Ghost of Clough

10 hours ago, Simmo’s left foot said:

His brother seems to have gone very quiet? Not seen anything of him of late.

2 years out injured, invluding the entire 22/23 season. 2 first team apps this season, including 75 mins in the Europa League.

He had 1 goal and 3 assists from his first 4 starts of the season (at U21 level), but has struggled for form since. This'll be due to being out for so long. A good pre-season and he'll have a very good season next year.

20 hours ago, StaffsRam said:

Probably the same guy who valued our ground the same as Morecambe's - did he base the estimate on Mbappe's value?

They asked Gibson for advice - if Sala had been available, they would have picked up 3 extra points and avoided relegation. This is why the compensation is close to £100m more than the Sala transfer fee (£15m?). That part will be quickly dismissed, as the figure ignores the fact an extra season in the PL also results in additional costs and there's no way to prove what Cardiff would or wouldn't have spent.

The tactic is to start high and settle for less. I expect around halfway between the full fee paid and the expected legal costs.

So far, only the owner(?) of the flight providers has been prosecuted. Cardiff claim is due to the agent (who represented Nantes) was the person who organised the flight.i don't think Cardiff have filed against the correct party, but Nantes will probably give in (to an agreement) due to the potentially high legal fees.

1 hour ago, TheHomunculusLives said:

Is Eames likely to step up to u-21s next season? 

I would be surprised if he does, but it could depend on how many of our U21s leave (loan or permanent).

Radcliffe appears to be preferred at CB, meanwhile we'll still have DRobinson, Fapetu, Hawkins, Bates, McAndrew, Allen, Weston and Lindsay who can all play in the CM or #10 roles. There's also Stepien-Iwumene who we've had on trial for a few games. 

Even if we release a couple and loan a coupleout, I think we're well stocked at CM. I think another season at U18 level will provide him the opportunity to showcase what he can do best, rather than being in the shadow of more promising players - similar to LThompson and JBrown being stuck behind Bird, Knight and Sibley

U18s are losing 5-0 with just a few mins to play. The Leeds LB just got sent off for a 2nd yellow (Oguntola missed a penalty)

It looks like we're coninuing with prep for next season, with the likes of Osayande, KRobinson, Gill, Allen, Eames and McAndrew all missing from the squad despite being eligible.

Price
Perry   Imasuen   Hawkins   Gough
Tola   Agustien
JRichards   Oguntola   Osong
Green

Subs: Shattell, IGordon, Simons, Ward

Imasuen is an 18 yo CB from Leyton Orient.

16 hours ago, inter politics said:

Academy player of the year: Khace Gordon

What is the verdict on the next line of Gordon?

Scholar of the year: Dajuane Brown

Haven't seen enough of him to judge, having only played in 3 U18 games

55 minutes ago, Magicman said:

Keep Wildsmith, Nyambe, Rooney, Nelson, Cashin , Ward, Wilson, Sibley, Fozzy, Thomo, Smith, Adams, NML, Collins, Brown. 

Sell  Vickers, Elder , Hourihane, Fornah, Barks, Waghorn, Washington, Gayle, CBT 

Vickers, Elder, Fornah, Washington and Blackett-Taylor all contracted for at least 1 more season. The others are out of contract.

On 21/04/2024 at 10:07, Black ('n' White) Sheep said:

If we're going to stick with 3 at the back, wing backs and 2 up front (which I think PW will)... I'd like to see a front two of Sam Nombe and Jonson Clarke-Harris! Pace, power, a history of goals and wouldn't cost the Earth.

Nombe - 2 league goals in the equivalnet to 32 games
Clarke-Harris - Only 2 starts this calander year, with a player who our U18 staff felt was better on the wing when with us 3 years ago preferred upfront. He's only played the equivalent to 16 league games this season.

6 hours ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

I’d argue his Rotherham spells indicate very much that he can get more out of players

Since Ronnie Moore gave them 4 cobsexutive seasons in the Championship during the early 2000's, Rotherham have only survived in the Championship on 3 occasions.

14/15 (Steve Evans), 15/16 (thanks to Warnock's 24 points in 16 games), then 22/23 (Warne's 14 points in 9 games and Taylor's 36 pounts in 32 games).

Just a year after Warnock averaged 1.5 points per gane, Warne picked up just 16 in 28 games. The question here is how much damage Stubbs (6 points in 13 games) did to the squad in the summer to make it harder for Warne.

Warne's last 2 seasons at Rotherham also showed signs of end of season fatigue, where if the had maintained their early season form over their final 10 games, they would have won the league in 20/21 (finished 2nd), and stayed up in 21/22 at our expense (finished 23rd). The 19/20 season was cut short due to Covid.

