fonz

3 minutes ago, mikeyjavfc said:

They got me. Need to stop search Rashica on Twitter and do some work 

are you sure it was 'Rashica' you put into search.....?

To be a top club think the general rule is 2 players for every position. For the six midfield and attacking positions, in my view we've got 11 (Luiz and Nakamba, Barkley and Hourihane, McGinn and Ramsey, Grealish and ?, Watkins and Davis, Trez, and Traore), leaving room for one more front 3 player. 

Didn't think i'd get to see Simon Grayson being mentioned on here today....

Just now, Jareth said:

That you Connor?

I do sometimes feel like i'm channeling the great man. Guess I have a soft spot for him 

Konsa will make mistakes this season, but i fully expect him to develop further and in time could be one of our great CBs that we love to laud. Appreciate it's difficult to see mistakes on the pitch that lead to goals but we've got someone with huge potential here and need to not get on his back. If we bought in a first choice CB, Konsa would get a lot less game time and his development would slow. Not sure how we ever expect these players to become top class players if we just buy players to play over them 

After dipping in and out of here the past few weeks seeing you all tear your hair out at the lack of signings, i logged on expecting to see some happy posts for once.....clearly being too optimistic! The price we've paid is the cost of the top scorer in the championship these days, especially aged 24. The club clearly has a strategy. We'll get (and have already got) a lot of value elsewhere. We're not paying J-Rod wages. We're building a sustainable club with young, hungry players, a mix of british and non-british, players who fight for the shirt and not come for one last pay day. Have faith and trust in the team. 

Refreshing this page every 30 secs is pure self flagellation. Seeing Sturridge's name crop up again has, however, forced me back to my spreadsheets

1 minute ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Exactly, and after all he's done for us why should we stand in his way of playing regular first team football at what are the latter stages of his career?

Makes sense all round if you ask me.

And assuming there's a recall clause, we would get back a player who's been playing regularly rather than sitting on our bench!

4 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

I have a feeling that this Jan transfer window will be just like last Jan's window, where I get my hopes up but end up crying in to my pillow.

If you crying into your pillow means we go on a ten game win streak then i'm all for it, soz

4 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Highest paid at which club?

I can guarantee West Ham have people on more than £60k p/w and I'm fairly sure we do too........

Villa, clearly

Not surprised to hear there was goading and slapping etc, but if it's confirmed then takes away any excuse at all for going on the pitch. I don't care that it's a minority ruining it for everyone, noone should be on there in the first place! Maybe all those so keen to show their enthusiasm for the club could instead channel it to singing for 90 mins every home game

3 minutes ago, Wes said:

Thinking logically, Wesley doesn't need to be registered in the team for the rest of the season now, freeing up a slot (you could say this has been filled by Samatta).

If Jota does go on loan to Fulham, we must be bringing someone in you would think. Same could be said for Chester.

As there would be hardly any time to get a work permit through, they would like either be from the UK or a regular international from Europe (where the work permit would be practically guaranteed).

 

I think the best clue over the next 36 hours is going to be with our senior team loan outgoings as to what positions may be filled.

is it possible to de-register a play mid season?

5 minutes ago, sne said:

No I don't think we need a back up CB, I think we need one to go straight into the starting 11.

This is completely unrealistic

37 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

I think the recent form has given the board a false sense of security. Need at least two top players in.

Any basis for this? Smith has been clear in interviews that we want another striker and the club are working on it

If it's Benteke or nothing, then i'd take him

Mate is a regular at Tannadice. Asked him for his view on Shankland

"Shankland is a super goal scorer - 27 this season alone!! But his hold up play, interlinks between the lines isn't great and he isn't particularly quick. He isn't the next McGinn. That said, DUFC have said they dont need to sell him, and his goals are far more important to the team than the cash. Plus it would be a PR disaster for the management. However £5m might tempt the club....."

The lack of pace comment alone means it's a NO from me! 

