People have gone on about a striker coz it’s the biggest single issue that needs addressing and it’s on their minds - maybe if they were as intelligent as Henry they’d be discussing something else but aren’t that lucky - probably best to close this thread for their / our own good
Come come now @Henry Irving People have gone about a centre forward because Washington was let go, Burstow returned to Chelsea and Davison was sold. Three out None in Madness
A key shift is the formation change, only playing 1 up top now requires less cover.
we will get another forward in but we don’t need to replace 3, especially as Davison wasn’t here last year.
Leaburn also replaces Burstow as miles wasn’t involved last year.
I have just realised there are only 6 days to go until we all have to take our hats off to Golfie and say he was right for months ! Come on Thomas make it so it doesnt happen !!!
You can doff your hat to me as well, I said the day Leaburn signed a pro contract our search for a striker was over. Thomas aint gonna part with any cash for the likes of a Stockton
And rightly so. Stockton is a one season wonder! Spending cash on him would be a stupid idea. Tommy has proved that he will spend cash on the right player, Stockton isn't the right player.
Agreed their no value in him given his age … most people going on about him have only seen him once at the valley last season .. but need to ask yourself why have no other the bigger clubs in league one gone for him
The value in Stockton is if he's scores the goals that get us promoted.
Mendonca was late twenties but helped us to promotion, so good value.
Not saying Stockton is the answer ,but like others I was impressed when I saw him. I think realistically we need a Mark Bright or Ricardo Fuller type signing who comes in and accepts their place in the squad.
He's young, quite slim, and about 5"7' or 8' at a guess.
He's a natural goalscorer and finisher but as seen v Sheff Utd U21s he can struggle up against a big, decent centre back.
In that game he did little until both sides went down to ten men.
With the extra space he came alive and scored twice late on.
He did similar goal wise v Sheffield Wednesday (I haven't seen the goals).
If people don't think Leaburn is ready yet and at least shouldn't be seen as first choice then Kanu is behind him size and development wise but Kanu is growing and learning so who knows?
Personally I don't think he's the answer YET and he's certainly not cover or a replacement for Stockley (who gets too little credit for his work IMHO).
Rak-Saki is not much older and we've already seen he can blow hot and cold, like most young players.
I still want and think we need another striker who can play down to middle, link the play, win the ball in the air and score goals ala Mark Bright because this is a fairly young side and experience and know how go a long way.
I expect so do Gallen and Garner, or they may prefer a younger model, if available.
But I'm not going to go on and on and on about signing a striker 24/7 as it is as pointless as it is tedious and it was tedious back in May when the whinging about it started.
Quite right.
We’ve got days until the window slams shut. So let’s pause the moaning until then.
Come come now @Henry Irving People have gone about a centre forward because Washington was let go, Burstow returned to Chelsea and Davison was sold. Three out None in Madness
Look at it closely how many would have been starters in this system answer none ..
Come come now @Henry Irving People have gone about a centre forward because Washington was let go, Burstow returned to Chelsea and Davison was sold. Three out None in Madness
Look at it closely how many would have been starters in this system answer none ..
valid point about the players leaving not being starters in this system. The problem is, we currently only have one experienced starter in this system and that's stockley!!!! That makes the madness comment very relevant. I'm confident that a young bench warmer will join on loan to boost numbers but still worried about who will play if/when stockley gets injured or suspended.
I have just realised there are only 6 days to go until we all have to take our hats off to Golfie and say he was right for months ! Come on Thomas make it so it doesnt happen !!!
You can doff your hat to me as well, I said the day Leaburn signed a pro contract our search for a striker was over. Thomas aint gonna part with any cash for the likes of a Stockton
And rightly so. Stockton is a one season wonder! Spending cash on him would be a stupid idea. Tommy has proved that he will spend cash on the right player, Stockton isn't the right player.
I said "the likes of a Stockton" not specifically Stockton himself.
I hope I am wrong as we badly need someone else up front but my gut feeling is TS thinks we have enough.
I have just realised there are only 6 days to go until we all have to take our hats off to Golfie and say he was right for months ! Come on Thomas make it so it doesnt happen !!!
