The James deal is a strange one. I was wondering, with absolutely no justification, if he was agitating for a move in order to play more regularly.
I read somewhere, can’t remember where that he was happy at Leeds. He’s already played 4 times this season so not like he’s not getting a look in. He’d probably have started up front this weekend with the fitness issues of all of our other strikers. I think we’ve pushed him out thinking we’ve got Gakpo or Dieng and then left it too late to pull the plug.
Could be true, we'll never know but I think Sinisterra would start ahead of him with Paddy replacing Rodrigo and Joffy as cover. It looks as though it is just a loan though and so if everything goes to plan this season we can see what is what next May.
Not sure Bamford starts though as surely he’d have been first option to come on for Rodrigo the other night. The fact he subbed Joffy as well tells me he’s not fit enough to do a full 90 so it will be interesting to see what we do up front this weekend.
It will be indeed be interesting but I'm hoping Paddy will be starting. The clips I've seen of Sonny Perkins and Mateo Joseph gives me some hope that they aren't far off, perhaps give them a run out, with 5 subs available you can always return to the alternate plan.
Agree with much of that. Sadly I believe Paddy's best days are behind him but desperately hope Im wrong as we now know we don't have the pulling power or resources to attract a top striker
I hope you are wrong, as to the pulling power there is a balance between being able to bribe a player to join and providing them with a realistic career pathway. We should at the moment be using the perceived progress of Rapha and Phillips to show candidates what we can do for them and their career. In the long run we need to make progress to enable us to convince players we are the best place to be but without mega dollars we aren't going to going along the bribery route.
Dieng deal not dead for Nice. The Ligue 1 side will try to revive a deal for him today - they are allowed to sign one player outside of the window as long as he is with a French club.
Are we better placed due to transfer activity or because we’re relying on some of the U23s who aren’t quite ready but they featured a bit last season and we’ve put them on a pedestal? Is Summerville better now than Costa, Poveda or James, is Greenwood better than Roberts? We had Shackleton, Bate and Cresswell on the bench, now it’s Hjelde and Gyabi. We’ve still got a lot of injury prone players who are currently fit but walking time bombs before they snap again. Definitely more balanced, I’m not sure if the first team starting 11 are stronger than last season or not
We’ve bigged up our U23s but Southampton have bought players from the Man City U23 and have gone straight into their first team at 18. Secondly, is anyone else a bit concerned that at 20 years of age Joffy can’t seem to last for 90 minutes of football or does JM not think he is progressing as well as the fans are expecting? I always thought being subbed as a sub was the ultimate insult for a professional footballer?
Last season we destroyed Joffy, too scared to play him in the U23s in case he got injured and he was needed for the first team bench yet rarely got on. I have my doubts he’ll reach the heights we’d like. Joseph, Perkins, Joffy, Gnonto, something has to give.
I would say we are. last year when we lost a player and we either played somebody out of position or played a youngster This year, when fit, we have reasonable experienced cover for all positions with the exception of attack where we probably are light, as we all agree. Goal Keeper - Meslier - Robles Defence - Ayling - Kristensen Koch - Struijk Llorente - Cooper Firpo - Dallas Midfield - Roca - Forshaw Adams- Klich Aaronson - Harrison Sinnisterra - Sommerville Attack - Bamford - Gelhardt Rodrigo - Gnonto? And - Klaesson, Greenwood, Hjelde, Drameh, Gyabi, Gray
I think we have more depth this year. Our bench is much stonger. I think Gelhardt is getting there. He's not the bull in a china shop he was when he came on early last year. Summerville is showing flashes of what he can do. Last year he just passed it back, he never even tried those surging runs into the box. I think Greenwood is the best of them. He slots into MF without us noticing much difference. I think Struijk has become a great utility player as he can play LB, CB and DMF. Hjelde hasn't really had an opportunity to stake a claim. Archie is going to be a star player. Then we have Joseph and Perkins who should be stepping up this year. I still haven't seen enough of Gyabi but from what I've read he's a prospect. I'm still unsure about Drameh. Sinisterra looks the real deal. Adams and Roca have been superb. Aaronsson has been up and down and Rasmus needs to get to grips with the PL. I like the look of Gnonto. He wants to prove himself but already has pedigree. I hope he smashes it!
