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Thread | Imran Louza
at 11:10 28 Jun 2025
Watford midfielder, has apparently fallen out with their new head coach &handed in a transfer request. Apparently had a very good season for Watford last year although I don’t know a great deal about his playing style etc. Might be one that we end up going for potentially? [Post edited 28 Jun 11:11]
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Thread | Woolwich fanbase
at 21:08 20 Apr 2025
Such a grounded, humble and likeable bunch weren’t they |
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Thread | Are things really that bad?
at 22:31 3 Feb 2025
I know that Southampton was bitterly disappointing, and among many it seems to have now turned the narrative considerably in terms of our chances of staying up and also how good/ bad the recruitment has been. There’s no hiding/ dismissing how poor Saturday was in terms of the result and second half.
We have beaten teams such as Chelsea and Spurs when they have been at their relative strength in terms of available players, and against Villa/ Fulham (twice)/ United/ Leicester we would very much have been good value for wins in those games. We were also agonisingly close to a good away point at Brentford. We have dropped 17 points from winning positions, 5 1 goal losses. Against Bournemouth one moment of madness that sent us spiralling at the end cost us another really good result. We have not been a complete and utter car crash. You have to take the wallopings by Newcastle, City and Liverpool with a pinch of salt as they are in another league entirely, but the point I am making is that we have generally been really competitive for large spells. If Palmer can be an error free no frills GK between now and May, even that will potentially save us some points. Clearly we have been a nearly team at times, but we certainly haven’t given an awful account of ourselves in what has been one of the strongest recent time premier leagues, with us very much finding our feet within this cluster of teams. There is room for improvement obviously, but also a lot of encouraging things.
Staying up will now be a massive ask in the current position and with Wolves seemingly now on the rise. I think we can be sure that the group will give every game their best between now and the end, & we need to back them as best we can. I have no doubt that we will continue to be competitive, even if we do need a lot of things to go our way to get results which is what we are ultimately up against as a ‘new’ club at this level.
Factoring in relegation if it happens, and taking most likely departures (Leif, O Shea, Delap) out of the equation along with the loanees, we would have a great platform to work with, assisted by parachute payments & transfer fees
GK:
Palmer, Muric, Walton, Slicker
DF:
Townsend, Greaves, Woolfy, Burgess, H Clarke, Johnson, Baggott
MF:
Morsy, Luongo, Taylor, Humphreys
(CLEARLY the area that needs most addressing)
Attacking positions:
Chaplin, Broadhead, Omari, J Clarke, Burns, Ogbene, Philogene
Hirst, Szmodics, Al Hamadi
We have undoubtedly improved the calibre of players, albeit clearly I think there needs to be more of an effort to have a settled team and system which I trust McKenna has a good plan for, in terms of how to play Clarke/ Omari/ Philogene in particular. [Post edited 3 Feb 22:33]
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Thread | Kane Wilson
at 23:23 22 Mar 2022
Went to watch Col U/ Forest Green last night & was really impressed with Forest Green's right back. 22 years old and reminded me a lot of Cresswell in his earlier years (albeit obviously he plays on the right instead of the left). Really comfortable on the ball, nothing of any note got down his side and made good runs going forward too. 13 assists and 3 goals this season.
Sounds like Bristol City have been keeping tabs on him, interestingly he came through West Brom's academy so is quite possibly one Ashton has some background on. KMc's plans for formation/ set up next season and what he thinks of KVY are obviously unknown at this stage but should we be in the market for a right back, he looks like an excellent option. [Post edited 22 Mar 2022 23:26]
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Thread | Colby Bishop
at 20:29 9 May 2021
I know that 'throw everybody's names around as possible summer signings season' is now starting so I thought I'd add Colby Bishop to the list. Accrington Stanley striker - Was really impressed by him against Pompey today, a very street wise centre forward who is good in the air and dangerous when given a chance on goal. May recall him scoring twice against us for Accrington in the sky game in the 19/20 season. Only 24, could be a really good foil for Norwood/ another striker if we sign one. We need more physicality up front for sure. |
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Thread | General ramblings
at 09:15 11 Apr 2021
We do not know what the reasons were for PC avoiding the media Friday and yesterday, but either way it's reasonable to speculate as it's an unusual way to behave immediately after a takeover.
Recent performances have pretty much mirrored eachother exactly and thus his post match press comments could have pretty much been copy/ paste jobs. Has he simply given Gill more media time this week as he doesn't want to be seen as repeating the same message over and over again? In terms of Friday, there have been several player releases this week which will likely have taken up a fair bit of his time, plus meeting MOL and at some point concentrating on yesterday's game. On a practical level when broken down, skipping those 2 media opportunities is understandable.
As people have eluded to already, PC may not have ended up at Bristol City because he didn't like the structure that Ashton heads there, and if the structure here is going to be similar/ PC really was that unaware about the takeover, it's an interesting development. The problem for PC is that the route we might (potentially) be going is not uncommon and is fast becoming the norm in the modern game, so the jobs that tick all of his boxes are dwindling by the season. I've always been a believer in managers needing to have a final say on recruitment regardless of structure, but we also have to get an edge on other clubs where we can and improving our scouting networks/ recruitment methods is an important step in that.