You can doff your hat to me as well, I said the day Leaburn signed a pro contract our search for a striker was over. Thomas aint gonna part with any cash for the likes of a Stockton
And rightly so. Stockton is a one season wonder! Spending cash on him would be a stupid idea. Tommy has proved that he will spend cash on the right player, Stockton isn't the right player.
I said "the likes of a Stockton" not specifically Stockton himself.
I hope I am wrong as we badly need someone else up front but my gut feeling is TS thinks we have enough.
That’s the problem, ‘TS thinks’. I’m sure that is not what the Manager thinks.
I would rather keep Clare over Egbo in all honesty. No way should we lose Clare and even more crazy to lose Dobson. Why did we sign McGrandles if we were short in other areas, why did we sign Aneke (we haven't had an answer to that one). Why did we take the option on JFC's contract if we want rid?
We play with a midfield three, so we need 6 central midfielders to have proper squad cover. Garner has already shown he's big on rotating in the midfield. When we signed McGrandles he became the 6th centre mid in a squad where we were expecting two other midfielders to probably leave. We then signed Payne to make 7, though he's generally been played further forward rather than in the midfield three when he's played. If we hadn't signed McGrandles when we had the chance and he'd gone elsewhere and we'd still be looking to shift the other two but with no-one in. We'll probably shift Gilbey soon and possibly JFC on deadline day, and then we'd be running round feverishly trying to get centre mids in before the window closed while people whined that we always leave our business to the last minute and Sandgaard doesn't know how to build a squad. We'd also likely get a worse player because we shrugged our shoulders and ignored a target becoming available. Matt Smith v.3 anyone?
The reason Clare has come up is because we're apparently talking to him about an extension and there's no indication we're going to lose Dobson either, there's not really a lot of need to panic about that just yet..
There's no reason that we have to have 6 senior midfielders though, especially as we have youngsters like Henry coming through, and others like Clare and Sessegnon who can also play there IF we had more cover in the full back areas. Players like Dobson and Morgan are the types who are likely to play the full 90 anyway, it's in forward positions where you need impact from the bench.
Moving goalposts. By the same token there's no reason we need to have 3 senior strikers. We have Stockley, Aneke and Leaburn who at this point is streets ahead of Henry and the rest. Aneke is injury-prone, but then so is JFC, and for longer, sometimes season-long periods. Who was the striker we wanted who was readily available at the same time as McGrandles who we could have signed that we missed out on I wonder? Clare is our right back and a disasterpiece at central midfield, and not only is Sessegnon not actually a centre mid at all, as you say we don't have senior cover at LB. Saying we don't need to have enough midfielders because we could use that money to just about have enough left backs to play one totally out of position is bonkers. May as well say JFC is our senior back up LB by that logic, he's played more senior games there than Sessegnon has at central midfield. Henry is the youngster at central midfield coming through but there aren't any others remotely ready, certainly not looking any more ready than Kanu, and Henry still has a huge amount to show before he's a serious consideration. Central midfield will be the key part of the way Garner plays and he needs options there, and the right player was available. We will rotate massively, we've already seen McGrandles pick up two injuries since he started, we'll need to use a whole squad throughout the season and we'll really feel it if we're light there. I guarantee we'd get by better having to play Clayden at LB all season than we would having to play Henry there all season if it came to it.
If we let JFC and Gilbey go without replacing them, we'd still have 5 senior midfielders for 3 places. Plus Henry, plus the other emergency options, and yes Sessegnon can play in midfield as he said so himself. Henry will be 19 in a week's time, I don't see why he can't get some game time now.
Of course we'd love lots of experienced cover in all areas, but we have squad number restrictions, and budget restrictions. We need another striker, another centre back and possibly another full back.
Sessegnon has played two senior games at central midfield. Once in a banter Fulham team in the FA Cup that got beaten 4-0 by City and once when he came on there for an entire 6 minutes. He 'can' play there, he doesn't play there. Relying on him as a serious option as back up (especially when he's our only senior left back) is not a plan. When people talk about versatility they often forget that the versatile player is probably needed somewhere else as well. You don't have cover for your entire squad just because you have one player who can play every position, because as soon as you have more than one absence you're screwed.
