[NOT HAPPENING] Keyendrah Simmonds

Oh come on at least three of our strikers are finished.

 

Unfortunately, we seem to be unable to time the finishing of the contracts we hand out, with the finishing of the players' usefulness.

 

This could be a bargain if we can tempt him with first team football, his contract expires at the end of the season. He has is rated highly and has been in the England underage set up.

 

Yes please.

 

Not by City fans he isn't. Of course they have higher standards, but still; recent comments from their forum:

"Simmonds looks very average"
"Simmonds looks so average"
"Simmonds [...] nowhere near good enough"
"I'm not convinced he's a natural striker (cos he isn't really)"

Not since u15s. That's more than any of our lot have, but still. For context, James Garner is the current u20 captain, yet is still average for us at the mo.

 

Average is an improvement on what we have got.

 

Where is this on their forum? I couldn't see it when I went to have a look.

 

just search 'Simmonds' on bluemoon and order showing most recent first, they're all there on the first page of results:

https://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/search/251686/?q=simmonds&o=date

 

Got you fair enough, I interpreted a lot of those comments as average for them but plenty of players will be.

 

Could be the man to unlock our goalscoring potential.

 

Pretty certain he’s played in the u18s too but I take your point re Garner.

 

Think most of the annoyance we have with Garner is that he's not ours and will almost certainly be leaving us at the end of the season, he could become a really good player in the future, but it's a fat lot of good to us now that he's putting in average displays week in week out. Simmonds might not even be as ready as Garner for men's football, but if we were to take him on a permanent deal, I'm sure everyone would be a lot more patient with him...plus we won't have annoying fans insisting that he's our best player like we do with Garner!

 

Agree with this. I've never been a great fan of taking young players on loan, unless they are actually better than the current first team players, such as Foster, Chalobah and Cleverley when we had them on loan when they were young players. They improved the team a lot. Taking someone like Garner is only worth it if he's better or at least at the same level to the current crop we have. He's not a bad player, but he's not at that level yet, so there's little point in playing someone who doesn't improve the team. The only beneficiaries are Garner and United in that scenario.

Had we signed him permanently it's a totally different story. Fans would be far more patient and invested in him as a player. If we signed Simmonds I'd be delighted. Sure, probably won't play much this season, but he's someone we could have on the bench at times and introduce occasionally. It can't be a bad philosophy taking these young players from academies like City. They might not work out but the gamble is low cost and potential is clearly there for him to be at a club like City in the first place.

 

Exactly I never did like the fact that we were paying a loan fee to get a bigger clubs player up to a better standard for them to then take him back.
The whole loan system (and I know we use it) is geared to the massive clubs hoovering up every prospect and loaning them out, hoping that one day they will be good enough.
What is needed is strict controls of squad numbers, and if young lads are good enough to play League 1, League 2 or Championship football, then they should sign for those teams and hope they have the talent to work their way up the leagues, currently they are happier being a Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, etc. player even if only in name.

 

Are we paying United a loan fee? That's a bit scabby by them if so! Tbf I think young players are always going to be attracted to the bigger clubs, regardless of the minute chances of making it, if a young player like Sancho wants to go to City (Garner I think has been at United since he was a little boy?), he should be free to, but the smaller club should at least be entitled to a hefty whack of future transfer fees

 

There's an element of risk to every loan move tbf, for every Foster, Chalobah and Cleverley, there's a Rose, Townsend or McEachran. Were any of those three dead certs to be successful? Chalobah was only 17 when he came here the first time, I can't remember the reaction when he joined, but I'd imagine there'd have been a fair few who would have thought it was too early for him

 

I cannot say for certain, but loan fees are how Watford make money on the players that they loan out, so I'd be very surprised if we were not paying Utd a loan fee.

 

Yes this is true - I pointed out when we were first linked with Garner on loan that I didn't think he was ready for us yet and should have gone to a lower-half Championship club this season.

If we sign Simmonds with an eye for the future then fine, maybe he could turn out to be a good Champ player in future, or maybe even an okay PL player, who knows, but he'd be ours and we wouldn't really have paid anything for him so it could be worth bringing him in still.

But considering we need a better striker now (in the same way we needed a better CM earlier in the season), then Simmonds doesn't seem to be the answer for that and I hope the club aren't banking on him being so.

