Another aspect to be aware of is homegrown rules. On the face of it, we’re fine. Currently have well into double figures in that preposterous 41 player squad. However of those, I’m only absolutely sure of 6 of them still being with us on September 1st. Most of the names that regularly get mentioned as potential leavers are in that homegrown bracket. Whilst I know there are ways around it, there’s definitely something there to consider for the club - and likely a reason why the squad will contain a few that otherwise may have moved on. And certainly from next season we’ll need to pay more attention to this during recruiting. Can’t be all Francophones from this point on.
We have Talbi, Adingra, Roberts, Mundle plus others who can playnout wide if needed. Not sure how many wingers you want to sign
Mundle is injured tho, has had 3 hamstring injuries in a short space of time that's a concern for an explosive player 2 of them go away for the AFCON or highly likely to go We need at least 1 more winger, we need x factor players and we are short in that space at the minute
Also I've realised we technically do have a transfer link in Lloyd Kelly. Its just not a transfer link anyone wants.
Not sure how anyone can say they don't rate Roberts, he can be frustrating at times but wingers always are. He has loads of ability and can create goals out of nothing. Although he does need to add more goals to his game
RLB does too, according to Phil Smith he's made it clear he does, he was the one pushing hard for Lauriente
Honestly hoping it’s just agent noise trying to get him a move out of Juve. Does show how far we’ve come that we are Turing our nose up at a CB from Juve although he is a Mag and also ****e
Aye, they’re talking ****e. “I’m not going to the match because we’ve signed an Israeli footballer.” Come on man
Im not a massive fan of Roberts tbf, i think he does some class things and i loved his work rate last season - overall he played well last season He does lack pace needed to hurt teams and he has zero goal threat, we need goal threats from all our forward players next season - hes scored 1 goal from open play in the last 2 seasons I want him to be part of the squad but we nwed better imo
Interesting discussion about squad size and needs this morning, a lot depends on if you think players here can do a job if needed or need to be sold / loaned etc. Potentially we could line up Saturday with ...................................Roefs Hume............Ballard..............Mandava.........Masuaku ...............Sadiki...........Xhaka.........Diarra Talbi.......................Guiu.............Adingra Subs. Patto, Huggins, Alderete, Le Fee, Neil, Rigg, Mayenda, Roberts, Isidor Thats the team and bench full without including the injured / not in the squad players - 09, Cirkin, Mundle, Seelt, Alese, Triantis And thats before some of the u21's come into the group for training / development
without dragging into it more but we have quite a few muslim players now, so I would slightly worry about any friction, but tbf we also have Xhaka and Aleksic in the same dressing room
According to the live on the whistle with Barnes and Phil Smith, Alese expects to leave the club either on loan or for good I also think if we sign a new CB and RB both Huggins and Seelt will head out on loan
Will be a shame if Alese leaves for good, if we can unlock his fitness hes a premier league centre half
I think Seelt starts Saturday. Masuaku has barely had a pre season so will be on the bench if anything. Same with Guiu.
Alese needs to go play regularly, I rate him but not against him going permanently provdiing we have sell on % or a buy back included Huggins needs a loan, hardly played at all last few yrs Seelt I think will go out on loan, he has a chance tho as if he starts on Saturday and plays really well then he could kick on. My preference is still for him to go on loan.
