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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 17:01:39 GMT
I just hope Walters and Schuey are on the same page about the direction of travel.
And if Walters wants to go down the experienced road, and Schuey doesn't, who wins out?
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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 16:18:59 GMT
Are we opening up an old folks home for left backs? The fact Wherty mentioned him, who's pretty ITK, is scaring me a bit. But surely Schuey isn't going to allow Walters to bring in a busload of OAPs? He's got to coach them, not take them on day trips to Margate
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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 16:14:53 GMT
Slightly concerned with this sustained talk of Coady. Certainly seems there's something in it from the amount of mentions he's getting and the types we're said to be after If he cost £6-7m last summer, he's still worth £4-5m on their books and will no doubt be on massively top-end Champ money -and he's one who hasn't played regularly for 18 months, and maybe lacks a bit of pace and physicality - with the perception he's better in a back three too Obviously scores10/10 on the good character/leadership stuff that' been highlighted as something we're going to major on, but seems a massive premium for an early 30s player, albeit one with a good career Loan makes sense He's better quality than anyone else we would get Unless there is some relaxation of FFP rules? Yeah, loan makes more sense - and you'd think Leicester will have no use for him and there'll be little interest in a permanent deal with the finances involved. So could see it
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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 16:12:08 GMT
Slightly concerned with this sustained talk of Coady.
Certainly seems there's something in it from the amount of mentions he's getting and the types we're said to be after
If he cost £6-7m last summer, he's still worth £4-5m on their books and will no doubt be on massively top-end Champ money -and he's one who hasn't played regularly for 18 months, and maybe lacks a bit of pace and physicality - with the perception he's better in a back three too
Obviously scores10/10 on the good character/leadership stuff that' been highlighted as something we're going to major on, but seems a massive premium for an early 30s player, albeit one with a good career
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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 16:00:14 GMT
Pleased with Stevens getting another year If Pieters was a couple of years younger, you could maybe make a case, but he hasn't got near the WBA squad for a couple of months And surely at 36 in August, we won't be going in with a 70 year-old LB stable (although the bulk of Pieters' recent football seems to have been at centre-back) If Walters goes all-in on the good character/leadership/experience angle, who knows? But it'd potentially be a worry that was becoming too much of a driver. It'll be interesting to see if Schuey is fully on board if Walters keeps banging the drum for Champ-proven veterans. Presumably he has some kind of significant veto/voice in the direction and shape the squad will take?
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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 10:21:34 GMT
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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 7:35:03 GMT
Haven't seen any other mention of this - but if we're moving towards a more meat and potatoes domestic experience feel, maybe feasible if Jared's global wild card hunting is going to be a smaller chunk of the focus. Dickinson seems to be one of the last remaining survivors there of the Lowe/Schuey Bury contingent
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Post by FullerMagic on May 13, 2024 6:14:11 GMT
Interesting article from Pete Smith detailing the near-misses of last summer www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stoke-city-schumacher-neil-martin-9279967Neil held talks with Ellis Simms in Manchester but Everton’s asking price was getting out of hand and the striker went to Coventry, cash rich following the sale of Viktor Gyokeres. Haji Wright was on Stoke’s radar too and he ended up following Simms while there was a belief that Stoke had won the race for Jaden Philogene, who was spotted at Clayton Wood but ended up going to Hull. Stoke took up the offer of a subsidised deal for Aston Villa striker Wesley on a free transfer. It was a one-year contract apparently costing four times less than it would have taken to land another target man on their list, Kieffer Moore.
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Post by FullerMagic on May 12, 2024 20:38:42 GMT
Just checked the choice of words on the Brighton announcement on Joao Pedro, which was particularly early last season They announced they'd agreed the deal on May 5th Then had a secondary shirt-holding pic when the window officially opened on June 14th Same choice of words on Rob Dickie-Bristol City deal from last year www.bcfc.co.uk/news/city-sign-dickie/The defender has signed a three-year contract in BS3 until June 2026, with the option of a further 12 months, after completing a medical this morning. Twenty-seven-year-old Dickie will become a Bristol City player once the summer transfer window has officially opened on Wednesday, June 14th. It may be that other options could open up for him though, if Sheff Utd don't get the keeper Nixon claims they're after - or if Leeds stay in this league and firm things up. So you never know how long he could keep us waiiting....
