3 hours ago, Zeta said:

Sell Garnacho? Which winger will you have in your name next? Not had much luck with them so far.

Mudryk was about to reach his potential until Russian agents spiked him.

4 hours ago, OTL said:

definitely, KDH is a prime example of how we dont get the best out of players. Anonymous for us, but on Saturday just gone he almost ran the show singlehanded, our management style stifles so many players. I suspect Reece James and Cole Palmer would benefit from some normality.

The KDH example has made me have a rethink on almost all of our players, its the buffoons in the coaching staff medical staff and SD group thats spoiling things.

Said same after Everton game...KDH looked totally different, I'd say the same thing will happen to Enzo & Palmer if they move on.... probably a lot more would thrive too, just not suited to style we've played last few years of passing around the defence & to a keeper to hoof eventually....bought for their potential but put into sh*t teams that don't play style they were used to ........

I may be in the minority here but I can't see what the overall want for keeping Colwell.... hasn't done enough for me...a step above what we've got before his injury but not in same ball park as JT Brana Cahill & co of past yrs that we were used to....Josh not getting game time, (he's young) obv something missing in training that we are not seeing.....I've been hoping game after game that he would be starting but think it's time he went on loan to get that experience....

Alot of dross bought but who's gonna buy them if not for pittance 🙄

Honestly, who is worth keeping is very difficult question.

Basically it is the same reason why I was happy when we signed Garnacho, it got nothing to do with Garnacho, it got everything to do with Gittens.

It comes down to who we are getting as replacement.

56 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Honestly, who is worth keeping is very difficult question.

Basically it is the same reason why I was happy when we signed Garnacho, it got nothing to do with Garnacho, it got everything to do with Gittens.

It comes down to who we are getting as replacement.

That's all a but cryptic - can you elaborate?

I think who comes and goes depends on the manager and also what the owners need to balance the books.

My thoughts below.

I think Guiu's time is up, not got a lot of minutes though has not really delivered when he has.

Tosin does not seem to work well for us.

Fofana and Lavia spend a lot of time on the bench so when does that become a problem.

That leaves Amcheapong, Chalobah and Badashiel with Colwill injured. That seems a little short given the injury scenario.

Gusto is a good attacking RB and getting crosses over so would like him to stay though defensively is suspect at times.

On James, I would keep too as he offers something else as well as RB and is versatile to play CB in an emergency.

Santos is getting better as he gets more minutes would be a shame to write him off too soon.

Caicedo has been our best defensive minded defender though has been booked a lot as his judgement on making tackles is not always the best.

Enzo does not seem as athletic enough in midfield though possibly has more fight than the others and does score occasioanlly and makes assists.

Neto, scores and make assists though not regularly enough. Puts in great corners (remember Willian and Mount). He can often beat one defender.

Garnacho has a turn of pace yet often struggles to make an impact and seems very one footed. Every now and again he has a very good game.

Palmer is struggling to make an impact in his second season post injury, is it because he gets closed down faster and a psychological issue in missing chances?

Pedro our best finisher and can score superb goals yet is not a Costa or Drogba and lacks a little leading the line. Good on the ball near the goal area.

Delap works hard yet not happening for him, does not seem to be able to stretch the defence and score. Some of his best work was playing as a right winger the grave yard shift for strikers. He has occasionally had some recent luck in holding the ball to win a free kick or pass to another and get us up the field Is it enough to stay?

49 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

Gusto is a good attacking RB and getting crosses over so would like him to stay though defensively is suspect at times.

This one stood out for me. Did you type that with a straight face? Is it the 1st April today?

The 'keep at all costs' list is quite short - these are the guys we should be building our team around:

Colwill
Palmer
Santos
Chalobah
James
Caicedo
Acheampong
Estêvão

I would also add the following 'I would prefer to keep them' players:

Cucurella
Pedro
Jackson
Maybe Hato

'Too young or haven't seen enough of them to evaluate fairly':

Essugo
Sarr
Sharman-Lowe
Penders
Anselmino

Plus the addendum of 'are capable of being good but also appear to be dickheads or have enormous flaws in their game which undermine the good parts':

Sánchez
Fernández
Fofana
Garnacho

Everybody else we can live without or should actively be looking to chuck overboard.

