briansol

Probably not fair to compare this year's U21 to previous. Most of the talents that normally would be the core has been moved up (Batty, Garrett, Wharton, Phillips) combined with a few injuries as well. Some of the lineups has been very young and pretty weak. The current U18 is not close to last year, but in fairness that was considered a golden generation.

Yeah agreed, it's that strange that you might think there has been some hint that it might be considered. For the club it's obvious that a long-term contract would be the preferred option. He and his partner might have discovered how stressful it is to have a fresh baby and might consider staying around familiar surrounding for another year. It's quite a different scenario for a partner to stay at home with a crying baby in a foreign country.

The only logic I can think of is that he just just became a father for the first time, and staying in a stable enviroment with family for one more year before uprooting his family to another country might appeal. Could be his partner preference.

Yeah, I get you. Probably not a silver lining, but one of the many small lies I convince myself to get through the day 🙂

The other aspect is that anything he said could been seen as an attempt to affect the appeal, which would viewed negatively by the appeal commite.

I liked that he looked nervous and edgy, good to see that the situation has affected him and the rest. There was also a little bit of anger shining through, as it seems obvious there has been a fuckup from the admin/legal team that he has to take responsibility for. The only good thing coming from this is a man scorned like that will take action to avoid it happen again. You should never waste a good disaster as JDT would have said.

Huddersfield just announced a loan signing from Forest only an hour ago, which suggest we are not the only ones that we've for a while for clearance.

Because most of them has higher turnover (often based on higher attendance) and therefore can afford a higher salary level. Even if we are lower table on wages, we have one of the worst wage to turnover ratios in the division. Very much reliant on Venky's covering the losses every year. That said most of the Championship are running at a loss, and I doubt we've seen the last club going bust.

I agree. He's is quite similar to David Raya as keeper. Smaller stature, but agile and very good with his feet. The question marks would be the same as a young version of Raya. How commanding in the box will he be? Will he fluff the crosses/corners against big senior pros? A loan might be the best option similar to what Raya did.

Probably not a lot of takers. They offered a 3.5y deal. He's turning 31 this year and haven't really performed the last couple of seasons either.

Yeah, you think there would be some sympathy for the circumstances in the summer. Broughton arrived in an empty building, no manager in place Mowbray left with his crew, one was his assistant manager who had handled all the transfer under Mowbray. The recruitment team was decimated, and one of the analyst he hired died of a heart attack only 2 weeks later (A fit guy in his 30's on a hike), which Broughton had to deal with as well. The actual transfer's done was Broughton, one of the recruitment guys and some help from Waggot. Not an ideal setup, which seems far improved now. The Brereton situation was tried solved with contract talks, but I very much believed the owners had a drawn a line on the transfer amount that was never met.

Sounds great, exactly what we need. Sign him up as Ayala replacement.

Matt Derbyshire and Joe Garner

Funny you mention Brentford. They spent 6 seasons in the Championship, improving year by year before getting promoted. The way they did it was with a strategy and "project". They put in place great scouting which was highly data-driven and bought young talent they could improve and sell-on. Which they did with a number of players being sold for 9m+ over the years like Mephan, Konsa, Gray, Hogan, Benharama and Watkins. They had a lot of turnover as they don't have an academy, and also bought quite of lot duds, but they were offset with the gems they uncovered. Another success was that any manager they hired had to adapt to their structure and setup and not to another reboot of style and players. The Brentford model should sound a bit familiar to what we are trying to achieve here. With a sporting director, great academy and using player trading to up the level of the squad. It might take time, but probably the only long-term solution for the club.

Is there really hype around Morton other than Liverpool has given him a new contract? I think your assesment is correct, he's an allright Championship midfielder, not more. His game time is more down to that he's the one midfielder that has been fairly consistent, while the same can't be said about the rest (Buckley, Travis, Wharton). I think both Buckley and especially Wharton has more potential. I'm a big fan of Buckley and expected him to really establish himself as one of the better midfielder in this division, fair to say it hasn't happened so far, but he looked good after the WC break only for the red card to put a stop. Adam Wharton might potentially be the best passer at the club since Tugay, but still needs a lot of improvement on defensive part of his game. It was clear watching him last season for the U18/U23 that the he needed a bit more hunger for the defensive part of being a midfielder. He's improved a lot, but I can see why he is not starting every game.

The appeal for me with Gelhardt is that he has the quality and potential to be a "Rhian Brewster to Swansea" kind of loan. When you look at his goal scoring record, only 8 of those 50 games has been from start and the majority has been in Premier League. I've seen him on a few occasions, from singlehandely destroying our U23, to help turn a match around for Leeds, and I like what I see. Though not the biggest, he's powerful, direct, can go players, has awarenes and a wicked left foot. We'll all like a proven goalscorer at this level, but how realistic is that? The premium money that would cost looks far beyond our budget.

Delap is far better than Hirst, but your point is valid. Getting a proven Championship Striker is close to impossible. There are so few, and we don't have enough money to pay transfer or wages for that kind of quality. Any striker we can get will probably be some kind of gamble. A foreign gamble might be more exciting though.

I've seen quite a lot of him. He was voted the best player in the league this season, great allround midifielder who added a lot of goals to his game this season (16 in 29 matches). He also is pretty young with a lot of experience. Has been a major part of their European success, so I'd expect him to be both expensive (as Bodo has a lot of money from Europe, which they are throwing around now). Would also think the chances of choosing Championship to be pretty slim. I like the link though, if true they are at least reaching from the top shelf of Scandinavian players.

I see JDT has been impressed with Markanday's development over the latest month and say he will start on Sunday. At least he has something different from the rest of the squad in that he's can dribble and looks to have goals in him. Might come good if adapt better to the physical nature of men's football.

Think most Scandinavian players will not be match fit as they are off-season.

Not sure if it's a style issue. He looked good in the first matches, but has not reached his heights for couple of seasons. Had form issues under Mowbray as well.

There are plenty of "british style" players like Travis, who can still pass a ball and make decent decisions in possesion. You'll find one in most decent Championship clubs. There has been some standout players in this league in that mould like Kalvin Phillips and Lewis O'Brien The problem with Travis is that he seemed to have regressed from when breaking through, especially on the ball.

350k cannot be right for a permanent tranfer for Van Hecke. They would fetch more in a tribunal if his contract expires in the summer. Maybe for the loan fee for rest of the season. Would be a good purchase anyhow, especially with Scott Wharton's drop in form.

That was our "second" team. Not the one on show today.

Watched the Ajax game, entertaining and really good performance from Rovers, especially in the second half which they dominate. Ajax had 5-6 regulars, as well experienced Steekelburg in goal. Had a couple of youngsters who they spent 5 and 12 mill pounds for in the summer. The rest plays in the second tier in the Dutch league. Rovers had a similar setup, while our regulars are playing Championship, not Champions league, and the bit-part players most play U21 football. Buckley was back to his best, Dolan and Brittain was also great, while the rest had decent matches. A shoutout to Rankin-Costello who performed suprisingly well in centre-mid. Some really nice football displayed by Rovers, which showed their abilities when the intensity is a bit lower than Championship football. Although it was a training match, and Ajax was not to keen on the dirty stuff, it was still comforting to see Rovers turning it on against a better side(at least on paper).