Who stays and who goes?

[Sean Thornton]

Are you serious Ricky ?, I know we give players away, but anything above a million for Brooks !, you have got to be joking, surely you mean £10 million.

Whoosh!

 

[bartman]

I reckon we'll sign two new forwards in the summer both hopefully will have pace which Wilder knows we lack. Brooks will no doubt leave sadly.

I'm not quite so certain we will sell Brooks in the next transfer window. Due to illness he hasn't played much since the New Year and if any club were to bid for him would it be much more than £5million plus add on at this stage ? If he starts and plays well for the majority of games for the rest of the season it might be different but the publicity around him seems to have died down which might be a good thing for us.

On a final note, some fans are still saying he is young and he should be eased in to be a permanent starter. For me he is good enough to start now, fitness permitting, and his age is irrelevant( look at the lad at Fulham). We need to help make Brooks make that step up and build a promotion side with him at the forefront of it

 

[bartman]

My personal fetish is keeping Jamal Blackman but I know that's a controversial move, but we just look so much better with him in there...

Don't think that is controversial at all. Blackman and Moore fighting for the Mo 1 position would be ideal for next season and Blackman in particular will only get better with experience in my opinion

 

[I should coco]

Are you serious Ricky ?

In the light of some of the bollocks in this thread, Ricky's '£1m for Brooks' was one of the more sensible posts.

 

[Pinchy]

Cant have Billy as manager when we have the Prince hes reight good at that Football Manager lark ont Playstation

He would be well at home on here, then.

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Don't think that is controversial at all. Blackman and Moore fighting for the Mo 1 position would be ideal for next season and Blackman in particular will only get better with experience in my opinion

Our current squad is made up of mid/lower table Championship talent - which is perfect for our first year back at this level.

If it's one thing I've learnt this year it's that to challenge you need Premiership+ level players. Wolves, Fulham, Villa - all have c15 plasters like us but have 5 or 6 PL players.

Therefore I'd like us to focus on bringing in these kinds of players. Not saying they grow on trees but adding them to the likes of JOC, Fleck, Coutts, Brooks (Blackman) should be where we're looking, not picking up League One players.

Tufty has navigated us through those waters over the last two years and if we are looking upwards, we need more quality from here on...

 

[Ricky]

As it stands we can't consider selling Brooks because his value is nowhere near maximised. He needs to get in the team and contribute more in order to attract the sort of offers we should actually consider. And we have the time to wait for that because he has at least 4 years left on his contract.

 

[Pinchy]

Wolves, Fulham, Villa - all have c15 plasters like us ...

I’m content to leave the grade of first aid dressing to the medical staff.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

Our current squad is made up of mid/lower table Championship talent - which is perfect for our first year back at this level.

If it's one thing I've learnt this year it's that to challenge you need Premiership+ level players. Wolves, Fulham, Villa - all have c15 plasters like us but have 5 or 6 PL players.

Therefore I'd like us to focus on bringing in these kinds of players. Not saying they grow on trees but adding them to the likes of JOC, Fleck, Coutts, Brooks (Blackman) should be where we're looking, not picking up League One players.

Tufty has navigated us through those waters over the last two years and if we are looking upwards, we need more quality from here on...

Unless something game changing happens, and I mean something that shatters the current paradigm, the same discussion will be had next season, except for the phrase "perfect for our first year back at this level." being replaced with "perfect for our second year back at this level.".

We can't afford to purchase high quality League 1 players, we can't afford to purchase or pay the wages of high quality championship players, although we appear to be able to cover 1/2 the wages of young squad players on the periphery of Premiership teams. I doubt that that we could afford to purchase & pay Blackman nor Wilson on a permanent basis. That is the current reality, and that will be the reality of next season. Purchases will have to be funded with sales & salaries coming in will need to be set against those going out.

 

[Scooter_mcgavin]

I agree with those saying ched needs a run of 4/5 games, however we're in no position to offer him this at the current time.

 

[dc_blade]

Out:

Lavery, Lafferty, Hanson, Donaldson, C Evans, Hussey, Wright, Carruthers

Question marks, but probably get rid:

Long, Reed (I'd take a look at them, I still think Long will make it somewhere), Holmes (if we need money and he's not going to feature, last chance to sell), Freeman (he's picks up a lot of injuries and I'd take a long hard look at him)

leaving:

--------------------------Moore
Baldock Basham Stearman O'Connell Stevens
---------------Coutts-----------Fleck
------------------------Brooks
----------------Clarke----------Sharp

Subs: Duffy, Henneghan, Lundstram, Leonard, Evans, Eastwood, Thomas

Shopping list:

LWB (competition), CB (starting), 2 x CFs (starting and competition), RWB (cover), GK (competition)

Loan out: Eastwood, Henneghan, Slater,

Spot on. Keeps the core of a good Championship side whilst shipping out some deadwood and fringe players and freeing up some room in the budget for improvements.

My two concerns are

1) that we could lose one, two, or all three of Brooks, Fleck, and JOC
2) two strikers capable of doing it at this level is going to set us back a pretty penny

 

[Fulwood Blade]

Our current squad is made up of mid/lower table Championship talent - which is perfect for our first year back at this level.

If it's one thing I've learnt this year it's that to challenge you need Premiership+ level players. Wolves, Fulham, Villa - all have c15 plasters like us but have 5 or 6 PL players.

Therefore I'd like us to focus on bringing in these kinds of players. Not saying they grow on trees but adding them to the likes of JOC, Fleck, Coutts, Brooks (Blackman) should be where we're looking, not picking up League One players.

Tufty has navigated us through those waters over the last two years and if we are looking upwards, we need more quality from here on...

correct - although your post will be lost to a lot on here.

UTB

 

[Fraggle Blade]

Am I the only one that thinks Brooks would be a crap replacement for Duffy / Holmes playing behind a front two?
I don't see him as a clever passer linking up between the midfield / forwards, I see him as a direct player running at the opposition and think he'd be better as part of a front two, not behind them.

 

[Upton_Blade]

Am I the only one that thinks Brooks would be a crap replacement for Duffy / Holmes playing behind a front two?
I don't see him as a clever passer linking up between the midfield / forwards, I see him as a direct player running at the opposition and think he'd be better as part of a front two, not behind them.

Nope I don't see it either.

For me his perfect position is either left or right in a 4-2-3-1 or, if we have to stick to it, just behind the main striker in our current formation.

I still think longer term we should be going with the 4-2-3-1 formation with Holmes, Brooks and Duffy behind a main striker. Unfortunately we dont have anyone capable of playing the lone striker in that formation effectively so would mean quite a significant outlay as they don't come cheap. Chris Wood when he was at the Dirties played it to perfection.

 

[highgreenintokyo]

Duffy- his ' killer balls' are becoming fewer and fewer.

He’s 5th in the league, I think, for assists. Most of our good play comes from him. He didn’t even play that well last night, but he made things happen, and directly contributed to both goals. I love that we have a player like him.