Player Suggestion Will Smallbone

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Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou

Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou

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'Ireland's Will Smallbone set to be sold by Southampton after their relegation'

Midfielder, 23, Ireland International and looked decent in Stoke's midfield last season. (43 games, 3 goals and 5 assists in CM)
 

Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou said:
'Ireland's Will Smallbone set to be sold by Southampton after their relegation'

Midfielder, 23, Ireland International and looked decent in Stoke's midfield last season. (43 games, 3 goals and 5 assists in CM)
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Surely not. They should be using him.

Thought he looked very good for Stoke when I saw him, but haven't seen enough to know if good enough for the Prem.

He'll be on our radar I'm sure, but IF TRUE they'll presumably want some fairly hard cash as he's been a good Championship player.
 
If he's going relatively cheap then sign him for sure

Ticks all the boxes for us. Precisely what we need in midfield to future proof and also in terms of physicality for this season especially

Him and OBrien for maybe 10m would be fantastic long term business because it would probably be our next foundation for promotion. They could play as a pair or as wide CMs in a 3
 
I really liked the look of him when I saw Stoke, I didn't even realise he was on loan there.
 
Had the "Pleasure" of watching Stoke a lot this season through the missus and her family, and he looks decent but all their fans were of the belief that he would be kept to play in the Champ with JWP leaving - wouldn't mind him if we can get him cheap
 
I very rarely watch anyone apart from us, but I did happen to watch a couple of Stoke's matches towards the end of the season as I think they were playing rivals to us and Smallbone is a player that stood out as someone I'd love to see in our midfield. Why Southampton don't want to keep him for the Championship I've no idea!
 
Colombia Blade said:
I very rarely watch anyone apart from us, but I did happen to watch a couple of Stoke's matches towards the end of the season as I think they were playing rivals to us and Smallbone is a player that stood out as someone I'd love to see in our midfield. Why Southampton don't want to keep him for the Championship I've no idea!
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You're probably talking about that game at Boro. He was excellent. Physically too good and too energetic for them to overcome, pressed high, didn't give them a second. On top of that showed some great one touch play and got in good goalscoring positions numerous times. Stood out as an obvious RCM option for us.... they've even played him on the right of a 4
 
Hamandcheese said:
You're probably talking about that game at Boro. He was excellent. Physically too good and too energetic for them to overcome, pressed high, didn't give them a second. On top of that showed some great one touch play and got in good goalscoring positions numerous times. Stood out as an obvious RCM option for us.... they've even played him on the right of a 4
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Yes that was definitely one of the matches I saw
 

Played over on the right again last night for the gaelic football team

He's tailor made to play RCM for us

Would be a sound long term investment and would replace Berge

I'd be quite happy if we spent all our transfer fees on CM tbh
 
Perhaps his availability is a year early - he'd be a very decent replacement for when Berge departs but unless Berge is going to play centrally, I can't see how/why he'd be targeted now with so many other positions needing to be filled or improved.
 
Mouth of the South said:
Perhaps his availability is a year early - he'd be a very decent replacement for when Berge departs but unless Berge is going to play centrally, I can't see how/why he'd be targeted now with so many other positions needing to be filled or improved.
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Really? We need 3 midfielders IMO.
Berge
Norwood
Couilbaly
Fleck?
Osborn?
 
Yep, agree we need (at least) three but that would be a CM, a LCM and a more attacking CM as the priorities. No point blowing several million on another RCM while those glaring gaps/weaknesses remain IMHO.
 
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I think it's a case of taking the chance to sign him while he is available

There's room for him and Berge in any case. He is athletic and hardworking enough to play in a two with Doyle or OBrien for example, allowing Berge to push forward

Berge will probably miss 5-10 games anyway, much like Anel, and we need options to properly cover both

I would at least like us to sign one of Smallbone or Sam Field, along with OBrien permanently and Doyle however we can

We must comprehensively reinforce CM. If relegated we could manage in every other area with what we have and the odd fairly easy addition
 
Our midfield really is the weak part of our team and is where we should be prepared to invest the majority of the money we have available to us this summer. Invest well in midfield this summer and it goes a long way to us future proofing ourselves for the next few years. We haven't really invested in our midfield long term for a few years now and it's starting to catch up with us. Time to remedy this this pre season.
 
CaptainMorgans said:
Sell Berge and bring him in along with another.
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Absolutely agree, but Berge will be hard to shift now even if he had interest, he'll just see out his contract

Regardless, we shouldn't let him get in the way of the long term rebuilding we need to carry out
 
Mouth of the South said:
It is an option but given the respective interest levels in both players, it's more likely that Ndiaye will depart this summer.
How much would Utd realistically get for Berge now?
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Berge, maybe £12m with add-ons inc. a sell-on.

Ndiaye, maybe £20m with the above also included.

Heckingbottom, for me, seems a little bit too keen on the idea of "keeping the squad together." He needs to use this opportunity to rebuild the squad and build some future resilience up.
Berge & Ndiaye aren't going to do us any favours in signing new deals, we need to look after ourselves.
 
... absolutely ludicrous that he had to be told "no" to keeping on Enda Stevens who hasn't had a good game for 3 years.
For what reason did he think that was a good idea?
Would've been a total waste of budget.

There's some argument to be made for Sharp but even that is at a push.

If we get this season totally wrong, we will go down and have close to no players contracted to the club.
Now is the time to be looking forward. This season is a free hit.
 
CaptainMorgans said:
Berge, maybe £12m with add-ons inc. a sell-on.

Ndiaye, maybe £20m with the above also included.

Heckingbottom, for me, seems a little bit too keen on the idea of "keeping the squad together." He needs to use this opportunity to rebuild the squad and build some future resilience up.
Berge & Ndiaye aren't going to do us any favours in signing new deals, we need to look after ourselves.
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Agree but would needing to replace those two on top of replacing the Man City lads as well as Sharp, Stevens and JOC mean the rebuilding job over summer is too big resulting in starting next season with very little of the team that earned promotion?
The thought of Fleck, Robinson and particularly Osborn playing regularly next season, given that offers were made and appear to still be on the table, is worrying. I would have hope Paul Mitchell would have at least have had decent replacements for those identified.
 
CaptainMorgans said:
... absolutely ludicrous that he had to be told "no" to keeping on Enda Stevens who hasn't had a good game for 3 years.
For what reason did he think that was a good idea?
Would've been a total waste of budget.

There's some argument to be made for Sharp but even that is at a push.

If we get this season totally wrong, we will go down and have close to no players contracted to the club.
Now is the time to be looking forward. This season is a free hit.
Click to expand...
I think he has leaned heavily on the experienced players to do much of his job for him and is worried about being without some of them next season

Or maybe it's a case of loyalty for the sake of it as a priority above anything else, which is a mindset we have to get out of. We can't be wasting money, and if we fully expect relegation, we need to look beyond this season. Unless it's more important to go down with a nice cosy family feeling even if we have fuck all left to try and get us back up
 

CaptainMorgans said:
... absolutely ludicrous that he had to be told "no" to keeping on Enda Stevens who hasn't had a good game for 3 years.
For what reason did he think that was a good idea?
Would've been a total waste of budget.

There's some argument to be made for Sharp but even that is at a push.

If we get this season totally wrong, we will go down and have close to no players contracted to the club.
Now is the time to be looking forward. This season is a free hit.
Click to expand...
Well it would be ludicrous if it were true and not just yet another extremely negative Interpretation of a comment that could mean absolutely anything
 
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