abertawe_ram

Charlie Goode also leaving Brentford on a free this summer. Big beast of a cb, could be a younger Bradley replacement at 28? Not sure how much championship football he's played in his career and how much of it in 2 or 3

Oxford have been known to blow a 2 goal lead but only against a really top notch team 😉

If anyone has listened to the rival league one fans views on SBW podcast, then I imagine you also won't be able to avoid a chuckle at Bolton's current plight

What on earth is Chris Martin doing on that list! Love the bloke but did he really have that good of a season?

3 minutes ago, eddielewis said:

Same template but the showcase Puma teams like Man City, AC Milan, Dortmund will have individualised GK colours 

If that's what they give for the showcase teams, then I'm glad we're not one of those! 🤮

I was quite excited for the return of puma but the more recent examples of their kits I see, the more I'm thinking please come back Umbro 😆

Reckon a lot of championship teams will be looking at Ike Ugbo (my phone is desperately trying to change his name to IKEA for some reason)  and I wonder if he's one we'll consider.

Big, physical, hardworking striker that got a few goals to help keep Wednesday up. He is under contract at Troyes until 2026 though it seems and with a fair bit of interest his value might be on the up

21 minutes ago, Jackal said:

I wonder if there'll be a fire sale at Cardiff then, is there any other current Cardiff players we'd like to see in a Derby shirt next season? 

Yakou Meite always used to look a threat for Reading but his stats for the season just gone aren't good. If they were looking to sell he could be worth a gamble 

9 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

I thought he was a Derby fan. Which might make him raise his game? Decent shout. I'd also love to see Jamal Lascelles at Derby, as another fan (I believe), but he's rightly not going to give up another year on his contract at Newcastle. 

Looks like Sheff Utd have taken up the extension option on Osborn, along with Bogle and Norrington-Davies. He would've been a useful addition if he was unattached.

As you've said, I can't see Lascelles giving up a good wage at Newcastle to drop down. He seems very highly thought of there for his influence even if he doesn't play all that much.

14 minutes ago, therealhantsram said:

With nine on the bench, and five subs next season the rules really play into the hands of the wealthy clubs who have strength in depth. Many (most?) games will be won or lost based on the subs that happen in the last 20 minutes. 

We need to be in a position to bring on an entirely new front three at 70 minutes. This is where most goals will be scored against the tired legs of defenders. 

Brown deserves his chance to be one of those six players.

I do wonder if a good tactic next season will be to set out to defend for 70 mins before completely switching up the play and attacking. Particularly in away games.

That makes a lot of sense and pairs well with something a poster wrote in another thread about wingback. If we are going down the 343 / 352 route next season, having the option to freshen up the wingbacks after 60/70 will be a good tactic. Ward/Wilson are ideal for that at the moment on the right but I think a left wingback with more energy and attacking threat to pair with Sibley on the left would a good way to go. Hopefully the Small link has some truth to it and that's an option we're looking at. 

2 forwards, 2 wingbacks and a centre mid that are capable of coming off the bench in the 2nd half to make a difference, could be huge.

9 subs does seem a bit mental though, I would've thought 7 is fine

This fella would never shirk a challenge in either of his spells. Definitely had a feisty streak but I wouldn't say a thug.

Same with Adam Bolder too.

But as has been said, we've never had a whole team of hard men and our lack of them at certain had probably been a detrement. It's never been our main tactic, even under Billy when we had a solid core that could mix it (Moore, Johnson, Howard) they were balanced out with some very decent footballers (Leacock, Jones, Lupoli)

Seeing the playoffs this week reminded me I've been impressed with Moore from Oxford. Sadly looks like they tied him to a long-term deal at the start of the season. He would be great to take over from Bradley, another giant but he's comfortable on the ball in a back 3. Cest la vie

3 hours ago, Rich3478 said:

Tyrese campbell be a good option up front

I was surprised to see he's only 24! Had a few injury issues but definitely worth a shot if his wage demands were reasonable. Not the greatest goal return but seems like he is more of a 10/second striker than main centre forward. Could be a good option across the 3 in a 343 together with NML and CBT

Just seen Ipswich are on track via a Wes Burns goal, he's a great example of one of those players who looked very very average at Bristol for years, but in his late 20s its all clicked for him at Ipswich and he's had a phenomenal 3 seasons!

One reason I try not to write off players we sign before they've played a bit. You know never know who will settle and find their best form where

Central midfield is the big area to address this off-season obvisouly. I'd love us to sign Adams and hopefully that can be done for a modest fee, but probably 2 more (one defensive minded and one attack minded) needed in my mind.

