FAO Josh - with our new DOF in place now.
With your extensive knowledge of players from europe, would you have any recommendations for CH - RB - RWB
all areas where we need to strengthen. Barnes and Dack look as though they will be out of our price range - so the big man will need to be discussing who is available to fill those positions with the same impact. I'm assuming with the fee from Rondon that will cover the cost for Gayle? With Mears, Barry, Brunt, Mozza, Hoolahan and now Sako all limited by way of age, our rebuilding has to continue with a little more conviction then last summer?
Most of our business should be left to next summer but I think in January we need to sign a good right back who has the ability and stamina to play at right wing-back.
I like Jan Gyamerah from 2. Bundesliga side Vfl Bochum. He’s a solid, all-round right back who can also play at right midfield and right centre back either in a back 4 or back 3. He’s only 23 so isn’t in his prime yet and would probably cost about £1.5 million, maybe more considering how he’s played this season and last season.
If Barnes departs then replacing him will be tough. He’s a winger after all so we’d have to sign a similar type of winger to play our ten role.
(13-10-2018, 23:22)WBA-Josh Wrote: [ -> ]Most of our business should be left to next summer but I think in January we need to sign a good right back who has the ability and stamina to play at right wing-back.
I like Jan Gyamerah from 2. Bundesliga side Vfl Bochum. He’s a solid, all-round right back who can also play at right midfield and right centre back either in a back 4 or back 3. He’s only 23 so isn’t in his prime yet and would probably cost about £2 million, maybe more considering how he’s played this season and last season.
If Barnes departs then replacing him will be tough. He’s a winger after all so we’d have to sign a similar type of winger to play our ten role.
Josh, Would Sako fit into the team in Barnes' place? (Don't know his game.)
I think he would talksaft. He’s a similar type of player in terms of style but I don’t think he’s as quick though. If Barnes does leave in January, I’d rather see us replace him with a like for like player but because that would be tough, I’d be content with Sako, Morrison or Hoolahan replacing him.
I am starting to doubt that Leicester will recall Barnes. They don’t really need him currently because they have plenty of players in Barnes’ position. They recalled him last season and barely used him so I doubt they want to stunt his growth again.
WBA will sell Oliver Burke in January if a decent offer comes in. Some clubs interested even prem.
[Alan Nixon]
#WBA #WBAFC
https://t.co/s3Vc5amEpk
Meanwhile Harvey Barnes has asked Leicester to let him stay at WBA for the rest of the season
(15-10-2018, 00:16)Beefy 1965 Wrote: [ -> ]WBA will sell Oliver Burke in January if a decent offer comes in. Some clubs interested even prem.
[Alan Nixon]
#WBA #WBAFC https://t.co/s3Vc5amEpk
Meanwhile Harvey Barnes has asked Leicester to let him stay at WBA for the rest of the season
Makes one wonder why Pulis was so keen to buy Ollie Burke.
“One for the future” was Pulis’ quote at the time.
I wonder if “A bung in my bank balance” would have been more correct given the talk about Puliscom.
If we can get £8-10 million for Burke then we should be happy. He has done very little at the club and his problems were reported widely before he signed. His lack of tactical awareness was the biggest problem he had with RB Leipzig and he went from playing gegenpressing attacking football under Hättenhuttl to defensive football under Pulis which didn’t help either.
Now to be fair to Burke, he hasn’t been given many chances at the club because he’s been more of a impact sub than starter. It’s probably best for him to get a fresh start at a different club, a club who plays the sort of football that works well for him.
NEWS: West Bromwich Albion could recall defender Fitzwater from Walsall loan in January:
https://t.co/PlFULrqHL7
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I'll be the first to state that I feel we paid way over the odds for Oli Burke; £15 million for a player with little track record seemed ridiculously high. Having said that, I will be very disappointed if we sell him in January, as reported. I just feel we have seen nothing of him and he's been given precious little opportunity to impress or even play. He clearly has a good level of potential that clubs have felt worth the investment, I'd just like to see whether that potential can be turned into actual performance. If he gets the chance and doesn't perform, then fair enough and we should not keep him. But let's give him a chance, he's a young guy with a big price tag around his neck.
Part of my issue with the Burke situation is my concern that we are not giving our younger players more of a chance, bar the usual run out in the Carabao Cup. We have concerns about the lack of pace in central midfield but continue with two out of a Brunt/Livermore/Barry partnership when we could introduce Field or Harper; we have all expressed concerns about both Heghazi and Bartley in defence but BD won't consider Adarabioyo as an alternative. When we go out into the loan market, we go for Sako aged 30, Hoolahan aged 36 and Mears aged about 106. Thank goodness for Barnes in keeping the average age down. We complained when Pulis regularly turned out the oldest team in the league, I was hoping that this would change under BD but that does not seem to be the case.
If this team gets us promotion, then fantastic and I'll take my hat off to BD but it won't change my view that I feel we are missing an opportunity to play the younger talent.
(15-10-2018, 13:28)BaggieSteve Wrote: [ -> ]I'll be the first to state that I feel we paid way over the odds for Oli Burke; £15 million for a player with little track record seemed ridiculously high. Having said that, I will be very disappointed if we sell him in January, as reported. I just feel we have seen nothing of him and he's been given precious little opportunity to impress or even play. He clearly has a good level of potential that clubs have felt worth the investment, I'd just like to see whether that potential can be turned into actual performance. If he gets the chance and doesn't perform, then fair enough and we should not keep him. But let's give him a chance, he's a young guy with a big price tag around his neck.
Part of my issue with the Burke situation is my concern that we are not giving our younger players more of a chance, bar the usual run out in the Carabao Cup. We have concerns about the lack of pace in central midfield but continue with two out of a Brunt/Livermore/Barry partnership when we could introduce Field or Harper; we have all expressed concerns about both Heghazi and Bartley in defence but BD won't consider Adarabioyo as an alternative. When we go out into the loan market, we go for Sako aged 30, Hoolahan aged 36 and Mears aged about 106. Thank goodness for Barnes in keeping the average age down. We complained when Pulis regularly turned out the oldest team in the league, I was hoping that this would change under BD but that does not seem to be the case.
If this team gets us promotion, then fantastic and I'll take my hat off to BD but it won't change my view that I feel we are missing an opportunity to play the younger talent.
Great post Steve, you make a lot of very valid points.
I think we're all frustrated with BD not using our youngsters more, especially when they seem to 'have it' on the occasions when they ARE seen. I guess the coaches see them every day though, and are therefore obviously in a much better position to make the right call.
Also with BD being a real newby still, he's nearly always going to go for the safer option rather than take any sort of a risk with the younger ones. Not trying to defend it, just understand it!
I just hope that in a few months we're not still saying the same thing!