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Post by The Toxic Avenger on Mar 16, 2023 9:32:50 GMT
I can't even recall who the last loanee was that we would have wanted to keep. I'd want to keep Pearson and Sterling who seem attainable Hoever and Sarkic on another season long loan. I'd like to see Powell play in place of Smallbone a few times before the end of the season, as well as he has played recently I still think Nick is better at everything than Smallbone other than staying fit. Sterling maybe given he is out of contract. If Bournemouth stay up they might want to offload Pearson but if they come down why the hell would they want to sell the ideal Championship player when they have more expensive assets to offload? Sarkic's injury record is a concern and we simply have to have a permenant first choice goal keeper - teams tend to loan backup keepers, not first choice. However sees himself as a top player - he'll either want to prove himself at Wolves or go to a higher profile club, possibly in Europe. Smallbone is going to have the sort of career Powell will never have - way better player. Powell will be gone at the end of the season - I wouldn't even be surprised to see him retire - with his injury record his options are going to be limited to clubs willing to take a punt. Other than a wave good bye there's no point playing him - he's not part of the future. I don’t think Smallbone is a better player than Powell in the least but he’s a much better fit for this system and that’s the main thing. We finally now have a team capable of creating and scoring regularly without Powell, which is a blessed relief and something we’ve needed for a long time. Pre-AN, losing Powell was looking like a very damaging blow and that has now been minimised very shrewdly.
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Mar 16, 2023 10:15:41 GMT
Sterling maybe given he is out of contract. If Bournemouth stay up they might want to offload Pearson but if they come down why the hell would they want to sell the ideal Championship player when they have more expensive assets to offload? Sarkic's injury record is a concern and we simply have to have a permenant first choice goal keeper - teams tend to loan backup keepers, not first choice. However sees himself as a top player - he'll either want to prove himself at Wolves or go to a higher profile club, possibly in Europe. Smallbone is going to have the sort of career Powell will never have - way better player. Powell will be gone at the end of the season - I wouldn't even be surprised to see him retire - with his injury record his options are going to be limited to clubs willing to take a punt. Other than a wave good bye there's no point playing him - he's not part of the future. I don’t think Smallbone is a better player than Powell in the least but he’s a much better fit for this system and that’s the main thing. We finally now have a team capable of creating and scoring regularly without Powell, which is a blessed relief and something we’ve needed for a long time. Pre-AN, losing Powell was looking like a very damaging blow and that has now been minimised very shrewdly. In terms of raw talent Powell probably edges it but to be a top player you need more - and Smallbone seems to have that and Powell doesn't. For such a talented player Powell has had a pretty poor career and given his age and injury record he's probably peaked. Smallbone was keeping Powell out of the team, has got better and better and is no where near his peak. As it stands the CV's of Powell and Smallbone will end up worlds apart.
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Post by bayernoatcake on Mar 16, 2023 10:17:24 GMT
Yet Powell has 1 more goal from about half less games.
It's a concern but he's learning. Will his finishing improve? Who knows.
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Post by clarkeda on Mar 16, 2023 10:20:52 GMT
Yet Powell has 1 more goal from about half less games. It's a concern but he's learning. Will his finishing improve? Who knows. He deffo needs to score me, he could and probably should have had 5in 2 or 5in 3 in the last batch of games.
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Post by jimmygscfc1234 on Mar 16, 2023 10:30:47 GMT
Powell would have scored in both the last two games I'm sure of it. Smallbone had more than one opportunity each time.
