Transfer Rumours Summer 2020 Transfer Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
“I’ve read a lot of things over the past few weeks about negotiations falling through and these types of things, but there really were no negotiations,” Irvine told The World Game.

“I’m sure there’ll be people out there who’ll draw their own conclusions and still think I should have played on, with or without any kind of security.

“I had a tough call to make: do I play out the rest of the season with no security, or don’t I?

“I asked the club if I played and got badly injured would they then trigger that year (extension), so I’d have a measure of security.

“They said they wouldn’t - so for me the risk was too great and I knew my time at the club was over. To have left in that way is upsetting.

“I made myself available for the games in June up until the end of my contract, but in the end we came to an understanding that that wasn’t going to happen.

“It was an unbelievably disappointing situation. I felt like I gave my all to the club for three years.

“But ultimately it felt like I was let out of the side door with a bag of boots and didn’t even get to say goodbye to a lot of people because of the coronavirus situation.”

Irvine’s final appearance for City was the 5-1 loss away to Stoke ahead of lockdown in March and he had remained part of Grant McCann’s plans when returning to training in late May.

The Tigers were unwilling to extend his deal by another year and that left the midfielder to formally sever ties when his initial three-year contract expired on June 30.

“There was no sign of anything - not a peep from the club,” he added.

“The season got extended but I only got a call eight days before our first game back asking what was going on.

“I was a bit dumbfounded - there was a brief chat about the option and the fact they wouldn’t be activating it.”

Irvine, who played a total of 112 games for City, has watched his former club’s demise from his family home in Australia but will return to England next week to pursue his next move.

“I’m very disappointed for the fans and club to see them drop to League One,” he said.

“I don’t want it to seem like I’m talking now because of the situation the club finds itself in.

“I have ultimate respect for the fans and (coach) Grant McCann who made me part of the leadership group. I like to think I gave something back during my time there. I’m focusing more now on what the future might hold.”
It is definite FACT that there was no offer at all on the table for him to consider...not even a bad one.
Shoddy
 
This in a nutshell is why it is unfair, IMHO, to pin all the current failure on the pitch on Grant McCann. The decisions taken by the club hierarchy clearly undermined the manager and harmed to cohesiveness of the player group. It may well be the case that McCann's management has been uninspiring recently (though seeing a manager racing up and down the touchline bawling at players is a terrible measure of what happens on the training pitch).

But in the end it was the players that downed tools, especially those who fancy their chances of finding another club, and they must take a big share of the blame. Take a look at what happened to Crystal Palace in recent weeks since Zaha decided he wanted out.

The race on this board over the last week to be the person to call McCann the biggest number of bad names is pretty odd. He is far from the only, or even the main, problem here.
 
Last edited:
This in a nutshell is why it is unfair, IMHO, to pin all the current failure on the pitch on Grant McCann. The decisions taken by the club hierarchy clearly undermined the manager and harmed to cohesiveness of the player group. It may well be the case that McCann's management has been uninspiring recently (though seeing a manager racing up and down the touchline bawling at players is a terrible measure of what happens on the training pitch).

But in the end it was the players that downed tools, especially those who fancy their chances of finding another club, and they must take a big share of the blame. Take a look at what happened to Crystal Palace in recent weeks since Zaha decided he wanted out.

The race on this board over the last week to be the person to call McCann the biggest number of bad names is pretty odd. He is far from the only, or even the main, problem here.

Yeah he was dealt a bad hand but his stubbornness in refusing to change formation or try something new is what relegated us. Perhaps if he'd have been crazy enough he could've played 2 upfront and given us a slight chance of having a shot on target.
 
Yeah he was dealt a bad hand but his stubbornness in refusing to change formation or try something new is what relegated us. Perhaps if he'd have been crazy enough he could've played 2 upfront and given us a slight chance of having a shot on target.
He assembled a squad to play a system. That system got us to the fringes of the play-offs. Decisions off the field fatally wounded that success. Trying to play a different system with the same squad shorn of its key assets would have probably made us play even worse. We will never know I suppose.
 
Yeah he was dealt a bad hand but his stubbornness in refusing to change formation or try something new is what relegated us. Perhaps if he'd have been crazy enough he could've played 2 upfront and given us a slight chance of having a shot on target.

But then we would have had less players at the other end and consequently let in even more goals.


All the best
Cant McCant
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deano's Volley
This in a nutshell is why it is unfair, IMHO, to pin all the current failure on the pitch on Grant McCann. The decisions taken by the club hierarchy clearly undermined the manager and harmed to cohesiveness of the player group. It may well be the case that McCann's management has been uninspiring recently (though seeing a manager racing up and down the touchline bawling at players is a terrible measure of what happens on the training pitch).

