Strange you haven't mentioned Chris Rigg there, nor Mundle. Mayenda up top for them too. Any idea how old those three are? Also O'Nien is playing CB for them. Not midfield. You're telling me they recruited an experienced head in Browne to help develop their kids? What an idea.
Think Palmer’s interview was quite telling, mentioning how he’s going to be a senior figure. Zambrano was very positive yesterday. I’m really looking forward to the Blunts now, think they’re a similar level of transition to us. They’re a good side, but a lot of new players hence their early inconsistencies
Let's stop this nonsense about Sunderland. As said, it's like comparing night v day. They have 2 special talents in Bellingham (near enough 19) and Rigg (17). Bellingham has 72 senior appearances under his belt. Rigg has 24 senior appearances for Sunderland under his belt, and 31 England (junior) caps. Clearly a talent, and of importance brought up playing football in England. Player / Age/Senior Games/ Sunderland appearances (from yesterday): Patterson. 24 / 124 / 114 Hume. 22 / 140 / 82 Ballard. 24 / 120 / 63 O'Nien. 29 / 363 / 233 Cirkin. 22 / 73 / 73 Browne 29 / 377 / - Jobe 18(19) / 72 / 48 Rigg 17 / 24 /24 Roberts 27 / 233 /101 Mundle 21 / 25 / 15 Mayenda 19 / 40 / 11 Then they bring on Paveda. 24 / 61 / - (31 England youth caps, 2 full Columbia caps) Yes, they have youth, but with a great balance of age, and importantly, experience. Look at how many senior games they've racked up, even the younger ones. And most of it (not all players) is in England. And many have country international experience too. They aren't expecting relatively or very inexperienced players, with next to no experience of English football to run the game for them. I get that we went for the needed clear out and have rebuilt, but one thing we needed was proven quality & experience especially in the middle. We've got Zambrano, Simons, Peurta, Burns, ..... and Slater! Of those four, 3 at 21, 1 at 20. With a combined 159 senior appearances, with 83 games in England, 42 of which are in lower leagues. I've left Slater out as he's not going to run our midfield, but tbf is a reasonable squad player to have atm. We are on a wing and a prayer with what our brains team have left us with. It may work in time. But the comparison to Sunderland (as the example suggested to me) is stark.
What a lot of words to say, ultimately, nothing. The point about Sunderland is claiming that having a new manager or an inexperienced squad means we'll take months to get up to speed us just a lot of hot air. If you're good enough you're experienced enough. Heat will be on from October for me.
Its a good comparison to make Not their league position Theyll drop off But with them taking time to build a squad Having a **** season for the benefit of the long run Acun needs to drop short termism
We could’ve almost done with Rosenior staying longer regardless just to manage the turnover. He’d have got them gelled easier because his style is much less demanding than Walter’s. Anyway, mini pre season now, will hopefully be night and day after the break. Gutted blunts managed to keep hold of Hamer though…
Thanks. I too expect they will drop off a bit, but I'd fully expect them to be in the mix throughout the season. They've built well. I get the feeling that Acun is now trying to build for the longer term. But, my OP was simply that the brains team have imo dropped a right clanger in terms of how they've recruited for our central midfield. The focus of comment to date has largely been around the striker position, but I'd argue that 'failing' is secondary to the central midfield 'failing'. Those 2 areas aside, we've recruited pretty well imo.
I think he’s trying to make us self sustainable so we can stop with the short termism. Very happy with that, plenty of assets in the club now, long and short term.
It doesn’t say nothing does it While they’re young they’ve got quite a lot of games under their belt and also they’re used to the English game Our players aren’t Not so bad if you’re adding to a good existing spine But we aren’t
Sunderland are also currently experiencing a fair bit of luck - exhibit A being their first goal yesterday. Once Walter gets the slice of good fortune he is due, I suspect we will match at least some of their exploits.
Now the window has shut, and there’s a couple of weeks before the next game, it’s time for me to take a break from here. Too many negative ****s on here looking to find fault with every single decision made by the owner, the brain team, the manager, the managers tactics. Tedious as hell.
You can be self sustainable only if your youth program delivers. That might not be enough, we sold KLP, Greaves, Philogene for a good profit but somehow we are still dealing with FFP.
We were very attractive as recently as January, so to now have to accept that none of our targets will want to come here is quite a concern. It's incredible to have a list as long as that of players we're known to have missed out on for one position. I've never known us, or any other club off the top of my head, have such a list of rejections. Our summer 2009 striker pursuit was bad but still not on this scale.
It was the theme at his previous clubs too. Great dribbling ability and can beat a man but his decision-making stinks a lot of the time. Takes that extra unnecessary touch and loses it or tries to be too clever. The chemistry between him and Giles needs to improve drastically.
Sounds like a criticism that can be aimed at the vast majority of wingers to be fair. Wingers are the most frustrating players in any team -one week they can be brilliant and make all of the right decisions, next week they can't beat their full-back.
