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Thread | Minimum expectations for next year….
at 06:35 20 May 2025
….for me - the only way promotion isn’t an acceptable outcome is a 90 point season where you lose in the playoffs.
Similar to what Leeds did last year, and what Sheff U may still do this season.
‘Top 6’ isn’t ambitious enough as a target - we’ve got to be there or thereabouts for automatic promotion.
Does that sound too harsh? I’m sure that’s what the club expectations will be - and betting markets will reflect that |
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Thread | Squad next year then....
at 15:31 15 May 2025
Current players under contract for next season
GK [4]
Muric, Palmer, SLicker, Walton
FB [4]
Johnson, Townsend, Davis, H.Clarke
CB [3]
O'Shea, Greaves, Woolfenden
CM [3]
Humphreys, Taylor, Morsy
FWs [8]
J.Clarke, Philogene, Hutchinson, Szmodics, Ogbene, Chaplin, Broadhead, Burns
ST [3]
Delap, Al-Hamadi, Hirst
Total [25]
Out of Contract [5]
No option - Burgess & Tuanzebe
With an option - Harness, Baggott and Luongo
Loanees [4]
Godfrey, Phillips, Cajuste and Enciso
So starting position for next season is 34 players to deal with.
Make following assumptions:
All 4 loanees to return to parent clubs
Luongo, Harness and Baggott to not be part of squad next season
[Released/option taken and sold/option taken and loaned]
Takes us to 27 players
Goalkeepers
Don't need 4 senior keepers, guess we'd hope to only have 2 of those 4 with an U21 keeper as 3rd choice - i.e. sell Walton or Muric and loan out Slicker. Sign Pierce Charles from Sheff Weds, or promote Henry Gray.
FBs
Try and keep Tuanzebe, if we can't prob leave as is unless Davis goes
CBs
Try and keep Burgess, if not buy to replace. Potentially O'Shea too
CM
Potentially sell Taylor, see if Humphreys can play a part, but big overhaul needed
FWs
Broadhead to go? Last year of deal and won't play much. And then 1 in-1 out of we lose and Omari or a Jaden
STs
Sell Delap, try to sell Ali, Sign 1-2 players
Think it ends up with us needing 8 signings, may end up more if we trade a couple here or there too |
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Thread | Non-League allocations sorted for next season...
at 12:42 15 May 2025
https://www.thefa.com/news/2025/may/15/nls-allocations
Step 3
Bury Town promoted into Southern Premier Central
Needham Market relegated into Southern Premier Central
They join Leiston and AFC Sudbury, so all 4 Suffolk teams now in this league
All the Essex teams in Isthmian Premier - would have been interesting to see where Brightlingsea Regent went had they beat Bury Town in the PO Final
Step 4
Brantham promoted into Isthmian North
Lowestoft relegated into Isthmian North
They join Felixstowe, Mildenhall and Newmarket there plus the North Essex teams
Seems a bit of a pain to be in the Essex/London leagues at Step 4, but then the Midlands/Central leagues at Step 3 - must make player recruitment more difficult |
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Thread | Aaron Cresswell leaving West Ham this summer
at 13:29 9 May 2025
Fantastic career he's had - 11 seasons of PL football.
Snip of a signing for £3.5m, and they only went for him because Mick got on the phone to Sam Allardyce when he looked like he was signing for (Championship at the time) Fulham and told him he had to sign him.
366 games for West Ham, 3 England caps |
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Thread | Rough game
at 20:12 5 Apr 2025
But Wolves have so much quality, like everyone else in the league it seems!
We are done now, but so many lessons will have been learned - and when we come back for 26/27 we’ll come back knowing more with a vastly superior squad as a base to come from.
This league is monstrous though, the gap is so big and so hard to bridge |
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Thread | Somto Boniface - LB - Chelsea
at 07:51 3 Feb 2025
Done deal.