6 minutes ago, Nibs said:

This one stood out for me. Did you type that with a straight face? Is it the 1st April today?

He got the tense wrong. Gusto, in his first season, was a promising RB who got forward and supplied crosses even if not always high quality. He also defended well. All until Maresca had him inverting into midfield, a role for which he wasn't equipped. He hasn't been the same player since.

Should have added Estevao to keep as our most exciting young prospect.

Sanchez keep as keeper though confidence needs to be watched as he seemed affected when Jorgenson played. Do we need a better back-up keeper?

We have to look at continual playing out from the back as we are not City or will continue to concede have dodgy moments.

@Nibs, he was good under Poch though the Italian started playing him as a man marker and LR often plays him alongside James which I don't understand.

37 minutes ago, dermott said:

He got the tense wrong. Gusto, in his first season, was a promising RB who got forward and supplied crosses even if not always high quality. He also defended well. All until Maresca had him inverting into midfield, a role for which he wasn't equipped. He hasn't been the same player since.

Think the Poch season was an anomaly, because I fairly remember Lyon fans warning us about Gusto.

22 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Think the Poch season was an anomaly, because I fairly remember Lyon fans warning us about Gusto.

Not sure how a season can be an anomaly. He was played to his strengths until Maresca thought he knew better. Deschamps doesn't fart around either, plays him as a RB for France.

1 hour ago, strider6004 said:

Should have added Estevao to keep as our most exciting young prospect.

Sanchez keep as keeper though confidence needs to be watched as he seemed affected when Jorgenson played. Do we need a better back-up keeper?

We have to look at continual playing out from the back as we are not City or will continue to concede have dodgy moments.

@Nibs, he was good under Poch though the Italian started playing him as a man marker and LR often plays him alongside James which I don't understand.

We need a better keeper full stop (and that has been the case for a few seasons now).

As for Gusto, I know he looked alright when he first arrived and he still has the odd moment. But my heart sinks whenever i see his name in the starting line up. As I said in one of the other threads, when he plays, he seems to see more of the ball than anyone, yet rarely does anything with it and invariably goes backwards. He's the sort of player who the opposition are more than happy to let him have the ball.

26 minutes ago, dermott said:

Not sure how a season can be an anomaly. He was played to his strengths until Maresca thought he knew better. Deschamps doesn't fart around either, plays him as a RB for France.

Because the 9 assists we saw him produce under Poch isn't something that reflects the quality we see in Gusto in terms of decision making. We can see with our eyes he is incredibly frustrating in that regard. He averaged 3 assists in all comps prior to his move here and is averaging the same amount now.

I find it tedious bringing Maresca back into the fold, but I disagree with you. Maresca did know better. He realized our defence is bang average, hence the rigid system and why we are now conceding 2+ goals a game when under Maresca we had the 3rd best defence in the league with a defence/GK that had no elite quality bar James.

Under Maresca if Gusto was playing as a man marker this might explain why he did not go too far forward.

Also there is sense in this as we are far too easy to get at through the middle, now it is not just the CBs fault yet also the defensive midfielders to shut down the through balls.

Seems like both lists are the same for everyone which should be alarming for the owners. You could get varied opinions on players but there are too many with the same opinion.

You would think any manager would leave out players they thought were not good enough , but here we are with a different team each game with no consistency

Doesn't matter which ones go they will be replaced by more of the same.

Ownership/Management is what's killing us.

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

That's all a but cryptic - can you elaborate?

It is not cryptic, it is basically what @Scott said

Edited March 27Mar 27 by Bob stark

Penders will be in the first team squad next season but the rest of our keepers I’d be rid of

Of the defenders I’d keep…

Gusto, Colwill, Sarr, James, Cucu, Hato

I’d loan out Josh and Anselmino to get a season of regular game time.

