robert green

[O.T.B.C 0]

we must sell him in the january transfer market, we need to raise the money and this is the only real option which will guarantee a load of money.

if we get say 4 million for him i suggest that we make at least half thou not too much more. in case the worst case scenario does happen we don''t want to be spending a massive amount on somebody or somebodies who might not even make the difference to our cause.

don''t get me wrong i love Greeno to bits even thou he is rude to the ball boys and told some of us to f of when we shouted at the team. but we need to be realistic about green going.

also did you see that some of the papers are saying that he won''t be a england regular because even thou he makes wonderful saves he''s prone to the odd mistake sounds like somebody we used to have, only joking he''s much better than marshall

[ZLF 271]

I agree selling greeno is an option however I dont think it is the best option

- worthy will have trouble attracting the sort of quality we need to survive
- worthy may not play them as their fitness levels are not good enough or they dont try hard enough in training
- how many points would we have if greeno had not been with us? I am sure we would be bottom of the table.

I do like the idea of mortgaging him that another poster suggested. Raise some cash to be used on transfers, if we survive another years prem income will cover the cash, if we get relegated we repay from the cash we get from selling Greeno to the highest bidder. Doesnt overcome the worthy related issues of getting and playing the quality we need to improve.

OTBC

[First Wizard 0]

[quote]we must sell him in the january transfer market, we need to raise the money and this is the only real option which will guarantee a load of money. if we get say 4 million for him i suggest that we ma...[/quote]

Sell Green, and the worst case scenario will happen, in fact I damn well guarantee it!. 

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

I agree to a certain extent with you dblock.  I don''t think we should push him out.  That would be very harsh on a wonderful player.  However, if an acceptable bid came in, we would be very foolish not to accept it.  £3M could keep us up.  We could spend that and have a load left over if Green left

[Brum Uni Canary 0]

[quote]I agree selling greeno is an option however I dont think it is the best option - worthy will have trouble attracting the sort of quality we need to survive - worthy may not play them as their fitness...[/quote]

Agreed Zipper - without him, we could probably count our points on one hand.

The back-up cover isn''t up to standard in my opinion, so I would like him to stay at least until May/June, when we could consolidate our position, whether in the Prem or Fizzy league...

[ZLF 271]

DDiM - you seem to think £3m will keep us up - can you please tell me which magic wand (not wizs?) this will wave to solve the playing problems? Who is that magical player that will step into the forward line, defence and central midfield and yet only cost £3m.

I agree with the poster that even £10m wont be enough to save us - change from within is more likely to save us than spending a couple of million on the names proposed so far. And if its £3m on Ashton that is one hell of a risk when Bent is only £4m.

OTBC

[O.T.B.C 0]

i don''t agree on sell him we will go down, we have two good back up keepers with one of them ward being an excellent stopper who in my opinion in the same league as Greeno, and yes i have seen him many times, although gallagher is an untried option for us he was giving rave reviews in scotland.

totaly agree DDIM about pushing him out, he should be treated with the upmost respect, but like you said if we are offered am amount that is acceptable we have to take we don''t want a keeeeeth o neil thing that we get offered 4 million in jan and then he could have drastic injuries and we end up losing our most sellable item. i know that is a worst case scenario but we have to think like that sometimes.

what do you think is the realistic price for him i think that it will between 2-3 mil, hopefully there will be a bidding war but with robinson going for 2 million, i know that was a different circumstance but keepers are not going for a lot at the moment.

[Canarychick 0]

I don''t want to see Greeno go, but he will especially if we go down.

I don''t really want to see Worthy buying anybody from Division 1 because it will only add to the load of division 1 players we have at the moment.

If Francis can get back in soon and take our chances up front, I think that is the best we can do.

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

[quote]DDiM - you seem to think £3m will keep us up - can you please tell me which magic wand (not wizs?) this will wave to solve the playing problems? Who is that magical player that will step into the forw...[/quote]

Zipper

I genuinely believe that we have the ability to stay up.  We were awful on Saturday, yes.  However, we are a good striker away from being a damn handy Premiership side.  We have such an amazing chance of staying.  Better than ever.  This is the easiest Premiership for a long long time.  When have over a quarter of the league, had the potential of going down. West Brom, Southampton, Blackburn, Palace, Birmingham and Fulham.  We can keep above all of them. 

Green is good enough.  The back four is good enough.  A fit midfield is good enough.  If we had a striker who could score goals on a regular basis, we would have a fantastic chance of staying up.  Goals cost money.  £3M would do

Am I wrong?

[birminghamcanary 0]

I love green but I would have to agree that if we are going to sell him, we''d have to sell him in Jnauary to get what he''s worth!

With regard to the ''rude to ball boys, etc'' comment.  I have had issues with that before but I think it''s because he''s so focused. He seems to be ok after the game!

If we do get some money for him, I think we should get a QUALITY player on loan from a big club and use the money to pay the bigger wages. 