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Post by The Toxic Avenger on Mar 16, 2023 10:37:43 GMT
I don’t think Smallbone is a better player than Powell in the least but he’s a much better fit for this system and that’s the main thing. We finally now have a team capable of creating and scoring regularly without Powell, which is a blessed relief and something we’ve needed for a long time. Pre-AN, losing Powell was looking like a very damaging blow and that has now been minimised very shrewdly. In terms of raw talent Powell probably edges it but to be a top player you need more - and Smallbone seems to have that and Powell doesn't. For such a talented player Powell has had a pretty poor career and given his age and injury record he's probably peaked. Smallbone was keeping Powell out of the team, has got better and better and is no where near his peak. As it stands the CV's of Powell and Smallbone will end up worlds apart. I think it’s a bit soon to be hailing Smallbone as a top player tbh, he’s had a very good run lately and is absolutely key to how Neil’s system works, which is a big part of why he was keeping Powell out and also a credit to his own improvement. A fit Powell is one of the best players in the division still, the issue is that he struggles to stay fit. They’re very different players in terms of their style and Smallbone’s suits what Neil is looking for better, I think that’s undeniable. But in terms of quality I think Powell has a fair bit more.
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Post by Staffsoatcake on Mar 16, 2023 10:50:22 GMT
Powell may have the talent, but it means nothing if you miss most of the season injured.
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Post by cvillestokie on Mar 16, 2023 10:53:27 GMT
In terms of raw talent Powell probably edges it but to be a top player you need more - and Smallbone seems to have that and Powell doesn't. For such a talented player Powell has had a pretty poor career and given his age and injury record he's probably peaked. Smallbone was keeping Powell out of the team, has got better and better and is no where near his peak. As it stands the CV's of Powell and Smallbone will end up worlds apart. I think it’s a bit soon to be hailing Smallbone as a top player tbh, he’s had a very good run lately and is absolutely key to how Neil’s system works, which is a big part of why he was keeping Powell out and also a credit to his own improvement. A fit Powell is one of the best players in the division still, the issue is that he struggles to stay fit. They’re very different players in terms of their style and Smallbone’s suits what Neil is looking for better, I think that’s undeniable. But in terms of quality I think Powell has a fair bit more. Powell was better. There’s no way of knowing what he’d be like in a sustained run now. He’s been out for almost two seasons. Most of his appearances this year have been in stops and starts or from the bench. I’m kind of tired of reading his name to be honest. He’s finished here.
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Post by leesandfordstoupe on Mar 16, 2023 11:28:06 GMT
Sterling maybe given he is out of contract. If Bournemouth stay up they might want to offload Pearson but if they come down why the hell would they want to sell the ideal Championship player when they have more expensive assets to offload? Sarkic's injury record is a concern and we simply have to have a permenant first choice goal keeper - teams tend to loan backup keepers, not first choice. However sees himself as a top player - he'll either want to prove himself at Wolves or go to a higher profile club, possibly in Europe. Smallbone is going to have the sort of career Powell will never have - way better player. Powell will be gone at the end of the season - I wouldn't even be surprised to see him retire - with his injury record his options are going to be limited to clubs willing to take a punt. Other than a wave good bye there's no point playing him - he's not part of the future. I don’t think Smallbone is a better player than Powell in the least but he’s a much better fit for this system and that’s the main thing. We finally now have a team capable of creating and scoring regularly without Powell, which is a blessed relief and something we’ve needed for a long time. Pre-AN, losing Powell was looking like a very damaging blow and that has now been minimised very shrewdly. I don't think he's a better player than Powell, as I've said if he's a better player what aspect of the game is he actually better at?
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Post by leesandfordstoupe on Mar 16, 2023 11:31:47 GMT
I think it’s a bit soon to be hailing Smallbone as a top player tbh, he’s had a very good run lately and is absolutely key to how Neil’s system works, which is a big part of why he was keeping Powell out and also a credit to his own improvement. A fit Powell is one of the best players in the division still, the issue is that he struggles to stay fit. They’re very different players in terms of their style and Smallbone’s suits what Neil is looking for better, I think that’s undeniable. But in terms of quality I think Powell has a fair bit more. Powell was better. There’s no way of knowing what he’d be like in a sustained run now. He’s been out for almost two seasons. Most of his appearances this year have been in stops and starts or from the bench. I’m kind of tired of reading his name to be honest. He’s finished here. Unless you have some inside information you don't know whether that is true or not and what you're tired of is irrelevent. I suspect your incling is correct but until it happens shall continue to hope for it to be wrong.