30 minutes ago, useless said:

No striker signed in time for tomorrow, which probably means we won't have one in time for Tuesday either, after which we could be cut adrift in the bottom three with much tougher games to come. Really thought something would get announced this morning in addition to the Samatta news. shouldn't be going into premier league games without a single striker, the fact that Kodjia is being let go, and neither of Hogan or Hepburn-Murphy have been recalled seems almost like a failure to take proper care of our situation to me.

Would you rather Hogan or EL Ghazi up front tomorrow?

32 minutes ago, Zatman said:

a young player with potential in a mid-ranked European league. Teams like Celtic and Brentford pick up bargain transfers like this all the time and make a killing from them. This is what organised clubs do

Unless i'm mistaken, this is exactly the approach we've been taking?!

16 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Celtic signed Klimala from Polish league not saying I have seen him play but this is type of signing I was expecting us to make. Celtic have a good scouting system too so he might turn a profit for them in the future 

When you say 'type of signing' what do you mean? It sounds like you have no idea if he's any good.....

Not getting in another striker in the summer is the mistake. Clearly.

I'm firmly of the view that the majority of the players we brought in will come good - whether that's for us or unfortunately, somewhere else. We've also seen so many times in the past that it's incredibly difficult for players from abroad to come into the prem and hit the ground running. Next season is the season we should be judging them. That doesn't help us right now obviously, but i refuse to believe they're all s***. If we had bought another striker in the summer i don't the toys would be being thrown out the pram.

6 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Agree with a lot of this, but to be frank I don't think the club being unable to replace him before this season would matter.

It would be a risk, but I don't think the club would see having McGinn/not having McGinn being the defining factor in us staying up or being relegated. Turning down £50m for McGinn would also be a big risk, financially.

Plus when you add in that their could be pressure from the player to make the deal happen, I think the club would find it very difficult to say no.

 

Again I don't think there's anything in the link. Certainly not in the price tag. United might be interested, but I don't think they'll be offering 50m for him.
But IF they did, I think he'd be off.

How is it a big risk financially to turn an offer down? All of our spending has been made without assuming we will sell McGinn. I believe the club WILL see keeping McGinn as key to our success this year and it is absolutely not worth £50m to sell him because of the profit we make on him, especially as would be difficult to replace in such timescales.

Clearly if McGinn says he wants to go it may be a different matter but i'd like to think he'd want to give us his first year in the prem

Having watched Moneyball for the umpteenth time last week i'm stunned to see Billy Beane is a part-owner of Barnsley! For those who haven't seen the film, it's fab (if you're into the geekier side of sports)

On 11/06/2019 at 08:25, hippo said:

I would like to know why the minutes of the meeting are kept under wraps for round 2 weeks - with attendees sworn to secrecy - yet when the minutes are released there is nothing controversial in them.

Don't know about you but noone can ever be bothered to send out minutes quickly following the meetings i go to at work. Two weeks seems fairly normal for a set of minutes and actions which barely resemble what was actually discussed

If we get Mings can see us with a new CB, LB and RB. If not Mings then two new CB too (i.e. a whole new defence!). Just seen Ashley Young's nice tweet about us so he'll prob come in at RB. 

We'll try and start season with Grealish, McGinn and El Ghazi. New RW to come in. 

Suspect we'll try Hourihane early doors but will have a new option lined up if not already brought in. I'd love to see him do well next year (any criticism that's gone his way past two years i'm putting firmly at the feet of Bruce) but not sure he has what's needed to be a top prem-level DM that presses, harrasses, breaks down play etc. Think he can do the distribution bit just fine. Please Conor, prove me wrong. 

Can see us spending big on a new striker. Even if we get Tammy, don't think we'll rely just on him. 

Recent interview with Edens suggest moneyball approach likely. I take that to mean several players coming in we've never heard of!. I feel confident we've got the right structure and coaching in place to get the most out of these types of players where in the past we've failed, they've left and gone on to play at top level and are in demand (Veretout etc).