I'm glad you're not our manager mate. I mean, it's a lovely sentiment that you express about someone who once was a very good player, a key player, for us. But to suggest for one moment that a 31 year old ex-player, who couldn't get a regular place in our first team in the Championship last season, and is now plying his trade in the third tier of English football, should be, even could be, part of the plan to improve the current Premiership squad, well...I really don't follow your logic at all mate, sorry.
We need to be recruiting players at a level beyond what we currently have. It's really that simple. The kind of midfielders we need to be bringing in are players of the calibre like Nevez at Wolves. 22 year old, international standard, outstanding skills. That's how Wolves have taken the step up, by buying "above" the level of what they already had.
Anyhow, I suppose I'm the wrong person to ask. I never believe in "going back" in anything in life. I only believe in looking forward, trying to do better than before, not trying to repeat something that once worked in the past.
Good luck to Couttsy btw - it's great that he's doing well.
Thanks for the nice polite reply pal. I do agree with most of what you say to be honest. You’re probably right. It’s unbelievably leftfield, but if he had taken wilder up on the one year extension, he would be in our squad now, with the same ability he had before and the fitness to match. The 31 year old point you made is a bit redundant though because we’ve got quite a few of those already and it doesn’t seem to matter. Especially if it’s only 5 games a season. The only question mark everyone would have is ‘can he regain the same fitness and form he did before after his injury’ which he has proven he has, so in hindsight that would be a ‘yes’ so our fears would have been misplaced. Agree about the ‘moving on’ thing but if any signing is going to be coming in knowing they’re gonna be second fiddle to Norwood it does limit our market a little bit. I guess unless you imagine they’re gonna come straight into the first team and dislodge Norwood which is fine but our system with Norwood has certainly been really successful so far this season and it might be a bit risky to throw the baby out with the bath water and replace Norwood for someone ‘better’. I think he’s probably more important to the system than we realise.
Another point I’ll make in response to your ‘he couldn’t get in our championship side last year’ he had a broken leg mate. His ability is never in question, just his fitness, which he’s proved is back. The last time he played for us we were top of the championship weren’t we?
We should be looking for a younger, better version than Coutts, and indeed Norwood. That's how you evolve as a team and become better.
There will be players out there who fit the above criteria, just a bit more difficult trying to identify them.
I would prefer us to go for the lad Brannigan at Oxford as a possible long term replacement for Norwood.
I completely agree with this sentiment. The thing about signing Brannigan, who I really like. I think the ideal scenario would be to sign both. Think of it like this.. if Norwood got injured for a month tomorrow, who would you feel more comfortable coming in? A fit, fresh, knowing the system Paul Coutts or Cameron Brannigan? Sure, he’s a good player but is he gonna slot in and know about enda and baldock’s runs? Know when to tuck in and know when to press? I think he’d be perfect in 18 months but coming in for a few games now, id personally rather have Coutts. Sign both, let Coutts fill in when needed and let Brannigan train with the squad until he is ready to replace Coutts/Norwood in my opinion.
Duffy ought to have a look at what Coutts is doing.
A huge worry for us is if Norwood got a Coutts type injury , history really would repeat itself as players like he and Coutts are so hard to come by.
This was my point exactly. Would personally rather have Coutts in the 25 right now than Clarke think. Good, useful players like him are hard to come by, and I think there was a reason Wilder offered him the year contract, because we do have a gaping hole behind Norwood if he gets injured or suspended. Fully respect Coutts for leaving for first team football though.
Are people drunk? He's doing well in a league 1 club and therefore he'd be good in the Premier League? At 31? With his injury record? After not being good enough last season? hahaha. Seriously?
If you think that performing at the top of league one (and in Coutts case, the top of championship) doesn’t mean you can cut it in the prem as a squad player, perhaps you should have a word with wilder about dropping Basham, JOC, Fleck and Sharp? I agree his fitness was an issue and I was kind of behind him being released based on the injury, but hindsight dictates he’s back to those levels, so what’s the problem?
Ched Evans is having a decent run for Fleetwood too, perhaps we should gerrimback too.
I’m all for debate, but you and I both know that’s a completely different conversation about ched and Coutts. You’re just being facetious and I’m not gonna rise to that. You know that’s a ridiculous comparison.
Is he really "ripping it up"? Genuine question, I've been semi-following how he's doing but apart from the odd video clip of a nice bit of skill I haven't heard much talk about him. FWIW that was his first goal of the season (in the EFL trophy against Everton's academy side), he has 1 assist, is 9th on Fleetwood for total chances created (only 2 of those 9 have played more minutes than he has).
