Summer 2023 Transfer Speculation

[SCIAG]

“Most of his time with us” - not sure that’s particularly accurate. Started off well before getting injured, had an awful period in January time before being one of our better players from mid-February time

Agree with OMA that he’s not someone we should be going back for but out of all the midfielders we’ve had these last couple of seasons, he’s been one of the better performing ones overall (very low bar admittedly)

Have to strongly, strongly disagree with 'overall'. Maybe my memory of this has just become frazzled, but i'm sure that he was atrocious from the moment he joined us. Like, literally one of the worst sets of performances I've ever seen from any professional footballer. I fully accept though that he improved significantly from February onward and was probably our best midfielder towards the end.

From memory he didn’t start playing until the mid September mark and most people agreed up until the Blackpool comeback game - he’d started well (a period in which we’d won 5 in the last 6 games). Had a couple of poor games before picking up an injury and IIRC barely played again until January. Had an awful month (as did the rest of the team) before ending on a high

It’s all subjective of course but I just don’t see how 1/2 poor months equates to some of the vitriol he received at the time. I can fully accept the argument he should have been better than he was given his pedigree mind

Agree with this, his first few games for us he looked like a great signing (if in a less than ideal position), was reminiscent of Lewis Baker.

Went off the boil a little mid-season, and was never the most mobile. Could probably succeed in League One but would need a couple of willing runners alongside him, and ideally someone ahead of him who could receive the passes - not sure if that's Walcott. Could work, but wouldn't be my first choice.

[Royal_jimmy]

Since we're only a month from our first game I predict we'll break the clubs record of the most signings of players in a single week

[Snowflake Royal]

Drinkwater won me over towards the end, but I have no idea what was wrong with him for those first few months. I'm not surprised that no club went in for him last season. He literally looked like a pub footballer for most of his time with us. I can only imagine he's back to that standard or worse.

“Most of his time with us” - not sure that’s particularly accurate. Started off well before getting injured, had an awful period in January time before being one of our better players from mid-February time

Agree with OMA that he’s not someone we should be going back for but out of all the midfielders we’ve had these last couple of seasons, he’s been one of the better performing ones overall (very low bar admittedly)

Have to strongly, strongly disagree with 'overall'. Maybe my memory of this has just become frazzled, but i'm sure that he was atrocious from the moment he joined us. Like, literally one of the worst sets of performances I've ever seen from any professional footballer. I fully accept though that he improved significantly from February onward and was probably our best midfielder towards the end.

Basically it depends on what you remember and find important.

From the first game he made cheap error after cheap error every time he played. But in most of the early games and towards the end he also had periods in most games where he looked skillfull, composed and hardworking.

For me, in a player with that much experience and ability, the regular unforced errors are unforgiveable.

[Hound]

Since we're only a month from our first game I predict we'll break the clubs record of the most signings of players in a single week

The transfer window is open for ages after that first game and we could put out a capable team now without making another signing

So I doubt it

[Snowflake Royal]

Since we're only a month from our first game I predict we'll break the clubs record of the most signings of players in a single week

The transfer window is open for ages after that first game and we could put out a capable team now without making another signing

So I doubt it

Capable is probably stretching it a bit given our midfield options.

[Hound]

Since we're only a month from our first game I predict we'll break the clubs record of the most signings of players in a single week

The transfer window is open for ages after that first game and we could put out a capable team now without making another signing

So I doubt it

Capable is probably stretching it a bit given our midfield options.

Wouldn’t be upset to see us start hutch + Craig/Senga

Obvs need signings in there for the season but that’d be ok to start

[Royal_jimmy]

Since we're only a month from our first game I predict we'll break the clubs record of the most signings of players in a single week

The transfer window is open for ages after that first game and we could put out a capable team now without making another signing

So I doubt it

Capable is probably stretching it a bit given our midfield options.

A make shift team yes. A capable one I disagree

[Hound]

The transfer window is open for ages after that first game and we could put out a capable team now without making another signing

So I doubt it

Capable is probably stretching it a bit given our midfield options.

