I think we'll do that. Looks like that'll be the way we do it for a few years, which is fine. Martin will sign on a free in the summer, along with a few others, possibly players out of contract, possibly players from lower leagues on a song. Supplemented by the odd 'fee' player. This summer it'll probably be Mackie from Plymouth. We've been linked with him all season and I can see us paying anywhere between £750k - £1m for him.
Yeah be nice to think we could buy Hunt or Tongue but seems unlikely, although if no one else gets him maybe another loan for Hunt is on the cards. Given the mess Pomy are in, the fact that Notts County are six million in debt (which doesn't seem much but I'm guessing is in League 2 terms. Plus trouble at Cardiff and Palace amongst others I'm quite happy for us to do some--not all--of our shopping in the bargain bin. I do think we really need some other creative outlet as well as Commons. Do you think Hulse and/Or KC will go in the summer?
It wouldn't surprise me if either Hulse/Commons or both went in the summer, although I'd prefer that we hold on to both. If they did go then we'd get decent money for them. If that's the case then fine, just so long as Nigel gets the money to reinvest and it's not used to pay off debts. We're told that the only remaining debt is now the mortgage on PP, and that that debt is on a very good rate of interest. As such, we don't necessarily need to service the debt in terms of paying it off. Just let it sit there and use any money generated to strengthen the team.
I'd like to hold onto them, but Commons just isn't reliable enough and Hulse isn't getting any younger. This summer is probably the last chance to get a fair bit of money for him.
Commons out for at least 4 weeks, possibly 6 according to the OS. Scan results back as feared. Looks like we'll need to find someone who can be creative, and quick!
Wouldn't surprise me if Nigel dips into the loan market as well. We've got 5 and can have 6, although only 5 can be named in a matchday squad.
Gotta be careful with loans. Hughes and Johnson didn't do a lot, Campbell would have been good to hold onto. You want more Hunts I think!
I thought that Johnson did alright to be honest, although I agree on Hughes, I never really saw the point of that signing at all. I doubt Nige will touch the defence now to be honest, we seem to be pretty well-covered there for a change; RB - Hunt/Vidal/Connolly LB - McEveley/Moxey/Pearson CB - Barker/Buxton/Anderson Seeing as we've been playing Commons up front then the obvious replacement will be Porter, or the lad from Arsenal. Only problem there is that Porter isn't as creative as Commons and plays better as a lone-striker than as part of a front pairing. Sunu, haven't seen enough of yet to comment.
Well in an ideal world we'd play Steve Davis off of Hulse. I swear that lad is made of glass or something! I guess the other option aside from Sunu/Hulse is to leave Hulse on his own and rever to a 5 man midfield and rely on Green getting forward. Not the best of ideas. Johnson did seem a good signing, its the fact he wasn't around long, doesn't do a lot of cohesion. I'm moderately concerned about the centre of defence, although I guess Jay can play there if needs be, and Leacock might be back eventually...plus the loan market stays viable for a little while yet as well.
To be fair, Connolly could slot into the middle as well if needs be. From memory he actually played better there than he does at RB. Plus, I think we could actually get away with playing Savage there as well if we had to. Davies is a good foil for Hulse, but unfortunately, as you point out, he's far too injury-prone. Apparently Martin, the lad from Millwall, can play up top as well, and is supposedly quite nippy. It'll be interesting to see who gets the nod on Saturday.
Funnily enough I just saw that Nigel is considering Martin as well. Shame the reserve game today has been called off. I'd be wary of Sav in the centre of defence, too tempting to go charging off for that position methinks. Still if we were desperate. Do you think Connolly will ever pull on a Derby shirt again?
I doubt it, unless we get a few injuries. We tried to get him out on loan to Plymouth (most likely hoping that it would turn permanent). He turned that down, which suggests that he's happy enough to sit on the bench and pick up his wages. If his fate wasn't sealed beforehand I suspect it would be now. Nigel wouldn't like that sort of attitude, and to be fair, he's right not to. Wouldn't surprise me if we go back in for Brayford from Crewe in the summer.
^I'd heard Brayford wasn't even setting the world on fire in league 2 now! (Although I heard that some time ago) Wasn't there some Norwegian we were looking at as well? so Pompy are about to enter into administration. Will it act as a wake up call to the rest of the Prem? I doubt it, I mean even the fall of Leeds didn't have much impact. There does seem to be a 'it won't happen to us' mentality. Be annoying if even with a 9 point deduction they end up with more than 11 points though...
Think the 9 points deduction takes them to 5 points, meaning that they need 2 wins and a draw from the remaining games to beat our total. On the one hand, do-able, on the other, they'll start terminating contracts soon enough, and will most likely end up playing Academy players for the remainder of the season. Could go either way, but one thing beyond doubt now is that they're effectively relegated. Brayford, has had his head turned by the speculation apparently. Heard similar things from Millwall fans about Martin when it came out that we were looking to sign him. To be honest, I'd back Nigel to get him back on track. One of Nigel's greatest strengths appears to be having the ability to effectively man-manage lower league players into making the step up to a higher level standard of football. Moxey, Buxton etc.
Them beating our total even with a points deduction might make it even more embaressing for us! I think you're spot on about Nigel, he does seem to be a very good man manager (and not just with lower league players, Savage was practically heading off to Beirut and seen as ready for the scrp heap before he came along.)
He's transformed the fortunes of a few players who looked like they were going nowhere; Savage, Bywater, McEveley, Pearson, even Teale last season for a brief while.
Yeah surprised Teale has gone off again. McCevely always seems to have bright spells (even under Jewell) then slip back again. Does seem more consistant (but might be playing for a contract)
Capello is supposed to name his squad tonight though hes taking his sweet time. Personally this would be my 23 man squad... I would also start Hart and Baines.
Ugh. Poor Aaron Ramsey. I really hope he recovers okay, Diaby and Eduardo have had a really hard time coming back from their breaks.