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Post by leesandfordstoupe on Mar 16, 2023 11:42:11 GMT
I don’t think Smallbone is a better player than Powell in the least but he’s a much better fit for this system and that’s the main thing. We finally now have a team capable of creating and scoring regularly without Powell, which is a blessed relief and something we’ve needed for a long time. Pre-AN, losing Powell was looking like a very damaging blow and that has now been minimised very shrewdly. In terms of raw talent Powell probably edges it but to be a top player you need more - and Smallbone seems to have that and Powell doesn't. For such a talented player Powell has had a pretty poor career and given his age and injury record he's probably peaked. Smallbone was keeping Powell out of the team, has got better and better and is no where near his peak. As it stands the CV's of Powell and Smallbone will end up worlds apart. And as things stand Powell may be a realistic option for next season and Smallbone may not.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2023 11:43:15 GMT
I am not convinced our forward line leaves a lot to be desired .
We don't have a target man ( a brereton Diaz , Akpom , Ashley Barnes, oli McBurnie an Andy Carroll)
If we had one of the target men our championship rivals have, we can only guess how Campbell and brown, would be playing off them
I think they would be fine, playing off any of those
Unfortunately they are lumbered with Dwight Gayle. I suggest we judge them , when they have someone to play off
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Post by spiderpuss on Mar 16, 2023 11:44:43 GMT
Much better than originally expected. The keeper swap seemed a bit pointless - we signed two players both declared as unfit and both lengthy outages. We'd also managed to alienate one of strikers by sacking his dad, which again didn't come across as the best move ever. Fast forward to now and things look a lot better. What we've seen of Sarkic is much better than we have. Pearson, Tuanzebe, Sterling, Hoever have all be shown to be excellent at this level - plus it's had the knock on effect of improvements elsewhere. Celina hasn't shown yet but there's still time.
I didn't see this coming I must admit and thought we would be bumming around with Hudders and Blackie. Hoping we'd pick up points in our busy April. Win Saturday and we can start to plan for next term already.
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Post by cvillestokie on Mar 16, 2023 12:27:31 GMT
Powell was better. There’s no way of knowing what he’d be like in a sustained run now. He’s been out for almost two seasons. Most of his appearances this year have been in stops and starts or from the bench. I’m kind of tired of reading his name to be honest. He’s finished here. Unless you have some inside information you don't know whether that is true or not and what you're tired of is irrelevent. I suspect your incling is correct but until it happens shall continue to hope for it to be wrong. Why would anyone even consider a top earner who gets paid to do something he’s not physically capable of doing to be a worthwhile consideration? Powell doesn’t play as an 8, so we’d have to change the one formation this season that was worked. His body is wrecked again, so we’d have to wrap him in cotton wool and hope he gets through breakfast.
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Post by leesandfordstoupe on Mar 16, 2023 12:31:08 GMT
Unless you have some inside information you don't know whether that is true or not and what you're tired of is irrelevent. I suspect your incling is correct but until it happens shall continue to hope for it to be wrong. Why would anyone even consider a top earner who gets paid to do something he’s not physically capable of doing to be a worthwhile consideration? Powell doesn’t play as an 8, so we’d have to change the one formation this season that was worked. His body is wrecked again, so we’d have to wrap him in cotton wool and hope he gets through breakfast. The answer has already been posted, because when fit he's one of the top players in the division. I completely agree you can't hang your hat on him but it's not something you give up lightly.
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Post by cvillestokie on Mar 16, 2023 12:34:15 GMT
Why would anyone even consider a top earner who gets paid to do something he’s not physically capable of doing to be a worthwhile consideration? Powell doesn’t play as an 8, so we’d have to change the one formation this season that was worked. His body is wrecked again, so we’d have to wrap him in cotton wool and hope he gets through breakfast. The answer has already been posted, because when fit he's one of the top players in the division. I completely agree you can't hang your hat on him but it's not something you give up lightly. I didn’t give it up lightly. I gave it up in full in January after he remains out still. He’s one of the best players in this division in a 10, a position we don’t use. It’s a waste of a wage.