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Post by FullerMagic on May 12, 2024 20:27:06 GMT
Could we sign him now with him being a free agent He's not a free agent, he's got 12 months left on his contract but he's got a relegation release clause of £1m, hence the interest from the likes of Sheff Utd and Leeds. Yeah, for some reason I was mentally thinking he was a Bosman due to the clause meaning Rotherham are effectively out of the picture and it's now just a case of him giving the nod to whichever club he wants to go to, all of who will pay the set fee Nothing stopping us from announcing the signing before the 'official' start of the window though, is there? Just a case of announcing the deal, then registering it officially on June 14th. Seem to remember Brighton announced the signing of Joao Pedro even before last season had finished
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Post by FullerMagic on May 12, 2024 16:54:22 GMT
theanalyst.com/eu/2023/08/championship-stats-2023-24-opta/He comes in joint 5th in Opta's goals prevented metric - behind Hermansen (Leic 6.7), Gunn (Norwich 6.6), Rushworth (Swans 6.3), Cooper (Plym 4.7) and level with Patterson (S'land 4.3) For what it's worth, Bonham actually scores well (2.6) Travers not so much (-0.4) ....and Iversen poor (-2.3) in about 25th or 26th of players with a decent chunk of minutes With Begovic really poor (-6.8) and the Soton keeper, Bazunu, by far the worst (-11.5)
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Post by FullerMagic on May 12, 2024 13:18:10 GMT
Just checking on when was the earliest we've announced a Bosman free transfer
We announced Bardsley on 22nd May, Darren Fletcher on June 1st and Diouf June 11th - all "effective at the end of their current deal on July 1st"
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Post by FullerMagic on May 12, 2024 13:10:13 GMT
Seems to be code for 'pretty much done'?
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Post by FullerMagic on May 12, 2024 7:58:38 GMT
We only have one wild card left now, right? Think some of last years wild cards now qualify so we actually have, I think, 3 wild cards I think analyticsfc.co.uk/blog/2023/06/21/introducing-esc-the-new-gbe-guidance-opens-up-recruitment-post-brexit/Looks like it's a max of 4 at any one time. And based on who we think were the wild cards.... Bae and Burger's seasons seem to mean that they no longer have to take up a wild card slot in 24/25 as they're now qualified through getting 15+ points on the checklist due to their Championship appearances. And with Wes gone, that leaves just Jojic. So we could potentially have 3 more slots if 35% of our team minutes have gone to English-qualified players (which may be a bit of a stretch given our lack of English-qualified players?) That reduces to a maximum 3 for 30%, 2 for 25% and 1 for 20%
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Post by FullerMagic on May 11, 2024 11:31:38 GMT
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 17:52:27 GMT
This was my initial thought and fear when Walters started babbling on about DNA of the club etc. Jared's foreign imports have been the highlight of a very stodgy season and if we bin that off for more domestic lottery tickets then we want shooting. I'm thinking we'll be talking to the likes of Coady and Liam Cooper etc. Yeah, it crossed my mind that he may instinctively be a bit of a Pulis disciple in terms of domestic recruitment. And can't see Jared being happy if they cut him off at the knees and go 100% in that direction. But it's all about balance - and if ever there was someone who saw first-hand the influence of some non-UK stardust, it's him with Nzonzi, Bojan, Muniesa, Arnie etc.
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 17:35:15 GMT
Interesting from Pete Smith and Rob Adcock - giving a definite whiff of Conor Coady and a general sense Walters is going to favour seasoned domestic players as the base for the likes of Bae and Million. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hx7fqc53:55 Pete Smith: "I don't think there'll be too many surprise names, in terms of players we've never heard of before. I think we've got those kind of exotic features in the squad now and you probably need the core behind them to give players like Bae Junho and Manhoef a platform to find their best form - a core of Championship, grizzled, battle-hardened players who can help Stoke perform" Rob Adcock: "The people that they've been speaking to - the ones that you know they have and I've been told they have are very experienced leaders - so I wouldn't be surprised if the people that do come in are people that you know - and people that are not top-tier Premier players - but solid, decent players that are leaders and captains. So what that means for the Stoke captaincy, we'll find out next season" Boooo. I wanted more Jared specials. Yeah - we'll see how it works out. Maybe room for another Jared special or two in the mix. Hopefully we don't retreat too far back into the domestic bubble. Not sure his appetite will be satisfied with a policy of English veterans, rather than exploring the Azerbaijan non-league.