But in the end it was the players that downed tools, especially those who fancy their chances of finding another club, and they must take a big share of the blame. Take a look at what happened to Crystal Palace in recent weeks since Zaha decided he wanted out.

The race on this board over the last week to be the person to call McCann the biggest number of bad names is pretty odd. He is far from the only, or even the main, problem here.

Wrote a similar thing to this on another thread - McCann might not be very good, but some of the players? They've been a disgrace to the shirt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AlRawdah
This in a nutshell is why it is unfair, IMHO, to pin all the current failure on the pitch on Grant McCann. The decisions taken by the club hierarchy clearly undermined the manager and harmed to cohesiveness of the player group. It may well be the case that McCann's management has been uninspiring recently (though seeing a manager racing up and down the touchline bawling at players is a terrible measure of what happens on the training pitch).

But in the end it was the players that downed tools, especially those who fancy their chances of finding another club, and they must take a big share of the blame. Take a look at what happened to Crystal Palace in recent weeks since Zaha decided he wanted out.

The race on this board over the last week to be the person to call McCann the biggest number of bad names is pretty odd. He is far from the only, or even the main, problem here.

I agree the players needed to look at themselves and their professionism but let's not forget he had Bowen and Grosicki for the majority of January .. the fact our results were so piss poor with them prompted the owners to cash in .. prior to lockdown we were ravaged by injuries but the man you are trying to defend instead of making us difficult to beat basically tried playing a system that didn't suit what he had available .. thereby sending us on a spiral downwards .. then with almost 2 months thinking time still managed to fk it up on their return again due to trying to play systems that didn't fit the squad he had .. the owners are part of the problem but for me McCant is equally to blame because of his lack of footballing nowse and common sense. Yes the players should be bloody ashamed of themselves but it was McCant's tactics that have left the bereft of any ideas where they are supposed to be on the pitch.. what their roles are etc ... shyte sandwich all round for me
 
He assembled a squad to play a system. That system got us to the fringes of the play-offs. Decisions off the field fatally wounded that success. Trying to play a different system with the same squad shorn of its key assets would have probably made us play even worse. We will never know I suppose.
These players are severely restricting future employment chances then what with them only been able to play in one system
<laugh>
FFS
 
Whilst some of the points remain valid. It’s the managers responsibility to get the best out of the group of players he has at his disposal.

I remember something our most successful ever manager Steve Bruce once said - pick a team/formation that best suits the players you have available. Did McCann do this? No. Should he be still in employment? In my opinion no. He failed repeatedly, and rather than changing things and making it look like he was trying to get the best out of the players available, he continued with a failing system.

No excuses P45 for McCann.
 
Whilst some of the points remain valid. It’s the managers responsibility to get the best out of the group of players he has at his disposal.

I remember something our most successful ever manager Steve Bruce once said - pick a team/formation that best suits the players you have available. Did McCann do this? No. Should he be still in employment? In my opinion no. He failed repeatedly, and rather than changing things and making it look like he was trying to get the best out of the players available, he continued with a failing system.

No excuses P45 for McCann.

Particularly as most of the players now here is down to Terry himself, just further illustrates he doesn't know what the hell he's doing!

Out of his depth springs to mind!
 
He assembled a squad to play a system. That system got us to the fringes of the play-offs. Decisions off the field fatally wounded that success. Trying to play a different system with the same squad shorn of its key assets would have probably made us play even worse. We will never know I suppose.
Bowen got us there, not the **** show of players we finished with.
 
This in a nutshell is why it is unfair, IMHO, to pin all the current failure on the pitch on Grant McCann. The decisions taken by the club hierarchy clearly undermined the manager and harmed to cohesiveness of the player group. It may well be the case that McCann's management has been uninspiring recently (though seeing a manager racing up and down the touchline bawling at players is a terrible measure of what happens on the training pitch).

But in the end it was the players that downed tools, especially those who fancy their chances of finding another club, and they must take a big share of the blame. Take a look at what happened to Crystal Palace in recent weeks since Zaha decided he wanted out.

The race on this board over the last week to be the person to call McCann the biggest number of bad names is pretty odd. He is far from the only, or even the main, problem here.
Irvine was still the captain of a team that hadn't won a game in 11 prior to his leaving... he has no excuses.... along with McCant... This does not absolve him form being an A1 **** of a manger..
 
Simple question to all

if warnock has come here and not boro would we have stayed up?

the answer is yes
As there was no chance in hell of the Allams paying Warnock a decent wage, isn't this a classic, moot point. No need for a question mark there, as there is absolutely no way they would have paid him the wage he'd have demanded.

Why didn't we get Warnock in? # Ask Daft ****...