|
Post by wuzza on Jun 9, 2022 9:07:11 GMT
If he does sign, I think I’m going to go radical and judge him on how he plays for us. This will never catch on !! (and even if he is Beckenbauer reincarnated he will still be shit because it’s been decided)
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 8, 2022 7:35:35 GMT
Least surprising news of the day. Quite how so many have made such a mess of this for such a long time defies belief. Walsall have just managed a nice little takeover that on the face of it sets them in good stead - something that appears to have quite beyond anyone involved at DCFC.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 7, 2022 11:06:03 GMT
I’m sure you are right - although I think a really solid straight down the line side would prosper in this league. Couldn’t agree more about our recruitment , it always seems utterly random and ‘opportunistic’ to me. Also our ‘sights’ also seem to constantly lowering. It’s not a happy prospect to be honest - I can see another couple of decades of mediocrity looming large right now 😕 Most of the teams who get promoted are fairly fast and enterprising these days tbf. I'm certainly worried about next season, I could see us being right down there if we don't get our recruitment right. The Sentinel article covering this supposed interest said something along the lines of ‘Stoke having RETAINED their Championship status should be at an advantage’. This I thought summed up the current scenario completely - heaven help us.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 7, 2022 10:45:17 GMT
This is where I have my biggest issue with MON. ‘Creative’ Centre backs are pretty rare at our level and just because we have one who might be capable it doesn’t really justify building a system around them (eg last season after Harry’s injury). To me you win games from the back building around the solid foundations a Huth, Shawcross, Faye etc give you and add on the fiddley bits from there. Wing backs bug me for similar reasons , give me a Higginbottom type FULL back anytime. Opposition forwards used to play us thinking ‘this ain’t going to be a pleasant experience’ - now their only dilemma is which gap they are going to exploit first ! Faye was pretty good with the ball at his feet tbf. I also think the game has moved on even at this level from that 2008 blueprint. The best clubs in the division absolutely do have defenders who are good on the ball and attacking full backs, even if you're not playing out and out wing backs, are essential, they've become one of the most important positions of any good side. The main thing either way for us though is getting some kind of identity because little about our recruitment or team selection last season suggested we knew what kind of side we wanted to be. Flexibility is one thing, not knowing what you're doing is something else entirely. I’m sure you are right - although I think a really solid straight down the line side would prosper in this league. Couldn’t agree more about our recruitment , it always seems utterly random and ‘opportunistic’ to me. Also our ‘sights’ also seem to constantly lowering. It’s not a happy prospect to be honest - I can see another couple of decades of mediocrity looming large right now 😕
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 7, 2022 10:14:57 GMT
I know nothing about the player but your description of him doesn’t phase me at all. I would welcome an influx of defenders whose priority in life is to stop the other team scoring and are quite good at that straight forward task.. Admittedly this also requires a coaching set up that recognises this need rather than endless tip tapping the ball around at the back. It's fine if your game plan is to depend deep, but the suggestion is that's not what we want to do and that we want to play a possession-based game. Given one of the reasons why the wheels came off last season was that Souttar driving forward with the ball was one of the key ways we'd start attacks off, and that the defensive recruitments in January clearly had that in mind as well, you'd hope, if it's still the plan, we'd be looking for that kind of player again? If we're going to persist with playing out from the back and trying to have a high line, signing another Danny Batth isn't going to get us anywhere. This is where I have my biggest issue with MON. ‘Creative’ Centre backs are pretty rare at our level and just because we have one who might be capable it doesn’t really justify building a system around them (eg last season after Harry’s injury). To me you win games from the back building around the solid foundations a Huth, Shawcross, Faye etc give you and add on the fiddley bits from there. Wing backs bug me for similar reasons , give me a Higginbottom type FULL back anytime. Opposition forwards used to play us thinking ‘this ain’t going to be a pleasant experience’ - now their only dilemma is which gap they are going to exploit first !