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 17:22:15 GMT
Interesting from Pete Smith and Rob Adcock - giving a definite whiff of Conor Coady and a general sense Walters is going to favour seasoned domestic players as the base for the likes of Bae and Million. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hx7fqc53:55 Pete Smith: "I don't think there'll be too many surprise names, in terms of players we've never heard of before. I think we've got those kind of exotic features in the squad now and you probably need the core behind them to give players like Bae Junho and Manhoef a platform to find their best form - a core of Championship, grizzled, battle-hardened players who can help Stoke perform" Rob Adcock: "The people that they've been speaking to - the ones that you know they have and I've been told they have are very experienced leaders - so I wouldn't be surprised if the people that do come in are people that you know - and people that are not top-tier Premier players - but solid, decent players that are leaders and captains. So what that means for the Stoke captaincy, we'll find out next season"
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 16:40:23 GMT
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 16:13:43 GMT
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 13:02:11 GMT
Season highlights
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 12:13:17 GMT
Got to think it'd take more than a call from Jonny Walters and the promise of some Wiener Schnitzel oatcakes to tempt him. I’m assuming FFP would limit us from offering the mother of all signing on fees for him? Think you’re right FM, it’s going to take more than a Walter’s phone call to make it happen. But it’s a much better challenge that MLS or Saudi League, and I’d like to think there’s unfinished business, if that counts for anything. I’m still gonna file it into the ‘wildest dreams’ category. Yeah, FFP alone woulld seem to make it a pipe dream. Although I always wonder to what extent owners with more money than God could offer other incentives, in the way of yachts and Swiss bank accounts
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 12:04:45 GMT
Got to think it'd take more than a call from Jonny Walters and the promise of some Wiener Schnitzel oatcakes to tempt him.
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 12:01:24 GMT
Trying to picture Arnie's reaction if he read that, sitting on the last year of his £100k-a-week deal at Inter.
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 10:58:22 GMT
www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/england-euro-2024/to-make-the-squadwww.transfermarkt.co.uk/userkader/index/userkader/EM24(nice that you can pick the likes of Frankie Fielding, Ben Wilmot and Luke Cundle, although they just missed out for me! ) Just had a go at the squad selector thing on here. Quite tricky once you get beyond the initial 15 or 16 obvious ones. Eventually plumped for: Especially with big injury doubts over the likes of: Maguire - should be back in a fortnight Chilwell - unknown status, been out for weeks Shaw - back in training, chance to play before the end of the season James - back in training, chance to play before the end of the season Guehi - just back, came on as sub last game Colwill - back in the squad after 2 months out, on bench last game So potentially no place for Rashford, Maddison, Reece James, Henderson, Grealish, Gomez, Bowen, Dunk, Konsa, Colwill, Rico Lewis, Solanke, Sancho, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Tomori, Mount, Sterling I doubt he'll take a flier on Wharton (and maybe not Mainoo either?), although the deeper central midfield options look really few and far between - and he's looked a natural there - and amazed to see that people seem to be still expecting Henderson to get in I don't love Gallagher - but he gets in almost by virtue of there being nobody else Can't see how you can really take Maddison with his recent form. I like Bowen, but no point taking him when you're taking Saka and Palmer. Reece James is great, but maybe too much of a gamble injury-wise The fact Branthwaite didn't get on in the lasr international window probably means he won't make it, but can't see who else there is. Dier seems like a must-pick with his Bayern form and experience. Would he take both the injury-blighted Shaw and Chilwell (if fit) as he seems to like playing Trippier there. When you've got 26, may as well take the both the back-up strikers for a bit of variety - and Toney if we've got a shootout!
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Post by FullerMagic on May 10, 2024 8:16:14 GMT
Ireland speculated on by someone on twitter
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Post by FullerMagic on May 8, 2024 13:30:10 GMT
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Post by FullerMagic on May 8, 2024 12:09:06 GMT
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Post by FullerMagic on May 8, 2024 9:22:59 GMT
He got all their player of the year awards, but there seems to have been some debate about how much of a No.9 in a 4-3-3 he could be. Looks to have loads of potential though. I think he'd be too expensive to get permanently. How did Brum use him? Mixed bag I think, with some time wide and deeper - But mostly as the main striker. linklink
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Post by FullerMagic on May 8, 2024 9:01:29 GMT
Jay Stansfield I think is the one we will go for, relatively quick and mobile. am i imagining it or did we try for him last summer or in Jan, feel like we've been in mix before?, he'd be great A journo close to Brum said we were interested in hijacking his Brum loan in Jan. And Schuey was seen talking to him on the pitch after we beat them on Boxing Day. He got all their player of the year awards, but there seems to have been some debate about how much of a No.9 in a 4-3-3 he could be. Looks to have loads of potential though. I think he'd be too expensive to get permanently.
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