[harrogatebaggie]

I'm in for a trio coming in and if anyone leaves additions possible.
A full back, Midfield monster and a striker - all guys with attitude.
If Sam gets the right guys in, don't bank on us getting relegated.

I am going for 4 new players, I think Austin and grosicki will go. Kipre, field and Harper all to go out on loan to level 2, or even 1 of those sold.   Not sure what he thinks of Gibbs, may keep, may sell, he should be better than he is with that experience. We need strengthening all ove r the pitch. So I will say 2 defenders, a defensive midfielder and someone to challenge Grant, I think we will not be looking for any younger players in this window. Need some older heads, without being past it like Austin. Think they will give Allardyce about 10 million net to wheel and deal, and to increase the wage bill, where needed. Good luck Sam, I think you will need it, but I hope you can pull it off.

[Baggievicar]

BBC saying we want Daniel James from Manure on loan. I'd have thought another winger is the last thing we need.

[Slick_Footwork]

BBC saying we want Daniel James from Manure on loan. I'd have thought another winger is the last thing we need.

Bizarre link this one, given we number of wingers we have and the fact that James is in and around the Man United first team. He started yesterday's game.

Saw Leeds are linked with Sam Johnstone. Not sure if there is any truth in it, but could be a good one to sell and raise funds as steady goalkeepers are ten a penny. Although he's had some good games recently, he was back up to his old tricks of being glued to the line for Villa's first goal last week.

[Salopbaggie]

BBC saying we want Daniel James from Manure on loan. I'd have thought another winger is the last thing we need.

Bizarre link this one, given we number of wingers we have and the fact that James is in and around the Man United first team. He started yesterday's game.

Saw Leeds are linked with Sam Johnstone. Not sure if there is any truth in it, but could be a good one to sell and raise funds as steady goalkeepers are ten a penny. Although he's had some good games recently, he was back up to his old tricks of being glued to the line for Villa's first goal last week.

Daniel James on loan, terrible backward move, he is a great prospect, but one, I would be amazed if the loan were to happen in the first place and two, the most concerning, which of our own permanent wingers are we going to drop and alienate? While loans are extremely useful we have to stop with this relying on loans to provide the quality in our team. Doing so means we never improve we just keep going season to season with no idea of what our team is going to look like.

On Sam Johnstone I don't know what else he can do to gain favour with some of our own supporters, just one question to them. 'Who would you replace him with, who is better?'

[wba13]

BBC saying we want Daniel James from Manure on loan. I'd have thought another winger is the last thing we need.

Bizarre link this one, given we number of wingers we have and the fact that James is in and around the Man United first team. He started yesterday's game.

Saw Leeds are linked with Sam Johnstone. Not sure if there is any truth in it, but could be a good one to sell and raise funds as steady goalkeepers are ten a penny. Although he's had some good games recently, he was back up to his old tricks of being glued to the line for Villa's first goal last week.

Daniel James on loan, terrible backward move, he is a great prospect, but one, I would be amazed if the loan were to happen in the first place and two, the most concerning, which of our own permanent wingers are we going to drop and alienate?  While loans are extremely useful we have to stop with this relying on loans to provide the quality in our team.  Doing so means we never improve we just keep going season to season with no idea of what our team is going to look like.

On Sam Johnstone I don't know what else he can do to gain favour with some of our own supporters, just one question to them. 'Who would you replace him with, who is better?'

Sam Johnstone has been far and away our best player so far this season, the 1st goal against villa was no way his fault, the cross would not be allowed to come in and when it does Furlong gets on the wrong side. To blame Johnstone is wrong.As for goalkeepers being ten a penny we will not find one as good as SJ . The constant knocking of a player who has kept us in most matches this season is wrong. I know it’s only opinions but what SJ has to do for some of you to believe in him is ridiculous.

[Slick_Footwork]

BBC saying we want Daniel James from Manure on loan. I'd have thought another winger is the last thing we need.

Bizarre link this one, given we number of wingers we have and the fact that James is in and around the Man United first team. He started yesterday's game.

