LinoJo3

I’d be happy with that, it’s hard to find a good proven and affordable cm and we’ve got one on a plate with O’Brien with the added try before you buy benefit. Ayling I think is a no brainer if he’s cheap enough.

That sucks I used it for pretty much every midweek game

Yea he’s one I defo hope we go for, he reminds me of Juninho tbh the way he dribbles.

Southampton were always still in it but had 2 games in hand so looked miles off.

Why would Ipswich be able to financially out compete us?

I watched his highlights, looks a lot like O’Brien in the way he plays, his passing doesn’t look anything worse than any of our midfielders, but he also doesn’t stand out as an exceptional passer. He’s more of a ‘busy’ player and pops up in different areas of the pitch. I think he’s a player Carrick would play tbf, though he’s definately more of a #8 and looks like he’d get knocked off the ball a lot.

Max Dean if we’re going for a lower league player decent finisher.

Bacuna is definately a baller and I’d happily see him come here, he’s definately more in the McGree/Azaz mould rather than a classic cm though. Heres his heat map for this season, he’s been everywhere but central. https://www.sofascore.com/player/juninho-bacuna/788971#tab:statistics

Krystian Bielik? Yea injuries etc. seems like the kind of midfielder Carrick would like though?

Dont think it’s a big risk at all tbh, specially if we’re looking at getting in a more long term right back aswell. Surely the bigger risk is going into the season with a younger rb and Smith with potential fitness issues as our only rbs is more of a risk? Ayling can also cover at CB aswell, could probably stick him at LB aswell if we were desperate.

I get the feeling Browne might be (rightly or wrongly) to ‘obvious’ an option for our recruitment team, that plus he will have the choice of basically every championship team, you could even see Ipswich getting him if they went up.

I don’t think the club will want to sell Dieng, but we have to be realistic and know if a prem club offers us £8-10m for him and throws silly money at him in wages then it’s gonna be hard for all involved to turn down. It could give us a summer budget of £25m+, something we could only dream about a couple of years ago. Yes as fans we all want Dieng to stay but again we just need to be realistic if it did come to it and he did leave. Let’s be real if a prem club does show serious interest then it’s probably gonna happen wether the club want it to or not. As fans we need to just stay p

Tbh my first thought was a season long loan to Burnley 💀

I think his wages would be the biggest obstacle, you’d imagine he signed a contract on wages outside of our structure.

It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s made up but also wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true. Maybe akpom has got his ‘big move’ desire out of his system, he seems to have been a sub most of the season with 21 games and despite being at a huge club isn’t enjoying it as much as he was here. He knows he loves it here, we know he fits our system, could well be a match made in heaven and a loan to buy if promoted could do the trick, specially if the new Ajax manager doesn’t really fancy him.

Love this article and relieved to see he seems happy here. I mentioned a few months ago being worried that he’s been thinking we’ve sold him a dud getting him to come here, thankfully I was wrong. It doesn’t surprise me if the players are told about our investment plans, we want them to stay here specially the likes of Hackney, VDB, McGree, Lath. Explaining our plans for the summer and next season after what has been over all a bad season despite this strong finish would be a big part of enticing them to stay here.

I’d have Sorba Thomas as a Greenwood replacement, i.e rotation/bench player, would be an upgrade on greenwood and is a total set piece specialist. I don’t think we’d get promotion with for example Thomas and Jones as our main creative options. Dembele and willock would be top of my list for those wide positions from my limited knowledge. The #10 is still absolute 100% priority, if we have the ability to spend a chunk of cash on one position it has to be spent there. Someone clever, strong and composed on the ball.

I noticed against Hull there never seems to be enough of our players around, like we set up already ‘stretched’ as a team and that’s our default. It’s hard to describe like no matter where the ball is there never seems to be enough of our players compared to attacking players.

Oh come on it’s absolutely fair, time after time he just doesn’t do enough, just not reliable enough to be our #1 LB imo. He can improve in a better team yes but it will need to be one hell of an improvement. Sick of all the excuses now tbh, based on this season it’s glaringly obvious he’s just not good enough.

Yep a second option up front is needed but we have to invest heavily behind the striker and in midfield. A dominating cm and #10 are vital if we wanna go up, I’d also like to see Bangura tried at lb between now and the end of the season, I think Engel is just to much of a weak link.

We’ve literally just spent the last few weeks challenging for the top 6 tho lol.

Akpoms position allowed him the freedom to find those pockets though, the CMs roles will be far more rigid.

That’s just typical Jones he’s always gonna be like that imo, very inconsistent.

Kinda puts Engel into perspective tbh, Ayling almost 33 and released from his club already has more assists in 17 games than Engel does in 35.

Ayling is the first player we’ve really had this season to put over regular decent crosses. He’s gave us an option on the right and it’s led to a few goals now.