A make shift team yes. A capable one I disagree

Suppose depends how you define capable

Bouzanis,
Yiadom Holmes McIntyre NGW
Craig Hutch
Azeez Ejaria Camara
Carroll

CBC, Dorsett, Ehib etc

Would be handy to expect to give Peterboro a game and get a result

[NathStPaul]

Thing is we don't really know if we have a capable side or not yet. It has been a long time since we played in League 1 and for all we know it could be our level currently. We have unproven young players who haven't had a real chance as yet, for all we know they could be League 1 stars.

I guess my point is lets not panic yet and see how that first month goes. Lets judge in September if we are capable or not.

[muirinho]

“Most of his time with us” - not sure that’s particularly accurate. Started off well before getting injured, had an awful period in January time before being one of our better players from mid-February time

Agree with OMA that he’s not someone we should be going back for but out of all the midfielders we’ve had these last couple of seasons, he’s been one of the better performing ones overall (very low bar admittedly)

Have to strongly, strongly disagree with 'overall'. Maybe my memory of this has just become frazzled, but i'm sure that he was atrocious from the moment he joined us. Like, literally one of the worst sets of performances I've ever seen from any professional footballer. I fully accept though that he improved significantly from February onward and was probably our best midfielder towards the end.

Basically it depends on what you remember and find important.

From the first game he made cheap error after cheap error every time he played. But in most of the early games and towards the end he also had periods in most games where he looked skillfull, composed and hardworking.

For me, in a player with that much experience and ability, the regular unforced errors are unforgiveable.

The most frustrating thing about him is that the errors weren't because he was slow getting to the ball, i.e., down to age and fitness. It was that they were sloppy, careless errors. It seemed he didn't have the wherewithal to concentrate for long enough, and worse still, gave the impression that it didn't bother him - never an apologetic wave to his team-mates, or an attempt to recover the ball after yet another sloppy pass
The skill was definitely there though.
Wonder if the alleged, um, lifestyle issues actually affected the mentality more then his skill and fitness levels.

[Snowflake Royal]

Capable is probably stretching it a bit given our midfield options.

A make shift team yes. A capable one I disagree

Suppose depends how you define capable

Bouzanis,
Yiadom Holmes McIntyre NGW
Craig Hutch
Azeez Ejaria Camara
Carroll

CBC, Dorsett, Ehib etc

Would be handy to expect to give Peterboro a game and get a result

That midfield does not inspire confidence against PO losers.

That team includes a L2 keeper who has barely played in a year, an injured RB, a midfielder with either zero of very few professional games, an old midfielder who spent the last 6 months injured, a very raw left winger... oh and a mercurial sulker who has barely played in a year.

It's not what I call capable.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

A make shift team yes. A capable one I disagree

Suppose depends how you define capable

Bouzanis,
Yiadom Holmes McIntyre NGW
Craig Hutch
Azeez Ejaria Camara
Carroll

CBC, Dorsett, Ehib etc

Would be handy to expect to give Peterboro a game and get a result

That midfield does not inspire confidence against PO losers.

That team includes a L2 keeper who has barely played in a year, an injured RB, a midfielder with either zero of very few professional games, an old midfielder who spent the last 6 months injured, a very raw left winger... oh and a mercurial sulker who has barely played in a year.

It's not what I call capable.

You missed the part about a slow defence as well.

[Snowflake Royal]

Suppose depends how you define capable

Bouzanis,
Yiadom Holmes McIntyre NGW
Craig Hutch
Azeez Ejaria Camara
Carroll

CBC, Dorsett, Ehib etc

Would be handy to expect to give Peterboro a game and get a result

That midfield does not inspire confidence against PO losers.

That team includes a L2 keeper who has barely played in a year, an injured RB, a midfielder with either zero of very few professional games, an old midfielder who spent the last 6 months injured, a very raw left winger... oh and a mercurial sulker who has barely played in a year.

It's not what I call capable.

You missed the part about a slow defence as well.

I knew you'd learn eventually.

[Hound]

A make shift team yes. A capable one I disagree

Suppose depends how you define capable

Bouzanis,
Yiadom Holmes McIntyre NGW
Craig Hutch
Azeez Ejaria Camara
Carroll

CBC, Dorsett, Ehib etc

Would be handy to expect to give Peterboro a game and get a result

That midfield does not inspire confidence against PO losers.

That team includes a L2 keeper who has barely played in a year, an injured RB, a midfielder with either zero of very few professional games, an old midfielder who spent the last 6 months injured, a very raw left winger... oh and a mercurial sulker who has barely played in a year.

