Petriix

Hopefully not too bad, he would be a big absentee if unavailable at the start of the season.

[quote user="ricardo"]I don''t see him featuring in the Premier League. Way out of his depth.[/quote]Given his height I think the depth analogy is perhaps inappropriate.On a serious note though, I find this kind of sweeping dismissal of one of our players a touch ridiculous. He was only bought in January when we were clearly pushing for promotion, there have been some well reasoned points made in this thread suggesting why he might feature more than some would have expected and he has been heavily involved in pre-season in marked contrast to other players who clearly will not be in the 25 man squad.I admit that his lack of finishing ability frustrated me a little last season but it is clear that he has a lot of other attributes which might prove useful in the Premier League.

[quote user="AJ Wizard"]Lambert seems to really rate Francomb, it''s good to see some of the ''outsiders'' getting games![/quote]I also really rate him - he showed some good attributes in the few games he had for the first team.

I like the idea and it does look very attacking but with the potential to work defensively but I would not play Pilkington as what would effectively be a wingback as he does not appear to have the right defensive attributes.If we played Tierney on the left instead and pushed Pilkington up as the left sided attacker then it would be a bit more balanced. It might not be too dissimilar to a more conventional 4-5-1 if we swapped one of the central defenders for another defensive midfielder. I would prefer to have a flat back four to deal with the pace and width that a lot of the Premier League teams have, and a bit more cover in the midfield when we don''t have the ball. This might arguably be more attacking when we do have the ball if the fullbacks get forward. Maybe something like this:in possession:                         Ruddy            Barnett            Whitbread                       Johnson                          FoxR Martin                                   Tierney                      Hoolahan          Bennett     Holt     Pilkingtonout of possession:                         Ruddy R Martin    Barnett    Whitbread  Tierney                        Johnson Bennett       Fox        Hoolahan   Pilkington                           Holt                                                  

[quote user="jed exodous"] [quote user="Grif"]I seriously doubt that Cody would sign a new deal now ... I can''t see the lad staying really, he is potentially behind 6 other strikers at the moment...[/quote]  Agreed, hes a long way down the pecking order here, 5th, maybe 6th choice at the highest. The option of ''giving him another contract then loaning him out for a year'' is not really an option.  Put yourself in his shoes, do you wanna spend you career being contracted to one club but then being loaned out all the time?  If i were to do that, i''d want a very good contract from my parent club.  If i''d proven i know where the net is, then i''d want a chance at my own club and i dont think i''d agree a new deal when i know there are other clubs where i can get regular 1st team football at Championship level.  Mcdonald is 25 now, 26 when this contract runs out, so hes basically at his career defining years, his supposed best years,  I really cant see him wanting to stick around and make the odd sub appearance here, when he could go to a Championship team and be a regular starter.  I reckon we''ll have done well to get £500k for him. [/quote]On the other hand, when your parent club has just got to the Premier League - probably triggering a promotion pay rise - and you have just had the best possible season you could have, why would you want to take a pay cut to play at Championship level when you could possibly earn more by doing the same thing but on loan and give yourself a chance of improving your own game and reputation further then have a shot at playing in the PL in a years time?I think that, if offered a new contract, he would accept.It all boils down to whether or not Paul Lambert and the club believe that he has improved enough to:a) be potentially good enough to play for city now or in the future,b) be good enough now to play at Championship level, andc) be good enough to be wanted by a Championship club and regularly play for them.We are not in need of cash and I wouldn''t imagine he is earning a massive wage so the club have no need to sell him. I would expect him to be given a chance to prove himself in preseason before either being offered a new contract or sold depending on how good he proves to be; but I would not sell him unless a really good offer came in.Remember, he was sent out on loan to get experience having only played a handful of games for us. He now has gained a season''s experience and proved that he has a certain amount of ability. That in its self might be enough for the club to offer him a new contract. The last thing we need is for him to end up playing against us in the Championship next season if we get relegated - especially if he does make the step up and bangs in the goals at his new club.It''s funny that so many people claim to know whether or not he has the ability to play at a higher level. Neither Holt or Morrison had played or proven themself above League 1 until last season and they are both a few years older than Cody. We would look very silly if we let him go for next to nothing now and he went on to emulate them. CMS is arguably not much better and he went for silly money.I trust Lambert though, and if he thinks that Cody isn''t and won''t be good enough for the team then fair enough but I would either want there to be a new contract offered or for us to hold out for not too much shy of £1m given the inflated prices being paid in this transfer window.

