AcrossThePond

Seeing as I am Canadian...yes dollars? Part of the reason I posted this was to see what sort of discussion I could draw up regarding the actual football playing part rather than the negative, club-bashing, forum member-bashing, etc. While this post has been up, theres been roughly 15+ replies to other posts of this ilk... think i''m done with this place for a while.

Good point. Don''t know enough about the likes of cantwell and lewis so not going to comment. Godfrey - $4-6M (For his age, size, and utility factor) Trybull - $400M (no thats not a mistake)

Bit of a slow work day, and with the release of the accounts felt it would be perfect to gauge some folks opinions on how much our players are worth currently. I know, I know, don''t be so negative we should not look to sell any. But when you come back to reality, and see that we do indeed have to sell to stay competitive next year, and possibly the year after that... what have you got? For me: Maddison - $23M+ J. Murphy - $7-$10M Pritchard - $15-$20M (Based on the end of last season) Ragget - ??? Carlton - $2-4M (could see a newly promoted league 1 team trying to snatch him next year)

Not one person has mentioned how he set the team up, the results, his impact from players accounts, etc. ....

My word. This post is so out of touch with reality upon inspection. Some of my highlights are: "I wonder if Mr Huckerby is just a little too popular in these parts for Mr Webber''s liking?" ^ utter and pure conjecture. "As such, I think there is at least a small debt from NCFC to Mr. Huckerby" ^ uhmm what? They paid him for the job he did. Quite handsomenly I imagine. You didn''t see Juventus giving out handouts to Nedved currently based on when he stayed with them upon relegation. I thought this was a football forum, to discuss football. Not a tabloid magazine critiquing coaches'' son''s twitter accounts...

I buy a jersey every year and pay for the overseas feeds...so do several other Canucks I know. I can tell you right now, none of us think we are "part owners" by any stretch. Ridiculous sentiment that because you attend a game you have decision making power.

It seems like some on here have already wrote off Marley Watkins... 10 Goals 8 Assists - 34 Apps And on a free no less... We''re going to be just fine.

No intention of starting a huge argument, just genuinely curious why most posters rate Josh so much higher than Jacob? Keep thinking I''m missing something, but didn''t Jacob dominate this year and Josh find it hard to get in the team? No denying both have huge futures though, heres to hoping Farke gets the best out of both!

^^Mason 47 has it completely right. And on a side note, can we please stop with the "our full-backs are very good attacking players, and thats the system we play...but golly jee they sometimes hang the CB out to dry/not the best defensively." It''s not really their main objective. Our current system relies on the two holding mids to fill in the spaces when they bomb forward. This rarely happens, thus holes are created. As seen from Tettey''s progressive age, and Howson/Dorrans lack of pace.

Yellowbeagle: "Finding players that compliment each other in a clear system has to be the top priority. The defence doesn''t have to be full of brilliant individual defenders it has to be full of players than can play as a unit, the current lot play like a bunch of strangers." This perfectly captures what has been wrong with our defence since day 1. In my opinion, there is often games where it actually appears that the back four don''t particularly like each other complete with a lot of finger pointing and shouting. All you have to do is look at Southamptons back four in their promotion/first few seasons in the prem. Yes they had a Luke Shaw & Clyne for full-backs, but Fonte and Lovren/Yoshida/Hooiveld ON PAPER, were average players. Key was they communicated and played as a unit.

Liking the starting XI, always good to see Pritch getting to do his thing. Howson at CAM im a little worried about, but I am sure he''s there to cover Villa''s attacking mid to try to break up their movement. Any one know of any streams/radio broadcasts? I am looking around and for some reason the only stream is Brentford v Bristol...how they have a stream and Norwich v Villa doesnt is beyond me...

Work is a bit of a ghost town this early so thought I''d do some snooping on the opposition''s forum. Was pleasantly surprised that they seem genuinely nervous to play us! One quote that stands out is this: "They score a lot of goals. They''re 3rd overall and they''re top scorers at home. Only 9th away though. Fixtures involving Norwich contain the most goals of any team in the division (121) and that trend is even moreso away from Carrow Road, so maybe back over 2.5 (their away games AVERAGE 3.26 goals). They''ve only failed to score 6 times this season which is the best in the league. They''re also best away from home where they''ve only failed 4 times." https://www.villatalk.com/topic/16293-pre-match-thread/ Also, don''t know where this dude found it but check out the dashboard that features our entire seasons stats! Need to get the source on that.