Burnout is also something we experienced last season, picking up just 12 points from our final 10 games. Continuing early season form would have meant a 5th place finish. This season, whilst there are arguments for pushing players too hard, results over these final 10 games haven't suffered. Potentially due to having a bigger and better balanced squad than he's had previously?

Imagine having a CM on the pitch for 70 minutes and him only having 14 touches (Smith) For comparison, Adams has 51 and Thompson 36.

5 minutes ago, ck- said:

Why is Collins playing defensive midfield?????

Because Smith has forgotten he's playing today?

1 minute ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

We’ve been drawn into some unnecessary nonsense, Adams booking avoidable and Wilson got riled up all half. Need to stay calm and see it through. 

Struggling to deal woth the pressure? 

Bradley, Collins and Mendez-Laing have also shown strong signs of frustration at Adams in that first half.

4 minutes ago, R@M said:

SSN just said it’s 100 Rams games for NML today? That can’t be true? 

51 last season and this being his 49th this season. It's the joint most he's ever played for a club. The other being Peterborough.

That was a wonderful pass from Sibley

What just happened? 😳

5 minutes ago, O'hare is the goat said:

Also saw earlier this week that we signed some lad from the Tamworth academy. Could this be Mark Thomas finally coming into play?

I doubt Thomas is looking at U16s. We'll have dedicated academy staff for these sort of players.

1 minute ago, O'hare is the goat said:

Anyone got a clue who the trialist is?

Zyan Blake? 😅

1 hour ago, Reggie Greenwood said:

Is Canoville any relation to the Ex Chelsea player Paul ? 

I believe he's Lee Canoville's son. He runs a coaching centre in Nottingham

29 minutes ago, Rich3478 said:

Yeah he’d be a great upgrade on bird. Must be getting close to moving on too. Is probably not going up with Oxford 

has a lot more end product than bird, just seems a really neat and tidy footballer.

him and Adams be a great centre mid

 

Bird - 10 non-penalty or set-piece goals/assists

Brannagan - 7

Yep... a lot more end product than than Bird.

6 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Simon Francis was the replacement but they wouldn't budge.

Francis was a RB who could play at CB. He has never played at LB in his career.

We signed Christie a couple of weeks after Bournemouth refused to sell Francis

5 minutes ago, Crewton said:

I wouldn't start him, simply because he's been out for so long, nor would I discriminate against him simply because he's opted to go somewhere else, but to suggest he can't tackle is just plain wrong, as the stats below indicate. His creativity may yet be needed at some point in the next 2 games.

As you show there, he makes the 2nd most tackles out of all of our CMs. As you also point out, his creativity may be needed - Adams, Smith (and Thompson) offer very little, whilst only Hourihane creates more chances and that's only due to set pieces. From open play, Bird creates twice as many chances as the next best CM.

1 hour ago, Animal is a Ram said:

Would love for him to get a 5min cameo against Carlisle. Such a shame to see a good talent hampered by injuries.

Does he deserve to get back into the squad based on a few days of training, after being out for 3 months), when we have Collins, Washington, Waghorn, Mendez-Laing, Blackett-Taylor, and Barkhuizen as fit attacking options? That also ignores Bird, Sibley and Wilson as potential options in a front 4.

1 hour ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Interesting one this, not sure what role he’ll have to play (if any) in the final games, but with his contract being up in the summer is there one eye on encouraging him to join us permanently I wonder 🤔 

I hope not. We've only got 375 minutes from him in all competions despite being on loan for the whole season. Only 981 mins last season at Ipswich, and 709 the season before. His career high across all competitions in a season of men's football is only 1369 mins when on loan to Doncaster in 20/21. Even at U18 and U21 level, 1884 was the most he ever achieved.

Even in Joe Ward's worst ever season for injuries, he's still managed more minutes on the pitch this season than John-Jules has achieved at any club. We need to be targetting players with more reliable injury records.

At this point, would he even be ahead of DBrown in the pecking order? As we'll also have Washington contracted for next season and should be looking for 2 new CFs in the summer, is there any value at all in signing John-Jules permanently?

8 minutes ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Genuinely wondering, if we needed 4 strikers in the summer which I think we do if Collins and Gayle don’t get new contracts. 
 

Would you take Clarke Harris (29) at Derby as a fourth choice striker for a squad option. A big physical presence who bags goals on a free. 
 

Fell out of favour with Peterborough as he wouldn’t sign a new contract but still has 13 goals and 3 assists in 38 appearances mostly from the bench. 
Averaging a goal every 154 minutes in the league. I’d certainly take him on a 1 year contract with a 1 year option.

Brown and Washington are contracted beyond the summer. Anyone we sign for a Championship squad should be better than them, with a view to being starters.

Clarke-Harris has only been good enough to start 14 games for Peterboroughthis season, with only 2 since October. He's also only scored/assisted in 3 games since September.