Saw Leeds are linked with Sam Johnstone. Not sure if there is any truth in it, but could be a good one to sell and raise funds as steady goalkeepers are ten a penny. Although he's had some good games recently, he was back up to his old tricks of being glued to the line for Villa's first goal last week.

Daniel James on loan, terrible backward move, he is a great prospect, but one, I would be amazed if the loan were to happen in the first place and two, the most concerning, which of our own permanent wingers are we going to drop and alienate?  While loans are extremely useful we have to stop with this relying on loans to provide the quality in our team.  Doing so means we never improve we just keep going season to season with no idea of what our team is going to look like.

On Sam Johnstone I don't know what else he can do to gain favour with some of our own supporters, just one question to them. 'Who would you replace him with, who is better?'

My point about Sam Johnstone is simply that he's the most sellable asset that we have (we don't have many) that could raise decent funds to strengthen the squad, with minimal negative impact. IMO there are plenty of steady eddie goalkeepers about that you could pickup on the cheap that can do a job.

Let's say he went for £15 - £20m, you'd replace him + add a couple of outfield reinforcements with that cash, strengthening the squad. It's not necessarily about getting a better goalkeeper, it's just about getting someone steady, who makes minimal mistakes for a fraction of the money received and then spending the rest on outfielders.

What can he do to win me over? Quite simply, cut out the mistakes. He's doing a good job of winning me over actually which is why I've complimented his performances this season, most recently against Man City and I'll do the same after his save against Pool yesterday. But of course, after 2 error-laden seasons, he has to be very steady and solid to win me over completely. I acknowledge his performances have been much better this season - probably because most Prem teams don't throw crosses into the box and this is clearly his weakness - but he has still made some errors; Spurs being the obvious one.

But my point isn't saying "sell him, he's crap". It's highlighting that he's an asset with value, due to his age and performances this season (which have been glorified due to the amount of shots we concede) who we could sell to improve the squad overall. Even if the goalkeeping replacement was an older model, with a couple of seasons left in the tank. I'm thinking along the lines of the fella we sold on the cheap before we signed Johnstone.

Sam Johnstone has been far and away our best player so far this season, the 1st goal against villa was no way his fault, the cross would not be allowed to come in and when it does Furlong gets on the wrong side. To blame Johnstone is wrong.As for goalkeepers being ten a penny we will not find one as good as SJ . The constant knocking of a player who has kept us in most matches this season is wrong. I know it’s only opinions but what SJ has to do for some of you to believe in him is ridiculous.

There is no constant knocking from me. I've praised him when he's played well and knocked him when he's made errors, the same as all of the lads.

I thought last season he was an error prone disaster every time a cross came in. I thought he was one that needed replacing for the Prem season. But he's been good generally, I call a square a square.

My point was quite simply that if he could be sold for £15 - £20m, then we could easily strengthen the squad with that cash. Replace him plus 2 or 3 extras. I think it would be good money for a keeper who despite his improvement, has still made errors this season.

As you say, we all have different opinions and visions of what a goalkeeper should do, their responsibilities and so on. Personally, I thought the first Villa goal last week was a Johnstone error all day long. I agree he wasn't the only one at fault, but he's the centre of the discussion not Gibbs or Furlong. Absolutely Furlong should've been marking El Ghazi, but ultimately if a cross comes in that is 2 yards away from goal line, my opinion is that it has to be the goalkeeper's ball. At the very least, the goalkeeper needs to be on top of El Ghazi so there's no goal to aim at, but Johnstone turned his back on it as well.

I also thought he was at fault for 2 of the Chelsea goals and Spurs goal. But the cross side of that is, he has won us points at City and Pool and put in good performances in some of the other games. All in all though, I think we have areas of the squad that need strengthening and if his sale would enable us to do that, it would make perfect sense to me. Those you highlighted at fault for Villa's goal would be 2 of the first to be replaced, this sums up the point I'm getting at.

