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Nics

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Posts posted by Nics

  1. The thing is everytime we try to cheap out on things it blows up in our faces and costs us more in the long run. As I said yesterday I believe this is what Gibson is deciding, jokanovic or woodgate, cheap or go for it. If he does go for woodgate and it goes wrong then it will be a disaster.

     

    Could always appoint Woodgate and spend money as well.  Or, alternatively, recognise that chucking money at everything isn't necessarily the way to go.

     

    This is the football industry. This is where the institutional logic of investment equals performance equals sustainability is dominant. We have a tendency to forget the funny story of Leeds, Sunderland, and Portsmouth. Napoli, Fiorentina, and Parma. Mindless spending in the hopes of gratification precedes the dull and boring idea of sustainability.

  2. The thing that always worries me about Scandinavian managers is will they set their teams up with that aggressive edge with 2 or 3 dirty *** rather than 11 footballers. Idk I just get the impression their teams are to ‘nice’ for English football. Same for the Dutch ones.

     

    Certainly a good point. 

     

    I'd imagine managers are well aware of that. Still, I'd rate him perfectly capable of building a team over 2-3 seasons. I'd imagine Hjulmand would want a team where he's allowed to have 2 "free" seasons.

     

    I have some doubts whether fans would be behind him all the way, though.

  3. Kasper Hjulmand is still out of employment. I wouldn't mind seeing him here.

     

    He's brilliant with young players, used to a tight budget, he has international experience (albeit not too successful), some Champions League experience, and he's touted as the (next) big star of Danish managers.

     

    He's a member of Common Goal, and known for being well liked by club and community.

     

    He sets up for attractive, progressive football. He likes wing backs and actual wingers with pace. He's certainly more talented than Thomas Frank at Brentford.

  4. Pukki scored yet again. Why do we never find players like that?

     

    To be fair, I think there would have been hell on if we signed Pukki for a free in the summer. Difference if they’ve developed a system that works, and a good manager that can get the best out the players.

     

    I'd have just been celebrating the fact that our scouts actually do know that theres football outside of England, because I'm unsure that they do!

     

    To be honest, I am really surprised by his performances. He was good in the Danish Superliga, but not spectacular. Brøndby fans will say otherwise, but I did not see anything special about him. 

     

    He scored sub-10 goals in his first two seasons, then 20 and 17 goals. Normally, that does not translate to 20-30 goals in the Championship, where the level is much higher. Kenneth Zohore and Simon Makienok both performed atrociously in the Championship. Braithwaite is way too good for the Danish Superliga, and people thought he was .. not good enough.

  5. I don't necessarily think our tactics were that wrong. 1-0 lead does not invite for "offensive" changes in the 70th minute against a Leeds side desperate for a goal.

     

    Assambalonga makes sense given his pace. Hugill can maybe hold up the ball, but I'd rather have someone who has an off-chance scoring a goal from an individual effort. Clayton is far better defensively than Saville. And dare I say Besic can tackle from time to time as well (or at least stumble into someone).

     

    Personally, I would've been *** seeing Downing and VLP on against a Leeds side destined to dominate the last 20 minutes regardless of two players who can presumably hold onto the ball.

     

    Sure, you can defend a lead by holding onto the ball, play possession. But that rarely works against a side with better players at that game. We have conceded the fewest goals in the league by some margin, and our goalscoring is atrocious at best. Why would we try to play to our weakness rather than our strength?

     

    Because we were playing to their strengths.

     

    Proof is in the pudding. They scored.

     

    Striking proof that is. 

     

    https://footystats.org/clubs/england/leeds-united-fc

     

    Leeds score most goals second half. 29 % of their goals in min 81-90 according to that site. They have a way of seeing the games out, put pressure. We are - usually - somewhat decent at defending against that pressure. 

     

    I sincerely doubt that putting on two offensive players with little to no defensive ability about them would have turned the game in our favour. We (and Pulis (and Karanka)) are usually good at grinding out leads.

     

    EDIT: @Duvel And yes, I know having a player or two being able to take the ball on, get a freekick, and then waste time is a might fine tactic as well. I am saying that I really doubt that we have any players who could fill that roll post 70 minute given the entire team is likely starting to get tired.

