January 26 transfer rumours

Re Hilton - surely that's the same of any 2nd keeper, at any club? That said, Walker is 35 this year and won't play forever, maybe Joe is just biding his time. I think his distribution is better than Walkers personally, but other aspects of his game aren't as good obviously. Anyway, different thread right there

 

Me too and that striker ain't a 19yo loan from Man U.

 

And an injured one at that.

 

Totally agree , it’s no different to the house buying mullarky .

 

If we sell Tommy Leigh, will he leave the carpets and curtains?

 

Ha, ha.

 

I've always thought Hilton may be one of those players that may be here and not really get much game time and from seeing him in the vertu he hasn't really shown me that he's a long term successor to Walker. It seems the club really think a lot of Hadi, but still view him as too young to be in the first team squad. However I do hope in a year or 2 Hadi is in the squad pushing Walker or whoever is our number 1 at the time.

 

I struggle to see how Walker will be here next season tbh.

 

I don't think age is relevant. For instance look how good Castledine did at Huddersfield.

But of course his quality is relevant.

However, if you asked me if I'd go for a striker or a wide forward / winger - it would be the former every time. Chance creation is what we need to be improving on and that's a ball using quality issue. As we saw in the second half, against Cardiff, once we got three players who all were comfy on the ball - we created more chances.

 

Its definitely one position we need to upgrade in my opinion, probably in the summer

 

As long as the wide man get crosses in on the floor, we do get chances.. rarely to we see our forwards getting on the high ball, that's we we need someone good in the air.

 

He put in a transfer request because there was interest from higher up the leagues.

 

Pointon is our top scorer and has 0.53 goals per 90. Over a goal every 2 games!

Some legitimately odd views on here. I think some people who say "Pointon hasn't done much for a while" forget he's had a run of injuries. It's hard to score when you're injured and don't play.

Also, the reason he keeps getting injured is because opposition managers are identifying him as our most dangerous creative players and telling players to be rough or double mark him.

One of the first names on the team sheet when fit.

 

He's certainly won us some points

 

I reckon Bobby is bursting to play at Town tomorrow, if he does I expect him to do well ......

 

Correct. And Wheatley was apparently impressive at Northampton. It's 7 goal involvements for a team that don't create many chances. Not bad for a youngster that Man U seem to have faith in.

 

And he was 3rd best last season.

 

It's the unfortunate reality for goalkeepers, every weekend only 92 goalkeepers can start in the Premier League and EFL and the vast majority of times all 92 will play 90 minutes so there's no chance to come on for the last 10 minutes to impress like an outfield player can. If you're a back up then the only way you'll get to play in the league is if the number 1 has a run of poor performances, gets injured or suspended which is very rare. It's why teams often say the most unsung heros are the back up goalkeepers as they do a lot of unseen work behind the scenes including doing extra work after training so the strikers can do extra work on finishing.
The mindset for them is that they have to be ready as they can be called up at any moment and when they do they might only get 1 chance to impress. Richard O'Donnell signed for Derby as 3rd choice but in the last month the back up got injured so he's been on the bench then on Tuesday night he was called up to start 15 minutes before kick off due to the number 1 being ill. Emi Martinez is probably the best example of a back up who got a chance and took full advantage of it, he was back up at Arsenal, got a chance due to an injury to Leno, performed well which got him the move to Villa and now he's a World Cup winner.

 

I'm just thinking for Walker's successor if we have him for another 2-3 years. I would certainly say Hilton is not the answer, however Hadi on the other hand would be 22/23 by then if still here? Similar height to Walker, just wondering if he's being looked at inside the club to maybe get the number 1 spot, but will probably depend on what league we're in. If we ever get to the championship, our youth/youth players/youth set up will be important, when competing against bigger spenders, who we probably won't be able to match under the current ownership. So the depth in quality youth players which won't cost anything will be important.

 

Interestingly he's not been in their last couple of matchday squads. I don't know if he's injured, but it not, it would suggest he is off somewhere.