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Reply | Won't be getting Hackney
at 20:53 27 Jul 2025
In a way it could be more likely now. Surely this is a last big attempt to drum up other options. Boro will want it over too, and for the most cash, and if there are no other options I'm sure his agent will console himself with us buying him and will take his slice. |
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Reply | Stiker linked.
at 09:40 27 Jul 2025
He'd never cross over to this level, even if it was to save us. |
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Reply | So then. Hirst v morsy in the car park
at 09:27 27 Jul 2025
I'm not so sure on it definitely being Morsy. Hirst is 6ft 3in and Morsy 5ft 9in, I know Morsy is solid and feisty, but Hirst is a big lad. He'd have a decent chance. |
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Reply | Ashley Young - medical completed...
at 16:10 23 Jul 2025
I started to get a bit pessimistic about this signing, foolishly agreeing with some on here. But on reflection I think it could be a masterstroke. Town were blown away by the pace and power of the premier league and this guy at 39 was up there with his clubs best performers, more than holding his own. Now stepping down to the championship, and probably not demanded to play every minute of every game, he should still knock it out of the park, and bring a lot more besides to the party. And only a year so nothing to lose really.
Welcome aboard Ashley. Hope he smashes it. |
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Reply | Latte Lath
at 16:04 23 Jul 2025
That is an obvious answer but at what point could we have given an unproven raw punt from abroad 25 starts and 40 appearances in one season, in the last few years?
In a funny kind of way we're in our best position since McKenna took over to get in this type of signing, although even now, with squad numbers and requirements would we have space? Probably a third striker instead of AAH, but not much room elsewhere and rightly so. At the moment we need proven players to at least some degree, nice as it would be to find the next few amazing cheap talents.
I suppose if they're younger than 21 they may not count in the squad numbers, I forget the exact rules. |
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Reply | Crystal Palace confident of signing Hackney
at 20:15 22 Jul 2025
It's definitely a balance but is that actually happening? Who do we know we've missed out on? It's a horrible game of poker and we're watching on with only half the knowledge. Shirley it's not that straightforward? McKenna saying feck it I'm putting all my money on a to hell with b c d e and f? It's ten different targets with different chains and proposals. I'm sure there are times we'll mess it up but it's risk Vs reward.
I'm crap at poker and would have folded way early on too, but then I'm not manager/ CEO of a football club trying to get back into the toughest league in the world, they are, so I'll try and just trust them! |
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Reply | Crystal Palace confident of signing Hackney
at 19:09 22 Jul 2025
How exactly do we know who to buy then? Should we just buy a load of obviously available players as soon as the window opens?
Genuinely, which players that have gone to other clubs and would have gone to us should we have signed?
And would you or others be just as moany about having lower calibre players once the season is properly up and running? Wouldn't say we should have aimed higher?
It's clearly a balance, and maybe we'll miss out on every single potential great target, but well also gain a few of much higher quality than just making do with the low hanging fruit. |
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Reply | Xhaka to Sunderland
at 18:59 22 Jul 2025
Yeah, it's a tricky one. They've spent a similar amount on a similar amount of players by the looks of it, so are their players going to play better in the prem than ours did? I do like the implied flair of foreign buys, but plenty of teams have shown it can be just as big a disaster. And as you say they are possibly less resilient long term if they go down, so it's definitely a big gamble. |
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Reply | Xhaka to Sunderland
at 17:52 22 Jul 2025
Interesting. Fair play to them. They're 'giving it a go', just like we did. That puts them on roughly similar spend to our total, at about £120 million, on 7 players. Will that be enough to have quality through the squad? I'd love them to give it a go, but the realist part of me thinks they'll be quite a bit short, like us. |
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Reply | Len McCluskey
at 17:20 22 Jul 2025
What's that phrase about power and corruption?
Greed and power will equal corruption left or right leaning. |
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Reply | Does the level of academy talent in the squad in recent years worry you?
at 07:44 21 Jul 2025
Equally it hasn't been that bad, depending on the metric. Maybe we haven't had a team made up of youth players coming through, or even a steady flow to the first team, but we have had plenty who have played a chunk of league football, been poached by bigger clubs and a few that played for us or above. And thats in a period seen as lacking in investment or interest in our youth players. |
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Reply | If we get £40m for Omari that is a quite brilliant bit of business from Ashton
at 19:16 19 Jul 2025
I don't fully understand your view point. I get that the game has changed, but you seem to have changed your thinking and made it about profit and loss and finances exclusively, and then not evolved the rest. Back in the day did you evaluate the profit/ loss on I dunno, Steve sedgley, or Mauricio Taricco to pluck random examples out of the ether?! Did you specifically figure out the absolute profit and sustainability and what the club managed to get out of the deal? Seems strange to change your analysis on one hand but not the other. Either the whole games changed or it hasn't. We all agree it has, but you seem to only want to use it to moan or make it all sound negative in our dealings that you wouldn't have dreamt of doing in the 'good old days.' |
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Reply | Lessons from last year
at 10:19 19 Jul 2025
Was it? Really? The KEY message? Not the vast gaps in quality, the fact that 3 going up came straight back down, the many clubs we played with multiple £30 million players on their bench, the impossible to bridge gaps in one or two transfer windows. All would have been fine if we'd have got similar, potentially lesser players in earlier and gelled?
Obviously a little facetious but come on! It's a gamble, a balance and I would definitely say it hasn't always worked, but I think it's almost a necessity to some extent with the current way the transfer market is. Maybe a balance and we potentially get someone in around now who is solid but less inspiring? Would the fans be happier with that, would McKenna ultimately be disappointed, wondering what if, would he have to limit his ways of playing. It's all linked and just demanding all business gets done and dusted early has many drawbacks as well as some positives. [Post edited 19 Jul 10:20]
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Reply | Sargent
at 23:43 18 Jul 2025
Let's not make it a complete love in. Looking on the transfer websites for the last few seasons and it's hardly all rosy. Obviously they've had some good success in patches but some dross too, and have spent a lot more than I realised. |
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Reply | 3 weeks to the season opener
at 10:56 18 Jul 2025
But it's all interlinked. I know it's nerve wracking as fans, but we simply can't have everything the way we want it. People are pushing the two things together, when it's pretty much have a squad sorted now and ready for the first game and it be a lesser squad with players that are in less demand, or wait and play the horrible frustrating game of chance that the transfer window and the bigger better more in demand players now involves.
If we as fans want deals done early we need to realise that we are settling and potentially lessening the squad. As hard as that is to stomach. |
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Reply | 3 weeks to the season opener
at 08:36 18 Jul 2025
And yet that 'pathetic' front line got us promoted last time. And we appear to have learnt from that by not just getting in a quick early loanee, and are clearly open to offers for AAH.
It's not football manager, playing one up front with Hirst already here, takes a very specific player and at the right stage of career. And a third striker will be harder still in many ways.
What should they be doing? You don't want them buying 'pathetic' players, but you want people in the building now as we're short. So they need to get really good players in really quickly. Yeah? I bet they hadn't thought of that. |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 315 | | Comment Votes: | 118 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 433 |
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