[bluepooch]

Heard its Liam o Neill but I have been known to be wrong on the odd occasion.
Dancing stop reading my mind you have posted my thoughts exactly
People will be accusing us of being one and the same.have you ever run down your street naked ?

[Dancingwilldoit]

Wouldn't want to put all the other men on our street to shame Blue.
I agree I think somewhere along the road we morphed into the same character - worrying isn't it. Bluedancingpoochwilldoit is the way forward!

[SaltergateBorn]

Well done, Pooch. Looks like you were spot on.

The announcement by the club is slightly interesting, don`t you think? They`re not disclosing the fee - which is not unusual these days - but they`re also not disclosing the length of the contract he`s signed. I`ve never heard of that before; anyone have any ideas why that might be?

As an aside, I know a couple of Baggies followers quite well and have happened to speak to them this morning after I read your post, Pooch. They had heard rumours he might be on his way and the general consensus was that, although he`s not quite up to PL standards, he`s a pretty decent player and should do well at our level. Versatile too, by the sound of it.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

O'Neil is a great young utility player, and one of the leading prospects from his "class" at our academy (the only players I'd say were more highly-rated than him were Berahino for obvious reasons, Izzy Brown who went to Chelsea, and George Thorne who's now at Derby). He made a few sub appearances for us in the league, and started in the League Cup against Hull last year; in that game particularly he looked really good, confident and skilful on the ball, and set up both of our goals. Sadly, the Premier League being what it is, players pretty much need to be fully-formed football prodigies by the age of 22 or they don't stand a chance of breaking into the first team. O'Neil's got his fair share of talent, and I'd certainly back him to be plying his trade in the Championship in the coming years - in fact, I'm surprised no Champ teams came in for him here and now - so with any luck, you've got yourselves a player with a bright future.

[bluepooch]

Thanks for the insight ska'd.
I'll have a search for Scunny fans comments as they would have had a good look at him last season in league one .

[Devongone]

Surprised to learn Scunny have fans Pooch. This lad sounds like the right kind of signing for us, if he didn't cost too much.

Interested by the praise for Donal McDermott. I watched him on his debut for us at Torquay. I have never seen a Chesterfield player run at a defence with such pace and control. That day we had Currie passing the ball beautifully for 25 minutes, McDermott running, crossing, shooting and causing havoc throughout ....... and almost nothing else. Torquay held on, got a breakaway goal, played well for a while and won the game .... but even their fans were talking about McDermott after the match. I'd love to see him resurrect his career. He could be far too good for Rochdale, but it's up to him. Maybe he needs a Keith Hill to make him use his talent.

[bluepooch]

To be honest dev I hope he cost 1/2 mill it would be a sign of intent
When did we last sign a current premier league player on a permanent deal?

[Devongone]

Well he's not really made himself "current" has he? Like Daniel Johnson he nearly got there, even closer in fact. But if he's as good as Johnson I won't be moaning .......

I would have said the length of contract is central here. Either it's so long to attract him that it might upset other players offered less, or it's quite short with very attractive release terms in case he can prove himself to a bigger club.

"Current premier league player" does make it sound as though we nipped in for Yannick Bolasie. I do think it shows serious intent though. He's young, obviously still ambitious and plays in positions we need someone. I just hope he isn't a precursor to a farewell party for Sami Morsy.

[spireitematt]

Surprised to learn Scunny have fans Pooch. This lad sounds like the right kind of signing for us, if he didn't cost too much.

Interested by the praise for Donal McDermott. I watched him on his debut for us at Torquay. I have never seen a Chesterfield player run at a defence with such pace and control. That day we had Currie passing the ball beautifully for 25 minutes, McDermott running, crossing, shooting and causing havoc throughout ....... and almost nothing else. Torquay held on, got a breakaway goal, played well for a while and won the game .... but even their fans were talking about McDermott after the match. I'd love to see him resurrect his career. He could be far too good for Rochdale, but it's up to him. Maybe he needs a Keith Hill to make him use his talent.

After he left Bournemouth he went back to Ireland and played for Dundalk and then ended up playing for Salford City and Ramsbottom and Rochdale decided to take him on. I was surprised we didn't try and sign him.

[SaltergateBorn]

I quite agree, Dev, about the length of the contract; that was the point I was really trying to make, in my own clumsy way.

If we paid £500k for him and signed him on a 3 year contract, fair enough. If we paid that amount and got him on a 12 month deal, that`s different. That`s why I`m intrigued by the fact that the club haven`t disclosed the length of his contract, which is very unusual. Why wouldn`t they?

As regards `serious intent`, again I`m inclined to agree with what`s already been said. I think the announcements from both CT and DS have been confirmed by the signing of both Martinez (who I`ve seen play a few times and have high regard for) and O`Neil. I`m much more optimistic about the season ahead than I was a few weeks ago. However, I still reckon the chances of Sam Morsy still being with us this time next year are about 10/1 against. If he doesn`t go next week - and I wouldn`t be at all surprised if he did - I reckon he will in January and it seems that O`Neil could be a perfect replacement for him if and when he does. That suggests the club is thinking ahead, which is good.

Everything is looking quite positive at the moment; worrying, innit?