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Monty13

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Posts posted by Monty13

  1. Posted

    37 minutes ago, essex canary said:

    Are we really paying the wages of someone serving at HMP and guilty of maiming members of the local community?

    It’s a fair criticism. He should have had his contract immediately terminated IMO. I’m surprised there wouldn’t be grounds to tear it up with no cost to us given his actions. 

    I’m all for people learning from their mistakes and getting redemption, but he can do that somewhere else. 

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    2 hours ago, Mason 47 said:

    I do agree in part, however, I see this change as coming regardless. A Stacey backup, replacement for 2 of Batth, Gibson, Hanley, both left backs show no indication of staying, we need to reinforce the midfield & our effective forward options begin and end with the first choice three. These things will be true regardless of which league we end up in.

    The calibre of player we could attract would ultimately be higher a league up, regardless of if we got relegated. And we would be able to hang onto Sara, Rowe etc to make that transition less broad at once.

    All that being said, I still think it'll be the Championship and for the purposes of the rebuild, I'll take it.

     

    Honestly this is setting up to be one of the biggest churns in playing squad for a long while. Probably more than any of Webber’s.

    Forshaw and Placheta already gone. A large number of players out of contract in the summer and I see little reason to keep any of them.

    Sargent and Rowe at a minimum will be in high demand. Probably Gunn and Sara as well. Idah May move on if we still deem him not ready. There’s possibly Kenny as well, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Farke come knocking again.

    Even if we somehow get to the PL I don’t think it changes much of the above other than keeping players safe from the circling teams. It would be unthinkable IMO for us to repeat the mistakes of the past and sell a Rowe or Sargent on promotion.

  4. Posted

    10 hours ago, shefcanary said:

    I'm just going to refer to a table I keep updated re. our squad.

    image.thumb.png.7592e852c4781a74eb944e70dafa6b40.png

    The window has to a certain extent had a focus on removing some players who fundamentally haven't been doing enough for the squad, which seems a positive.

    One feature now is this has left us with only 9 homegrown players over 21 on 1 January 2023 (the EFL cut-off for homegrown qualification date, with a minimum 8 required in every squad). As 4 of these are CB's unless we play 3 at the back, once any of these 9 get an injury then Wagner has to select an U21 for the squad of 20. on top of this as there are only 9 overseas players over 21, he was always destined to pick at least 2 U21's anyway, Borja Sainz and Rowe being shoe ins for those two spaces. However, my sense is that Knapper has engineered a bit more pressure on Wagner to pick U21's for the squad now, to open up progression for academy players and that has to be a good thing. We will see more U21's appearing on the bench in future as injuries to the ageing contingent are inevitable.

    Another feature is that when it comes to the named squad, we potentially had as many as 7 positions available for transfers in. This is as much as I have ever recorded but will be a good indicator of who the club thinks will progress from the academy when they name the 25 for their squad next week.

    Are there gaps - well right full back looks a particularly vulnerable position. Given the age of our natural CB's we are bound to rely on Kenny and Lungi to fill in here, but that leaves our defensive midfield looking very weak - yet again another window passes and no CDM. 

    So with that in mind some dead wood moved on, but it still looks like we are relying on very good luck as far as injuries are concerned. Or, academy lads will play a bigger part in our squads for the rest of the season.

     

    I honestly wondered if that’s Knapper’s thinking. 

    Wagner has appeared to be reluctant to play younger players, reducing the options forces him to use the players at his disposal. 

    To be honest if Varane had come off I’d say on paper it would have been an excellent first window, especially given the extreme lack of movement in England.

    The only slight negative for me is if we were really pushing for top 6 Knapper didn’t have one player in mind for a loan to give us a bit of an edge, I was hoping he’d pluck someone from the Arsenal academy.

    On paper I think he’s done well, each decision makes sense to me. The proof is in what happens next as always, I always feel positive after a window. There’s always a chance the Donk is a masterstroke that kicks on our season.

  5. Posted

    11 minutes ago, Six Pack said:

    You're probably right. If that's the reason, its commendable

    Being a working Dad is just as hard as a working Mum most of the time yet you rarely hear “working dad” even explored as a concept. At a time like this must be awful for him and so hard to concentrate on work. Wish him and his family all the best.

  8. Posted

    11 minutes ago, Bigbrenn said:

    Idah now officially left. Latest on official City homepage. 

    Be interesting to find out if they do have a buy option. Best thing for us is he bangs in goals and either comes back or goes for a decent fee in the summer.

    Have a sinking feeling we’ll have a Sargent shaped hole to fill.

  9. Posted

    23 minutes ago, Mason 47 said:

    Notwithstanding the standard of defending, the thing I like most about the majority of his goals is how aggressively he attacks space in the box. Really wants to get on the end of things.

    As you go on to say, however, oftentimes our buildup is so slow the box is packed with defenders. Not a lot of space to aggressively attack at the moment.

    So presumably he is the Barnes upgrade? Imagine he’s not been persuaded here to sit on a bench and his record in Holland was impressive.

  10. Posted · Edited by Monty13

    14 minutes ago, Google Bot said:

    Is that definitely dead? Last I heard was that 2.5m EUR wasn't enough, i'd be amazed if we can't find a little extra considering that it practically free's one of our better players to do what he does best.  Perhaps if the PP deal goes through we do a last minute deal?

