joey_big_nose

De neve looks like a wing back to me, not a winger/wide forward. Big engine, not a lot else.

My main concern was we would come out and all the signings would be well off it and we would get steam rollered... Turned out that we were pretty physically competitive at least. McCloughlin, Alebiouso and Miller all looked up to it. That said going forward we looked totally toothless except for Alebiouso on the overlap and Kargbo when he came on. Also all of Henricksson, De Neve and Tavares looked very poor. The rest of games in August will give us more of a sense on where we are.

Injured

Well.. thats all to do with his success. If he bumps along like Mowbray did then he could just live with it for a few seasons. But if he does well and gets noticed like JDT and Eustace he will be off as frankly he will get better offers like JDT with Sweden it Eustace at Derby. We're in a situation now where if the manager succeeds he will leave in very short order as what is the point in staying?

Agree - Ohashi and Gueye can both player as either number 9s or 10s (Gueye is counter intuitively very good with his feet when he drops off, think I prefer him at 10 to up top on his own) so we could just play them together. But Ismael has explicitly called out Henricksson as being match fit so expecting him to get the nod at 10 and Ohashi up top with Gueye on the bench.

Wow, that is one stat that keeps inflating! I thought it was a mere 7 still...

I have just woken up to the fact Keith Andrews is now a Premier League manager at Brentford. WTF???? His coaching experience to date (according to wikipedia) is : Brief stint as assistant to Karl Robison at MK Dons where they were relegated Assistant for ROI U21s for 2 years Assistant for ROI national team for 3 years Six months as "back room staff" at Sheffield Utd One season as Brentford's set piece coach Zero head coach / manager experience Any premier league team will have job applications from all over the world of the best managerial talent out there. This is really quite an amazing achievement by Keith! His coaching record would be seen as a bit of speculative punt by a lower half Championship club. Must have really made an impression with his set pieces to get a prem gig.... Any of our Irish fans got an insight into this incredible turn up? I guess he must have built his reputation with the national team?

My point it when he got the budasliga move he will be paid around the same that Travis and Tronstad want I assume. I would be surprised if he wants substantially less than they do.

I know we won't do this as we haven't tried it in pre-season but with the singings it does feel like we are more setup for a 343. Mainly because we only have Kargbo and Hedges who are "wide forwards", and we have signed what seem more like wing backs (Alebiouso, De Neve) and we have a lot of number 10s to fit in (Cantwell, Henricksson, Tyor) Toth Hyam Wharton Pickering Alebiouso Travis Tronstad De Neve Cantwell Ohashi Kargbo Subs : Pears, Riberio, McCloughlin, Montgomery, Henricksson, Tyor, Gueye Not sure Hedges even makes the bench...

He was a top player for Birmingham City despite the team being relegated and moved to Bochum in the Budasliga (not Budasliga 2). So in terms of his career he has played at a higher level than any of Travis, Tronstad or Brittain. Hence my confusion on the wages.

Miyoshi is an established Championship player. I am struggling to see how his wage demands would be lower than Brittain, Travis or Tronstad?

I am like others a bit confused about how we fit all of Tavares, Henricksson, Cantwell, Travis and Tronstad into three roles. And I guess Baradji if he signs.

Yeah in terms of current numbers the one definitely on his way out is Buckley if we can find someone to take him. That said I'll be very surprised if both Travis and Tronstad are here on 1st September. I am pretty sure someone will come in with an offer which we cant turn down in the context of their last year of contract.

Carter when he is fit is very mobile imo, can recover well. Agree Wharton and Hyam really struggle once a player gets in behind though. Not seen McCloughlin, hope he has a bit of pace and strength.

Yeah me too... Although we hadnt seen them in a Rovers shirt Baath and Weiman were experienced Championship players you could expect to slot in. Our team for the opener (against Derby) last season. In terms of players not established in the Championship it was jus tGueye, with Ohashi off the bench. JRC lacked real dependability too I guess. Otherwise all pretty solid. This year we look like we will be throwing Alebiouso and De Neve in, with nothing really from the bench in terms of experience. Hedges doesn't worry me as while frustrating attacking wise he will compete and do his job. With total newbies like de neve and Alebiouso theres a chance they just get taken apart...

Agreed... My best guess at the moment is Brittain, Dolan, Travisz Tronstad etc are looking for £10k+ plus and its a hard no, while McCloughlin, Millar etc come in for 6k to 9k. I am completely speculating but it does seem weird we are letting players go for free over say 5k a week which is 0.5M over two years, but if we could sell them at a time of our choosing they would be worth millions to us?

Really? Weve tried different bowlers, giving a new batter a go at opener or number 3 is hardly revolutionary.

On the whole think England did very well across the series, should have wrapped it up but for the injury to Woakes. Only thing I have an issue with is Bethal being picked when hes played virtually no cricket and despite Pope amd Crowley struggling for long periods there seems to be no appetite to even experiment with a couple of other options. I wouldnt change how we play, we're very entertaining and i think it gets as much if not more out of our players than a more conservative approach.

England must have historically the largest number of players abroad in its History by a long way now. There were quite a few big names away when we were banned from europe in the eighties. But the quantity of english players across the skill levels on the continent is a really new phenomenon. IMO Spain, Germany and France being so dominant in international football is very closely connected to the sheer quantity of players they have in the Champions League at clubs far and wide. I think those nations are getting 2x + more CL minutes than English players. Hopefully the exodus of english talent will address that balance to some degree. Edit - found this stat leaderboard... Pretty embarrassing that Switzerland and Belgium were ahead of us considering they only had one club each in the CL and they have populations around a fifth of englands..

On paper feels like WBA are big favorites but each season we surprise by coming out of the blocks pretty well. I like Ismael, has the team fit and motivated and tactically tight. Think we have a decent chance.

Gueye is the player imo in the squad who could do an Armstrong/BBD/Szmodics and have a really exceptional season. He has all the ingredients, totally unplayable on his day. I would really want to keep him. That said... UAE clubs do need to sign quite a lot of random smaller players to make up the numbers with big money players, they will be offering a higher wage also with zero tax. He may speak arabic too coming from Senegal. Sort of feels plausible to me.

I like Brittain a lot and he had a great season last year, but I think if we went back 18 months ago in the forum there would be a lot saying not good enough etc. I wouldn't say hes guaranteed to have a good season this year. Could be he just had a good season last year. Shame to lose him though, would have loved to keep him. Tronstad and Travis concern me more as they have proven themselves as top Championship performers over a longer period.

Completely agree. Only thing is if the idea is to eventually exit paying off losses as much as possible they need to get to the premier league which doesn't gel that well with this approach.. Their ownership is so baffling. Surely they must have some sort of time horizon. The longer they stick around the more more they lose.

Fantastic - thank you. One thing that is a bit weird about this table is Ipswich are 6th on it despite just being promoted from League One. I didn't realise they were spending so hugely. Surprised we are outspending QPR given they are a London club. What is Impairment?

Hmmm, I broadly agree but not as pessimistic. I think we probably are offering simlar to mid bottom half teams. This is actually a question we can come up with a concrete answer for by looking at the published accounts I think? Which don't break down per player but do show overall wages. There must be site that shows the wage bills by club for the last accounting period? 2023/2024 I guess?