[Blue Baggie]

I've alway sung Johnstones praises, even when he was thought to be stagnent. He has had an exceptional season for us and n0w everyone love's him.
If anyone comes with a £12m+ bid I would be fine with him moving on.
Mainly because Button is waiting in the wings and Alex Palmer must be ready to take over the No2 role now.
Big Sam could do with the money, put that with the Hegazi and the Ferguson funds we have a nice pot to get a midfield B'std and a
couple of others to strengthen our backbone.
Although big Sam has only been in the job a short time our organisation and tactical awareness has improved no end.
We need to do a job on Leeds now and get some momentum going COYB.

[Salopbaggie]

Slick I do not agree with the logic, we could sell all our players and buy cheaper inferior ones and use the same argument, that they are the player we could replace easiest or would miss least, until we have no decent players left. Who would you buy for £5 million (£15 Mil /3) who would improve our team? Let alone expecting the club to achieve that three times. What happens if we sell SJ for the £15 million and then the club decide it would be better to spend the money in the summer window instead, when we know which league we will be playing? We all know how well that works out!.

I would not be at all surprised to see Johnstone in an England shirt before the end of 2021, if he keeps up his current form, so to sell him to perhaps buy 3 x £5 million value players strikes me as not the wisest thing to do. Could Johnson seriously help to keep us in the Premier League, maybe. Could a new 5mil player, probably not.

[drewks]

Well, a lot of opinions, but the only one that really matters is Big Sam's.
I guess he would have formed ideas about who he feels he wants/doesn't want in the present squad even before he was appointed, so he's now had a couple of games and weeks to strengthen his opinions so the window is coming up at a real opportune time..... providing he HAS got a few pounds to spend! As has been said before, I just hope we don't rely on loans, but I guess it's hard to secure top players on contracts in our position.

My thoughts on Johnstone, for what they're worth: GREAT shot stopper but just needs to command his area and be more decisive regarding crosses. All keepers have good/bad traits - his are VERY very good but pretty bad too. Keeper's faults and mistakes are always much more noticeable though!

[Slick_Footwork]

Slick I do not agree with the logic, we could sell all our players and buy cheaper inferior ones and use the same argument, that they are the player we could replace easiest or would miss least, until we have no decent players left.   Who would you buy for £5 million (£15 Mil /3) who would improve our team? Let alone expecting the club to achieve that three times.  What happens if we sell SJ for the £15 million and then the club decide it would be better to spend the money in the summer window instead, when we know which league we will be playing?  We all know how well that works out!.

I would not be at all surprised to see Johnstone in an England shirt before the end of 2021, if he keeps up his current form, so to sell him to perhaps buy 3 x £5 million value players strikes me as not the wisest thing to do.  Could Johnson seriously help to keep us  in the Premier League, maybe.  Could a new 5mil player, probably not.

I'm not sure what you mean about selling all players and buying inferior quality, I never advocated that at all...

What I advocated was selling an individual for a large fee and then using that fee to improve the team in several positions. Of course I wouldn't want to just sell him and buy another keeper, that would be pointless.

I think where our views differ is that I do not believe our squad has what it takes to stay up in its current form. I do not believe Johnstone might help keep us in the Premier League. I don't think it matters who we have in goal because we concede too many shots and chances. Hence why we have the worst goals against record despite Johnstone being irreplaceable, according to the general conscious on here.

I realise that last night's excellent team performance could cloud that. But my view is based on the entire season. Injuries, suspensions and covid isolations pending as well.

I think we need 3 or 4 players incoming to give us a chance of survival. If the cash is available for those, happy days, let's reject bids for anyone. But if we haven't got any cash and someone is bidding £15m or £20m for Johnstone, then i'd be inclined to sell if that money was reinvested in the team now. If could not only buy a replacement goalkeeper, but also a defensive midfielder, a better full back. And I absolutely believe a £5m defensive midfielder could improve us, we don't even have a defensive midfielder at the club currently!

I'm not knocking Johnstone, I acknowledge he's been very good for much of the season. I just don't buy into the fact he's irreplaceable. I believe that the whole is far more important than individual parts.

And my comment was also on the basis that he's got 18 month left on his deal. If we reject bids now and do go down, he'll be worth a lot less.