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 7, 2022 9:34:41 GMT
I can see some sense in it would be sensible to have cover for Jags & Souttar, especially as Souts is feeling his way back in from injury + he's a real threat in the box from Corners, something we haven't capitalised upon It still seems remarkably scattergun though doesn't it? Do we want to play with at least a couple of defenders who can bring the ball out of defence, given how pivotal Souttar was/will be in doing precisely this? Do we want the option of playing a high line, in which case we'll need at least one mobile defender who can cover for Souttar's lack of pace when he's back? This guy doesn't seem like either, he sounds like another muck and bullets, meat and potatoes, bollock and brain basic type. Assuming there's anything in it of course, which there may well not be. I know nothing about the player but your description of him doesn’t phase me at all. I would welcome an influx of defenders whose priority in life is to stop the other team scoring and are quite good at that straight forward task.. Admittedly this also requires a coaching set up that recognises this need rather than endless tip tapping the ball around at the back.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 2, 2022 9:12:46 GMT
Despite subscribing to the general view that anyone over 30 wearing a replica shirt needs to have a word with themselves ......I have a primeval urge to buy that away shirt 😳 It’s rather smashing.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 1, 2022 14:24:44 GMT
I think it looks very good - only problem for me is that it reminds me of some of the strips we had during a fairly horrific period in the 90s.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on Jun 1, 2022 7:23:58 GMT
There's no excuse. They're not billionaires for nothing. If they wanted to find loopholes and ways to get around FFP they could. They could also use their (Best365) influence to get us bigger sponsorship and merchandising deals. They could modernise the stadium, the facilities and the surrounding area. There are loads of ways to increase revenue and spending power, and they have a significant advantage over most other club owners in that they have the means to do it. I have some sympathy with this view - there must also be loads of ways to make SCFC a more attractive prospect to potential signings than most other Championship clubs if you have the backing of billionaires. It’s a bit lazy to claim that FFP means that everyone is lumped together as equals.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 31, 2022 11:56:22 GMT
The Championship is crazy - success often depends on who comes out with the best loans and even then its difficult to predict which of those is going to be effective. Buy a lottery ticket - more chance than predicting anything in this league!
|
|
|
Money
May 29, 2022 15:26:05 GMT
Post by wuzza on May 29, 2022 15:26:05 GMT
I would love Rick Parry or the like to explain to me the benefits of stopping clubs that have funds ‘sharing’ the wealth with others. How many other leagues tell billionaires to take their filthy lucre elsewhere ??
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 28, 2022 10:00:31 GMT
Looks like Norwich will be up there again and especially with new investment It’s often over looked but the Norwich supporter base is very good - always impressive numbers. Perhaps it’s because they are more civilised than your average crowd 🙂
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 27, 2022 9:55:57 GMT
We probably have a drawer full of ‘wooden spoon’ trophies somewhere - including the very select 1888 original !
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 25, 2022 17:07:50 GMT
0 out of 10 for general football - it’s all deeply predictable and as I wish nothing but ill to all the usual suspects who win things I tend not to watch any games but just scan the results. Stoke - started at the usual 10 but had waned to about a 5 by the last dozen or so games of the season.
As a young man I never understood older relatives who had had a keen interest in the game but who moved on in their later years - now I understand totally.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 25, 2022 12:13:46 GMT
Anyone wishing to take a moral stand can simply cancel their Sky/BT etc subscription and start watching local grass roots football. Done (2013) I still pay but I have to agree it’s nowt to do with the football they offer - I couldn’t care less who wins 99% of the games they show. Sadly two other sports I love are dependant on Sky for the money to pay their participants a decent salary.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 25, 2022 10:15:08 GMT
Anyone wishing to take a moral stand can simply cancel their Sky/BT etc subscription and start watching local grass roots football.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 24, 2022 18:08:38 GMT
I think people really have to lose this phobia about players pushing 30 - with modern training and medical advances previously healthy players are not in the knackers yard at 32 - and if you can get 3 or 4 years out of any player it’s a good deal.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 24, 2022 18:02:31 GMT
Good luck to the young man - let’s hope he develops a successful career even if it’s not at his boyhood club.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 24, 2022 13:56:49 GMT
It’s certainly the game I’ve discussed the most with the legions of glory hunting scallies that populate my local 😀
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 23, 2022 8:56:32 GMT
