Canary On The Wire

According to our own Simon Thomas of Sky Sports, that''s a direct quote from old ballbag chins himself. I appreciate this is the umpteenth thread on how brilliant it is the way McNally handles our transfer business.....but still, isn''t it brilliant? :D

Many people expect Ricky boy to be well into double figures come May next year, and taking the plaudits as the star man of FCR. I don''t think that will be the case. Hear me out. I''m no Binner. I fully expect van Wolfswinkel to start the majority of our games next season and to be a key player in many hard earned victories- just not in the way many of us imagine. People talk about how his movement in behind is his key attribute, but I only half-agree. He can make brilliant runs all match every match, but we''re not particularly adept at passing through a defence (unless we do sign a high standard No 10) so I don''t expect that killer ball, but I do expect a lot of frustration from Ricky as he thinks ''Where''s the pass?'' Instead, his undoubtedly classy movement will (as seen against Portland and in fleeting moments San Jose) give the wide men so much more breathing space as defenders struggle to keep tabs on RvW. Redmond was the star man against the Timbers, but this was certainly due in no small part to the space on the left given to him by Ricky pulling defenders away down the middle, allowing Redmond to come inside and do serious damage (on one occasion striking the bar from range). So to conclude I feel RvW will be amongst the goals, with 7 or 8 to his name, but equally Snodgrass, Pilks and Redmond heavily featuring due to the unselfish and thankless role Ricky is used to playing as a lone frontman.

Agree completely on Carrick. A world class midfielder.

Didn''t think I''d written an ode to the great wind up merchants of this forum owed mostly to the fact that I''m probably not that funny, the fact it''s been overdone and the fact that it was about half 5 in the morning when I wrote it. What is funny however is that as there have been a few bites (although I clearly haven''t satiated the intellectual appetite of great men such as yourself Shyster) suggests that some of you seek to condescend for the sake of condescension (here''s looking at you ReadingCanary) and if that satisfies your small man syndrome that''s absolutely fine by me :) OTBC COTW

I particularly loved how he treated it as a competitive match, as though we would particularly care that we were leaving Buck Shaw with a defeat- as though we were their equal in terms of match preparation and fitness and as though a victory for San Jose was some sort of achievement. Christ on a tricycle I can''t wait for the new season. That product placement saturated yee haw big up the US of A cacophony of stupidity did absolutely nothing for me

No he''s the striker we bought from Birmingham isn''t he?

I stay up until an ungodly hour to be greeted by this god-awful carp (and I don''t mean the fish). What even is this? We''re playing a pub team. Rickay looks like he''d be ready and willing to start a fight with himself in a cardboard box and Nathan Edmonds is just a poor, poor, dreadful and awful Elliott Bennett. And as for Mark Bunn, why didn''t he save that shot? How we miss John Ruddy, its no wonder we nearly went down ffs! The way this lot are playing we''ll be down by Christmas. You''d think they''d hardly played together in sweltering conditions with a fitness deficit against a team midway through their season before. Pathetic. Martin Hunter would never have stood for this.

I agree. I feel that if we have RvW up front, then Wes is the perfect foil for him. Ricky isn''t the type of striker who is particularly adept at holding the ball up- however if Becchio can continue in the way he''s started preseason we may be seeing a lot of him- He certainly can hold the ball up, and would be great at laying the ball off for an onrushing Howson (you only have to look at the peach he scored against WBA for that). There is still the Butterfield conundrum. If Hughton names him in his squad that''s where things get interesting. AM is certainly where JB plays, but does he suit more a Becchio or an RvW? I would say JB sits somewhere in between Wes and Howson, as he has excellent vision in his short passing game but is equally at home driving through midfield. Will certainly be interesting to see how that one pans out. Well, I say that, watch as he gets farmed out on loan to the Championship :p

Haha! is that a 3-5-1-1? looks like it!

Little bit confused. Didn''t they say on Twitter we''d play a completely different 11 each half? There''s not enough players there to do that. Disappointed only for the selfish reason of wanting to know that Fer and RvW are in action

Also, hate to be a doom monger but that stream probably (and i say probably because I expect a backlash in the unlikely event that it does) won''t work. It''s a dummy listing to get traffic to the site, i think. Sorry all

I wouldn''t call it strong, but....

I have seen posts in the past (or at least I think I have) suggesting that Wes Hoolahan is in dire need of quality competition. I surmised that we would finish our summer business with a total of nine signings- expecting us to finish with the addition of a centre-back, an attacking midfielder, and a striker. Obviously, there is no point debating that we need another striker- and kudos to CH for apparently attempting to bring in high level experience to that area: True, Lopez and Quagliarella are not exactly afforded ''hot prospect'' status, but either/or (but probably neither) would lighten the load of expectation on RvW''s shoulders to no end, and maybe help ensure he reaches his maximum potential in his late twenties. Yes, Luciano Becchio is certainly an experienced forward, and I do think we should hold onto him as he is great in the air and at the minute we do lack that up front, with Ricky not exactly famed for his aerial prowess. However, provided we secure the experienced forward I personally feel we need if only for the sake of being mentally acclimatised to the demands of top level European football, I think that will be enough up front. Expect continuation of 4-4-1-1 - three players for one position a more than ample roster. This brings me, at long last, to the point of my thread. I will be an interested spectator of the friendlies from now through to Panathinaikos to see just how Hughton views both Jonny Howson in light of his endeavours at the end of last season, and the ''new Gazza'' (sic) Jacob Butterfield, for whom it may be now or never, with our continued evolution. He has travelled to the US, so how will CH use him? My question to you is: Do we really need more competition for Wes, or should Hughton swallow his pride on insisting Howson is a CM and use him as Wes'' competition in the hole- where I feel he can best make use of his excellent attacking (but poor defensive) attributes, with Butterfield as understudy? OTBC COTW