Given the current squad, my personal preferred lineup against Wigan would be:                       RuddyR Martin - Barnett - Whitbread - Tierney                      JohnsonBennett - Crofts - Hoolahan - Surman                     VaughanHowever, I am not sure we will see Lambert drop Holt or change to a 4-5-1 right away so this is more likely:                        Ruddy R Martin - Barnett - Whitbread - Tierney                       Johnson                  Crofts - Bennett                      Hoolahan                   Holt - VaughanI am really excited about the players we have in the squad at the moment. Here''s why:The team which started our championship campaign was: 01 Ruddy02 R Martin03 Drury05 Nelson22 Ward07 Crofts11 Surman14 Hoolahan15 Fox10 Jackson16 C MartinIt is interesting to see how much the first team has been improved since then. So much so that it is hard to know who will play regularly and who will be on the bench. Maybe we will rotate the team quite a lot or change the formation from game to game.People seem worried about the lack of new defenders but this is the one area we significantly improved thoughout last season. With the purchase of Barnett and Tierny and Whitbread''s return to fitness, only Russel Martin has kept his place as first choice and he has improved so much that he is as good as a new signing. We may still see the addition of a quality centre back who will compete for a starting place. It might also be good to have some competition for the No 1 shirt. However, the defensive line is very much improved from the first part of last season. I expect the following:GK Ruddy/New KeeperRB R MartinCB Barnett/New CBCB Whitbread/New CBLB Tierney/ De Laet (although he could also play CB)We now have a lot more options in the midfield than last year which is a good thing because we will need to be a bit more adaptable in the PL. Few teams play 4-4-2 and trying to play the attacking diamond may simply not work against the stronger, fitter and more disicplined defences we will come up against although I am sure we won''t abandon it immediately. If we played a flat 4-4-2 we might get outnumbered by the 5 across the middle which many of our opponents will play but it could be very attacking. We have added some quality attacking players an I can now see us regularly playing 5 in the middle - especially after Pilkington is fit again and especially in away games. We may see any/all of the following:in a diamond:DM Johnson/FoxMR Crofts/BennetML Surman/Pilkington (when fit)AMC Hoolahan/Bennet/Pilkingtonin a 4-4-2MC Johnson/FoxMC Crofts/SurmanWGR BennetWGL Pilkington (when fit)/Hoolahan(?)in a 4-2-3-1DM JohnsonDM Fox/CroftsMR BennetCM Crofts/AMC HoolahanML Surman/Pilkington (when fit)orin a 4-1-4-1DM JohnsonCM Fox/CroftsCM Crofts/SurmanAMR BennetAML HoolahanWe have strengthened our attacking line significantly since January first adding Wilbraham (who got injured) then Vaughan and Morrison. Since then Jackson hit form in a big way and McDonald has returned from loan having scored bags of goals. I can see us having 5 forwards in our squad and I think 4 are obviously Holt, Vaughan, Morrison and Jackson with the final place going to whoever impresses the most in preseason - most likely C Martin but don''t rule out McDonald as, no matter what you though of him before last season, he will have improved a great deal since we last saw him and might just show enough to force his way in. At worst I would like him to be offered a new contract and then loaned to a championship club and only sold if a silly bid comes in because we aren''t exactly desperate for the cash. Again, lots of choices here:if we play 4-4-2/the diamondCF Holt/MorrisonCF Vaughan/Jacksonor if it''s 4-5-1CF Vaughan/Morrison

[quote user="Old Shuck"]I''d love him back here, Dani and Lansbury, but I fear the door is already shut in terms of their being "room" in the squad? But yes please. Though some of the more ''established'' midfielders may have to go first-yes, OTJ, yes Hughes, yes Smith (on loan), yes, there is talk about Surman maybe leaving, but who else? Fox? Lapps?[/quote]They''re both under 21 so would not count as part of the 25.

I think that Villa were just working throught the alphabet - after ruling out McClaren, McLeish was next on the list.

Edit buttons ar for peoplewho make mistakes or change ther minds. Actually they aren''t. I don''t make mistakes!

But if they got him for a fraction of the wages he would otherwise be on then the small company would benefit greatly from the arrangement - they might otherwise not be able to afford to employ someone at all.

Stoke (a)

And while they''re at it they could do away with all the loud rubbish music played before kickoff and give us a chance to generate a bit of an atmosphere before the match - maybe even get a few chants going?