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Mar 16, 2023 12:34:22 GMT
In terms of raw talent Powell probably edges it but to be a top player you need more - and Smallbone seems to have that and Powell doesn't. For such a talented player Powell has had a pretty poor career and given his age and injury record he's probably peaked. Smallbone was keeping Powell out of the team, has got better and better and is no where near his peak. As it stands the CV's of Powell and Smallbone will end up worlds apart. And as things stand Powell may be a realistic option for next season and Smallbone may not. I agree we need someone to play that linking role and we aren't going to prise Smallbone from Southampton but Powell's injury record makes him a very flakey option for such a key role. It's also clear Neil doesn't rate him - I'd be gob smacked if we offer him a new deal.
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Mar 16, 2023 12:43:09 GMT
The context of the window was that we needed signings to avoid getting dragged into a relegation battle. We’ve not only done that but we finally have some balance and momentum. Yes it hasn’t solved any of the rebuilding issues in the summer but I don’t think it was ever going to. The January window is generally about a short term fix to get you over the line for whatever you’re aiming for, and in that context it’s gone about as well as it could have, really. Completely agree. What I don't get is why people are trying to rate the window in terms of a squad rebuild and our prospects for next season. In those terms we haven't progressed one little bit but as you say that was never the aim. The strategy seemed to be to save the money for the summer and cobble together a team good enough to avoid relegation and in those terms it's been a success.
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Post by leesandfordstoupe on Mar 16, 2023 13:00:26 GMT
And as things stand Powell may be a realistic option for next season and Smallbone may not. I agree we need someone to play that linking role and we aren't going to prise Smallbone from Southampton but Powell's injury record makes him a very flakey option for such a key role. It's also clear Neil doesn't rate him - I'd be gob smacked if we offer him a new deal. I'd be surprised myself doesn't stop me thinking it's the right thing to do. He's a real difference maker when fit and I still don't think that there is anything Smallbone does that Nick doesn't do better. I know AN doesn't agree but given a choice between a fit Powell and a fit Smallbone I'd take Powell everyday.
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Post by leesandfordstoupe on Mar 16, 2023 13:09:13 GMT
The context of the window was that we needed signings to avoid getting dragged into a relegation battle. We’ve not only done that but we finally have some balance and momentum. Yes it hasn’t solved any of the rebuilding issues in the summer but I don’t think it was ever going to. The January window is generally about a short term fix to get you over the line for whatever you’re aiming for, and in that context it’s gone about as well as it could have, really. Completely agree. What I don't get is why people are trying to rate the window in terms of a squad rebuild and our prospects for next season. In those terms we haven't progressed one little bit but as you say that was never the aim. The strategy seemed to be to save the money for the summer and cobble together a team good enough to avoid relegation and in those terms it's been a success. I don't think you can catergorically say that until we know what becomes of the loans. If some of them become permanent or indeed comeback to us on loan again next season it casts a different light on the window just gone. If however non of that happens then yes it was just a cheap short term stop gap, we kept our powder dry and we start from a very low base at the end of the season. In hindsight whichever it is it's a whole lot better than how I viewed it when the window had just closed, even more surprisingly it's been good to watch.
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Post by thebet365 on Mar 16, 2023 15:33:23 GMT
Considering the restraints we were under in January he's pulled off a near perfect window.
Believing everything at face value we hit January over budget so had to ship someone out just to get back in budget which Bursik took care of. We then could only bring in players if we could send other loanees back or sell someone else and considering our form at the time we'd not really got anyone of value other than Souttar. So the shuffling of loanees has been pretty much spot on.
The 1 blot is the Souttar saga, If it's true that Leicester only came in with a concrete offer on the Monday then the only thing you could say we did wrong was not rejecting it, but then we wouldn't have Pearson here now.
The deal got done so late there was no chance of permanents coming in so with both hands tied behind his back AN has managed to change the backbone of the side which in turn has brought on Laurent/Smallbone & Cambell.
