david-avfc

I don’t think anyone really thinks Barnes is a bad player, just that maybe he’s not going to be a transformative signing which we really need in that part of the pitch. My concern with players with stats like Barnes is goals can very easily dry up and then you wonder whether or not they have enough else in their game to make up the difference to the team. I don’t see Barnes as a dominant player on the pitch or particularly creative, or offering a lot of work rate, I just kind of find him as a decent but slightly forgettable player. Would be a useful squad addition but I don’t think Leicester would sell him cheap enough for it to be worth it

I think we should be aiming higher than Barnes. He has a good goal scoring record but his all round play leaves a lot to be desired, he just doesn’t impact game enough, that might sound counterintuitive but the worry is if the goals dry up what else does he offer? Leicester fans view him as inconsistent / frustrating etc and his stats other than goal stats are very uninspiring. If he was available at a bargain basement price I’d take him as a squad addition but often young English players end up significantly overpriced 

1 minute ago, Villatillidie95 said:

won't have a problem getting a contract on a free at a championship club imo. Can't believe its been 10 years though! at 30 he still has many years left in him

Unfortunately I think his injury problems might prove to be an issue. He’s undoubtedly good enough for that level but it would be a risk for a club to take him when they’re not sure if he’s going to be fit or not

1 hour ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

John Townley is he credible? 

Must admit I like the idea of signing Lee Kang-In, looks very promising.

The agent visiting bodymoor was already public knowledge, he put it on his own social media so it’s not really a new story. I don’t think John Townley is a transfer journalist so unlikely to have much additional knowledge, which I don’t think makes him credible or un-credible 

26 minutes ago, sne said:

Martial was great in 19/20, had a knee injury in 2021. Never gotten back to anything close to that form since and also picked up a fair number of injuries.

According to the internet he's also on £250k/w. Granted that's £100k/w less than Lukaku but still eye watering for the level he's currently performing.

22/23	Hip Injury	Feb 2, 2023	Mar 8, 2023	34 days	9
22/23	Unknown Injury	Jan 14, 2023	Jan 30, 2023	16 days	5
22/23	Back Injury	Oct 10, 2022	Oct 31, 2022	21 days	6
22/23	Achilles Irritation	Aug 23, 2022	Sep 26, 2022	34 days	5
22/23	Hamstring Injury	Jul 31, 2022	Aug 18, 2022	18 days	2
21/22	Muscle Injury	Feb 21, 2022	Mar 9, 2022	16 days	3
21/22	Knee Injury	Dec 4, 2021	Dec 13, 2021	9 days	3
21/22	Fitness	Oct 15, 2021	Oct 29, 2021	14 days	3
20/21	Ruptured knee ligament	Mar 29, 2021	Aug 2, 2021	126 days	14

Great talent but never seems bothered to show it half the time, we should be avoiding players like Martial like the plague 

10 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

Is that all it was? Ten game with Steven? Felt like ten **** years. 

Because it was clear 2 minutes into the first game of the season vs Bournemouth that he was out of his depth, had a whole preseason and came back even worse. Those next 10 games everyone could see the writing on the wall and was counting down the matches until he was sacked, realistically it should have been at the first international break but luckily he got a result vs city just before the break which delayed the inevitable 

14 minutes ago, nepal_villan said:

I am thinking deals are close to being agreed for the likes of Mac Allister.  Would they want to risk losing 60M by playing him against us?

Brighton are sensibly run and flushed with cash like most other PL clubs so I would be surprised if they were so desperate for the transfer fee that they’d be particularly worried about the small risk of a bad injury and will rest players. Maybe those players will play more cautiously than usual which would be helpful to us but maybe they’ll want to do a bit extra to sign off in style? We have to approach the game as if they’ll be on top form - and if they’re not then it’ll be a good day for us 

1 minute ago, nepal_villan said:

Brighton wouldn't want any of their prized assets getting injured in a meaningless game for them. I can see the likes of Mac Allister and Caicedo sitting the game out.

