Reply With QuoteYeah the thread title says "rebuild" but it may be 'recycle' with Doak, Bajcetic, Koumas, Beck and Ramsay back from loan. Massive summer incoming (or outgoing)
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First Team
Fucking hell we're in trouble if we have to play doak often McConnel is tidy but don't see the hype, probably will be better than jones though
Kerkez, Guehi and Wharton
I agree. wharton they'll probabably ask stupid money, better to shop abroad
First Team
Yeah the thread title says "rebuild" but it may be 'recycle' with Doak, Bajcetic, Koumas, Beck and Ramsay back from loan. Massive summer incoming (or outgoing)
First Team
God that's a exciting thought .Originally Posted by Daffydd
Master Tactician
He's been excellent for Boro and has broken into the Scotland first team. I'm all for writing off players at some point but not when they're 17. And i'm not saying he should come in as a replacement for Mo before anyone chirps in...
We're going to have to register some of the youth products in the CL as 4 of the 8 homegrown players have to have been produced by the club.
If Trent and Kelleher leave then it will leave only Quansah I think as our only trained HG player.
Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
First Team
It's concerning how many of our youngsters break down injured, Bradley, Danns, Doak, Bajcetic, Ramsay, Gordon, Scanlon, just give us eleven good fit men and true.
First Team
We've been lucky with some of our best players the past few seasons that they've mostly immune to injury: Mo, Van Dijk, Trent, Robertson. If Mo had got injured we'd be nowhere right now.
From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend on reading it. Groucho Marx
First Team
At the same time you can mostly always tell if soneone is going to be a top level player, even at a young age... they're the ones playing in the first team now for clubs.
Not quite gerrard owen trent etc is it ?
First Team
True, very true - however the flip side of it is that if we register a 25-man squad, then the lads who are 22nd/23rd/24th/25th choice under Slot aren't going to be getting loads of minutes anyway - and there are always Home-grown considerations. So if someone came back and was low on the pecking order (but able to help us reach that quota) I'd take it.
Take Harvey Elliott. According to one of the sites I was looking at, he has played something like 570 minutes this season (all comps) and the FA Cup is where he has had the most minutes - all 180 of them.
Even if that was the Premier League (he has played less there) to have barely played 2 sets of 90 minutes worth of time is very, very little. If it's the case the Slot doesn't rate him and if he is seen primarily as midfield depth, then I'd accept seeing him sold for Ł35m or whatever with a view to that eating up a chunk of an outlay (let's say Ł50m) on a foreign midfielder that Slot actually wants to use, who has the height/pace/engine more suited to the League as a replacement, whilst someone returns from loan (way down the pecking order, not regularly needed in League and Champion's League) to keep us level on the Home-grown side of things.
The more players we have that Slot wants/rates, the better we'll be able to rotate, which should really help us remain competitive in the League and Champion's League. We could probably afford to utilise a similar strategy with Gomez*.
*Conscious there will be many variables this Summer, including whether or not any of the Three Amigos are staying - just laying out a principle/guideline*
Master of the Universe
You also need another eleven good fit men to cover those eleven.
And that's always been our problem.
The drop-off from the starting eleven to the replacement and understudies is a steep fall, in certain positions.
Forget offering competition to the starters and pushing them to try to stay fit in fear of losing their starting position*.
Just having covers who themselves don't have fitness and durability issues, before we even go into whether they raise or lower the standard when they come in place of the starter would be a massive blessing
(*I strongly believe that this factor - having a cover and understudy who was not only ready to take over when you were injured or out, but mostly excelled, was what motivated Allisson to stay and remain fit for the latter part of the season when he returned to the starting lineup given how Kelleher made a very very strong case to be a starter when he had the position.
Aside from his wobble in the Newcastle game that ultimately saw him dropped and Allisson returned to the starting lineup, it would be hard to argue he didn't merit being considered to start if Allisson's form ever dropped off - which,....again....not coincidentally never did in this second half of the season and in fact we even saw the inspired performance in Paris.
Imagine if we had that sort of pushing and competition from understudies in even half of the other outfield positions.
Sadly, we'll lose Kelleher this summer as he tries to get a deserved starting spot elsewhere and the new fella comes in. I wouldn't have been too disappointed if we had stuck with Kelleher as Allisson's natural successor after another season or 2 with the Big Bear between the pipes.
But yeah, I believe Kelleher should be the model for what our bench and squad players should be like in terms of what we're seeking in performance (non-)"drop-off" from the starter.)
Master of the Universe
I think it's more than luck.
You have to work at your fitness at a personal level to be the type of player who rarely gets injured or is mostly fit and most of those you've listed there are renowned for being big on personal fitness.
Certainly Mo and Virg.
And I think we all know Robbo trains hard as well.
So it's no surprise that they rarely get injured or have long lay-offs with injuries.
It's also no coincidence that certain players known for getting injured are typically perennial visitors to the physio's office for long injury layoffs and it goes beyond just being "unlucky" or having bad luck with knocks.
Which is why I've always said I would have no problem with the club deciding they wanted to move on from, say Jota and instead to find a more reliable and durable replacement - even if they may not be as prolific scorers.
We just can't seem to get out of our own way in constantly buying these kinds of players - Aurelio, Naby Keita, Chiesa, Melo, Jota, Matip, and even Konate.
Something needs to be looked at in that recruiting and scouting team.
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