     

    Putting on Downing will not relieve any pressure. He can't dribble that well anymore, no pace, and he can't defend for ***. I say that even though some people on here suggested putting Downing on left back in place of Friend. Having ball possession takes energy, too. The movement off ball can be more tiring than sitting deep, and moving side to side in whatever midfield constellation was in place. In my uneducated and arm-chair specialist opinion, we have more chance of scoring - in that scenario (post 70th minute) - hoofing the ball to Britt and hope for the best.

  6. I don't necessarily think our tactics were that wrong. 1-0 lead does not invite for "offensive" changes in the 70th minute against a Leeds side desperate for a goal.

     

    Assambalonga makes sense given his pace. Hugill can maybe hold up the ball, but I'd rather have someone who has an off-chance scoring a goal from an individual effort. Clayton is far better defensively than Saville. And dare I say Besic can tackle from time to time as well (or at least stumble into someone).

     

    Personally, I would've been ***ed seeing Downing and VLP on against a Leeds side destined to dominate the last 20 minutes regardless of two players who can presumably hold onto the ball.

     

    Sure, you can defend a lead by holding onto the ball, play possession. But that rarely works against a side with better players at that game. We have conceded the fewest goals in the league by some margin, and our goalscoring is atrocious at best. Why would we try to play to our weakness rather than our strength?

  7. I think we underestimate the amount of sway Agents and Agency firms have. They whisper in the right ear, and help get deals over the line.  They also actively work with certain clubs to earth some hidden gems, etc.

     

    With us having a very open Club policy of hating Agents and screwing their commissions to the floor. Pulling the plug on deals at the eleventh hour to force lower fees.

     

    What Agent would want to do us any favours, or be pooping themselves for an eleventh hour deal collapse.

     

    "Super Agent" Jorge Mendes was close to our club a few seasons ago and with Peter Keynon presented a plan to Gibson how to conveyor belt our club for Europe's finest youngsters. Gibson declined in fear of losing the "local" club mentality and backed backed Gary Gill.  As we all know Jorge Mendes then took this opportunity to Wolverhampton Wanderers.  

     

    Football's a global game, and we're now reaping the rewards of closing ourselves off and keeping it local.

     

    I'll just throw in the word 'sustainability' again. Jorge Mendes is no doubt the king of the European football market. Gibson showed balls when he cut the ties with Kenyon and Mendes who would later be accused of third-party ownership deals. 

     

    Almost everywhere he has engaged in similar style as with Wolves, he has left the club behind in turmoil and staggering debt (e.g. Valencia). 

     

    He orchestrated the whole Bebe farce with Man United, too. 

     

    What happens once he is bored of Wolverhampton? If FA actually realises his position at Wolves? If the Wolves owners realise Mendes is ***ing them over? If Mendes decides his Portuguese entourage is to play elsewhere? Wolves will be ***ed. 

     

    I'm happy we never engaged in anything meaningful with that man. He's an insanely good agent, but he'd cross us over.

  8. Steve Gibson has some questions to answer

     

    I think this is a bit unfair.

     

    I think he gives his managers total control and doesn't interfere the way that, for example, Forest's owner/chairmen do.

     

    I also dont think the recruitment department are to blame either if Pulis is having final say on which players we end up buying.

     

    For me, the blame is squarely on Pulis and Bausor. Bausor runs things on a day to day basis, not Gibson.

     

    I meant that despite record premier league tv Money, parachute payments, 3 big sales in the summer we still are relying on loans and low fee players. Where has the money from Gibson, Traore and Bamford gone and why isn’t it being invested in this squad

     

    Probably used to cover some debt? 

    We made something like £11m in profit in the premier league season. The cost of promotion was something like £25m. Then comes all the wages, loss (I guess?) of sponsorship(s), TV revenue, parachute payments gone soon.

     

    Sure, most of our loan(s) is/are repayable on demand. This is an unpopular opinion, but that - to me - is not exactly reassuring in an legislative environment in which FIFA are changing rules often. More concerning is if Gibson decides to no longer support the club. Then what? Debt (that is not owed to Gibson) has increased during our Premier League season, not decreased. 

