bluebruce

And didn't he have a pretty good goals record when he played in the u23s?

Well yes, I fully expect the two of them to look better than just one of them

Or at the very least for season ticket holders to soften the blow of the bullshit hike and give some incentive. Or ifollow subscribers, something like that. Obviously entirely free would be best, and increase goodwill at this time.

Ah he is the set piece taker? That's a little different then, though a good source of free kicks etc is always welcome. But Charlie Mulgrew had far better goal stats at CB...and we know how that turned out... As long as he can actually defend, which it mostly sounds like he can, I'm very much excited if it's him. As has been said, Bell can't, so even a fairly decent defender who can also smash goals and assists is a huge, huge upgrade.

Thompson is a funny one. Only given a one year deal this summer, so I don't know what we plan to do with him unless we have one of those club option extensions. We are about to sign a LB, and Bell will clearly stay second choice just because he has the senior experience and they still haven't given Thompson a go there even though we were horrendous and short on numbers there last year, and even though he was one of the best u23 performers supposedly. With Bell being out of contract at the end of the season, this would be a perfect year to send Lewis out on loan for senior experience and start to see if he could be the backup LB next year. But there isn't any point doing that if he is out of contract. We do like those club-sided extension options though so maybe it will go down that way and negotiate a new deal next summer. But starting to look like one of our best u23s isn't going to get a chance in our weakest position. I thought him only getting a loan at Fylde in Feb was weird too, seems like one of the better players at one of the best u23 sides in the country should be attracting a better loan than that at his age. Still a shame that he didn't get to play though due to circumstances beyond his control.

Yep, I had read elsewhere (though I forget where, maybe even just here lol) that he can defend.

I mean I'm not even sure I want Bell leaving benchmarks from it being his regular position.

Just looking at his wiki, 31 and with 15 appearances last season in this league, I'd be a lot less optimistic if it's him than if it's Manning. But hey, if they're a big upgrade on Bell for a season it'll have to do!

Problem is I don't think our team will know what to do with that! I've said a couple of times that I think Nyambe's low assist tally is partly down to poor positioning in the box and short blokes getting on the end of it. Partly his own fault too of course but still, might be harder to notch assists here from crosses.

Have a look at transfermarkt. As I posted previously he had a very good goals and assists record from LB last season. 5 goals 5 assists I think it was. Can also operate LW where he got 2 more assists. Has already scored in his one appearance this season.

So they can be named then presumably?

Doesn't normally stop him! In the sense of changing it because we are afraid of them, yes. But in the sense of 'our possession based game isn't getting us results and hasn't consistently since we implemented it, and now we are playing a team that our manager says loves playing possesion based teams'...I just think we might not want to spend nearly the entire game camped outside their area waiting for the inevitable counter attack that sinks us. We've seen this movie before. We should try to get them to open up a bit more, because if they park the bus I'm sure we will just kick against it in vain all game.

As was mine...sorry I thought that was obvious.

You can't complain about the deleted larks, then as soon as I give you an undeleted one, you want to delete it.

Sorry, here's an undeleted one for you.

Tbf 1.5m is nearly Whiteman's fee. Dunno what wages he expects though, probably roughly in the 10kpw, 500k per year bracket.

Like this one?

I read that interview earlier and it only made me even less optimistic. He basically acknowledged all of Wycombe's strengths play against our weaknesses, but that we aren't going to change our approach to account for that at all.

Tonight's game against City can be watched on City's platform. For free, although that's because theres a 30 day free trial followed by 1.99 per month, so just make sure to cancel it before that. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.mancity.com/news/eds-academy/watch-man-city-eds-blackburn-rovers-city-63736015

Really think that's a shame for us, he was looking like a perfect solution to Trav being out. Hopefully we have other, good irons in the fire.

Great touch for his goal too. Commentator was awful. Total non reaction to that superb overhead kick for the opener.

It may be hindsight to you, but as keeps being pointed out, quite a lot of us were upset with the Raya fee at the time. That's not hindsight, that's foresight. Regardless of what we thought he would be selling for just a year down the line, we all (those who were unhappy with the fee) thought he was already worth more than 3 million and would probably go on to be worth quite a bit more. Don't rewrite history.

Wow, that's a lot more than 1.7m, you're right! No wonder we are in debt! Dack is a very good player at this level, but paying the best part of a billion for him was madness...

Poor example. It would be ridiculous to describe him missing a free kick as a sitter. Holtby could have scored. There's no should about it. His technique was solid, he was just a little unlucky.

Right, cos that's all that matters, not the stuff I said. Got it. Context is king. It was bloody close. If he had got it a foot to the left we'd be calling it an emphatic finish and really lauding it.