Disasi, Bada, Fofana, Trev (because he’ll want to play more than I think he will next season),and Tosin can find new clubs.

I’d keep all 4 of our CDM’s no question.

Id sell Enzo.

Of the wingers and forwards im keeping JP, Estevao, Palmer, and Gittens/Guiu out on loan.

Garnacho, Neto, Delap, Mudryk, Jackson and Paez should go as should any non academy player I’ve not mentioned. Haven’t seen enough of the youngsters to comment other than I’d like to see at least 2 promoted to the first team squad next season.

The reality however is at least half of the players in anyone’s to go list will still be here next season.

Our owners after finally getting rid of the bomb squad are just about to put another one together. I bow to their business acumen, the way they really look after their employees and finally, their deep, deep understanding of soccer.

Cnuts.

I think our realistic targets in the summer are Murillo at Forest, Endrick or Guler at Madrid simply as makeweight in any deal for Enzo going the other way and they’d still be within our wage structure, Rogers at Villa depending who else goes for him and we’ll probably go for Barco or Panichelli from Strasbourg.

Then I step back and remember it’s all a load of bo**ocks.

Edited March 27Mar 27 by 19seventyone

6 hours ago, Bob stark said:

It is not cryptic, it is basically what @Scott said

But you said you were "happy when we signed Garnacho".

No-one was happy with that signing. They are just words of a crazy man.

5 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

I think our realistic targets in the summer are Murillo at Forest, Endrick or Guler at Madrid simply as makeweight in any deal for Enzo going the other way and they’d still be within our wage structure, Rogers at Villa depending who else goes for him and we’ll probably go for Barco or Panichelli from Strasbourg.

Then I step back and remember it’s all a load of bo**ocks.

Said in one of the threads, I think we should go all out to sign Adam Wharton from Palace. Him in place of Enzo in our midfield would be a massive upgrade.

3 minutes ago, Nibs said:

But you said you were "happy when we signed Garnacho".

No-one was happy with that signing. They are just words of a crazy man.

Of course I was happy when we signed Garnacho because it means we don't have to play gittens.

2 hours ago, Nibs said:

Said in one of the threads, I think we should go all out to sign Adam Wharton from Palace. Him in place of Enzo in our midfield would be a massive upgrade.

Prefer Elliot Anderson, but fair dos.

2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Of course I was happy when we signed Garnacho because it means we don't have to play gittens.

Did we have to do either, I mean I didn’t think Noni was good enough but he’s better than both.

The SD’s were acting like selling Noni for profit was great business but at that stage we had invested time in him. He had gained prem experience with us and we sold an improved player to a direct rival.

It’s only good business from our perspective if we replace with better, not spend £100m on worse.

With Estevao coming in, Quanda next season Derry in the academy the pursuit of Garnacho in particular after Gittens was signed seemed a vanity project from the SD’s. Like they had to get their man or something. I couldn’t understand it then and still don’t now.

Maybe some agent back scratching going on who knows.

1 hour ago, dermott said:

Prefer Elliot Anderson, but fair dos.

When it comes to replacing Enzo, 100%.

Wharton would be ideal if Lavia were to leave.

17 hours ago, C3blue said:

Did we have to do either, I mean I didn’t think Noni was good enough but he’s better than both.

The SD’s were acting like selling Noni for profit was great business but at that stage we had invested time in him. He had gained prem experience with us and we sold an improved player to a direct rival.

It’s only good business from our perspective if we replace with better, not spend £100m on worse.

With Estevao coming in, Quanda next season Derry in the academy the pursuit of Garnacho in particular after Gittens was signed seemed a vanity project from the SD’s. Like they had to get their man or something. I couldn’t understand it then and still don’t now.

Maybe some agent back scratching going on who knows.

It was so obvious that Noni is better than both but once again our situation is complicated. We are being run more like a business than a pure football club, yes footballing quality is still important but it is not the most important. I suspect Noni demanded a new contact and understandably so as he came in as raw and questionable winger and he left us as legit pl winger.