     

    Maybe this is Gibson saying the club should aim to run sustainably without the luxury of Premier League TV money.   

     

    I may have misread or misinterpreted the annual account, but I understand why we are not splashing money even if we did sell players.

     

    EDIT: Latest annual report shows no dividend was paid. Next annual report should be available 15 April 2019.

     

    EDIT 2: It's not really a huge problem if Leeds have not paid anything for Paddy (yet). The balance books will just show we have money due, which is fine as long as cash flow allows us to pay wages etc.. As far as I remember, we are somewhat 'insured' when it comes to transfer fees.

  9. Part of me hopes Gibson throws away the coffin, swallows the key, and suffers from acute constipation. Oh, and - of course - all laxatives are sold out.

     

    I cannot see why Pulis should be allowed to sign more players that are almost only suitable for his style of play. Why would we actively sign players that automatically become deadwood the minute Pulis puts his ancient mummified hands on another unfortunate club badge?

     

    I hardly watch us anymore. I don't need my hair any thinner than it already is.

     

    well if it's any consolation, it sounds like you've got the perfect blend of misery and negativity to fit right in on this forum

     

    You frame me like a brand of tobacco. 

     

    Nics tobacco. The perfect blend of misery for your negativity pipe. Gentlemen's choice. 

  10. Part of me hopes Gibson throws away the coffin, swallows the key, and suffers from acute constipation. Oh, and - of course - all laxatives are sold out.

     

    I cannot see why Pulis should be allowed to sign more players that are almost only suitable for his style of play. Why would we actively sign players that automatically become deadwood the minute Pulis puts his ancient mummified hands on another unfortunate club badge?

     

    I hardly watch us anymore. I don't need my hair any thinner than it already is.

  11. I haven't watched us for long time as I - like many others - find our style of football a bit tedious. I didn't mind it in the Prem with Karanka going full Mourinho mode, but we were underdogs back then. We are not anymore.

     

    Yesterday, however, was not that tedious. We were playing a side happily sitting back in the first half. We tried to lump balls into the penalty area, but Britt was no match in the air against their CBs. We tried the cut-back pass a few times and we were rather close to them connecting. We tried paced grounded passes into the box, but they did not connect as Britt rarely made the run to the front post.

     

    Maybe we didn't play short passes, one-twos, and piercing through-balls. Our passing was at times as sloppy as that of Wednesday's - but we were the far more positive side while remaining in control and being disciplined.

     

    Second half was far more positive: Britt linked up well at times, Besic continued his confident style from the first half, and Howson got more involved with deep runs. Friend and Shotton were further up the pitch (albeit that did not offer much offensively). We won the crucial second balls. Players starting beating their direct opponent - and suddenly we were in front.

     

    One howler later, and a nail biting last 10 minutes. Sure, we could've been more creative, but it really wasn't as tedious as I expected. Great game, really.

  12. Sky saying Ayala should have had a red for an elbow on Fletcher

     

    Can they look at that again retrospectively?

     

    If the ref missed it then yes it will depend on his match report

     

    I'm pretty sure he'll struggle to get retrospective action for it. The ref didn't miss the call, he still called it a foul and judged it to be no booking. Not entirely 100% with the laws of the game on this but I think retrospective action is only for things the referee didn't see or make a decision on at all.

     

    "Firstly, it’s important to state that the principal objective behind retrospective action is to punish players who have clearly committed a red card offence ‘off the ball’.

     

    It is not designed to ‘re-referee’ tackles but can be applied if an act of violent conduct or serious foul play occurred secondary to the challenge or if the match officials’ view of the specific misconduct was unclear.

     

    In order for The FA to take retrospective action it must first establish from the match officials whether the incident was ‘not seen’. If they confirm they did see it then in almost all cases no further action is taken"

     

    https://help.thefa.com/support/solutions/articles/7000039299-how-does-the-fa-decide-whether-to-retrospectively-charge-a-player-for-an-incident-not-seen-by-the-m

     

    For me, it boils down to whether the ref saw the elbow or not. If he called the foul for pushing or whatever, then retroactive action could be taken for the elbow as it may be interpreted as secondary to the challenge. 

     

    But I doubt anything will come from this anyway.

