Summer 26 Transfer Rumours

Nixon just re writes everyone else’s gossip, including 15 year old bedroom “ like to have” type post .

 

Let power go, we defo need an upgrade and if we get some £££ for him all good

 

Well I’d rather Power go than Metcalfe but losing both wouldn’t be ideal.

 

My first thought was "no", but that was also my first thought with Smallwood.

If the club have another upgrade in the barrel, sure, but this is the kind of position that is absolutely critical to our season. A player who comes in not only has to be better than Power, he also has to pretty much guarantee he can play 50 games. This goes wrong quite easily: an injury OR a failure to find an upgrade.

It would be a risk, but I'm not totally against taking that risk, I suppose.

Not totally sure we need to be taking that risk considering we're still in L1 and Power is definitely good enough for L1 despite a couple of iffy patches.

The best upgrade we could make in that position is TWO players. The risk with both Smallwood and Power was always injury/suspension left us with absolutely nothing in reserve, and we could have easily seen either season derailed quite easily.

 

Yeah 10 years is a long time

 

If it's a summer where Power and Metcalfe leave for a few quid, it will be interesting to see what we do. For me, we still havent improved on Pattison and his dynamism in midfield, theres some big holes in the middle of the pitch if the linked leave.

If we are getting Smiths and Beesley types, we will be leathering it 20 yards over the head of the midfield anyway, but we need physical types to do the donkey leg work anyways.

 

I think Metcalfe can cover the majority of what Power brings anyway and obviously could forget develop. Like you say, we definitely need some more mobility in that middle area so someone alongside Metcalfe would seem ideal.

 

The only thing in my mind is that we are going through a massive turnover of players.

Hard to get a squad/team to gel and play in a certain style when there is a revolving door of ins and outs.

Plus, we'd need another captain. Power certainly brought more in that area this season than recent ones.

 

Sarcevic, Tilt, Touray, Jackson, Walker. Plenty of experience for that role.

 

I can’t think of anyone who will be able to replace Power as captain in the current squad to be honest.

 

Possibly but my point was though that we shouldn't retain Power just because we might think we can't replace him as captain.

A good team has several captains on the pitch and the armband generally doesn't mean a great deal as it's not only down to one person to lead.

Take a Gerrard or Bryan Robson for example, with or without the armband they were still the same footballer and drive on the team regardless. They didn't just step it up because of a piece of elastic around the arm.

 

I don't really agree with that one, Monkey.

While he can certainly play the passes and shoot from range, Metcalfe is a player who doesn't need to be anchored so deep IMO. I know he can tackle, but I don't think he's as solid defensively as Power, and the role Power played as a defensive midfielder-cum-sweeper is far too deep to get the best out of Jenson.

Power played most of the season with the game going on in front of him so he could watch everything. He always knew what was going on and it made him a solid captain. Think he'll be a manager too. More mobility in Power's place is fine, but the amount of tidying up/dirty work Power has done all season requires more of a specialist IMO.

That is if we actually want to continue accommodating that sort of role, which I guess GA would since he didn't change it after getting rid of Smallwood.

 

Whenever we've had successful seasons at City it's always been with a strong leader in the captains role, something we've seen the last two seasons with Smallwood and Power. Not that i think that Power is irreplaceable, there isn't one player in last seasons squad that can't be upgraded and Power is no exception. I do think Power gets a lot of unfair criticism though, for me he's come into the club and bought into what we are about and he came across as an honest guy in after match interviews.

 

Always did the post match interviews following a loss, which is great leadership (something I think Smallwood was poor at as he was always happy to let one of the other players do that).
Power has been a great captain for us and I think stats wise, he's something like the 5th best midfielder in the league overall for the season. Like you say though, he isn't irreplaceable and we just have to trust that if he is leaving, we've got an upgrade already lined up.

 

Rumour going about that Powers agents have arranged the deal for a while and it will be done in no time, public pressure today and leaking to the media is a ploy trying to speed things along before summer hols. Fee is just Wigan paying out Powers last year contract. Could be nonsense but tbf it sounds about right?

 

Wigan fans done seen massively enthused but it appears to be related to how he left the club first time around. His two lads are at Wigan’s academy so I imagine he visits the club on a regular basis. I think he’s gone… the replacement needs to be as good or better.

 

Maybe Power wants the security of a two year contract when he only has one year left at City?