It will , as normal , be much of a muchness. If any team has a degree of quality they will waltz it as per Fulham. Other than that it will be the best organised , best motivated , most pragmatic and luckiest with injuries that are up there.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 20, 2022 7:24:35 GMT
It’s not just the Vale but sport used to be about winning and losing with a bit of style and dignity - now it’s just a rather depressing mix of hubris and aggression. I’m afraid the clubs and media always ramp it up too and then when it all gets nasty, as it invariably does, they hold their hands up and claim its not their fault it’s just Society.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 20, 2022 6:52:23 GMT
Bit of a quiet one for the Coates’s - thought it would have been up to double figures this year ! What a good job the EFL is doing by stopping them spending it and putting some much needed cash into their Leagues !!!! 😠
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 19, 2022 18:56:39 GMT
Liking the Man City shirt a lot - real 70s throwback.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 19, 2022 12:45:18 GMT
I have zero to back it up - just a subjective impression I have always had about him 🙂 I guess he has had the misfortune to play in some fairly ineffective teams in his time here which hasn’t done him any favours. I’ve never known a supporter base like ours for being suspicious of creative players. For me he’s been more consistent for us than Joe Allen ever has. To be fair I was in awe of Alan Hudson as a youngster .......but then again Pej was my favourite player so I probably am a bit guilty.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 19, 2022 12:09:32 GMT
I don’t view Powell as being overly consistent (stats will probably tell me I’m wrong) and certainly not a man who takes a game by the scruff of the neck as his ability suggests he could but there we go. Certainly agree that our overseas scouting seems at best sketchy at worst non existent. I’m not sure that it’s not just our playing style and tactics that leave me feeling the midfield is always vulnerable but there’s definitely something that doesn’t click far too often - and that’s me as a big fan of Joe speaking. Compared to which players in his position though? Again he creates chances, he’s a regular source of goals, which number 10s are ‘taking the game by the scruff of the neck’, and how so? I have zero to back it up - just a subjective impression I have always had about him 🙂 I guess he has had the misfortune to play in some fairly ineffective teams in his time here which hasn’t done him any favours.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 19, 2022 10:31:08 GMT
In my simplistic world the analysis of Vrancic, Sawyers , Powell etc boils down to one problem - all are very good at this level on their day but their day doesn’t happen regularly enough and all are capable of absolutely disappearing from a game far too often. The obvious argument is that if they were consistent they would be playing at a higher level given their basic talent but the fact remains that in the Champ you need some reliable 7/10ers that you can build every performance around and we simply don’t have enough of them. Don’t think it gets much more consistent than Powell at this level to be honest. His goal return suggests that, as did our chances created stats falling through the floor after he got injured, as did Tachyon’s analysis of him in the Sentinel the other week. If we’re talking about a creative player who is at the top of his game delivering every single week, you need either a better developed, wider searching, imaginative scouting system, like the one that unearthed Buendia for Norwich from the Spanish second division, or you need to start the bidding at £20-£30m. I don’t view Powell as being overly consistent (stats will probably tell me I’m wrong) and certainly not a man who takes a game by the scruff of the neck as his ability suggests he could but there we go. Certainly agree that our overseas scouting seems at best sketchy at worst non existent. I’m not sure that it’s not just our playing style and tactics that leave me feeling the midfield is always vulnerable but there’s definitely something that doesn’t click far too often - and that’s me as a big fan of Joe speaking.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 19, 2022 7:20:41 GMT
In my simplistic world the analysis of Vrancic, Sawyers , Powell etc boils down to one problem - all are very good at this level on their day but their day doesn’t happen regularly enough and all are capable of absolutely disappearing from a game far too often. The obvious argument is that if they were consistent they would be playing at a higher level given their basic talent but the fact remains that in the Champ you need some reliable 7/10ers that you can build every performance around and we simply don’t have enough of them.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 18, 2022 9:13:59 GMT
One day the message will get through that attending a football match is not a licence to indulge in moronic behaviour - but I doubt I will live long enough to see it.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 17, 2022 15:52:47 GMT
I was working in Manchester the day after their visit - total bombsite. I remember Celtic going to Old Trafford. Thousands got off at Crewe/Nantwich etc caused the traffic to come to a standstill, packed the pubs etc but the slightest hint of trouble or vandalism etc. Far worse than Rangers though apparently 😄 A work colleague in Manchester that day was a Paisley girl from a Rangers family and she said she had never been so embarrassed seeing the stuff that was going on in the city centre on the match day.
|
|
|
Post by wuzza on May 17, 2022 15:17:23 GMT
I’m sure it’s been said before but when this guy is considered a ‘saviour’ you know your in trouble.
|
|