 

I think Brighton will be a tougher fixture than some are giving credit for, they have been excellent all season and are high in confidence and will want to finish the season off in style. It also seems like more than wishful thinking to suggest they’re going to rest all of their best players as some sort of gift to other clubs who want to take their best players off them

23 minutes ago, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

In many ways Brighton with nothing to play for might be a good thing for us. I can see Leeds getting a point vs Spurs, so avoiding defeat should be enough.

A Leeds draw sends them down so presumably if it’s looking like a draw they’ll either go for a winner or concede trying. I am not convinced they’ll do us a favour but they have everything to play for whilst Spurs probably can’t wait for the season to be over, which could help us out.

Hopefully we win and make it all irrelevant anyway.

The ridiculous thing about the Grealish video wasn’t the imaginary “greed-ish” comment but the whole explanation that we bought three separate players to do the same combined job as Grealish. A great idea apart from the fact your still stuck with only 11 players on the pitch so the three for one swap doesn’t really work, and yeah none of those signings have particularly worked that well anyway. A lesson to all that it should always be about quality, not quantity.

15 minutes ago, av1 said:

I wonder if Deano is going to be like Gregory? Right man at the right time for our club who will both always be thought highly of by the fans, but also someone who had a very modest career elsewhere. 

If he goes down with Leicester I think it will be hard for him to get another PL job (unless he briefly joins one of the revolving door clubs), as being associated with their collapse this season and having two relegations in a row on his CV looks pretty poor to future clubs and their fans - even if neither of them were really his fault. 

Sam Allardyce was always clever in that he never joined doomed clubs and built up a reputation of “never being relegated”. Smith unfortunately hasn’t been as cunning in that respect perhaps to his own detriment. Hope he doesn’t just fade out as he deserves so much praise for what he did here.

The pundits are upset because we are prepared to play with tactics usually only employed by the media favourites, and we’ve been successful with it

19 minutes ago, WooJung said:

I think the Chukuwemekas played a few minutes together in a cup game

#clublegends

1 hour ago, TRO said:

I have not studied Vlahovic, other than to know, he is prolific as a goal scorer.

But he also offers an aerial threat....something we haven't got, so that would be a welcome addition, to unsettle defenders.

We have to find additional attributes in our players coming in, so we can become a more rounded team.

That's what makes us stronger.

I think vlahovic’s stock is high enough that if Juventus decide to cash in for whatever reason he’ll easily move to a champions league team.

I saw a rumour that he will be allowed to leave if Juve fail to qualify for the champions league and we’re one of the clubs interested… seems doubtful that he’d leave Juve for missing out on CL just to join a team nowhere near the CL to be honest.

It’s an exciting rumour but unfortunately I just can’t see it happening at all.

1 hour ago, Sulberto21 said:

I prefer chances created as a stat but I can never find that stat.

FYI I believe that stat is called “key passes”, a pass which leads to a shot 

Buendia has 1.1 key passes per game this season versus 2.3 for Norwich in the premier league and 3.1 in the Championship, so the stats are showing he’s not as effective 

We were massively overachieving a few weeks ago, unfortunately there are big holes in our squad and whilst Unai has done a good job to cover them over with a good tactical structure and good  individual game plans, when we have such an unreliable selection of creative players its bound to catch up with this us eventually. Buendia was excellent in the first half today and came close to making something happen for us but then faded out of the game in the second half and there's no one else in that scenario to step up creatively and we're then out of ideas - Traore and Bailey certainly aren't the answers unless the question is "who can give the ball away to the opposition the most". Probably a case of now of just limping over the line this season, hopefully we have a big transfer window and then hit the ground running for next season.

11 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Ferran torres speculated, definitely a good direction to be heading in.. question would you take ferran torres or nico williams as we would only get one

He flopped at Man City and hasn’t set the world alight at Barcelona either, of course both clubs are playing at a higher level than us but I would be a little wary of players like that if they’re going to cost big money.
 

