2024 Released Players & City transfer rumours

What about next season when we finish top 3?

 

It seems he wasn't quite up to League One level.

It's nice to hear good things, but we saw with Stubbs that nice things don't really mean a lot.

Fingers crossed, it would be silly to get excited based on those projections though, Barnsley fans seem to be going on basically nothing.

 

He'll be released or replaced and that's if he's still a constant figure in the first team come May.

 

You compared him to Byrne and I thought the post was very misleading disingenuous, hence my reply.

 

Clever from them. If he does well and we want to keep him, we need to pay a transfer fee or he goes back to them as a better player.

 

I don't think it's disingenuous.

One lad has loads of experience, the other played for Pontefract Collieries.

The idea he's better than Byrne because Barnsley fans say he's promising after 6 starts is disingenuous in the extreme.


But it doesn't matter, none of these beer mat assessments mean anything. Byrne could be awful, Shepherd might be Championship level, one is a guy with promotion under his belt, the other has no data.

 

I find it odd that you are basing this on you probably having never seen him play

 

He had no options though to "drop" Kelly (not sure that's the right word but Kelly seemed to need a break at some point as he was flagging a bit at times in his first full season). This is a good signing in that as he can take one out when they need a break. Gives him more options at the back. No idea on his ability but on basic data it makes sense as a signing to me.

 

Hallisay instead of Darby perhaps. The rest, bench at best

 

I never suggested either was better than the other but saying you aren't being disingenuous and then only mentioning Shepherds non league experience alongside a promotion for Byrne is absolutely, 100% disingenuous.

 

We could drop the keeper, Thomson, Doyle and Hanson.

No way we could drop Davo, Wells, Jones or Meredith though.

In some cases we could switch players put (Darby for Halliday) but it wouldn't be urgent in any way. Most people will look at it as displacing players, which is unfair on the current crop as there really isn't an existing XI that we'd be starting with in a hypothetical scenario.

 

Well that's what age disparity does. Gives one lad experience where the doesn't have any.

Not sure how I am supposed to think of it any other way really. One has played a lot and had promotions, one has not. However, one has been signed by a League One club and started a few game, the other has not.

We shall wait and see. Hard not to have more confidence in Byrne though.

 

If it still seems odd in May I'll hold my hands up but this guy absolutely isn't league one material, hence the reason Stockport b were happy to move him on.

 

Random piece of trivia for the day..... that team didn't start a game together all season long, until Burton 2nd leg in the play offs and the final against Northampton. Those were the only 2 games that season out of the 64 we played that featured that outfield 10 from the start. Which is mental when everyone would say that was our strongest 11.

In terms of getting in that 11, it's hard to judge because they are completely different systems. Walker wouldn't fit into a PP 442 like Reid or Thomson wouldn't fit into GAs 352. Halliday/Darby is a close one, as if we mean 2013 Darby, i think Halliday might be better as Darby really came into his best days in L1 for me. Both those CBs of 2013 overcome everyone we have on the books. CMs, Doyle Smallwood is a closer argument than most would like to admit. I think Cook is the only one who for sure gets in, you cant turn away his goal return in a City shirt.

 

Whilst I have been underwhelmed by our close season signings, I’d rather us sign a player who has signed a new 2yr contract from a higher division club than a player who they are stuck with.
It’s been a hard slog but I choose to have faith in GA’s choices. Not sure I’ve felt like that for some time with quite a number of our recent managers.

 

Only downside is, it's Barnsley.

They do sign players who aren't good enough quite a lot. It's part of their strategy.

 

Didn't Barnsley also sign Dylan Mottley-Henry when they were a league one club

 

Not for me. Doyle walks into that combined team ahead of Smallwood every time (based on their respective periods with us, not what they might have done beforehand with higher clubs).
Doyle read the game at least as well as Smallwood. But he was a much better tackler . And as for passing, Smallwood makes Doyle look like Glen Hoddle. Doyle played the ‘quarterback’ role brilliantly in that team. He could spot a pass quickly and execute it well.
Unlike Smallwood, you never saw Doyle play unnecessary square or back passes to CBs or keeper when there were better options available to those who could see them.

 

Yeah and they do this quite a bit. I think back when they had a development squad while in League One, I'm not sure they still do as it's a waste of time, but you can look at players like Andrew Dallas to scope out the calibre of their scouting. He's just gone on loan to Barrow after spells at Kilmarnock and Oldham where he didn't score a single goal. Signed him from non-league too.

Kacper Lopata, a CB signed from Woking, is almost identical to Shepherd in terms of career to date. Another non-league signing who they dabbled with a bit last season and loaned out to Port Vale where he made 6 appearances, but they seem to prefer Lopata.

Kyran Lofthouse, RB, also signed from Woking and loaned out.

In fairness, they're hailing a 'golden generation' that they expect to play in the future, so who knows, maybe they've improved dramatically since the days of DMH - but I'd rather err on the side of caution and assume they're still terrible at it.

 

I did think Doyle was a good passer of the ball but memories fade, may be wrong!