There's some good young talents that will be staying in League 1, depending on what happens in the playoffs. I'd be interested to see if any of the following could fall into our budget: 

Erhahon from Lincoln, Kyprianou from Peterborough, Brown from Orient, Kane from Barnsley, Asgard from Wigan

if we were going down the experienced old head route to replace Smith and Hourihane for next year, then I always quite liked Norwood from Sheff U. Good passing range and seemed a good pro

11 minutes ago, Chesterfield_Ram said:

I’m not quite sure about Kelvin E. Doesn’t appear to be very clinical or anything really. On paper he looks a bit like one of those players that fans put back because he’s one of their own, but no one else is overly interested.

I think you could well be right. When he came on at Pride Park this season they were chucking long balls at him and he's certainly a big presence for a young guy but I didn't see much from him on the deck

18 minutes ago, oodledoodle said:

Are Reading still struggling financially? I know we were linked with Charlie Savage last season, is there a championship player in him?

What little I've seen this year he looks a tidy player with good set pieces but very lightweight. My Reading supporting mate suggested he wouldn't be sad to see him go, that was back when we were linked. I know he doesn't want to see their striker Kelvin (very long surname and I can't look it up right now) leave because he thinks he has big potential.

They're still hopeful of a sale to get a consortium in and that lunatic Yong out, but we know first-hand how long that stuff can take!

1 hour ago, Oldben said:

Summer 2023, transfer spend ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/the72.co.uk/2023/09/04/2023-summer-transfer-window-championship-spending-and-net-spend-table-transfermarkt/amp/

5 bottom teams:

Huddersfield Town (Relegated)

Total spend: £0m Net spend: £2m

Rotherham United (Relegated)

Total spend: £1.1m Net spend: -£1.1m

Birmingham City (Relegated)

Total spend: £5.69m Net spend: £0.76m

Sheffield Wednesday

Total spend: £1.3m Net spend: -£1.3m

Plymouth Argyle

Total spend: £2.48m Net spend: -£2.48m

 

 

 

 

Not quite relegated yet I'm afraid but hopefully this time tomorrow 🙂

I was surprised to see how much they've spent but looked and their squad is pretty massive. Massively underachieving too for sure because there's some decent individuals in there

What do people think regards to TJJ? 

Speaking to a friend from Rotherham about their season and he thinks the only players out of their team who are close to championship standard are Johansson and Humphreys. I don't think GK is a position we need to look at as priority unless either Vickers or Wildsmith want to depart, so I imagine Johansson will be snapped up by someone. Humphreys is a CB at a a good age with a good pedigree so I definitely wouldn't be against us going in for him

I have it on good authority Ciaran Clark plays Padel in Derby, so you know what that means 😉

1 hour ago, Premier ram said:

Good shout on Forino, impressed me when we played them at their place

Impressive that they picked him up from Loughborough Uni. Given the location you would hope our scouts are keeping an eye out for similar future pickups. It would be nice to see us gamble on some non-leauge talents rather than having to spend big after they've already made it. It won't always work out but an option worth pursuing 

He's hit some great form under yhe new boss. Got a good midfield partnership with Wharton developing. They support and feed the creative atrackers Olise and Eze really well 

I saw on facebook Smithfield is open from 10am. Off the bus in town, Birds sausage cob on my way to the Smithfield, then on to the ground for a date with destiny

I was only a nipper in the 90s when we got promoted, so dont really remember a lot of the details.

What I wonder is, did everyone cry and s*** themselves like a bunch of babies quite this much every time we dropped points back then? Before Van der Laan popped up with his glorious header to clinch second for us? 

3 games to go. Bring on the Orient

Team is what I was hoping for and the bench has some good options!

Hope to god we don't get any defensive injuries though

COYR

38 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Leigh Curtis’ predicted XI in the DET assuming Ward isn’t fit enough to play is a 4-4-2 as follows;

               Wildsmith

Wilson  Nelson  Cashin  Sibley 

NML     Smith     Adams   CBT

          Collins   Waghorn 

I don’t hate it, solid in the middle, pace and trickery out wide from the wingers and the full backs. It’s just a…erm….industrious front 2, so not a great amount of guile, but maybe it’ll be a game for staying solid and then kicking their front door in at the right moments.

Possibly Washigton if fit is a better option as part of a 2? Offers a slightly different option to the other 2. Although I suppose it's unlikely for Wycombe's line to be up enough for him to run behind. This is why it's such a shame about Gayle,  who gave us such a smart striking option