2024 Released Players & City transfer rumours

Cant read much into these teams signing for academy squads. They sign dozens a season of released teens to fill out the U21s and hope there's a gem in there. Remember Mottley-Henry signing for Barnsley? Doesn't mean much at this stage of their career.

 

Got chatting to a bloke in work yesterday who happened to see me browsing these forums. Asked if I was a Bradford fan, obviously a yes. He says, oh my brother used to play for them, turns out he's Jon McLaughlin's brother. Might have to do a bit of digging to see what Jon's plans are going forward.

 

He will not be very expensive surely , I would have thought he’d be a “ free” . They want him off their books as they realise now he isn’t a LWB?

 

Yeah I think Shanks went to Huddersfield from us and now in non league

 

I think he is like me talking about you recycling the same arguments , you aren't going to achieve anything coming out with the same stuff all the time on here. If you are so unhappy about the situation why don't you and Monkey get a room and put together a letter and send copies to Alexander, David Sharpe, Rupp and Ryan Sparks.
Personally I'm not happy with where we are but I'm prepared to give the squad that Alexander puts together a chance. If they fail I've got the option, as have you of voting with my feet and withdrawing my support.

 

He isn’t a championship player but should be good on our shit league

 

I honestly cannot recall many (any?) that we released as a youngster who then went on to forge a stellar career at a higher level. People point to the obvious one, McBurnie. The major difference is that he got a chance with us, proved he was a weakling, and we got about £250k off him from Swansea (plus the later sell-on fee to Sheffield Utd), who developed him into a decent striker using the resources we didn't have

 

The way we finished the season should give cause for optimism and that we haven't completely dismantled a squad yet again means there is some familiarity within the team. I'd still like to see a couple more additions to give competition in certain areas of the pitch but there is still time for that. Certainly ain't losing my shit until I've had a chance to see this lot play together for a couple of months, but then I fully expect us to be somewhere around the top seven for most of the season.

 

Great keeper. Absolutely diddled us that boxing day VS Sunderland though! Ball well over the line and he scrambles it back out

 

Bit harsh calling him a weakling at that stage of his career mate, he was only a kid thrown in against big hairy arsed Street wise Rotherham centre halves who admittedly bullied him.imo he wasn't ready for that kind of baptism but as he has proved he can play

 

I wonder if/when our highest earner is going to be shipped out? GA has clearly made up his mind that he won't be featuring, so hopefully they are doing all they can to get shut to some other mug and free up some extremely valuable wages!

 

If a youngster is still with us around 19/20 year age then I generally don't expect to see them progress any higher than league 2. There are exceptions to the rule as you mention but the nature of the game these days means that players very rarely if ever get missed then go to develop later. That's not a reflection of us as a club right now, you really have to be set up to develop the potential of these kids. I know this through speaking to a guy involved in this very thing at a top premiership club, he did have nice things to say about our youth set up though and that we were a pleasure to deal with (they signed one of our younger juniors but his name escapes me). Not all clubs are apparently.

 

I'm fairly sure, if he signs, GA will use him, at least some of the time, at LWB. He might develop into it. We shall wait and see.

 

Who's that?

 

I agree. I can’t believe that Johnson has signed to just be backup to Halliday.
In a back three you don’t need three giant hulks. You need at least one to be quick and good on the ball, as Tomkinson was last season. I reckon Alexander fancies Johnson as that player, who can sweep up behind the bigger guys and cover behind Brad if he gets caught upfield. With the bonus that he can also slot in at RWB if Halliday is injured or suspended.

 

I don't think it is necessarily harsh Chippy. Weakling, under-developed, not strong enough, bullied about, bambi on ice...they all basically describe his lack of physicality. Not his fault I know, I am sure most young kids lack the strength, but make no mistake he was 19 years old and still got shoved off the ball. Pointon on the other hand was the same age and stood his ground, rarely getting pushed around and intimidated

 

Yes I appreciate that, and is something I did acknowledge about Swansea in my post. They had the facilities and resources, we didn't. That's life

 

Vadaine Oliver

 

Not worth any fee or a massive wage for me Kev.
Failed at Plymouth and they obviously want him off their books.
Didn't pull up any trees for us last season either.
Wright is not a LWB, only a winger.
If GA does want him then fair enough but for goodness sake, play him as a left winger!

 

Money talks mate, even at the level of kids. And with how the system favours the big clubs, any kids that could have potentially been a future first teamer at VP get snapped up in the trawler nets of the big academies. Pointon bucked that trend because he was late developer and hadn't shown the early improvement like most kids do, a testament to the effort and hard work the lad has put in.