Mepham plays right back doesn't he? Decisions are made based on the facts you have in front of you at a specific time, not guesswork. You can only sign players during two transfer windows, you've no idea if he would be available in the next one. We may well have an agreement to buy him that hasn't been disclosed. Besides what harm is it doing, seriously ... ... lets just pretend we didn't sign him if that helps.
On Salis, I think people are assuming he’s not going to play until January because RLB said “next international break” for when he’d be fit. But actually the question he was asked is when we might see him. So it could well be that he starts appearing on the bench in November and even onto the pitch
Chris Mepham Superb signing, exactly how the loan market should be used. Players who instantly improve the team.
hearing we are trying to make his deal perm in Jan, as he will coming to the end of his contract at Bournemouth
They’ve done well with strikers after a couple of years in the striker desert. We may say the same about cdm soon. On that note he seems to be trying to shape Neil as a deep lying playmaker, dropping deep next to the centre backs and spraying the ball. Him and O9 use the ball so well. My worry about Neil is eh he’s in the mix he can be hassled out of possession so he seems to be dropping into pockets of space.
I reckon we would all like Mepham and Isidor to sign for us after their loans and it looks like both of them are enjoying it here. However. What sort of wages are they currently on. Mepham must be getting a lot more than our limit (somewhere a little below £20k p/w if I’ve read correctly on here but if you know better…) so would he take a possibly big drop in pay to join us. Maybe he wouldn’t get his current contract extended and no other Premier Club might want him but who knows. Same for Wilson. I know we may get promoted which will increase our wage limit but if not could we still get them to join with a wage drop.
Where's this not playing until January come from? RLB said after the next international break which is in November isn't it? So he'll be available right through the busy Xmas schedule.
Everyone has 20:20 vision when using hindsight. Maybe the club thought it was a gamble worth taking given his quality
Been seeing some Ipswich fans be disappointed with Clarke so thought i'd do some digging into his performances and maybe find out why he has started poorly for them. What it boils down to is that it was poor recruitment by Ipswich. From my point of view, they've looked at his goal record and signed him without thinking about how they play as a team and how we used Clarke which is just lazy recruitment. I've attached the average positions of the Ipswich players for the last two games below. Their system is designed to get Leif Davis (left back, number 3) in high and wide positions which allows the left winger to pick up the number 10 position. Clarke needs to be high and wide, picking the ball up and driving at the goal where he can either drive to the byline or cut inside. What he isn't good at is picking the ball up in central areas. What is bizarre though is they signed a player in Szmodics that would be perfect for this role, yet they are expecting Clarke to do something he couldn't do in the Championship against some of the worlds best teams. Baffling. Bad recruitment and a bad fit. Unless they change the system I don't think he's going to be a success at Ipswich.
Aye, Ipswich's summer recruitment strategy seemed to be "which players were good in the Championship last season?". It's a decent idea but only works if you can then fit those players into a tactic that suits them rather than try to shoehorn them in to your existing one.
I thought it was a really canny little debut. Won fouls, pressed well, held it up. Like Regis said, a debut where team was put first. I really want him to succeed here. His honesty about his demons are so refreshing. I want our club to be about second chances where we can. Lets be honest, we arent a judgemental lot and he can be a favourite by just trying hard. He comes across as a lad worth supporting. Sunderland folk are supportive by nature. And judging by what I saw of him as a young lad at Brighton he isnt short of natural ability. Good luck to the lad.
