Exodus

[Archie's penalty]

Fair point, I haven't seen Karacan play. Is he likely to be ready for the CCC this year? I did hear that he was a Parkinson-type midfielder which could help solve our midfield problem (although I doubt he'd be as effective as Bikey in there).

I haven't seen him play either apart from a goal on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTnz47YRAA

The only time I saw Bikey play in midfield (online but it counts) was against Blackburn away. He was awful. Everyone talks about him in midfield. I'm not so sure.

[earleyroyal]

Fair point, I haven't seen Karacan play. Is he likely to be ready for the CCC this year? I did hear that he was a Parkinson-type midfielder which could help solve our midfield problem (although I doubt he'd be as effective as Bikey in there).

I haven't seen him play either apart from a goal on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTnz47YRAA

The only time I say Bikey play in midfield (online but it counts) was against Blackburn away. He was awful. Everyone talks about him in midfield. I'm not so sure.

Valid point about Blackburn, I didn't see the game but I think he was playing in an unfamiliar system. Someone at the time said he seemed to be playing up front. When he played at Wigan he strolled round, won more tackles than Harper/Mate did in the second half of the season and distributed the ball just as effectively as them. Would pick up quite a few bookings but he has the physical attributes and raw skill to dump on most CCC midfields.

[Archie's penalty]

Fair point, I haven't seen Karacan play. Is he likely to be ready for the CCC this year? I did hear that he was a Parkinson-type midfielder which could help solve our midfield problem (although I doubt he'd be as effective as Bikey in there).

I haven't seen him play either apart from a goal on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTnz47YRAA

The only time I say Bikey play in midfield (online but it counts) was against Blackburn away. He was awful. Everyone talks about him in midfield. I'm not so sure.

Valid point about Blackburn, I didn't see the game but I think he was playing in an unfamiliar system. Someone at the time said he seemed to be playing up front. When he played at Wigan he strolled round, won more tackles than Harper/Mate did in the second half of the season and distributed the ball just as effectively as them. Would pick up quite a few bookings but he has the physical attributes and raw skill to dump on most CCC midfields.

I didn't see the Wigan game - did he come on as a sub or play the whole game? I would be prepared to play Bikey there but it would be exciting to see Coppell give Karacan a chance for a while. Throw him in there - it's much less a case of sink or swim than the premiership - but then perhaps this belongs to a different thread...

[earleyroyal]

He played from the start, got booked for taking someone out but looked very comfortable, and although I like Harper and Matejovsky (not together) he looked more like the Premiership midfielder than either of them. A midfield of him and Matejovsky might manage to combine ball-winning and ball-using (would pick up about 40 bookings a season) so I think Harper going for about £3 million wouldn't be a bad deal at all.

[Archie's penalty]

He played from the start, got booked for taking someone out but looked very comfortable, and although I like Harper and Matejovsky (not together) he looked more like the Premiership midfielder than either of them. A midfield of him and Matejovsky might manage to combine ball-winning and ball-using (would pick up about 40 bookings a season) so I think Harper going for about £3 million wouldn't be a bad deal at all.

Hmm maybe - would be sad to see Harps go but it might be the right time.

[brendywendy]

think so, shame, ill miss his massive eyebrows, but good luck to the lad-i think 7 odd years is enough at the same club

bikey and matejovski with karacan and a.n other as understudies strikes me as pretty exciting

[RoyalBlue]

While we should not underestimate the challenge of this league (most relegated teams don't do well, bar West Brom/Birmingham who seem to go up and down like yo-yos), we should think about the good players that we now have that were not in the promotion team, rather than the promotion team who are leaving.

For Harper, there is Matejovsky
For Shorey, there is Rosenior (arguably wrong side - but in principle)
For Little, there is no-one yet.... but then there was no-one last season either.
For Hunt, there is Convey - arguably Convey was the left-sided player of the promotion season, not Hunt.
For Doyle/Kitson/Lita - well there's no-one yet, but finding centre-forwards to perform at this level is surely the easiest position to recruit for??

good centre-forwards (and they need to be proven goalscorers) surely the easiest position to recruit for??

And clearly you think highly of Hunt - suggesting he be replaced by an player who seems to be suffering from the Little injury syndrome!

[Arch]

think so, shame, ill miss his massive eyebrows, but good luck to the lad-i think 7 odd years is enough at the same club

bikey and matejovski with karacan and a.n other as understudies strikes me as pretty exciting

The one flaw in this is that Bikey is surely our first choice CB. Move him to midfield and we suddenly look a lot weaker at the back.

[winchester_royal]

think so, shame, ill miss his massive eyebrows, but good luck to the lad-i think 7 odd years is enough at the same club

bikey and matejovski with karacan and a.n other as understudies strikes me as pretty exciting

The one flaw in this is that Bikey is surely our first choice CB. Move him to midfield and we suddenly look a lot weaker at the back.

Disagree there.

Ingimarsson and Duberry are class at this level.

Whilst Pearce, and Cisse will provide good back up.