It's not what I call capable.

Yiadom isn’t injured. Hutch is decent if fit. Camara has been knocking around the first team for a while. Craig is 21 and looked half decent when he played. These younger players need to start at some time

For a single game or so to start the season it’d be ok. It isn’t that much worse than teams we’ve lined up with in the past 2 years tbh

[Hound]

Fwiw I wouldn’t be too upset if Ehibhatiomhan, Abrefa, Craig/Senga, Camara, Azeez, Dorsett and Jokull all started the first game of the year

We’ve often talked about trusting the youth and the academy and all those either have some experience and looked ok or been out on loan

I’d rather watch us have a bit of energy and grow us a team than buy in a load of average cloggers and fill the team with them. Esp as seems we’ll be under some sort of embargo

[Snowflake Royal]

Suppose depends how you define capable

Bouzanis,
Yiadom Holmes McIntyre NGW
Craig Hutch
Azeez Ejaria Camara
Carroll

CBC, Dorsett, Ehib etc

Would be handy to expect to give Peterboro a game and get a result

That midfield does not inspire confidence against PO losers.

That team includes a L2 keeper who has barely played in a year, an injured RB, a midfielder with either zero of very few professional games, an old midfielder who spent the last 6 months injured, a very raw left winger... oh and a mercurial sulker who has barely played in a year.

It's not what I call capable.

Yiadom isn’t injured. Hutch is decent if fit. Camara has been knocking around the first team for a while. Craig is 21 and looked half decent when he played. These younger players need to start at some time

For a single game or so to start the season it’d be ok. It isn’t that much worse than teams we’ve lined up with in the past 2 years tbh

Only a few days ago Yiadom was supposedly not in training because of surgery.

[Hound]

That midfield does not inspire confidence against PO losers.

That team includes a L2 keeper who has barely played in a year, an injured RB, a midfielder with either zero of very few professional games, an old midfielder who spent the last 6 months injured, a very raw left winger... oh and a mercurial sulker who has barely played in a year.

It's not what I call capable.

Yiadom isn’t injured. Hutch is decent if fit. Camara has been knocking around the first team for a while. Craig is 21 and looked half decent when he played. These younger players need to start at some time

For a single game or so to start the season it’d be ok. It isn’t that much worse than teams we’ve lined up with in the past 2 years tbh

Only a few days ago Yiadom was supposedly not in training because of surgery.

He is in Spain training. Pictures of him doing so

[Snowflake Royal]

Yiadom isn’t injured. Hutch is decent if fit. Camara has been knocking around the first team for a while. Craig is 21 and looked half decent when he played. These younger players need to start at some time

For a single game or so to start the season it’d be ok. It isn’t that much worse than teams we’ve lined up with in the past 2 years tbh

Only a few days ago Yiadom was supposedly not in training because of surgery.

He is in Spain training. Pictures of him doing so

Can't trust anything can you.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

That midfield does not inspire confidence against PO losers.

That team includes a L2 keeper who has barely played in a year, an injured RB, a midfielder with either zero of very few professional games, an old midfielder who spent the last 6 months injured, a very raw left winger... oh and a mercurial sulker who has barely played in a year.

It's not what I call capable.

You missed the part about a slow defence as well.

I knew you'd learn eventually.

Not that it matters. Surprised you didn't moan about Ejaria being in there either tbh.

In all seriousness though, it's a squad that's going to need some work doing to it. We'd all love to see our academy prospects flourish in the first team but I suspect that most probably aren't ready for it even at this level yet. Maybe come January time they might be. Even just half a season somewhere would do some of those players good.

[Snowflake Royal]

You missed the part about a slow defence as well.

I knew you'd learn eventually.

Not that it matters. Surprised you didn't moan about Ejaria being in there either tbh.

In all seriousness though, it's a squad that's going to need some work doing to it. We'd all love to see our academy prospects flourish in the first team but I suspect that most probably aren't ready for it even at this level yet. Maybe come January time they might be. Even just half a season somewhere would do some of those players good.

I did.

I think they're all ready to be tried. You wouldn’t expect every signing to succeed let alone every youth player. And you don’t want to be throwing lots in first choice all at once, with no senior options to support them.

They're already for a phased introduction to see how they cope.