If there is a situation developing, there is now a difficult balance to strike. If the hierarchy really are indeed set (or have been set from the off) on Ashton as a CEO, you would have to trust that they are absolutely certain that it can work and they probably need to be decisive on that. If PC walks as a result of that though, it is not a good image especially at the very start of a new ownership given that PC is highly respected all around the EFL/ we would do well in this current climate to get a similar standard of manager to come in and manage us in L1. That said, you would hope the new ownership could sell the club very well with the long term vision.
Amongst it all, it has been a pretty underwhelming start to the PC era and we are still right to have expected more from these first few games. There will be many who will not be perhaps as concerned about him walking away now as they would have been after 3 or 4 games, but clearly this is a very poor group of players that severely lacks in quality. [Post edited 11 Apr 2021 9:19]
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Thread | Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
at 23:47 13 Mar 2021
Still playing, in the SPL for Livingston. Scored a cheeky one today, worth seeing.
Always felt that JET had an enormous amount of talent and has not come close to fulfilling the potential he had. I remember Wenger talking highly of him a year or so before he ended up with us. |
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Thread | 'Going down to 10 men cost us the game'
at 08:03 27 Jan 2021
Were the tables to have been flipped and Sunderland had a player sent off instead of us, do people really think we would have beaten 10 men based on how things are going?
It obviously made things a lot lot harder for us without question, but it's an easy line to take after a defeat. I can think of several times watching ITFC when we've been unable to break down 10 men.
For what it matters, we probably wouldn't have won that game with 11 men anyway. Sunderland managed the game/ ball well and realistically they could have gone up a gear if they really needed to. We also didn't have to precede to play without a striker for 50 mins. [Post edited 27 Jan 2021 8:09]
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Thread | Who would people want to see appointed when Lambert goes?
at 21:43 24 Nov 2020
Surely a matter of when at this point, given the context/ importance of this season and the manner of last season's fall away.
Cook for me, although I have serious doubts whether he'd really want to come here. |
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Thread | Carlos Edwards still going strong
at 23:10 8 Sep 2020
I saw him playing for Bury Town at Needham Market tonight. He appears to be getting deployed as a defensive midfielder nowadays. A blast from the past. |
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Thread | Yesterday's belated assessment
at 11:55 6 Sep 2020
Really good yesterday - Great to see Sears looking more like the 2015 Sears, a wide forward role definitely suits him and always has (I could see Jackson, if he stays, being deployed in a similar way on the opposite side with Norwood or Hawkins in the middle as a straight CF. That could certainly be effective if the service up to them is as good as it was yesterday).
The midfield looked sharp, positive and very composed in possession. We rarely gave the ball away cheaply. Bishop in particular looked really good. Excellent assist for Sears' second and general decision making was really good. Dozzell looked very comfortable in possession in that deeper role. There was a moment in the first half where Bristol Rovers cut us open very easily and Dozzell was nowhere to be seen, aside from that it was a very comfortable afternoon for him in that deeper midfield role. Clearly when we play the tougher more attack minded teams and are under more pressure in our own third, naturally Huws/ Skuse would be more suitable.
Ward and Chambers both looked excellent when going forward at full back. Woolfenden and Nsiala looked fine too albeit they weren't troubled hugely. The bottom line is that the defence will naturally look better when we keep the ball better and are not putting them under extra pressure/ vice versa.
I suspect Drinan will be Jordan Roberts 2.0, in the sense that most of his game time will come in the cups. I thought he made the ball stick up top, brought others into play, played well and really should have scored. Hawkins showed a few moments when he came on to suggest he will be a very useful foil for others.
Good afternoon all round, albeit Bristol Rovers did look really poor. Without the goals of Clarke-Harris this year, it could be a long season for them. [Post edited 6 Sep 2020 11:57]
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Thread | Another angle on today
at 19:47 29 Aug 2020
Multiple fringe players have done themselves no favours today - Not just in terms of getting into the team for the start of the season, but also in terms of the bigger picture. With such a big squad (particularly with midfielders), it is obvious that players will need to leave before more can come in. The timing of today's poor performances from those already on the fringes of the first team further affirms who we need to look to move them on/ move forward with.
In a strange way, a win of any sorts today would have given Lambert something to cling onto with certainly 3 or 4 of them going into the new season. Instead there's a sense of same old same old after today, which perhaps makes deciding who to go forward with in the long run a bit clearer.
The strength in depth we perhaps believed we had for this level 12 months ago has since shown itself to be weaker than we thought. The squad undoubtedly has some quality within it, but also clearly some that could do well elsewhere but have done little more than flatter to deceive whilst being here (Judge/ Nolan are 2 that immediately spring to mind). [Post edited 29 Aug 2020 19:57]
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Thread | Kieran Dowell/ Nodge
at 19:54 30 Jul 2020
"with the history of the club, I think it (Norwich) is a really good fit for me"
The kid obviously has no interest in winning any trophies.
Which entry on the honours list will have impressed him the most though? [Post edited 30 Jul 2020 20:01]
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