https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...ield-Wednesday-midfielder-Sam-Hutchinson.html Another 30+ player linked.
We definitely need a Ben Watson type in the squad so I wouldn’t be against this. As long as it’s not him instead of Grimes.
31, released by a club fighting relegation, constantly injured and a drastic downgrade in a position we're well stocked? Sign him up!
Agree on depth but he's constantly injured, 31 and was deemed not good enough by a team who will be lucky to stay up. It would be a good signing for Rotherham - not a team who claim they will do all they can to return immediately. Going from Capoue and Doucoure to this is heartbreaking.
Plus not played since January. He'll be a bench-warmer at most, surely? Seems a potentially unnecessary use of wages though given how many bodies we currently have in CM, unless more of our players are off than we first thought, and/or Ivic doesn't really rate Dele-Bashiru.
Wasn't he the guy at Chelsea who basically retired but then came back to play? Booked a lot I think so be a Holebas replacement on that front! BTW This is the Mail so should we not take this as gospel given that is the attitude towards their article on players being unsettled with Ivic?
Some of his stats from last season are actually fairly decent tbf - 2.9 tackles per 90, plus 1.8 interceptions is nothing to be sniffed at. They're pretty much the same numbers as Grimes racked up, in fact marginally higher. His passing seems a level below Grimes though, only 1 assist in his 20 starts, plus 1/3rd of the key passes per match of Grimes (Grimes had 7 assists in 48 games) The biggest concerns will be his age and that he hasn't played since Jan. We also need to sign a better CM to be ahead of him in the pecking order as well. I hope we still sign Grimes, the fact he takes set-pieces as well is a real bonus.
Basically the same rules as in the Premier League, 25 players over 21 allowed per squad, 8 of which have to be 'homegrown' in England or Wales, but the one addition to that rule in the Championship is that we need one club-developed player per matchday squad (probably gonna Phillips most of the time. Dunno how much good that'd do him, I'd have just kept Mariappa to just shove on the bench for those purposes)
Doubt you could find 2 more different midfielders - a bit like comparing Abdi and Watson Can't see that there is a connection and i suspect we have irons in the fire everywhere to cover squad changes that we cannot predict
I know times have changed a bit but one of the best things Pearson used to do for us was buy old farts who knew exactly what they were doing. A forty year old Chris Powell in league one. Nobby Solano the following season. Dean Hammond, Kevin Phillips and Gary Taylor-Fletcher all on freebies the season we got promoted. All were great for us. I love this type of signing, if you want to get promoted you can’t just do it playing pretty football, you need some wise, old, tough bastards in there too. Ben Watson has already been mentioned, always thought he was a really good player and looked like a leader on the pitch.
Yes and John Eustace, Martin Taylor and Chris Iwelumo will all be great for you next season, Mark my words. To be honest I thought it was basically Deeney, Foster, Mariappa and a bunch of Colombian teenagers. I didn’t pay much attention to football last season.
As simplemash says above, this isn't right - they're both very much ball-winning DMs. The main difference is that Grimes has a bit of extra creativity and class in his passing on top. Positionally they're very similar though.
Both infront of the back 4 rather than Doucurre style "box to box" but Hutchinson "breaks up play" and Grimes is a distributor. Watson and Chalobah sort of
F**k me, honestly. It's hilarious if this club actually thinks we are going to even get close to promotion this season.
Decent interview with him here. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/football/news/sam-hutchinson-sheffield-wednesday-exit-18527424
Bit like Troy this. For someone who claims to want to say nothing, he’s saying an awful lot. Generally someone who has rumours of being disruptive follow them around - those rumours don’t come from anywhere.
No, no. No. Waste of wages and squad place. Keep looking for young able and hungry players. If he is not wanted by the Owls that tells one all you need to know.