I really can't fault the window considering the FFP shackles, until 2 hours before the deadline we were literally sitting with a begging bowl in our hands.
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Mar 16, 2023 16:49:02 GMT
Completely agree. What I don't get is why people are trying to rate the window in terms of a squad rebuild and our prospects for next season. In those terms we haven't progressed one little bit but as you say that was never the aim. The strategy seemed to be to save the money for the summer and cobble together a team good enough to avoid relegation and in those terms it's been a success. I don't think you can catergorically say that until we know what becomes of the loans. If some of them become permanent or indeed comeback to us on loan again next season it casts a different light on the window just gone. If however non of that happens then yes it was just a cheap short term stop gap, we kept our powder dry and we start from a very low base at the end of the season. In hindsight whichever it is it's a whole lot better than how I viewed it when the window had just closed, even more surprisingly it's been good to watch. Of course I can't categorically say none of the loanees will sign - what I can categorically say is that as things stand they are all due to go back to their respective clubs in May. It is those who are saying we will sign some of them who are speculating, not me. I think the window was a success in terms of avoiding relegation and saving our money until the summer. In terms of actually squad building it has achieved nothing - but that was not the intention anyway. And yes I agree the football has become a good watch.
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Post by chumley on Mar 16, 2023 16:49:36 GMT
If Souttar can play in the Prem, Tuanzebe will have no problem once fully fit. Got 2 mates who are Villa season ticket holders, i asked them what he was like and answer was F***g brilliant. Obviously he had time on loan at Villa.
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Post by chumley on Mar 16, 2023 16:51:11 GMT
probably best to revisit this thread in September re Celina, we simply haven't seen enough of him yet, perhaps we won't either unless there's another injury Seen enough to form the opinion he's not physical enough for the type of football we're playing. Bit of a luxury type player for me but agree not good enough.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2023 17:38:02 GMT
I think Celina was signed before Pearson became available maybe still with 352 in mind where we had two sitters and one floaty 10 type.
The signing of Pearson has allowed us to change shape and made Celina pretty much redundant. He's definitely not a wide player or a hard running 8.
If Powell gets fit I think his only minutes will be as a Gayle replacement or late sub for Smallbone/Laurent.
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Post by Staffsoatcake on Mar 16, 2023 21:59:25 GMT
Pearson, those 2 fuck ups v Millwall & Boro, could it have anything to do with him playing for Bournemouth, where they have tried to con Refs for years?
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Post by The Toxic Avenger on Mar 17, 2023 6:21:04 GMT
Pearson, those 2 fuck ups v Millwall & Boro, could it have anything to do with him playing for Bournemouth, where they have tried to con Refs for years? No.
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Mar 17, 2023 9:18:17 GMT
I agree we need someone to play that linking role and we aren't going to prise Smallbone from Southampton but Powell's injury record makes him a very flakey option for such a key role. It's also clear Neil doesn't rate him - I'd be gob smacked if we offer him a new deal. I'd be surprised myself doesn't stop me thinking it's the right thing to do. He's a real difference maker when fit and I still don't think that there is anything Smallbone does that Nick doesn't do better. I know AN doesn't agree but given a choice between a fit Powell and a fit Smallbone I'd take Powell everyday. What exactly is the point of wanting to retain a player you know the manager doesn't rate? It's just wasting a place in the squad.
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Post by CBUFAWKIPWH on Mar 17, 2023 9:22:42 GMT
Pearson, those 2 fuck ups v Millwall & Boro, could it have anything to do with him playing for Bournemouth, where they have tried to con Refs for years? No. On both occasions there was an element of play acting - so the Bournemouth association with cheating may have some merit. Wherever it comes from I hope he stops it - it's embarrassing and in those cases ineffective.
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Post by GeneralFaye on Mar 17, 2023 9:22:50 GMT
Even if we don't get the loan players back next season you'd like to think we now have identified the type of player we need for next season. Its been blatantly obvious to us fans for years but I guess it's better late than never when it comes to those in the positions to do something about it.
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