    He was training in Spain this morning, it’s done at least until summer it seems.

  12. Posted

    22 minutes ago, Samwam27 said:

    Feels an underwhelming window for us imo.

    Weve effectively lost a midfielder (foreshaw), a winger (placheta) and are also a striker down.(hwang)

    We had a smallish squad, so was hoping Knapper would have links and he'd bring in a loan or two.

    Still time but looking unlikely. Definitely looks like we're holding back until summer

    If nothing more happens I agree, very underwhelming. Some good moves to get rid of deadwood and get some youth players some game time but if we genuinely want to be top 6 zero reinforcements and reducing the backup options certainly isn’t going to help.

  13. Posted · Edited by Monty13

    Time will obviously tell. Idah is by no means a bad striker, but given he has had golden opportunities to establish himself in the first eleven and never has, swapping him for a striker who might makes sense to me. Especially if we make money on the exchange and he has a decent sell on clause. It’s probably the best result for all parties unfortunately.

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    13 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

    I think you're getting confused with his dad!

    1 goal in 11, 0 in 9 league games. 

    207 minutes and only 2 starts and no goals in Serie A.

    175 minutes 2 starts and 1 goal in the Cup.

    Hardly had a lot of chances to shine. His record the previous season in Holland in comparison was 3067 minutes, 39 appearances and 19 goals.

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

    1 hour ago, hogesar said:

    Its going to take our fans actually watching someone else for an entire season to realise it, unfortunately. Not surprising though, which is also sad

     

    I agree. Idah is a good striker. Our supporters are overly critical of players IMO, especially young players for some reason. 

    That said I don’t think it’s quite working out for him here, behind Barnes and never really cementing a 1st team place even with Sargent out for a long period. I also understand why he no longer wants to be a bit part player.

    Maybe a fresh start best thing for all parties. SVH seems a similar proposition in terms of fairly young, clearly has talent from his previous seasons and not working out for him where he is.

    I can see the logic in swapping one for the other assuming SVH is seen as better fit for how we want to play and we get a good sell on clause on Idah when he inevitably (IMO) comes good.

    • Like 4

  17. Posted · Edited by Monty13

    Translation of the Spanish article, sounds like they have pulled out as we’ve underbid. May all be tactics trying to get more but sounds pretty resounding.

    “Sporting closes the 'Varane case', without contemplating its exit in this market. From June onwards, the situation will be seen. But today, the club is not in a position to negotiate the sale of the 22-year-old French midfielder to Norwich, who did not rule out the presentation of a last offensive in this end of the market, which ends on Thursday at midnight.

    Sporting's thought is clear and resounding: Varane will not go out. There is satisfaction in how the squad has been configured, with alternatives, and the message that has been transmitted to all players is trustworthy. Saturday's Norwich offer, close to two million euros, is already rejected, prioritising keeping the group intact.

    The thought is the same in the face of the possibility that a second attempt may arrive in these last days. Varane has a clause of 10 million euros.”

  21. Posted

    21 minutes ago, River End Rocker said:

    Wagner was asked about this by Chris Goreham.  Plan was to play Duffy, but he injured his back.  Ansen was with the squad, so was put on the bench.  

    Here’s a crazy idea, if you know this exact same situation has happened before, maybe bring an extra outfield youngster?

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    I honestly feel if Idah had had at least a 40+ game loan at some point we’d have a top Championship striker on our hands.

    I understand his frustration. I think it would be disappointing to let him go though, I still feel there’s a player there and if his potential is realised somewhere else that’s going to hurt.

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    1 hour ago, BigFish said:

    The point is if he believes your first sentence he is delusional, and I don't believe that is the case. If we are to be competive next season someone needs to inject £6m to £10m, and repeat that very season until we go up. He is going to be unwilling to do that if his stake is 40/60/80% if the other 60/40/20% contribute nothing. Sure, other clubs have mixed ownerships but the other shareholders also put their hands in their pockets. Ours don't. He might not walk away but there will be no actual investment either, just more loans until he de facto owns the club.

    And my point is this bit in bold is a massive assumption. There’s examples all over football where this happens. You can’t force minority shareholders to put money into the club or to sell. He obviously knew this before he got involved.

    And I don’t think the bit in italic is particularly likely anyway personally. I don’t see a situation where he just gives money to the club with no expectations but a return on his share equity, but maybe I’m wrong. 

  25. Posted

    2 hours ago, BigFish said:

    Ultimately, it is the difference between equity and loans. As you quite rightly put it with loans MA gets interest and at least theoretically his money back. However, the club has to service these. If they are loaned to cover losses eventually that will not be possible. These will erode the equity in the club until there is nothing left. Should the club go into administration it is unlikely that he will get all the value of the loans returned. If he puts money into the club without increasing his equity stake he is effectively subsidising the minority shareholders. If he increases the stake he is effectively squeezing them out. A large minority holding is effectively unsustainable.

    I imagine he’s willing to bet under his control he can keep the club financially stable otherwise he wouldn’t be interested. 

    You said earlier MA wouldn’t be happy with a 60% stake and I respectfully disagree, there’s a large number of clubs where the owners have barely more than 50% holding, some de facto owners have less.

    I’m sure he would like D&Ms shares at a good rate, but I imagine his first priority will be a controlling interest. I certainly don’t see him walking away if they didn’t sell to him at this point, that makes no sense to me. 

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