Summer 2023 Transfer Rumours

Which bit is ridiculous?

 

You do not undermine “ the boss” in public. Private is one thing , publicly in front of colleagues is out of order. No one , but no one did that to me in 25 years. They could kiss goodbye to their £40k salaries and they knew it. Plenty of dust ups in private, not a problem,
Besides that, its bloody bad manners, and pretty cowardly in an odd sense. You wouldn’t allow that, and neither would any decent manager. A weak manager would though.
Young can go play Sunday stuff for all I care. He’s not good enough to call out any football manager even of a Sunday pub team.

 

Fireworks on the skyline above Valley Parade as I drove along Canal Road this evening. Have we signed Billy Sharp?

 

No it’s just a day ending in a “y”
That’s all that’s needed.

 

Just been looking at the ins and outs:

Out:
Clayton
Songo’o
Eisa
Banks
Scales
Foulds
Cousin-Dawson
Crichlow
Threlkeld

Ins:
Taylor
Pattison
Smith
Oduor
Oyegoke
McDonald

On paper we perhaps look a little stronger, however McDonald hasn’t played any pre-season, and the defence is a concern in that Taylor seems slow, Odusina might be back in but has been out of favour. Platt and Stubbs aren’t blessed with pace or mobility.

Banks and Crichlow are clearly going to be misses, but we have a little while before the window shuts and I expect we’ll make a couple of late loan signings.

The existing squad provides experience, and consistency of personnel could be valuable instead of going through big close season changes again. Halliday, Rides, Smallwood, Gilly, Walker, Cook etc are a good core and this would seem to provide us with a good blend of experience and youth.

This season almost has a fear of the unknown, and things seem to be more concerning than normal - a new system on the pitch could be great, but as fans I think a lot of us are change averse, and it seems like it won’t take a lot for patience to wear thin.
And the new home kit is awful and the Flamingo Land shirt sponsor just makes the whole image look like it’s out of the National League North.

We’ll need to see how the early season pans out… Hughes is experienced, and Sparks clearly wants consistency in the dugout as suggested in his recent podcast. I’ve got a feeling it could be a rough ride early doors but let’s see. I’m just not feeling it at the moment, and I think I’m still just weary from last season.

 

Cheer up mate, its only football, last season has gone, its a new start, lets hope the lack of wholesale changes means we hit the ground running and get off to a better start than last year, got to be beating Crawley and set down a marker.

 

Interesting feel to this season for me. From the over confidence amongst fans of last season with numerous signings, a championship player, Jamie Walker and the returning Pierera. To the worry of not knowing whether we've brought enough in, or answered the questions of last season, or whether the new formation and pressing will leave us exposed at the back. Time will tell as it always does, but let's hope we're all pleasantly surprised by what we see. I think I prefer the not knowing if we're good enough, to the expecting to be better than we are and failing miserably.

 

Add Pointon as an 'IN'. He will have a part to play this term and replaces Dion/Nevers/Costelleo all roled into one.

 

I think he will be in the match day squad on Saturday as we are currently a bit thin on the ground with attacking options on the bench. That may change if/when we see further new arrivals but if that doesn't happen before the end of this week, he's on the bench for me, no question.

 

Good point. I did this from memory and completely forgot about Nevers/Costelloe/Dion!

 

Cheers mate, see you in a couple of weeks!

 

Even though that's three players, none of them made any impact last season and won't be missed.

For Crichlow, it's possible Kelly will be the option of a replacement as the left side of a back three.

It was a intriguing signing, and we've seen lads from similar clubs in Ireland do very well in the EFL. Let's hope he's an astute signimg!

 

I agree. That’s why I said, ‘you can’t undermine the boss’. I’m confused tbh Kev. I think maybe you’ve misunderstood what I posted. As a boss, you can’t have the people you’re responsible for leading undermine you publicly, even if they’re right. It erodes trust and respect so you can’t have it. That’s point 1.

Point 2 is, I’ve no idea what was said, and I’m not in Young’s corner. I’m just pondering whether the things he’s voiced are akin to my own concerns about Hughes. The jury is still out for me. On a similar point, I’ve seen Smallwood’s interview with the T&A today where he recognises that the home form wasn’t good enough, but asks for patience from the fans when the players are ‘trying to do the right things’. What if they’re not the right things, and fans see it, and that’s why they’re voicing their concern during games, and THAT’s why the form itself was poor? Plain as day to me, watching us last season. I’ve no problem at all with a style that tries to play through the thirds, but what I saw with us for the majority of home games was a lack of intensity, and passing backwards and sideways for the sake of it.

 

TBH - Based on this pre-season he would have been in my match day 18 regardless.

Pointon is 19, no longer some YTS boy now. If he doesnt get his chance to shine this season then he will be another Staunton, Dawson, Scales...

 

On Tyreik Wright watch.... it looks like he will be staying around in Plymouth. Schumacher confirmed that Wright is not only in his plans but will be fit enough for the matchday squad for the match against Huddersfield this Saturday.

Wright made his comeback from a thigh injury picked up 3 weeks ago by coming off the bench for 20 minutes at the weekend in their defeat to Swindon. Plymouth have adopted a 433 in the recent friendlies, altering from their tried and trusted 352. Wright came on to play as a wide forward. Schumacher has said he wants to bring in another central midfielder and a striker before the end of the window, hinting Wright is set to stay as a wide player. He has also had a change of shirt number, going from 29 to 19.

 

He's a useful and probably cheap enough squad option to have on the bench and slot in on a few positions probably. I suspect he'll end up most of the season on the bench with about 12 sub appearances totaling 63 minutes all season.

 

I can't disagree with any of that.

 

I'd say we dropped far more points due to Hughes tactics than anything the fans did. The team get fantastic backing on a regular basis, and any gripes from the crowd were mild really, considering the performances and results at home.

I think there are big question marks over Hughes tbh. I don't think he ever really knew his best 11, I think he assembled too big a squad, the January window was a poor one and he failed to rectify the couple of things that needed addressing. He's too wedded to a style that doesn't really work and far too cautious in his approach.