I agree it would be good to fill those three positions. CB is essential as we currently have 3 senior centre backs, one of whom is extremely injury prone, that's a must-have. We'd benefit massively from another striker to compete with Stockley and while Clayden has looked decent as cover I'd be nervous about him having a very extended run. If there's only budget for one though then it has to be the CB first. I'd like to keep JFC to be honest, if no-one is after him then we could do much worse than have him in the squad.
Come come now @Henry Irving People have gone about a centre forward because Washington was let go, Burstow returned to Chelsea and Davison was sold. Three out None in Madness
Burstow was never a main striking option, he was only ever really a kid used in an emergency, so you could argue that Leaburn has replaced him already.
Davison wasn't here the second half of last season anyway.
Come come now @Henry Irving People have gone about a centre forward because Washington was let go, Burstow returned to Chelsea and Davison was sold. Three out None in Madness
Burstow was never a main striking option, he was only ever really a kid used in an emergency, so you could argue that Leaburn has replaced him already.
Davison wasn't here the second half of last season anyway.
We need to replace Washington.
Agree on all three points.
Now, the more important question: Why haven't we signed another defender? Madness if we don't, we've had all summer
Come come now @Henry Irving People have gone about a centre forward because Washington was let go, Burstow returned to Chelsea and Davison was sold. Three out None in Madness
Burstow was never a main striking option, he was only ever really a kid used in an emergency, so you could argue that Leaburn has replaced him already.
Davison wasn't here the second half of last season anyway.
We need to replace Washington.
We are playing a different system, to try to analyse/compare we would probably have to look at the ins and outs across LW, ST, RW. That is a fairer comparator.
For the comparison to deliver what we are looking for, ie goals, we need League 1 equivalents to Salah, Sterling, Mane, Mahrez etc. Too early to tell whether we have those in our locker…?
Can drive forward with the ball, supposed to be box to box but some argue he hides, inconsistent with minimal goals and assists.
Despite his performances will always have a section of the fan base who rate him highly.
Racon was far better than Gilbey.
Like I said there will always be a section of the fan base who rated him highly
Neither are/were good enough for a promotion chasing team. Racon had more skill on the ball but in terms of goals, assists and controlling a midfield he was ineffective for where we wanted to be, just as Gilbey is.
Get rid of Jaiyesimi and we are a winger light overall. Is it worth it to ensure we get the centre back we need? Probably when you consider Innis injury record. Shame, I don’t mind DJ would much rather see Gilbey moved on but it is what it is.
Come come now @Henry Irving People have gone about a centre forward because Washington was let go, Burstow returned to Chelsea and Davison was sold. Three out None in Madness
Why post the same thing every day?
Agree we need one but only two have gone in reality as Davison was out on loan in the second half of the season. We’re also playing 4-3-3 so don’t need as many out and out strikers.
You're arguing with people that count Burstow as leaving, but not Leaburn breaking through.
Don't mind DJ leaving if it allows Garner to bring in players he wants for his system.
Sounds like deals are already lined up, but need to offload players first.
I trust Garner' s judgement more than any other manager we've had for quite some time & really think he could take the club forward, so if he's happy to let anyone leave, that's good enough for me
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Mendonca was late twenties but helped us to promotion, so good value.
I hope I am wrong as we badly need someone else up front but my gut feeling is TS thinks we have enough.
Davison wasn't here the second half of last season anyway.
We need to replace Washington.
Now, the more important question: Why haven't we signed another defender? Madness if we don't, we've had all summer
😉
For the comparison to deliver what we are looking for, ie goals, we need League 1 equivalents to Salah, Sterling, Mane, Mahrez etc. Too early to tell whether we have those in our locker…?
So as I understand it it's either Stockton, McKirdy, Bright, Fuller or Racon who we're after?
Could be an aye from Nixon soon
Neither are/were good enough for a promotion chasing team. Racon had more skill on the ball but in terms of goals, assists and controlling a midfield he was ineffective for where we wanted to be, just as Gilbey is.
Sounds like deals are already lined up, but need to offload players first.
I trust Garner' s judgement more than any other manager we've had for quite some time & really think he could take the club forward, so if he's happy to let anyone leave, that's good enough for me