HalfTimePost

May or may not be football related but Derrick Williams isnt very happy on twitter

Have to applaud Con for repeatedly getting you all hook, line and sinker.

All agents are but from what I've seen CB's isnt anywhere near as bad as he could be

I dont really see how anybody can say no to this guy based on the league he comes from. Nobody really knows what the day-to-day quality of the Ekstraklasa is like. Westwood was playing in League 2 team that just (literally just, finished 7th) managed to scrape into the L2 playoffs. Playing vs teams such as Barnet and Macclesfield Lowton was playing against the likes of Chesterfield, Rochdale and Colchester in League 1. Sylla left his team Clermont Foot in January who finished in the dizzying heights of 14th in Ligue 2, whose opposition included Chamois Niortais and FC Istres. On the other hand, Tonev, who yes probably plays against some tripe a lot of the time, plays for Poznan who have been pretty consistently in the Europa League and have played against the likes of Man City and Juventus* *Full disclosure: I dont know if Tonev played or not** but still the point stands. Surely Lambert deserves the trust to go to an utterly cack league and pull out a player. 3 of our best players last season were pulled from inferior leagues in League 1, 2 and the Jupiler. **Edit: He did not.

Only 2 seasons left.

How about Harry McGuire from Sheffield United? He's not very fast so not entirely sure he would make the step up to the prem, especially with our defence being slow as it is, bu Sheffield United have absolutely no money to spend at all and there were a few rumours about a bid from Sheff Wednesday for as low as £900k. He's been touted about in the £3m bracket but I think thats mostly paper inflation (similar to £3m Lowton who was more £900k). We could even try going lower than that supposed £900k bid and then loaning both him and Derrick Williams (They need a CB, and as previously mentioned, have no money plus Williams isn't exactly first in line here and it may help him find a club moving into the Championship?) back out to them for next season? He made the League 1 team of the year in both of the last 2 seasons and has a fantastic mentality, even if that same mentality may mean he would refuse to leave, money for his club + a loan back may convince him though? At 20 he'd be one for the future, see if he makes it and if not at circa £1m we couldnt exactly lose money on him

He'd be a great signing. But no selling him on for 20m+ in a few years would be the most likely outcome of us buying him. I cant see us getting him, but the thought of a home grown midfield in 3 years or so of: Westwood Gardner Graham Grealish Hughes Would be **** superb. Heck, could go the whole way and say: Lowton ??? Baker Cresswell Westwood Gardner Graham Grealish Hughes ??? would be quite a statement of home-grown players. But I think i've gotten a little carried away

Weiss wouldnt surprise me to be fair, 23 years old, can play basically anywhere in midfield and Pescara have just been relegated from Serie A so he would probably be dirt cheap. Another who likes a pop at goal, Possibly an option other than Tonev? However, Weiss simply does not help out his team in defence. With a defence as poor as ours we need those wide players to be helping out. Infact, one of the main benefits of moving away from Lamberts preffered system to 3 forwards was so Gabby and Weimann could double up and help Bennett and Lowton (hence NZogbia rarely being played wide because he doesn't really help defensively) I guess Weiss could be played more central like NZog when he came on. I'll pull some stats in a min on Weiss from the net.

One quick one on Hughes, who is only 18, he can play across the midfield in AM roles, it might be worth loaning a player to Derby if they lose him (to whoever) this summer. Depending on where they play Hughes most often, sending a player there who we need to get some experience will do them the world of good. Grealish for CAM Graham for on the wings. Given first team opportunities in a midtable Championship side would do either of those two the world of good, they both have just as much potential as Hughes and are the same age. Would give our player some experience and Derby a potentially similar player for peanuts so they can reinvest their fee elsewhere. Just a thought.

I'm not surprised. He was injured from February 16th until the last 2 games of the season (and a substitute appearance 85 mins into the 3rd from last game).

No Bulgaria are part of the EU since 2007 so one wont be needed.

Will Hughes would be fantastic but I cannot see us getting him. Would be way too much and is destined to go to the top 4

Are we in the business of producing players ? - or building a team that we can be proud of ? - The problem as I see it, is that we won't boost there contracts in line with whats on offer elsewhere - ergo the better players move on. Somewhere in the middle. Build good enough to be as good as the likes of Everton and Liverpool in the hope that we can find a group of players good enough to challenge them and maybe make a move onto the top 5 or 6 if one of Arsenal or Spurs seriously mess up in the coming years.

Give £20k contracts to young players. They perform bad, no worries, they cost pennies, sell them on at cost/for a small loss. They perform well boost their contracts up or sell them on for huge profits if they wont accept wages in line with what we can offer.

Think Byram would cost us too much to even consider him as competition for Lowton. Valued at around £8m by Leeds according to SSN, even accounting for them over-inflating the fee he would be too much. He'll be a very good player one day. Got quite a few assists last season from RB and not even 20 yet.

That was the first genuinely interesting conversation to happen on here in months :/

Wow good or wow bad?

Shame, I rather enjoyed that Agreed. Solskjaer-gate was brilliant. I guess it could be deemed as having gone too far when Molde almost lost their sponsor or owner, whoever it was over Solskjaer-gate (although I doubt they'll be threatening to pull out with how they're doing now!)

Atleast Gazton and MM had some kind of inside info. Correct me if im wrong (honestly, as I could be). But all I ever saw from Julie was reposts of stuff she saw on twitter. And then backed it to the hilt.

Stoke is a good shout. Hughes will be under pressure to change their style, utilizing and changing their midfield to be more dynamic. Ireland on the cheap (in terms of fee) could be a good buy for them*. *obviously we know he wont be, but lets hope he thinks he can conjure something out of him.

Enda Stevens, Ciaran Clark, Stephen Ireland, Richard Dunne, Shay Given And then theres a load of our youth players but just going to assume it's none of them.

I was getting excited by all this on twitter hoping it would be Ireland. Your telling me it was all started by Julie and Mini_Beest? FFS. May as well lock the thread then.

Brum Mail

Watching a youtube video, whilst he looks good (as they all do on youtube). He knocks the ball quite a way in front of him quite a lot and runs on to it. Not sure he'd be able to get away with that in the prem as often when generally fullbacks are quite quick players here and wouldnt have that much space to run in to. Similar ish to Bale and how he was able to tear the Italian teams up by knocking it past and running onto it, it took a while for him to bring that form into the Prem. But it's only a youtube video I guess.