Interesting that no one has mentioned what was mentioned on the pinkun live show. Apparently Klose was told before the press conference on Friday that he can find another club by Alex Neil...If thats the case, then hardly expect the guy to even want to stick around.

In a dream scenario, if we could somehow lure this guy from Hoffenheim I think that he would absolutely get the best out of youth as well as some of the older lads that are severly lacking in confidence. A shot in the dark, but if you take a step back simply looking for a similar manager with the philosophy of "30% tactics, 70% social competence" would be, in my opinion, exactly what the doctor prescribed. We have talented individuals in this squad, most of which are playing well below their potentials. This article provides some context for those who don''t follow the euro soccer scene. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/24/julian-nagelsmann-hoffenheim-prodigy-thomas-tuchel-rejected-bayern-munich

@Donkey Dangler This post might be a little late, but to answer your original question re: parachute payments. They are split evenly over 3 seasons. We do not get one large parachute payment upon relegation, and then nothing after. To imply that we are donzo funzo after this season is just ignorant. We get 25K+ every game more than a majority of the teams in the championship, and even more than some teams that would (probably) get relegated in this time frame.

@Indy_Bones Oh come on now. Yes his accomplishments should not be trivialized, but I sorta agree with the Wenger out crowd. Like clockwork, every season he starts out as title contenders, only to have it slip away usually in the 3rd quarter of the season timeframe.

@SeattleCanary Absolutely that is a huge factor. I was more speaking to the fact that some folks on here need a bit of perspective when talking about our players. People calling him a "bad defender" are just insulting him...since he has come here I have heard nothing but "what a beast Dijks is" from the media.

Something not many people have thought of is the pre-game preparation of our players. At the end of the day, Neil can only see what is going on in training all week. Week after week we are screwed over by momentary lapses in judgment/concentration by individual players (i.e Murphy not marking the Danish dude) that obviously don''t get revealed in training. Maybe there needs to be a hard look at how our players prepare (mentally and physically) before games during the times they are not at Colney.

I have never quite understood when people say "he''s good going forward but defensively hes crap"...its very obvious that Dijks can definitely defend. A monkey could flip on the TV and see that he can do the job. Is he pulling up any trees and winning every single tackle? No, but that is not even the role of a full back, especially in Neil''s system. If you kept his offensive ability and he was an absolute Maldini defensively, then he clearly wouldn''t be playing here... Chelsea have Marcos Alonso, who while playing more a wing role, was always regarded as a poor defender at Sunderland...clearly hasn''t stopped him this year.

I wonder if the supporters who are calling for Neil''s axe would change their tune if it was revealed we had tried to land a Hodgson, Ranieri, Warburton in January...but turned us down. Getting rid of Neil without having a better replacement not only lined up, but announced within 48hrs would be utter suicide in my opinion

when I say objective, I am referring to things like: Swansea, Arsenal - Keep the ball on the ground and pass, pass, pass United - Attack! Attack! Attack! While these things do change to a degree with new managers, more often than not this ''philosophy'' stays constant

Totally agree with this. Most games - and it is most games - when Wes plays (well I might add!) we win. I am still struggling though to figure out Neil''s overall strategy. Most managers that have been in charge for 2 seasons, it is usually apparent how they want their teams to play regardless of formation. He seems to change the underlying objective of the squad with each formation change.

Saw this come up on some recent posts, and thought I''d put this out there and get folks thoughts. The best example of this that comes to the top of my head, is how when Rio Ferdinand was bought by United. Fergie immediately changed the system to utilize his ability to both be a defensive stud, and his pace to break up play (aka sweeper) regardless of the actual formation. Now, to clarify I know that we do not have a player of the capabilities and stature of Rio, but putting this lens on - specifically looking at the this and last season under Neil - who have we built our team around? Is it simply whoever plays in the hole (i.e Wes)) or just focusing on formation and not building around anything in particular. Discuss.

Wondering if anyone has heard any skuttle but around this??

[quote user="Goss Volley"]At the risk of getting some stick I have to say I''ve never fully moved Into the ''Neil out'' camp. He clearly has his faults but no more than any other manager in the wage bracket we would likely be shopping around in. I also think the bad signings thing is a bit of a myth, most of them seem to be coming good.[/quote] ^THIS. My only question to those who would want young Neil''s head on a pick is...who on Earth would replace him that we could AFFORD? We''ve seen Di Matteo (a coach with european pedigree/experience) get chewed up and swallowed, and its not like Rafa is absolutely walking the league due to his tactics... Grass is greener on the other side i guess