Left back to play for 21s and be around the first team - to push to see where he is if/when Davis goes |
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Thread | Right wing options...
at 09:18 28 Jan 2025
...bearing in mind we like to recruit in the Championship
Tom Fellows (WBA) - We were allegedly in for him in the summer, U21 so doesn't count against squad cap. England U21 international. Played a fair bit of the left last season (scoring against us) but now an out and out RW who can play all the way up and down that side
Dan James (Leeds) - feels a very good fit to replace Burns, lots of experience both in club and international side. Searing pace, good defensively when he needs to be. Likely very expensive as a key man for Leeds and they won't want to sell, limited upside to fee but probably most ready
Milan van Ewijk (Coventry) - more of a RB than a RW, but again blisteringly quick and decent going forwards. Not masses of output this season, but been ever present for Coventry. Been linked with Galatasaray and Fulham this window so presumably is 'available'.
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Thread | What sort of fee would we get for Braodhead?
at 11:25 23 Jan 2025
SIgned him for £1.5m in L1
8 goals and 6 assists in approx 15 90s in L1
13 goals and 4 assists in approx 26 90s in the Championship
Become a full international, played in the PL.
Got to be looking around the £7m mark
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Thread | First hour good, last half hour bad.
at 08:45 17 Jan 2025
Struggled to get into the game for the first 20 minutes but whilst they had all the ball we kept them pretty easily at arms length and by half time had easily become the more dangerous team in the game.
3 presentable chances with the Broadhead, Delap and Omari shots....Burns away 3-4 times down the right and putting good balls into the box with no luck (or Chaplin/Szmodics to sniff one out) and generally were causing them problems.
You could see they tweaked it a bit at half time and Joao Pedro (boooooo) was tasked to drop in deep and drag Woolfie around so that we couldn't settle defensively and that's an assignment he struggled with physically as gave Pedro room to run off him.
First goal a frustration, we were messing about in the corner with the ball, Cajuste turning back into trouble when it had to go and reset and ended up giving away the throw (was it btw? not checked) and then Greaves doesn't quite make the clearance and the ball goes through Walton (who may still have been dazed).
But from then on they totally suffocated us, and we just could not play out through the press at all, and if we tried to go long it came straight back. Was really impressive from them but it killed us. Delap was on a yellow and being careful, Omari looked knackered and Broadhead just drifted so far out of the game which isn't unusual.
With O'Shea at RB, as good a defender as he is, he isn't going to help you play through the press - could maybe have put Godfrey or Johnson on for Woolf and switched O'Shea to centre as felt he'd have dealt with Pedro better and it would have offered us more on the ball
Overall I think the last half hour will cloud the judgement and make it out to be a poor performance, when for the first hour it wasn't at all. We'd totally limited them and looked dangerous - but when we go behind it's hard to get back in to it currently.
A few random thoughts in no particular order
- GK. It was worrying how Walton looked in short passing game, and at set pieces they were all over him and he didn't get near any. For me overall he's a downgrade from Muric, but if people don't want Muric, do we need to go to the market?
- Phillips. Just not sure he does enough to disrupt and subsequently dictate things. Am desperate for him to find old self but don't think he will.
- Ref. Same one at Forest away, consistent but lets way too much go for us as we can't compete with these established PL sides without a bit of help. Webster should have been booked early for foul on Omari, Veltman should have been booked earlier, it changes the game if they are on yellows when Delap is rampaging at them as they can't commit like they continued to. Not a biased ref, but one who doesn't suit us.
- Subs. Not quite sure we got them right, don't understand why we put Taylor into 10 first rather than just getting Clarke on and then felt last 2 were a bit late. |
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Thread | Pete O'Rourke reporting Ipswich have rejected...
at 15:02 14 Jan 2025
...an offer from Boro to turn George Edmundson's loan move into a permanent one
Seems surprising when he is out of contract in the summer, think we'd take what we can get
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Thread | Matt Bloomfield is the new Luton boss
at 12:49 14 Jan 2025
Great move for him after doing a fantastic job in seemingly trying circumstances at Wycombe.
I wonder what this means for Cameron Humphreys too |
| | itfcjoe
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