The 2019-2020 season.

Would I be wrong to presume that, for these final games, clubs can only select from their 25-man EPL match squads as they stood at the close of the January transfer window? This doesn't help clubs like Bournemouth with squads reduced by out-of-contract players refusing to extend, but it will preclude clubs fielding new players as in your putative example of West Ham?

 

But could they take the players so they are not staying on a month to month contract?

Any news on the Watford Keepers, both senior ones were out of contract in June, have either of them signed an extension?

 

Yeah as Zogean points out, it's not that West Ham could change their goalkeeper, it's that they could deprive another team of their players.

To take Ben Foster, it doesn't look like Watford want to offer him a long term deal, and his Prem offers will be limited. If West Ham offer him a decent 2 year deal on the condition he joins them on 1st July (even being ineligible to play), it's very hard for him to turn that down.

 

"Could" yes, but here's another "could": West Ham could sign Foster on a two year contract starting the day after completion of the EPL season. If Foster then refused a short term Watford contract to the end of the season, it would be because he chose not to extend even though his future for the next two seasons is secured. A whole lot of "coulds" here; it's what actually happens that matters.

 

If my uncle was a woman he could be my aunt

 

Economically so if it all but guaranteed staying in the league spending 10-20 mill a lot of clubs would consider it haha

 

So City beat Spurs 2-1 in the friendly at Spurs ground. Four 30 minute periods, Drmic and Vrancic scored. Martin, no, not Russ, no, not Chris, but Josh, with an assist. Sounds much of a training exercise rather than full on match.

 

Oh, and I believe that Max has not stayed there.

 

What's Left To Play For In The Premier League?

To summarise everything

 

Middlesbrough have sacked head coach Jonathan Woodgate and appointed Neil Warnock as his replacement.

Colin still on the merry go round

 

With the 2019-20 season looking like one for canaries fans to forget, I do have a glimmer of light and future hope for all canaries fans, just look at West Brom's record. In 2007/08 They won the Championship (just like us last year) and got automatically promoted. The following season (2008/09) They finished 20th (bottom) in the Premier league (where we are now) The following season (2009/10) they finished 2nd in the Championship and were automatically promoted, and spent 8 seasons in the premier league, before being relegated in 2017/18, but are now in prime position for automatic promotion. What is to say we cannot do a similar thing to them? Win the championship the previous season and get promoted to the Premier League, end up being relegated, but get automatically promoted the following season after relegation and spend several seasons in the top flight. West Brom have done it, why can't we?

 

In praise of Marco Stiepermann.

https://www.90min.com/posts/norwich-abandoned-philosophy-saw-them-promoted-opinion?utm_source=RSS

 

Interesting take, but seems to gloss over the fact that Stiepermann got most of the first half of the season in his usual role. He played 11 of the first 12 games of the season, before being phased out. In that time he didn't contribute a single goal or assist. The 11 goals scored in that period:

Pukki 6 G, 2A
Todd 2 G, 2 A
Buendia 4 A
( Drmic 1 G, Mclean 1G, Onel 1 G).

Emi makes 2.5 key passes a game, and 41 total passes per game, Todd makes 1.1 key passes, 30 total, Stiepermann makes 0.5 key passes, 17 total. Both Emi and Todd have >80% pass completion, Stiepermann is 73%. Stiepermann makes fewer tackles per game than either of the others, yet commits more fouls. Duda makes 1.8 key passes, 33 total, 83% completion, more tackles, less fouls than Stiepermann.

It's only a statistical analysis, but it seems to me that Stiepermann failed to raise his game to Premier league level in the way Emi and Todd did. It'll be interesting to see what he achieves next season, whether he can replicate previous success.

 

Those stats give you the "what', but not the "why". Leitner and Stiepermann have been "pressed" out of the side, and in Leitner's case, not just pressed but also kicked. When those two play, our game revolves round them, which is not lost on opposition coaches. DF's "answer" has been to bench them both and put out sides without a recognisable playmaker, which is pretty much what the article suggests. (Against Saints, Trybull was handed the playmaker role, which Hasenhüttl quickly recognised and had him "pressed" out of the game too.) Surely, rather than "How are we going to play without Leitner (Stiepermann)?", the question should be "What adjustments can we make to keep Leitner (Stiepermann) in the side?" ?

 

Hi all - remember me!! The last time I posted on not606 was before the season started and I explained that due to our age etc Mrs1950 and I had agreed to a drastic cutback in our travel and exposure to cold weather which meant that I was no longer travelling to away games in London and nearby and would only visit the UK in June July or August. 72 hours after that post, with the help of the Australian authorities, we were in the air on the way to South Australia to assist our son as our daughter in law had suffered a serious flare up of her chronic medical condition. They live in a very remote area with no broadband to speak about and we had to be there for 5 months. Whilst there my older brother, who lived in the Solomon Islands, died so I had to leave my wife to cope and fly out to the Solomons. Looks easy on the map but you try it!! A fortnight after we planned to leave there was a family wedding in Minnesota so delayed our departure to travel back to France via the States - minus 20 in Minnesota - great!! We just avoided the lockdown and got a flight to Paris. We had already been told that our property had been damaged by severe storms in Southern France and by the time we got back our friends, who had a key, had sorted out the minor damage to the house but we still had no electricity, telephone,broadband or satellite TV - and France was now in lockdown. The electric supply was covered by emergency work and was restored within 5 days of our return to Nice but the rest was not reconnected until last week.
All I knew about the season to date was that we were bottom of the league and had beaten Man City and I also knew that the season had been put on hold. With the return of our services I have been able to catch up a lot more although this is the first chance I have had the time to come on here. I also was able to see the last two televised games - doesn't look good does it!!! Seems to me a simple case of a team who got promoted by teamwork, superior fitness and hard work who decided to save their money and plan on immediate relegation, rather than bankrupt themselves by buying players on inflated salaries in a vain attempt to stay up. With the lockdown their fitness levels have dropped so cannot rely on the team strengths and the individual players do not have the skills to survive at this level. I will now read some of the rest of the threads on here to catch up with other opinions.

 

Good to have you back 1950! It's been a stop-start season, with occasional ups but far too many downs, of which the last two games are all too typical. Still, us old timers should be well used to that by now!

 

BBC have a poll on Best Goal from the FA CUP Quarter Finals. It's between Ighalo, Todd or Raheem Sterling. Poll closes 1800 tonight so need to get your vote in quickly if you haven't already voted.

 

Pretty sure my vote was the decider.
Well done Todd.

 

Some interesting/damning CB stats for this season.

Godfrey has made the most appearances of our CBs this season, 26 starts in 37 games NCFC have played. Here's the list of CBs partners he's had, and how many games their spell together lasted before it changed.

Hanley 3 games together.
Zimmermann 1
Amadou 6
Tettey 2
Zimmermann 5
Zimmermann 1
Hanley 4
Klose 3
Tettey 1

So our best/most consistent CB has never spent more than 5 games in a row with the same partner, and has spent over a third of his games with a defensive midfielder as his CB partner.