  13. Sky saying Ayala should have had a red for an elbow on Fletcher

     

    Can they look at that again retrospectively?

     

    Honestly, it did look like a red. Raised elbow, checked him to the face. We all know Ayala suffers from chronic clumsiness, but he went full UFC on Fletcher with that elbow.

     

    Also, I think they can look at it retrospectively if the ref didn't realise it was an elbow. If the ref had booked him and noted it for high elbow or whatever, then no.

     

    Although I am ready to be corrected on that one.

  14. On Braithwaite I guess it’s clear he has been playing for a move.... or is that cynical of me?

     

    Cynical? Nah. But I think Braithwaite is being very professional about this. He's been playing well for us recently and he's not refusing to play or show poor attitude to force a move.

     

    It's still disappointing, but fair play to both Braithwaite and Pulis for being honest about the situation. 

     

    And shame about Braithwaite wanting to move on. I'm guessing he hasn't settled too well on a personal and/or family level. His wife is French, maybe she's not into parmos.

  15. Pogatatez and Huth, I am sure I remember them being good?

     

    Pogatetz was good, but.. Some of his tackles were borderline insane. I remember him breaking someone's leg against Man Utd. 

     

    I suppose he was 'hard but fair' for the most part.

  16. I mean we've all known he's on the 75-80k a week range the whole time we've been linked not sure how big of a hurdle that'd be all of a sudden, I saw when Turkish clubs inquired about Bolasie on loan that Everton want a 1.5 million loan fee which is definitely a high number for a loan fee though. If he's too expensive and the wage share demands on Everton's part don't move we should move on there's a few other wingers out there but our rivals are also looking at the same things we are we can't be sleepwalking to the 31st here by the time we get there most of the better options will already be snapped up.

     

    Turkish clubs are almost certainly out of the equation given the Turkish currency nosedived to the ground. 

     

    Just look at the 1 year development of Turkish lira against US Dollars. https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=TRY&view=1Y

     

    Some official in Galatasaray blamed Trump for their inability to act in the transfer window as the currency drop increased Galatasaray debt by 25 %.

  17. I think until Clayton starts scoring 10+ goals a season some fans will never rate him, I feel the same about Randolph ;)

     

    Why do people always bring it back to goals? It's obvious a player in his position won't get many, but at the same time if he's playing as one of 2 midfielders he needs to offer a lot more than just running about and breaking up play.

     

    I mean, the 2 best seasons I'd say he had for us were the play-off final and promotion seasons. Playing as one of 2 midfielders, breaking up play. It's not his job to create and never has been here. He keeps us in control of games when we're in front. In this division, we don't need him to do any more than that and blaming him in any way in what does or doesn't happen at the top end of the pitch is harsh.

     

    Just don't agree with any of that it is the job of the DM to get the ball from the back to forward players as quickly and accurately as possible to start attacks, the truth is he breaks our own play up just as much as he does the oppositions.

     

    If we counter, whoever we have in space will only be in that space for a short few seconds, those seconds are often ate up by claytons poor touch or not turning with the ball or playing a poor pass because he can't play at speed.

     

    Thinking the DM is only there to tackle and play a short pass to another player is an incredibly dated thing.

     

    I have a feeling you'd like William Kvist and his role for Denmark. He's everything you hate in Clayton multiplied by 10^10. 

     

    I like Clayton and what he does. Did he not play a more controlling (i.e. 'creative') role for Huddersfield? 7 goals and 6 assists in 42 games (13/14). 

     

    Like many others have pointed out, his role in the team is limited to spread the ball to more creative players. And, I suppose, - supporting your argument - for good reason.

  18. I prefer players who have the desire to play at the top level rather than those dropping down after a long time in the premiership.

     

    They just seem to lack that something extra and coast around the pitch. Look at lambert, he was a monster until he peaked playing for Liverpool and England and he's barely been heard of since.

     

    On the other hand, Merson did ok for us.

     

    The classic 'counter the argument using the 1 example from a million years ago' technique. Love it.

     

    You gave one example, so did I.

     

    If you want others, john Terry did well this season with Villa.

     

    But everyone from that Villa line up was +27 except Grealish!

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