skarroki

I'd like to think we're big enough to attract Cairney. I'd be very very happy with him being one of our 3-4 signings. Maybe McCormack can put in a good word and that'll go a little way to justifying his price tag haha

I came here to say the same thing! I think it's madness we'd get someone like him, but I thought it was really odd that at the bottom of 2 separate articles I've read, there's been links to the Aston Villa site. Very odd? Is it because we play a pre-season friendly against them? That seems just as tenuous a link as the media knowing something.....

Going through the squad and ticking off the players which I don't think Bruce would consider selling has left me with: 1 Gollini 4 Richards 6 Elphick 7 Bacuna 8 Tshibola 11 Agbonlahor 13 Steer 18 Kozak 22 Gardner 23 Amavi 29 Cissokho 31 Bunn 44 McCormack ## Gil ## Veretout ## Sanchez I could add a few academy players to that like Toner, Mason and Cowans but I don't think he was talking about them. It seems to me to be a more figurative suggestion of outs and ins than an exact number. I'd imagine he's suggesting that the squad is too big and we need to have roughly 8-10 less players than we currently do on the books by September. With Kozak, Sanchez and Mason gone, Bunn out of contract and the loaned out Gollini, Cissokho, Gil and Veretout likely to have already played their last games for us that's already 8 players. So effectively 4 - 6 of the current deadwood in the squad shipped out and replaced with players on smaller contracts and a better attitude. I think only one of Elphick or Richards will go and be replaced with another centre back who will push or replace Baker. I think Amavi will go and we'll look to bring in another left back to provide competition to Neil Taylor. I would like someone like Charlie Taylor from Leeds but think that's unlikely. But a player of that potential who could push for the starting spot would be great if Amavi attracts a good fee. I think one of Tshibola or Gardner will go. I think Gardner was given a contract so that he doesn't leave for nothing. I imagine a Forest or lower championship team will pick him up and we'll then replace him with a player of a similar mould to Hourihane who could then slot in when needed without disrupting the teams style of play. I think Johnstone will sign permanently but if not, we'll bring in a keeper for certain. I don't think Steer will leave but I also don't see him having any future here so if he wants regular football we may either have to bring in a second keeper, or promote an academy keeper. A third option would be to recall Gollini as competition. Finally I see us signing one or two wingers on a free, the fact we've been linked to Watkins and Boyd suggests to me we're looking at more wide options who won't require a big fee to sign. Even though that would bring us up to 5 or 6 players, I can see that happening with Bruce maybe even bringing in a loan or 2. The wide options need addressing and I think once we've signed 4 players with a transfer fee, the rest will be loans and frees. There's also the chance that Bruce will just let De Laet or an academy player fill in at left back and that's not on the shopping list

Silva is a coach who is highly regarded throughout Europe and will most likely be managing a well known European side before the end of the summer. Yes Hull got relegated but what he did in the time he was given was brilliant. They had won once all season and promptly sold two of there best players when he came in without replacing them. I do get the irony of the situation though and there's no way Silva would come here anyway.

I know this is the wrong thread to continue to discuss this, but it would be interesting to know which of the games you're quoting as Kozak having an impact and being part of our change in form you actually saw. Because anyone watching him would probably tell you about the sheer lack of impact or general ability he has. I would be astonished if he finds himself playing in a top European division by September. I'd say he's more likely to retire. I know you're known for suggesting our least popular players are in fact our best ones and we would be winning every game with them on the pitch but surely even you could see Kozak has had no future at villa for the best part of 3 years.

I think Gauld is a good player but I don't know if he'd be willing to come here. Not sure how he'd fit into the team either really.

We're just going to end up arguing over how we both define a good or bad signing. So I'm just agreeing to disagree with you on this. I take issue with you saying McCormack was a gamble and Fulham wanted rid of him. The rumours of the Fulham players not wanting him back were never proven and by all accounts it looks like he's had some personal issues to get over this season. Fulham didn't want him to leave in the summer and every club that had £12 million to spend were looking to spend it on McCormack. I can't remember there being anybody complaining about him signing for us. The only hiccup was the fee for someone of his age. Not his attitude problem because nobody knew about it. It looks like Bruce will give him a chance now anyway and hopefully he flourishes

The signings haven't worked out. That doesn't mean they were bad signings. Richards is a bad signing because we all knew his fitness issues and fat contract. Tshibola and Gollini were highly regarded young players, McCormack was THE player to sign in the championship and Elphick was the exact kind of player and attitude the club had been crying out for. They didn't work out but that doesn't make them bad. Gollini and Tshibola could still come back and play for us, McCormack could fire us to promotion and Elphick could have a solid pre season and show the promise he had in his first few games. Will it then be a good summer window again? If you don't judge it on what it was at the time then your opinion will just continually shift until they've all left the club.

