He'll be gone soon enough one way or another, so surely it's better that he left without us being relegated!
I can't bring myself to want us to lose anyway. Once that happens it will be time for me to give up football unless losing meant relegation for the scum when it's more than acceptable
Four year contract extension well earned. Crocked after one competitive game. Even I thought he would last longer than that.
Got to feel for Jeremy but why can fans see that the contract extension was a terrible idea but the club can't? It's just one baffling decision after another.
In fairness not all of them. Hoedt's played every available minute this season, including the 4 cup games.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha (not laughing at his personal misfortune, of course, just the yet further almost instant confirmation of something most of us already knew in him being a permacrock, in light of the new contract and Val claiming he's always been No.1 in the position under him or, indeed, at any point)
True. Attitude plays a big part. There are more players than ever now that will only play if they feel 100% fit and ready, and are reluctant to play with a knock despite going out wearing several metres of KT tape most games.
Considering our set pieces rarely beat the first man I would think Swansea will be fine. I honestly cant recall our set pieces ever being as bad as they have been this season. I like Sema, but for a winger he's totally incapable of taking a corner.
If the club bothers with a Player of the Season award this year it difficult to go with anyone other than Hoedt (low bar).
He was very good at them for a while when he first started taking them. I've got no idea why more recently they've been crap, he's shown before he has the ability.
I think there's a very good chance that this is the game where everything falls completely apart and we lose 0-4 or something like that. Val is surely going to be pragmatic and set us up in an ultra negative and passive way, totally ignoring the fact that neither the players nor the fans are up for that kind of "strategy" and we'll be rolled over as a consequence. He'll then come out and say that he doesn't understand why we are so bad and why the players aren't performing as they should be - blah, blah. However, if Val wants to keep his job, he really needs to mix things up and take some risks. Swansea are going to play 4-2-3-1, so why not just try to match them up, drop the worst out of form players and try to play some of our best players in their best positions. Hamer Andrews - Pollock - Hoedt - Morris - Kayembe - Kone - Asprilla - Chakvetadze - Martins - Dennis - There's no point playing Lewis anymore. He's absolutely not bothered and isn't going to be here next season, and while Morris is limited I think we look better with him in the team. Kone can drop deep to get things moving, Kayembe as a box-to-box work horse and with Aprilla, Chakvetadze, Martins and Dennis as a quartet up front we should at least have some agility, pace and creativity in the final third - something we've been screaming out for all season. Go out with a ridiculously high press and try to pin them back from the first second and see how it goes. It might fall completely apart, but I don't see any reason why we shouldn't try and have a go now.
Did you watch the Millwall game?! Martins was shocking when he came off the bench. I don't know how you can want him starting when you claim you want us to "drop the worst out of form players". Also, Morris is never the answer, however poor Lewis has been.
He only played for 5 minutes against Millwall and someone has to play, right? Sema has been horrific lately, and Martins is at least a bit unpredictable at times. Who else would you play then?
He looked like he'd been on the Troy Deeney diet and messed up every single action he had. What was "unpredictable" about him was that I would have never predicted he could look so bad. Based on the evidence of Millwall I'd still have Sema ahead of Martins. I'm not a huge fan of Chak but if you're talking about recent form if anyone should take Sema's place on the left it should be him (though that's dependent on the fitness of our CMs like Kayembe, who seemed even less sharp than Sema since returning so far). Or if you need Chak in the middle and want to drop Sema, then start with Dennis on the left, Asprilla on the right, and Bayo up front. Dennis was just as bad as Sema at the weekend though, mind.
I would much prefer Chak in midfield rather than out on the wing, we did improve once he came on for Kayembe against Huddersfield (and but for the woeful finishing of those ahead of him we'd have got something. Kayembe has been good this season, but hasn't looked sharp since his injury, perhaps he'll improve, but we have a number of box to box midfielders of middling quality, what we are missing is a Will Hughes, and Chak is probably the closest thing to that I'd say. Sema has been poor since his return, but he's got a good track record in this division, hopefully he improves as he gains fitness. If I had to pick one, I'd go for Sema ahead of Martins, but I've said before that I'd actually go for Sema ahead of Lewis and play Martins in the LW spot (he has been poor recently, but he's at least had good spells, which is more than can be said for Lewis who's been useless all season), with Martins cutting in and Sema hugging the touchline
I wonder if he was fit in the first place? Would be pure lols if Ismael put in a half-fit Ngakia just to spite Andrews
[ I would much prefer Chak in midfield, we did improve once he came on for Kayembe against Huddersfield (and but for the woeful finishing of those ahead of him we'd have got something We seemed to have a little purple patch from set pieces when that old Tottenham coach came in, but it's all gone very quiet since
I assume the details of the new contract have not been published? It could be that the extension is based on a much reduced basic salary, but a sizeable pay for play element? So no extra cost for the club.
An old lady lightly brushed past Ngakia in Poundland and he went down as if he had been shot. Fortunately, he fell in the End of Season Glassware Sale section, no one has bothered to move him.
And what rough likelihood is it that this kind of contract was extended at all, let alone to a 23 year old?
If that's the case then my next question is why are the club that desperate to keep Ngakia? He's bang average when he makes it onto the pitch for his 15 appearances a season. He's shown no signs of development, he makes basic errors and he can't stay fit. There's absolutely no redeeming features about the extension at all, Pozzo just seems a bit thick if I'm honest.
Yeah, like the contract extensions for Janmaat and Prodl a few years back, for the sake of our club I’d like to believe there’s some ace accounting trick that makes it all make sense and I’m just too thick to understand it. Reality is though, Pozzo is probably just an idiot.
Presumably there’s been no extension given it’s not reported on any of the typical websites. Maybe when he started the season as first choice that was the plan but it’s been postponed due to his injuries? Maybe the whole idea of throwing him back in the team was to see if he could manage these last 10 or so games fitness-wise to show he was over the injuries before being offered that new contract ?
