Most liked posts in thread: Summer 2023 Transfer Rumours

He's just over 6ft...... hardly tiny is he? Central defending in L2 isn't the same as it was even a decade back, these lads need to be better with the feet and quicker as teams no longer employ the 442 target man tactic in this division, so the days of two slower lads who are 6'2,6'3ft+ in your central defence has gone.

For my money we are playing 5 at the back, of the 3 CBs one likely Taylor will be trusted to do the bigger lad work, whilst Stubbs and this lad, Kelly or Odusina play as wider CBs, balls out from the back and the quicker one will play more as a covering type.

Worked last season for every promoted team. Northampton had Guthrie doing the old fashioned work with 2 of Magloire, Sheering or Odimayo playing either side, all no taller than 6ft. Orient had Beckles as the big lad and rotated a lot between but Sweeney and James tended to play with him, both under 6ft. Stevenage had Vancooten and Piergianni both bang on 6ft and Sweeney as the big lad.

 

We need better than Ridehalgh as first choice

 

I understand fans on here are anxious to have quality players in our team. I honestly don’t know whether we have or not, or whether one player is an upgrade or downgrade. We will need to see them in action as a team/squad before passing judgement. We could easily talk ourselves into a glum mood before a ball is kicked.
Everyone knows what the goal is, and that is to gain promotion via the top three slots, trying to aim for playoffs is a no from me. The opposition looks harder this year, but once again we have no idea how their team/squad will perform. You can bring in a whole squad from a division or two above, but it does not guarantee success. Then injuries play a part, I think we seem to have a good medical team we have had players back playing before we expected them, which is good.
We also unfortunately have experience at this level. As does the management team now.

We have some quality players in the team, maybe not as many as we would like, but it all depends how they click into place, and how the team gel together. For me that tells me how good our recruitment has been. This is the time to relax as fans and look forward to the new season.

 

He's been Bradforded.

We don't do hair round 'ere.

 

On what looks like being a quiet day for rumours I thought I'd give my take on how we are shaping up so far.

In my opinion from last season we lost four decent players - Clayton, Banks, Crichlow and Tyreik Wright (who was never adequately replaced). Don't forget, three of these were loans and we haven't really got to the loan signing part of the season.

From the business that we've done so far I see Alex Pattison and Kevin McDonald in the first XI, with Tyler Smith and Ash Taylor in the best 16 and Clarke Oduor and Daniel Oyegoke filling out the squad. I'd like to think that we will make another good (first 11 standard) signing and bring in another four loan signings (in the hope that perhaps two will come good). The weak areas at present look like left back and right wing, but not being privvy to Mark Hughes' tactics it's a bit difficult to be certain where we need to strengthen.

So, with plenty of time remaining, I reckon we are 60% of the way there with a need to bring in three players capable of being in our best 16.

 

Comprehensive pre season victory.
Some descent football played in the right manner by both sides.
Enjoyable afternoon.

 

Didn't Jewell have a track records with women not necessarily the women's game .

 

The issue as events have proved is frankly he was the wrong choice . He started off well , then his form fell off a cliff, he didn’t track back , didn’t tackle and became lazy and got dropped. He deserved to get dropped imho.

Does anyone find it strange that Barrow haven’t offered to take over his contract and registration even for free, thus far?

17 appearances for zero return. That has nothing to do with Hughes, he had a clean bill of health when arriving at Barrow, so no excuse.

Who knows , but what ever happens , he’s no great loss.?

 

Don’t get this obsession some of our fans have about pace at the back it’s far better to read the game than rely on pace

 

All the people moaning about him dropping us and all that, he was on loan here and he took the opportunity playing superbly for us that he got a chance to play at a higher level that’s what footballs about . Wright improves the squad no matter what, if it’s him or banks then give me wright all day long he was a massive loss for us

 

I'm a traditionalist and would be quite happy to see the likes of Harrogate, Salford, Crawley, Sutton & FGR dumped back into non league and replaced by Halifax, Oldham, Rochdale, Chesterfield & York et al.

Close the door and bring back re-election.

 

Few L2 bits a week out from kick off....

Walsall are close to adding another. They are also close to announcing the loan signing of defender David Okagbue from Stoke. They also brought in former City striker Aramide Oteh earlier in the week.

Defender Ryan Edwards who has recently left Dundee after spells in L1 with Blackpool and Plymouth looks to be frustrating Swindon. He had trained with the club earlier in the window and they had made an offer to the big centre back, but now Owen Coyles side Chennaiyin of the Indian Super League have thought to have offered more money to Edwards, leaving Swindon scrambling for another centre back a week before the start of the season. Striker Curtis Main was set to sign for Wrexham after having a medical until a more lucrative offer from Indian came his way earlier in the month.

A quirk in a deal that was already talked about on here, but Omari Patricks deal with Sutton has been agreed on the former City player only featuring as a winger. He turned down a contract extension at Carlisle after the manager would not appease his demand to only feature on the wing, rather than as a striker. Patrick had the best scoring form of his career at when he joined Carlisle in January 2022, scoring 9 goals in 24 appearances until the end of that season, featuring on the left of a 4231. Last seasons Carlisle switch to a 352/532 wing back tactic meant that his starts were limited to 18 from 32 matchday squads.

Finally, James Norwood has expressed interest in a move to Wrexham, however it appears his valuation has not yet been met by the Welsh club. Barnsley did trigger an extension in Norwoods contract earlier in the window but also signed Max Watter and Andy Dallas to add to their striking options.

 

I've heard the behind closed doors game with Rotherham next week is winner gets Billy Sharp.

 

I can see a Banks deal being worth £500k+ but with a number of incentives e.g. promotions, appearances, sell ons, etc.
Initial fee around £150k-£200k feels about right

 

Qualifying for and failing in the play offs isn't a particular achievement. Top 3 should be the target for us, he was certainly backed enough. And we've been a shambles for years, it's an awfully low bar. The fact we did it for the first time in 5 years just means we've been abject failures, it's not a frame of reference that makes what Hughes did last season impressive.

So yes, there are question marks and they'll only be answered positively if he gets us promoted.

 

I don’t disagree with your overall post. However, having been extremely angry at losing out on promotion I have calmed and on reflection I think one game at the end of the season cannot be held responsible for our season even though it did reflect what had been happening all season.

Promotion comes from a full seasons work. We had draws at home! Our away record held us together or we would have been mid table or worse. I still don’t understand how a gifted striker all his career wants to put out a defensive team at home. I fully understand why we would do that away. If you want the city faithful to cheer you on at home attack the opposition with all guns blazing. He now has a shiny new season to prove he can do this. No play offs straight forward promotion is the aim.

 

I agree we win promotion or fail over 46 games, my point was making that substitution Banks for Platt was IMO the wrong call and as it turned out went completely against what he hope to achieve with the substitution keep the overall score 2 - 2 and play for penalties, BUT what was more annoying was that he'd done exactly the same sub against Gillingham and that also cost us dearly.
Yes it does seem strange that a creative player like Hughes who's career was all about scoring goals is such a cautious manager, and what was more annoying is when they were let off the leash we played some cracking football.

 

The 3 year deals we handed out last season have all proved to be brilliant bits of business haven't they? Young, Odusina, East, Oliver, all first names on the team sheet........

 

Aden Flint is a great signing despite his age. Remember him playing in the Bristol City side that spanked us at VP