 

I'd be surprised if we were. Why would we blow a chunk of our very small (non existent) transfer budget on a back up midfielder? He was never brought in to be first choice. For United it makes sense to get him out playing Championship football and his value will have increased already this season even from the performances he has put in as it's his first taste of senior football. It would be insane for us to be paying to loan Garner when we've spent £0 on transfers last summer and this winter so far.

I also don't imagine we get loan fees for lots of our lesser loanees, it's only when they get to the Cucho/Estupinan profile that it would make sense for clubs to pay us. Teams knocking about the Segunda B in Spain that rarely sign anyone for cash aren't going to be paying us for random prospects who may or may not feature in their matchday squads.

 

I don't think the club are banking on Simmonds being the answer now--they've said that he'd be joining the U23s initially, no? We're ******* skint aren't we, closest thing to an answer we've got is JP and Perica

 

I'd be more than willing to give him a chance, just because someone doesn't stand out for City, it doesn't mean they can't do a job for a team like us (I'd be very interested to see City fans' views on TDB before he left to come to us, I suspect he would have been a bit further ahead in the pecking order as he made an appearance for their first team). Only problem is he's supposedly more of a left-winger than a centre-forward, which seems to suggest that if he comes here, he'll either be waiting quite a while to be a first-teamer, or we'll be flogging the likes of JP and Sema in the not too distant future

 

TDB does seem to have been rated a tad more highly based on his first team appearance and general fans' opinions.

From 2019 on bluemoon:

"Big fan of him. Not sure how well he's kicked on in the last 2 years but I still think there's a really good player in there."
"Good player. Good luck."
"Will be sad to see him leave without seeing if he was potentially good enough to make it at City."
"I think he's got the potential to be a lot better than that [Watford], just needs to work hard and get some luck."
"He'll be a player,they have a bargain."

A bit of a contrast to the comments on Simmonds.

 

And that was when we were off the back of 11th and a cup final...so yeah, pretty high praise for TDB that! When is he due back? Be brilliant if we could get him to have an Abdi-style cameo role on his return from injury towards the back end of the season!

 

With a player like he allegedly is (traditional, back-to-the-goal striker) I would think it's important to go to a team that utilises strikers in that way. I don't think ManC is such a place, so it's not surprising that he hasn't shown well. It may also be of course, that he's one of many players who showed promise as a youth, but that was the limit of their ability. For him, it will be important to go to a team that plays in a way that allow him to show and develop his strengths. We utilise strikers in the traditional way because that's what we have in Deeney. I'm not sure that's how the club wants to play, although the lad certainly could learn from Deeney should they train and play together. I believe the club wants to play more attacking, mobile football. Given the glut we have up top (in numbers and wages - although unfortunately not goals) and what I think the desired style is, I don't see him being a fit until a clear-out happens, and perhaps not even then.

Given where we are with injuries and non-production, I'd still take him on a free loan, but I don't know that he'd see the pitch much. I doubt he'd be impactful. Now, if Deeney's knee explodes this afternoon in training or Gray is sold to Dogtodger United in the Conference, all of that changes.

 

There aren't any UEFA competitions at U20 level I don't think, just the FIFA U20 World Cup (for which the U19 Euros is a qualifier) and the Toulon tournament which England are regularly invited to, so England will usually have plenty of matches to get through at that level

Edit: there's also the Elite League which I think is also invitational?

 

U20s is actually a pretty good team usually - the last squad also included players such as Tino Anjorin and Valentino Livramento at Chelsea, Taylor Harwood-Bellis at Man City, Lewis Gordon at Everton and Folarin Balogun at Arsenal, all of whom are highly rated prospects.

Those are both pretty big deals as far as youth competitions go lol!

 

Because no one else wants them

 

I remember when he came on for his debut. I think we were playing Brighton, and I believe we were losing. The shoutbox went mad that Zola was throwing on a young central defender in midfield when we were chasing a goal.

 

The set of training bibs and travelodge vouchers were too good to turn down.

#cutourcloth

 

Disagree. Two are finished. Two never got started. Impossible to finish if you don't start

 

Looks like he's going to Birmingham City.

Birmingham City in 'advanced talks' with Manchester City striker - The 72

 

That's another one crossed off the list then

 

Doesn't seem a big miss tbh.