joey_big_nose

What's depressing is if we offered him that a year ago I'm pretty sure he would have signed.

I guess one possibility is that JDT and Broughton want to do an ultra homegrown strategy and that's what they've signed up for. Feels that's possibly Broughton's outlook, but JDT strikes me as wanting short term impact.

I agree with your analysis on what sort of players we need. But realistically the absolute maximum number of players we've been able to bring in over the years in a single window has been about 4 perms and 4 loans. So eight signings is the max achievable imo. it's also worth saying is even the best managers do well to get more than 60% of their transfers right. So while it's cathartic to say sell Ayala, Gallagher and Hedges I don't think it will be wise to move out more players when we already need to sign eight or so before they leave. Plus I think under new management they may improve. It's worth giving them a chance to see if that's the case.

Yeah, but 12/18 months is a loooong time in football. No sign of current interest by top flight clubs as far as a quick Google can find.

Further - looking at his wiki I really can't see why he would be out of our league? Only 15 appearences for Bordeaux, who are not a major force in France (as evidenced by their relegation), no sign of Prem, La Liga, Serie A interest etc. Seems very doable? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anel_Ahmedhodžić

Feels like the sort of transfer that could happen due to the managerial connection. We're likely to offer a decent salary improvement compared to Malmo and competitive with smaller clubs in League 1. One to watch for me.

Agree it's all a mystery. If JDT goes 442 as suggested by those analytical reports I think he will be a bit confused by Gallagher. Gallys physique screams a player whose attacking style is 70% back to goal linking up play, 30% running into the box to get on the end of crosses (great for 442). But his way of playing is actually 100% running with the ball at feet (despite not being very good at dribbling) It's just so weird. And not great for 442.

Selling Dolan would be madness, he's one of our top young players., and while there is a risk he may not improve there is a decent chance he will. His contract is long enough for us to find out. I'm sure a lot of people would have sold Brereton last summer for 3m or 4m (me included) but with young players it's always worth giving them a chance to improve if they seem to have the capability. Incidentally at 19/20 Dolan has looked a lot more impressive Brereton did at that age.

I'd be absolutely amazed if we could get anywhere near a number that would entice him to stay. He knows any sort of move will 4x or more his pay. He also knows if he stays and gets injured or his goals dry up (as they did second half of last season) suddenly his opportunity for Prem footy goes too. So he's gone, just a case of where. The club's after him will want to leave it late in the window and scare us to drop the price. We want to play the various clubs off one another to push the price up. Will run and run.

Give it 6 months, I'm pretty sure he will get another Championship gig.

Well if that's true I guess things could improve with Broughton & JDT. But it just feels to me that the source of the bizarre way we operate is far more to do with Venkys that Waggott and therefore I will be surprised if Broughton and JDT really manage to change it.

I understand the above is to do with the owners not being engaged/willing to signoff contracts? Is that right? Do you expect this aspect - lack of forward planning due to lack of signoffs from Venkys to approve new contracts - to change under Broughton/JDT?

There's also a side to it that if you "football" your way out of the Championship you end up in the Prem - which is great - but when you're there most teams can out football you and you get murdered and relegated. See Fulham or Norwich in recent years. You want a team that can find a way to defend and get a result against better teams. Winning ugly against better teams is a big part of football, and we want to be good at it.

I guess the point is until he establishes himself for Rovers we shouldn't rely on him. Carter fourth choice initially sounds about right to me but if he quickly proves himself, then he can move up the order. I think we should also exclude Ayala from the defensive calculations, he just isn't fit enough. He should be regarded as a bonus (if we can't find a buyer) So for me it should be : 1 Wharton 2 New Signing 3 New Singing 4 Carter 5 Phillips There's a decent upside there as I think both Carter and Phillips could make an impact this season, but we wouldn't be reliant on them. I do wonder however if Venkys rumoured requirement that we don't pay a fee for defenders will remain in place?

Which blog is that?