Sorry to single you out like this because you're not the only one saying it. If there is one "myth" on this thread that needs squashing, this is it. Di Matteo had an excellent transfer window, did some fantastic business and he can hardly be blamed for Ross McCormack having personal issues and going off the boil. I would go as far as to say there were no bad signings last summer without hindsight to guide opinion. The outgoings were almost universally applauded too and the only critism would be that we didn't bring in more midfielders. We were after more than we signed so it might have been Di Matteo's intention to bring more in but he was left empty handed. Bruce came into a side that was short on midfield players. He now has some of the best in the league and in 5 months has, if anything, made us look like a worse team scrapping for results against everybody in the league. The performances were poor, then they got worse and so did the results. That is of no fault to the players brought in over the summer.

If we're going to get promoted then we need to do a hell of a lot better than falling behind by 21 points over 35 games. If we're top 2 material we should have turned 7 losses into wins. If we're play off material than we needed to pick up 4 points more than Fulham over 35 games. Think you might have just got the wrong end of the stick on what I was trying to say. Im not saying we should have finished closer, just that we were not far away at all really and at the very least just about keeping up the pace would have shown we could compete next year.

I think the problem for me is that we looked much worse, over a much longer period of time, under Bruce than under Di Matteo. I'm not sure if Di Matteo would have been sacked, and Bruce would have subsequently kept his job, if it wasn't for us hiring Steve Round. It doesn't sit well with me that, at least in my eyes, there's an element of "jobs for the boys" going on at the club, no matter how well qualified those "boys" are.

Has anyone compared Bruce's results with Di Matteo? Of the 11 teams Di Matteo played, his record was 1 win, 7 draws and 3 losses. Against the same sides, Bruce got 4 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses. The idea Bruce has brought in a "difficult to beat" mentality doesn't wash with me. When Bruce took over we were 11 points off Brighton and 12 off Newcastle, we finished 31 off Brighton and 32 off Newcastle. We were 4 points off Fulham, finishing 18 points behind the in the last playoff spot, which we were 10 points behind. By most accounts we were unlucky not to win more games under Di Matteo and the issue was that we couldn't finish our dinner in some games coupled with rotten luck. The other issue was our lack of midfield options which wouldn't change simply by bringing in a different manager. We needed a transfer window.

I've never really wanted Steve Bruce out of the club and would like some consistency by keeping the manager and most of the squad together. However, I wasn't sold on the idea of Bruce being our manager right from the start and now the season is over and Bruce's contract is running out I think we should wait for the right manager to lose or leave his job and capitalise. We need stability but not for the sake of it. I keep hearing that Bruce has done enough to warrant another season but in my opinion he's done much less than the minimum required to keep his job and I think he's been lucky the club had such upheaval before, otherwise he would've been sacked not long after that awful run. Winning away games and winning games in a row with an amazing squad for this league is not an acheivement, it should be expected.

I think we should try and get Rooney

He's got a certain style of play is the problem and he'd have to adapt to suit the influx of Portuguese players mendes will force on him. Think he's the kind of manager that works best with a small squad but he'll end up managing a squad bigger than Chelsea's by July if he stayed. They'll always be someone at this level willing to give him a chance so why not walk.

These are the usual suspects when discussing who we all want to see leave, or arguing should be kept on for another season. I was just curious if you could only pick one, who it would be? I always have a sense of the silent majority being against certain players leaving, the flip side of the coin being some people wanting them all gone. But for both those extremes and everyone in the middle, who is it you dislike being part of our club the most?

Maybe in a solar system where your height is recorded as how tall you are in comparison to a 7 foot filing cabinet This is a joke about his height but I can't think of how to make it funny

Be interesting to see how much he plays for Doncaster next season. I have a feeling Calder could end up there too having already been on loan a couple of times, and the two clubs seem to work together well I think he has a chance to play higher, I think he'll end up in the championship. Not sure who said it but he played a lot of games for them, not 50%. Think he was pretty much on the pitch as long as he was fit and not suspended

Seriously though, I could see Bacuna making the starting line up for at least 70% of this league, possibly more than that. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a team in the league that wouldn't have him in their squad if he was offered to them. I also think if he leaves we'll make a profit on him. He's also not on high wages. In terms of players that need moving on, he shouldn't be on that list.

Bacuna is a good player, still reasonably young and crucially is a squad player for a midtable Championship side. For where we are, and where we're aiming to be in the short term, he's more than good enough for this side and I don't think we should be moving him on or writing him off unless someone offers way more than his value

I can't believe people think there's even a debate to be had whether we should keep him next season or not. It's a no brainer.

This what you'd like to see or what you've been informed is happening?