as I believe he's scheduled to be off to Wigan next week for a trial there.

 

When I watched a couple of clips of Ryan on Youtube, I noticed that he was very quick to distribute the ball, SC.
Seemed to favour throwing it out and looked to do so in attempts to get counters going as often as possible.
Hard to judge anything about a player on clips though, other than picking up on their tendencies and preferences.

Signing someone like Ryan might be ideal timing.
Having a first choice keeper (Lloris, Cesar?), an experienced back-up/cup keeper (Friedel, Cudicini?) and being able to blood a youngster in the U21 league could work out well for us.
I'd normally prefer to see a promising player of his age go out on loan to gain experience of playing in a first team environment, but he has some of that and would need to adjust to the English game.
Learning from some very experienced keepers and still having a decent amount of game time could well be exactly what he needs.

Cheers for the feedback, SC.

 

Thanks for the updates OS, something to be cheerful about anyway

I soooo want to see Coulibaly play this season for the first team, say as a sub in Europa or Carling to get a feel of how good this kid is.

 

28 mill and he is yours

peanuts for you lot.

 

With all these empty seats at the community shield we'll just have to assume that the majority of Chelsea's fanbase is American and you have very little supporters where it counts, in Britain.