The club said Broughton was selected by a specialist recruitment agency hired to do it. That said the way it came together it does feel like Broughton was offered very last minute when another candidate (Steve Walsh?) fell through. Broughton himself said - I think, need to look back at the interview - that he was offered a couple of days after being approached. So while he may turn out to be a very good or bad appointment he wasn't one of the initial targets.

I loved Dunn, great player for us, should have had a better career. But he's nowhere near the orbit of the likes of Grealish or Foden. Grealish is a very similar player and - to me anyway - obviously much better. Quicker, more technical, better with his weaker foot. Much as I love him I don't think Pep would be signing Dunn. The former Rover this team desperately needs is Tugay. If that is what we need we could just put Grealish in central midfield. He'd carry the ball forward very effectively from deep. But like with Joe there's a trade off - loses the ball in dangerous areas, lacks postional discipline, not physical enough. That said given how unimaginative our midfield has been, and that we don't have a Tugay, I wouldnt be against Grealish being given a shot centrally.

I'd say weve got a lot of those - Grealish, Sancho, Foden, Bellingham, Sterling all love running with the ball and are good at it. For me it's the passing that's the issue.

Interesting see how opinions differ. That defence imo would get absolutely eaten alive by Italy and Germany. From a defensive point of view we are much stronger in midfield than defence imo. Rice, Philips, Bellingham, Henderson are all very strong defensive players. That said I agree offensively in midfield we have a problem as there's no real creative passing quality. I've thought a big issue for us is we lack someone like a higher quality Harry Winks who can pick the right forward passes from around the centre circle. Top teams need someone like that. But since Winks faded away there's not a single midfielder in the England setup who likes to try and pass from deep. Maybe Henderson on a good day. But all our mids are more "box to box". Great if we are playing an end to end game, but if we are up against a defensive setup - as we will be often, like last night- we run out of ideas very quickly.

I've never really been that impressed with him for England. But can say same about Mount, Rashford, Sancho, Grealish. All struggled to really be convincing. Part of our problem.

That tactics report thing reckoned he does like 4411 as well as a 442, so Dack in the hole seems a pretty obvious move. 4411 with who is likely to be here next year (obviously squad is totally threadbare so there will be quite a few coming in - I hope - but may as well work with what we have) : . Kaminski Brown. Ayala. Wharton. Pickering Dolan. Buckley. Travis. Hedges . Dack Gallagher It's not a terrible first XI. Reckon we need someone more experienced than Brown at RB, more pace in the back line and obviously need a big upgrade on Gallagher. Don't think Tomasson is going to accept him leading the line tbh, I'd say he's more at risk than Dack is. On top of that a big area of focus will be how to maximise what we get out of Dolan and Hedges. Both talented, but not really delivering to the level their quality suggests is possible.

Sancho and Maguire too. And keep Shaw fit.

Agree with Kane. He seems to have totally changed his game in a way that suits Spurs but not England. England need him to channel Shearer, but instead he prefers being Dennis Bergkamp to Son's Henry. We don't need him messing about in an already congested midfield despite his excellent passing. Also whats frustrating is three of our outstanding creative talents don't really seem to be kicking on - Grealish, Sancho, Foden. Plus Rashford whose never convinced at international level is going backwards too...

Yeah, I think the NL is good. You wouldn't have got a game like that in a friendly. Hungary absolutely ecstatic. Playing 4 games at the end of the season when we have the season starting early due to WC is a bit mad. But it's the same for everyone. Southgates got a massive problem now. What's his best team? What's his best formation? Basically everything has been rubbish and hasn't worked. Probably given how poor our defence has been it will be back to 343. And we have 2 games against Italy and Germany to get it right. This will likely be Southgates preferred XI imo. Pickford Walker. Stones. Maguire James. Rice. Bellingham. Shaw. Sterling. Kane. Mount Issue is out of that who truly is in form and confident? England are producing a lot of good attacking players but no one really dominant. And defensively we are going backwards.... Hmmm...

Long time since we've played a proper 442. Probably the only time in the last 15 years is when we had Gestede and Rhodes I think? Maybe memory playing tricks on me but can't think of another front two pairing?