With Alzate and Simons going, we definitely need a new number 6. I’m not too fussed about Alzate going, personally. Decent player but I think ST said he’s one of our highest earners which would make sense since we signed him on a free transfer after the transfer window was over. Seems like we payed over the odds to get him and he didn’t get the move he wanted in the transfer window.
Oh bugger! I saw him for a few times for Las Palmas on satellite TV, he ran around like a bull in a china shop and did SFA. I'd rather he got his hat-trick of relegations elsewhere!
How could the deal have been sooner? They had their last game last Sunday, it's not even been a week yet
Yes, we targeted someone whose season finished later than ours. If we wanted someone in place sooner that's on us.
I don't know how it's supposed to work without a manager's input though. Surely you need to recruit players to suit what the manager wants to do, and anything else is just going to make his job harder. Simons is still very young and has just impressed at a League 1 playoff side. To use the same hypothetical someone else used about Slater yesterday; if we were talking about signing a 22-year old who'd impressed in a side close to automatic promotion from League 1, we'd be excited about the deal. I think we're losing a useful asset for presumably not very much. On the other hand, we obviously need to get rid of players, and ideally it would be the well paid fancy ****e rather than a cheap, promising young player but it's probably a lot harder to get rid of the ones we could really do to get rid of and we maybe don't have much choice but to let some of these reliable young players go instead. I think it's a shame though.
I was looking at Kayserispor's squad to see if there's any players he'd fancy bringing over with him (assuming their owner isn't still royally ****ed off with us), I forgot they had Cardoso on the wing, very talented and experienced player. Yilmaz is also a decent replacement if Slater goes. Neither would be my first choice, but if this boss wants players he is familiar with, those are the two I think he'll bring over if he can.
I think you have to weigh up current vs potential contribution at this point. Realistically, Simons wasn't going to get in ahead of Slater, Alzate, Puerta, Crooks, Palmer or Matazo. We have options in the centre of midfield and while he certainly has promise, it's probably £6k-£10k we can ill afford to pay for somebody who is down the pecking order. Players like Sinik and Omur are the ones we need to shift (well, just Omur as Sinik is gone already).
I still feel like there's a player in Omur, in spite of the evidence to the contrary, but it has to be behind the striker not out on the wing, with the players likely or rumoured to be going, plus gelhardt not guaranteed to be signed it would leave only him and Palmer as our options in that position atm? Worth at least a few weeks of pre season and a few friendlies playing on that position before a call is made
I think Simons would only really be competing with Alzate and potentially Zambrano for that number 6 role. The others will all play further up realistically. Alzate sounds like he's off, which would leave Simons as the first choice for that position at least until Zambrano returns (assuming we even sign him) and letting him go as well means us needing to add another signing to the rebuild. But I suppose it also depends on the shape the new guy plays because he might use a dedicated 6 like Walter did or he might be more flexible with two in the middle and no dedicated 6 like Selles and Rosenior did.
As far as players he’s worked with, I’d like any of Sandro Kulenović, Matija Frigan and Veldin Hodža. Some of those are less realistic than others. Westerlo want €10 million for Frigan, for example. Would’ve been perfect as the ‘big money striker’ Acun said he wouldn’t scrimp on if he wasn’t such a perpetual bullshitter. It’s similar to what Coventry paid for Haji Wright. In hindsight, we have pissed so much money away, especially the money from Lewis-Potter and Greaves.
There’s not a huge difference between 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1 and 4-3-3 etc. Just look at Barça under Hansi Flick.
https://www.voetbalzone.nl/nieuws/s...ie-vrijwel-zeker-verlaten/blt95e14cbb903a7e02 Reported interest in Tobias Lauritsen. I’ve mentioned him before. Big target man.
Wow! He’s decent. But I wouldn’t have thought that type of money would get him. I just checked and yeah you’re right. He’s hardly had a prolific career. Guess 9 million euros doesn’t get you much these days.