Fair enough mate bringing stats into it, those stats don’t scream ‘tearing it up’ but from anecdotal evidence from fleetwood fans, they say they’ve never had a midfielder like him and he completely makes them tick, just like we did when he was playing for us in league one. I’m not certain, but those specific chance creation stats probably weren’t off the charts for us, just from the eye test he was next level. I guess what I was saying was: assuming he was the same player we had the day before he broke his leg, would you have him back as a squad player? I personally would, if the alternative was nobody, which is the current situation.
Is the OP?:
a) High
b) Drunk
c) Both
d) a WUM
e) Not very clever
f) All of the above
Quality input that. In answer to your questions:
A) no I haven’t done drugs in 4 months
B) I wasn’t drunk when I wrote the OP, but I am now.
C) see above, you fucking cunt.
D) no, just want to chat about united.
E) I’m a pretty intelligent bloke and know a lot about football. I live and breathe it. Every league. I play every football manager game, listen to almost every single football, EFL, tactics and scouting podcasts currently available and subscribe to pretty much every literary publication available. I might be a fucking dick but I’m not uninformed or stupid.
F) thanks for your kind words. Perhaps you would be happier if this forum just closed down so you could just not talk football with anyone ever and sit in your echo chamber where everyone agrees with you and you never hear opinions you don’t like? Fuck off.
Having an opinion on a footballer on a football forum.
Shocking !!!
Clearly must be f).
.
PS - is your post clearly
a. Looking for a row.
b. Demonstrating your preference for class a substances.
c. That you haven’t dipped your wick in quite some time and are feeling, well, a bit tense.
UTB
What he said.
Do you think it's a sensible suggestion to give Coutts an 18 month contract based on a few good performances for Fleetwood?
I'm glad you've come out of the other side of the self-flagellation that McBurnie scoring at the weekend must have induced.
What are you on about mate? Mcburnie scored yeah. I didn’t have an awful lot to do with it. It wasn’t me that crossed it in and I wasn’t in the VAR room giving the goal. Kind of irrelevant to this conversation really. I know I said I thought he would come good. So what? Has he come good? He just scored a decent chance, which has kind of defined his career so far. Hardly a hot take from me. Im talking about a completely hypothetical conversion here, much the same as ‘would you rather have messi or Ronaldo in this united side’ it’s just a chat, a debate, a conversation about football. There’s no need to be a bell end about it and try to get personal.
How can any of you possibly know if he is anywhere near the level he was for us in League 1, Nevermind the first few months of the championship season? Do you all have Fleetwood season tickets?
is he any better than Besic?
Well just look who’s posted it...
What are you on about? Just look who’s posted it? What’s that supposed to mean? I barely post. Why don’t I post sensibly? I just wanted a conversation. Don’t understand why you feel the need to get personal. You’ve never met me and probably never will. I don’t post very often, you have literally no idea about who I am or what makes me tick or what makes me post the stuff I do. It’s frankly a bit fucking weird that your response is to try to personally attack someone that you’ve never met and have no idea who they are. I half expect better from this forum than that level of post.
In response to your first post, he literally is performing to the standard he did for us in league one. He’s running games against a low block and finding a way to unlock games while sitting deep and spraying the ball around, much as he did for us and is managing to complete 90 minutes on a regular basis, so his fitness is clearly there. I’m not saying ‘let’s sign him and let him challenge Norwood’s place’ he’s clearly nailed his position down but is almost certain to get suspended and I’d say there was a 20% chance of him picking up aleither a red card or injury. Each position in the premier league is worth around a million quid. How many places would we slip down if Norwood was out and we didn’t have a like for like? We could sign Coutts for a million and cover that eventuality. That’s probably why wilder tried to sign him on a year extension.
If wilder came out on January 1st and said he’s signed Coutts for 800k on minimal wages in a 1 year deal, it would raise more than an eyebrow I agree but I don’t think there would be many on here that would be up in arms about the signing being a) a waste of money b) not a good culture fit c) not ideal cover for the last few months of the season and d) not a better choice than either completely changing the system to accommodate Lunny at CDM (which we have seen doesn’t suit him) and bringing in ravel Morrison to play lunny’s role or playing besic there, or moving Basham into CDM and playing jags as a non overlapping RCB.
I have replied to loads of these messages and welcome the debate but can’t be arsed to go onto more, thanks to the people who were polite and engaged in debate about it regardless if you didn’t agree with it. Fuck You to everyone that just tried to attack me as a person (that you’ve never met).
For the record, yes I will continue to get drunk and throw left field suggestions out there to get a debate going, and fucking get a grip if you don’t fancy a chat about it without being a knob.
Peace and love.
1234.
it wouldn't upset me. OP did say he was scratching his head to think of another option.
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