[brendywendy]

think so, shame, ill miss his massive eyebrows, but good luck to the lad-i think 7 odd years is enough at the same club

bikey and matejovski with karacan and a.n other as understudies strikes me as pretty exciting

The one flaw in this is that Bikey is surely our first choice CB. Move him to midfield and we suddenly look a lot weaker at the back.

i dont think we do in the championship.ivar/pearce and duberry will be more than decent if ageing

but i get your point-im just working with what it looks like it may look like as of now.
im sure we'll bring in at least 1 CM if harper goes-2 if we take the view that karacan isnt worth a good few starts this year-im discounting brynn who can do a job but isnt guaranteed to be fit/fast enough anymore

perhaps cisse will step up in the middle this year releasing bikey to concentrate on what hes best at
he has certainly shown potential without ever delivering-his best match for me was the chelsea game at home-they had to take sidwell off cos he got nothing-then he was sent off for a nothing foul and perhaps this affected his confidence there

[Royalee]

Fair point, I haven't seen Karacan play. Is he likely to be ready for the CCC this year? I did hear that he was a Parkinson-type midfielder which could help solve our midfield problem (although I doubt he'd be as effective as Bikey in there).

He's a box to box midfielder with a lot of energy. One of Bournemouth's better players in the games I saw, but I'm not sure if he's good enough to make the step up - he's certainly a prospect though and should be given a chance as he can't do any worse than Harper. The only reservation I'd have about him is his size (or lack there of), although he seems a tidy enough player with a lot of pace, energy and aggression.

[Royalee]

think so, shame, ill miss his massive eyebrows, but good luck to the lad-i think 7 odd years is enough at the same club

bikey and matejovski with karacan and a.n other as understudies strikes me as pretty exciting

The one flaw in this is that Bikey is surely our first choice CB. Move him to midfield and we suddenly look a lot weaker at the back.

Disagree there.

Ingimarsson and Duberry are class at this level.

Whilst Pearce, and Cisse will provide good back up.

Duberry and Ingimarsson will get ROASTED for pace if played together consistently this season. I'd sooner have a pairing of Pearce and Cisse than the former although my preferred partnership is Bikey and Pearce.

[Alan Partridge]

I do enjoy how much you love a player who was sent back from Bournemouth and only made about 8 starts at Norwich Royalee.

Henry, Pearce and Karacan have a chance but so far during their loan spells at lower league clubs have shown absolutely nothing to warrant first team places here, or to even be considered for that matter.

[Royalee]

I do enjoy how much you love a player who was sent back from Bournemouth and only made about 8 starts at Norwich Royalee.

Henry, Pearce and Karacan have a chance but so far during their loan spells at lower league clubs have shown absolutely nothing to warrant first team places here, or to even be considered for that matter.

Go and ask Northampton, Bournemouth and Norwich fans what they think of Pearce.

[Archie's penalty]

I do enjoy how much you love a player who was sent back from Bournemouth and only made about 8 starts at Norwich Royalee.

Henry, Pearce and Karacan have a chance but so far during their loan spells at lower league clubs have shown absolutely nothing to warrant first team places here, or to even be considered for that matter.

Go and ask Northampton, Bournemouth and Norwich fans what they think of Pearce.

I think they were pretty happy with Karacan as well.

[Royalee]

I do enjoy how much you love a player who was sent back from Bournemouth and only made about 8 starts at Norwich Royalee.

Henry, Pearce and Karacan have a chance but so far during their loan spells at lower league clubs have shown absolutely nothing to warrant first team places here, or to even be considered for that matter.

Go and ask Northampton, Bournemouth and Norwich fans what they think of Pearce.

I think they were pretty happy with Karacan as well.

They were indeed, but IMO Pearce has more transferrable skills for the Championship. In no way am I writing Karacan off though, he deserves a chance.

[Archie's penalty]

They were indeed, but IMO Pearce has more transferrable skills for the Championship. In no way am I writing Karacan off though, he deserves a chance.

From the little I've seen and what I've heard I think Pearce sounds like a very mature player. However Karacan might give us the energy that we need in the middle (and it's a position where we're short). People at Bournemouth didn't like Goldbourne right?

[Roger the Rabbit]

Millwall were also impressed with Karacan and their fans would be more than happy if he joined them, he must be in with a chance of a call up to the full Turkey team as well, given their injury crisis !!

[Royalee]

They were indeed, but IMO Pearce has more transferrable skills for the Championship. In no way am I writing Karacan off though, he deserves a chance.

From the little I've seen and what I've heard I think Pearce sounds like a very mature player. However Karacan might give us the energy that we need in the middle (and it's a position where we're short). People at Bournemouth didn't like Goldbourne right?

Nope, didn't rate him. He looked crap from what I saw of him - he's fast and that's all there is too him, not particularly good going forward, dreadful defensively.

[Alan Partridge]

Pearce didn't start the majority of games during his loan spell at Norwich, Bournemouth sent him and Henry back according to SC at the fans forum. I quite like Pearce but to put him in front of Ivar and Duberry is LOLaughabLOLe.