I believe it''s pretty normal that when a player''s wages drop as the result of a transfer the selling club make up the difference (or part there of) for what would have been the remainder of the contract. I read that this was the case with Leon Barnett with West Brom still paying a large chunk of his wages after the permanent move last year (but maybe I got the wrong end of the stick?). It''s just up to the board, Steven Smith and Aberdeen to work out a compromise that suits all parties in this situation. There''s no need for it to be a problem at all, either we keep him on as cover or we do the best available deal financially for us. Maybe Aberdeen actually can''t afford him now and it makes sense for us to keep him as cover/competition if we''re paying his wages anyway. Let''s face it, we''re not Man City.In any case I can''t understand for a second why anyone is giving the guy a hard time over this. Yes it''s a bit irritating to imagine someone earing loads of our cash (ours because we pay for our season tickets etc) without contributing to the first team. However, no one knows the real story of why he hasn''t settled in here, how hard he works in training and what his attitude is towards the transfer. Personally I get more annoyed with people posting negative comments about our players and other posters on the forum.

Why would you take a massive pay cut when you could get paid a whole load of money just to turn up for training and a few reserve games?I rated his energy and attitude in the few games he played and he was very unlucky with injury. I can''t say why he didn''t manage to break into the team after that and Lambert felt the need to bring in Tierney. I say fair enough, sit the contract or try to earn a place in the team.-

The Premier League handbook (not sure if we are governed by this yet?) states that the transfer window opens at ''midnight on the last day of the season'' which I gather means last night for all prem teams.Last year the FA said "The FA have confirmed that the International Transfer Window will open on 9 June for all clubs in the Premier League, Football League and Conference National...Domestic transfers remain unaffected and deals can be done as soon as a club’s season is over following the completion of a club’s last competitive game."Couldn''t see anything similar for this year but it would appear that the domestic transfer window is well and truly open apart from for clubs still involved in the playoffs. I gather, however, that most players'' contracts run from 1 July to 30 June so this may have some impact on when players sign.

I was at the Rose too and it was fantastic.

So four points from these three games was enough, Cardiff did go on a fantastic run but faultered at the last, Reading lost momentum and Swansea beat us but then predictably fell away. There were some good predictions in this thread. I believe we were on 70pts at the time. Depending on how Cardiff and Swansea get on next week we may only have needed as few as 10pts from our last 7 games. Who would have predicted that we could end up 6pts clear of third place?

We equal or better Cardiff''s results in the next two games and get 2nd spot. I''d say this is about 60/40 in our favour as they have to better our results in fairly comparable fixtures.QPR get enough points docked to promote us regardless of our results - assuming that we don''t lose both games and Swansea nick it on GD. Not sure how to guage this one but it could be as much as 50/50?We win the playoffs. It''s a bit of a lottery but a 1 in 4 shot at worst. We are on good form, have a good squad and a reasonable record against the other contenders this season.I''d love us to keep it simple and win our last two games, but if we don''t then I still think we have a fair chance of going up anyway!

Cardiff 2 - 2 ''BroughPortsmouth 0 - 2 Norwich

binner alert!

Such a hard game to call when looking at the form guide as something has to give. Swansea have scored 10 and conceeded 4 in their last 5 games at home, we have scored 9 and conceeded 7 in our last 5 away games. Teams find it hard to stop us scoring but we don''t keep many clean sheets on the road. I think 2-2 might be on the cards but maybe I''m being optimistc?

Remember that we are 4 points above Cardiff and Swansea and now with a better goal difference so, assuming that we don''t suffer any heavy defeats then they would need five more points than us to overtake us. With 7 games left, this means that 17 points should be enough even if both these teams win all their remaining games. This is obviously highly unlikely, so lets be realistic...If we get a reasonable return of say 12 points from the remaining 7 games then Swansea or Cardiff would need to get at least 16 and probably 17 points to overtake us. Is that likely? I don''t think so given their recent runs of form. In fact, the run-in table suggests we are under more threat from Reading on current form. So the numbers suggest that as few as 10 points would be enough. Obviously form is variable and any one team could go on a fantastic (or awful) run and the best predictions are out the window.It would be a bit shocking not to get at least 6 points from our final 4 games so 4 points from the next 3 games could easily be enough - especially if we get at least a point at Swansea.I wouldn''t want to be in one of the other team''s shoes right now!

There are all sorts of conflicting omens about this one...but I''m going for 3-1 Norwich with at least one after the 85th minute.

get in!

3 - 2 Norwich