bluebruce

😲 That's some Messi shit right there!

Same for most of us...

Talking about the overall standard of the league, obviously we know world class players have come from Belgium. But there's a lot of dross too.

Why ecstatic? That seems strong. I'm struggling to understand why some people are so delighted at the prospect of Undav. Yes his goals record is decent, but how good is the Belgian league really? Some strong sides better than us, but several we would likely paste. I admit I don't know it well, but always seemed a bit SPL-y to me. He had ONE season in the top Belgian league, with a good goals record, and 8 goalless Prem games (amounting to less than 90 minutes total I was told). Before that, his football took place in the Belgian second tier (one season), German third tier (two seasons) and the German fourth tier (four seasons), and I can't say I put any stock at all in those leagues. I'd class it as a decent, potentially interesting signing that certainly may turn out well if we manage it (after all, Brighton rated him enough to pay a few million, but only similar to what we paid for Gally and look how that turned out...a transfer fee is no guarantee of quality). But ecstatic seems a stretch, personally. I think people are just pleasantly surprised we are chasing a 26-year old striker that has actually scored goals at a good rate somewhere, and not really thinking the profile and accomplishments of the player through that much. He's also 5 ft 10, just for those who are convinced we need to stick a big lump up top.

It's possible. It's unlikely, without good reinforcements. We had a purple patch where we often got results we didn't look good value for, but we are currently in a bit of a freefall, something a lot of the current squad have form for, whether it was the manager's fault or not. Reinforcements aside, we would probably need BBD (and perhaps some others) to return to his earlier season form. Which looks unlikely given his head has been turned more than the girl from The Exorcist. Currently, I'm expecting we will finish somewhere from about 8th to 10th.

A profit machine? 🤣 I'm guessing you've never read any of the reports or posts about the annual financial statements then...

Ahh yes, I remember him saying that! What a stupid plan that was.

Uh, I don't, but the post you were quoting said Watford bid 200k and that we bid 300k more. I was going off that basis for argument sake, hence I said 'sounds like'. Maybe you should have asked them how they know what we bid instead of me.

So he will have to cross low. Which begs two questions - is he any good at that, and won't that get a bit predictable for opposition defenders? There's also a bit of a skill to moving onto the end of low, drilled crosses. I know Dack can do it, though he's not our quickest. The faster lads it's partially unknown, as we haven't really played that way. Hopefully there is a plan to go with this signing, and we are confident (and correct) about being able to match our approach to it successfully. I do have my doubts though, that we have personnel equipped to get on the end of it, and also that we have just one player who can deliver them. What happens when he is injured or out of form, and what are we going to produce from the other side?

Sounds like we should have bid less and put it towards the wage package.

13 in the league. Bishop has 11 in the league and it's only January. Should end up with a few more than Hirst if he stays you'd think. Though I should say their minutes per goal are similar. On the other hand, the most Dack had scored in that league before we bought him was 13. He does play slightly further back though. League One is really a crap shoot when it comes to bringing players from there to the Championship. I'd say our experiences of it are hit and miss. Dack and arguably Armstrong (hadn't shone above League One), but also Bell, Hirst...then you can argue over Smallwood (I'd say did enough of a job first season back up avoiding relegation, but not really good enough for anything above that at this level) and Pickering (alright but too slow). Edun is likely to end his time here under the failure umbrella too. I'm sure I'm forgetting some players. Back in the day didn't we also get Stead for the Prem when he was in League One, or the equivalent at the time? Saved our bacon that year, then was shit...hit and miss in one player!

The worry for me here is that we aren't a team who really play crosses. That could be for good reason, as we lack anybody who is particularly adept at getting on the end of them. Dack reads them best, but unless they're low he won't win many. Last season when we got Giles in, someone that could really cross, who put in something like 30-odd crosses in his first game. But the idea was quickly abandoned and our genius manager decided he was better cutting in from the right (which he wasn't). Incompetence was probably a factor in that move, but I think our lack of an effective recipient for crosses was probably an element in the thinking. We are trying it again, under a different manager with largely the same personnel. If he plays on the left, perhaps we are thinking of putting BBD in the middle. He is probably the player on our books most capable of fulfilling that role, but it remains to be seen if he will use certain elements of his game that make him dangerous, by playing him there. If he is coming as a winger to put crosses in, this is either going to be a waste of time again, or it will unlock a different part of our game to capitalise on. Perhaps it could make us more effective when we do have the possession and need to break a team down, good crosses can shake things up. We will need much better movement in the box though. Another possibility is he will spend at least some of the time as a LWB to give Pickering competition.

Tbf, somebody dropped the name in here yesterday, and today it's in the news. The LT says the deal moved quickly, so not sure how much sooner an ITK could really have broken it.

The last player to do so was Giles. But we had nobody to effectively get on the end of them, and he was soon shunted onto the right side of the attack where his left foot was hindered.

Seems a bit premature on the back of someone's tweet.

Surely you're not talking about Szmodics! He's alright, but, c'mon!

We always used to hear that Venkys would provide extra funding if we were in a position midseason to launch a real promotion challenge. Until we were in that position, and nobody at the club has mentioned it since.

Indeed, and that's actually the only reason he is allowed to sign a pre contract on a free in the first place.

I assume you're aware you're also leaving an acre of space under your posts? For both problems, maybe using a different browser will help you. Though normally when everything is highlighted you can just click (or tap) pretty much anywhere and it clears. If that isn't working I'd really try a different web browser.

That doesn't sound too likely, as we signed Kalinic for 6 million not long later. Why do your posts all have a shit-ton of spaces below them now? Took me half a minute to delete them from the quote.

Again that only seems like a great achievement because of the loser managers we had before and after him. At the time we appointed Ince, merely surviving didn't seem like an achievement, I saw us as a steady mid-table side with the potential to push for Europe occasionally. That's what we had been. Ince made a right hash of it though, and suddenly survival became a main objective. He did well to get us out of the relegation zone, credit where it's due, but it wasn't a miraculous escape for a team who shouldn't have been in it in the first place. We had finished 7th the season before I think? Then the season after we finished 10th in his first full season. Yes, purse strings were getting a little tight, hence as I keep saying he did a good job, but really nothing special. I suspect he could have had us gradually grind a bit higher over time, as I do think he's a manager who can get results, but I really can't class him as one of our most successful. Like many, my issue wasn't with the fact he was sacked, it was with the timing and the quality of the replacement. Any sensible new owners would have left it at least til the season's end to let Williams and Allardyce do their thing whilst they felt out the new business (and Williams for longer still), but we didn't have sensible new owners, we had arrogant idiots who were 'badly advised', and the rest is tragic history.

No. Nor is there one where he says he definitely would have.

I nearly commented on that too! I was thinking bollocks ago sounds like the bollocks was in the past, but I'm fairly sure we're still living in the Bollocks Era.

In the first halves of the last two seasons, it has. Formations don't lose form and fitness, players do. I don't believe the formations per se have been a problem, so much as the mentality, fitness and consistency of the playing staff. And to a degree, the poor decision-making of the managers. I would say it's not a good formation for a possession game that JDT supposedly wants to play, you can't afford to lose the midfield battle then. But when you can send it long to fairly quick attackers on the counter, as has been our most successful approach, it's not as important. Weren't we playing 4-3-3 for a lot of Mowbray's possession-obsessed phase?

That's pushing it. He did a decent if dull job, but the absolute best he could rank during just my time is 4th. Across the club's grand history, he's an afterthought. He shouldn't have been fired when he was, but I think he gets a bit too much credit on account of the total charlatan managers either side of him, Ince and Kean.