Personally though I think we’re just flavour of the week in certain parts of the press and they’re getting carried away linking us to everyone, I can’t see some of these rumours being legitimate at all, but we’ll see

Barcelona have been a shambles for years, does anyone know anything about this guy, if he’s any good or is he just a flashy name having come from a “super club” (a club which doesn’t appear to know it’s own arse from its elbow) 

18 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I still have no clue what his " injury " really was, aside from there being cryptic tweets around the time it happened.

Then we have heard nothing since, and he hasn't been anywhere close to the first team. Not even any notion of him being fit. It's been a couple years ain't it?

Even though he was a very capable keeper.

Unless i've totally missed something?

He picked up a serious achilles injury whilst on loan at Luton last season - a recurrence of the same injury he’s had in the past

4 hours ago, VillaChris said:

He's barely played for about 18 months. Arsenal would still want 30m + so there's much better value out there. Smith Rowe will end up at Palace or Leicester.

Yeah think that ship has sailed to be honest, he was a good up and coming player 2 seasons ago when we tried to get him but tailed off a few months after that and hasn’t regained that momentum since. He’s a decent player and would be a decent signing for someone but 10 sub appearances and 0 starts this season is a bit of a red flag for me and he’d be a gamble as to what his true level really is - all young players look brilliant when they “burst on to the scene” for the first time but often then fizzle out 

22 hours ago, skarroki said:

Philogene not doing enough for me from what I've seen of him unfortunately. All the talent in the world but I think the comments of "can be whatever he wants to be if he wants it enough" are telling. The lad can win a game on his own and Cardiff have needed that all season but he's not been trusted by multiple managers now to regularly play. He could never seem to get a run in the starting line-up at Stoke either. 

I hope to be proven wrong but for me I'd be sending him back out on loan again unless someone comes in with a decent offer for him, in which case I'd cut ties and take the money, hoping he does on to prove me wrong at a different club. 

Wasn’t he tearing it up at Stoke but then got injured, seemed to then lose confidence and struggled initially at Cardiff before improving, but still a bit in and out of the team with injuries

I was really impressed a couple of years ago when he first looked like he might break through, I thought he deserved a go in the first team but in the end we stuck with El Ghazi and prioritised the development of Chukweumeka instead which was a waste of time

I get that the club wants to add posh areas to bring some new revenue in, but there’s a right place to do that stuff and ripping out half the upper holte isn’t the right place, especially if they’re charging a ridiculous fee for existing season ticket holders whilst the existing facilities presumably will be deliberately run down and overcrowded.

For the first time ever I feel like the club don’t want me there any more. They want some tourist who’s going to turn up once a season or corporate buyers who will buy all these add ons, extra “experiences” etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a year or two my seat in the upper holte I’ve had since I was 8 or 9 years old will be re-designated to some kind of corporate “premium” area.

The “fan survey” sent out a few months ago on this premium area was beyond pathetic, completely biased and leading on every question, I can’t believe many people want this but it was obvious the club were going to do it anyway. If this stuff was going in the new north stand fine but this just feels like they want to push the long standing fans out of existing areas.

On 19/04/2023 at 17:54, TRO said:

Its hard to say, one way or the other....but maybe due to his growth, he could be a late bloomer.

Jamie Vardy, was never blessed physically, and only stared, in his later years......David platt was also, a late starter, to make the top grade.

maybe a team like Vitoria, might be a smart move for both parties, and if he shines, come back home.

I wouldn't want to write him off just yet.

 

 

Hopefully over time we can really utilise the Vitoria link well. But I think at this time a move like that would be too soon for Barry, Vitoria are a top 6 side in Portugals top flight (it’s a real coup that they’re now a partner club) so probably a few levels above where Barry realistically is at considering he’s currently playing in league 2. 

On 19/04/2023 at 16:42, WallisFrizz said:

So given that he is one of our best attacking outlets do we think he will get doubled up on like Jack did? If I were about to play us, I would definitely try and target him.

Difficult to double up on full backs though isn’t it, as they’re constantly marauding up and down the wing, that’s probably why they have become so important in the modern game. Can certainly see teams dropping deeper on that side though but as others have said it’s for us to come up with ways to tactically outwit the opponents in other areas of the pitch instead