No-one of quality is going to want to come to us permanently when we look one of the favourites to go down!

Keep the faith everyone.  We''re still in with a chance!!!

[fareastcanary 0]

I don''t believe that Green should be sold at least until the summer. Take the game on Saturday. Greeno made 2 or 3 brilliant saves. Would 3''m quid on a striker give us a 30 goal a season man? I think not. we have been talking about finding a twenty goal a season man. Add another would have be another 10 goals extra for the ones Greeno had saved us.
IMO a 20 goal striker would be nice but not necessarily our major priority. I have been a supporter of city since the late sixties & from my memory in that time City have had only four players who hit 20 in one season. MacDougal, Fleck, Sutton & Roberts. They all done it once only.
I feel that our priority should be a tall pacey centerback.

1) Someone with vision who is confident on the ball & can play the ball out of defence rather than hoof it..

2) Someone who has pace, so we can defend further up the field, thus allowing the midfielders to offer more support to the front players, without having to come all the way back to get the ball.

3)Tall enough to be a menace at set pieces.

4)By allowing the midfielders to support the strikers running into the box will give Huckerby more options instead of taking on one defender too many & losing the ball.

5) By keeping the ball, passing it on the floor, we will create more chances. The forwards will score, but being low on confidence, beeing booed by the crwd or getting only one chance per game doesn''t help.

[Al Yellow 0]

It seems to me that in order to raise funds to invest in the team we have to sell one of our prize assets and Green has to be the logical choice. If we do go down, which looks likely without some fresh blood given recent results, then Green will want to go at the end of the season anyway and we couldn''t blame him for that. During the summer other teams will know he faces the prospect of fizzy football and this will weaken our bargaining position, we will be seen as a distressed seller. Hence the best value trade for the club is to sell now. The reality is that if we want a couple of new faces we have to sacrifice our keeper. With two other (former) internationals on the books I think we all know it will happen. Green will be off to Arsenal in January. You never know maybe we''ll do an Everton, sell our best asset and never look back!

[bananaman 0]

I''m sorry DD, I don''t share your optimism. I think we are a good striker, a good winger (think Routledge, Greening etc), a right-back, a centre-back and a tactically astute manager away from staying up.

And I think that would cost more than £3m.

[nobbyg 0]

"And if its £3m on Ashton that is one hell of a risk when Bent is only £4m"

Are you saying that £4million on Bent wouldn''t be a risk then - I would rather have Ashton for £3m than Bent for £3m. At least he doesn''t play for Ipswich.

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

[quote]I''m sorry DD, I don''t share your optimism. I think we are a good striker, a good winger (think Routledge, Greening etc), a right-back, a centre-back and a tactically astute manager away from staying u...[/quote]

Maybe I am being optimistic bananaman.  But I would rather be that than have an acceptance of relegation about me.  We have such a wonderful chance.  Lets not blow it

[NavMan 0]

Even better - why not sell Docherty and use the cash to buy another player - should get enough to buy someone from Burton Albion or similar.

[FilletTheFishWife . 0]

let green go ? are you joking? without him we''re certainties for the drop
regardless of what they do with the funds.

[ZLF 271]

DD - I do think you are over optomistic. 

Our defence is a mess and we are still looking for that leader at centre back.  We missed Charlie at the weekend and it highlighted the weaknesses of Flem.  Eddie is just painful to watch and thats in a game where fulham plyed through the middle rather than the flanks - his inability drains any attacking threat out of the right midfielder.  Drury needs shaping and with Charlie is the only other defender up to the task, but he desperately needs midfield support.  Shackell and Helveg are options but Worthy is clearly scared of their quality - he clearly doesnt like playing it.  Doc showed he would be good cover but I wouldnt want him starting week in week out.

In midfield we sorely missed Francis - the quicker he is back the better.  He should be partnered by someone with Helvegs intelligence and ability and Holts energy.  Helveg can do that short term but we will need both central midfielders to have energy.  Mullers and Safri are both average div 1 players and like Holt not good enough at this level.  The rest of our midfield options are ALL out of position strikers - Zipper, Hux, Bentley Jonson & henderson.  Jonson and Bentley are the best wide options but again Worthy does think they run far enough each game.

Up front we do have options but we have stuck with a pairing that simply wont score.  Leon has worthys work ethic but no touch in front of goal while sven is a touch player when he never gets the ball to feet - when he does he is influential.  Neither is in the box when ball does arrive and who can blame them when the service and game plan is of such low quality?

Tactically the strikers only get occasional support from Francis and the midfield sits too deep.  Buying one striker - henry would not save us - will not save us with the current starting 11 and tactical approach.

If the manager changes his tactics and chooses quality in proper positions we may be able to get away with buying just 3 players - a partner each for charlie, francis & hux.  Without it we can survive but it will be due to the failure of other teams rather than negotiating our own success.

OTBC