Could he be the answer swapping wings with Tommy? c/p Sunderland Echo Hartlepool's wing whizzkid, James Brown, could be about to up the 'I Feel Good` factor at Watford in January, if reports coming out of the North East are anything to go by. The Sunderland Echo reckon that the 20 year old pacy right winger has been watched by a sack-load of Championship club spies in recent weeks with Watford, Norwich, Sheffield Utd and Hull set to scrap it out in a New Year bidding war. Brown, who`s been a revolution this season with 8 goals, has also received admiring glances from Tottenham and Newcastle whilst Scottish giants Rangers are rumoured to be keen for a big money move. The Tyneside born youngster is a prized asset up at Victoria Park and Hartlepool boss, Danny Wilson, is likely to slap a £600k+ price tag on his exciting wingers head. Wilson said 'He can deal with the ball in tight areas, he can jink his way out of trouble and he is a threat in the vital positions. He has added things to his game such as strength and bravery and he is getting better all of the time'.
Smith and Muff are pretty much the best two wingers in the division, except perhaps that Saint's bloke. They are more than good enough if they are both fit. I don't see whats wrong with Macca or Ainsworth, or even why he attained the latter if he is just going to buy someone else to fill our wage books.
One of the things I've learned from Championship Manager is that you need to manage the size of your squad. This helps to ensure that your players all remain motivated and builds stability so that your players work better as a team. When there are injuries, the backup players get some first team action and so they do not feel that they are wasting away on the training pitch. Aidy seems to be woefully unaware of this requirement. We have seven players who are capable of being first team strikers at almost any level outside the Premiership; King, Henderson, Ellington, Priskin, Hoskins, Ashikodi and Kabba. Of those, maybe three are ready for the Premiership now and three others are 'for the future', although they will be expecting to play regularly by now in their careers. We have two established wingers who are probably both up to playing in the Premiership; Smith and McAnuf. It is too early to tell for Ainsworth and MacNamee seems to have established himself as not quite good enough despite having more than enough talent. Our attacking midfield includes Francis, Williamson, Williams, Rinaldi and O'Toole all vying for a single playing spot. Our defensive midfield is basically Mahon or Bangura, with O'Toole available if needed. Our defense is woefully undermanned. We have Doyley, Marriapa, Shittu, DeMerit, Stewart and Parkes as practical first team players, with Jackson available to make up numbers and Mackay being available in the sort of severe injury crisis that would have Chamberlain pulling on the keeper's jersey. We need another one or two wingers, at least one defensive midfielder and a couple of quality defenders to have any hope of surviving in the Premiership. Although Aidy will undoubtedly be looking to recruit players during the summer, it will help our cause if he can get these players in during January so that they have a chance to meld with the rest of the team and hopefully improve our chance of getting the promotion in the first place. However, we also need to cut some of our strikers and our attacking midfielders loose. Kabba does not seem to have settled. Priskin has great potential but seems unlikely to ever realise it with us. Ashikodi is potentially a star but his disciplinary record makes him too much of a risk, in my opinion. I'd probably keep Hoskins as the main intermediate between our current team and the next crop of youngsters, but we also need to get another striker in the Henderson mould. As for the attacking midfielders... Francis and Williamson seem to be the front-runners for being kept, with O'Toole as the start of the next generation. We shall see how Williams performs when he recovers from his injury, but I think it is time for Rinaldi to move on, despite my appreciation of his skills. As Aidy has said before, we need to get players who are better than we currently have. The corolory of this, is that we need to get rid of the players who are not even that good. Or at least, who are not that good for us.
One of the things Aidy has consistently said is he doesn't want too many (first team squad) players! Was one of the reasons he let carlisle go. He realises that too many unused senior players can create problems.
There is a huge difference in not wanting too many first team players and leaving us short in quality centre backs. When Jay was out he was badly missed, Danny is off the the African nations soon, Clarke Carlisle played a blinder on Tuesday night, remind me why he was surplus to requirement? Look at the other guy we let go, Danny Cullip (OK he may be a bit of a thug, but he kept Darius quiet as a mouse at QPR) If we really need another holding midfielder (I don't really think we do) Andy Reid at Charlton would be my choice, good command, good vision and the skill to spread the play.
Clarke was not surplus to requirements. He was too senior a player not to play at 28 (or so) years of age so Aidy was fair to the player in letting him go. I'm sure we all wish we had kept CC for eventualities like JD's injury but he wanted to be a first choice player and could not get in our side ahead of Danny and Jay. Also, to be fair, Aidy had Jackson (he was not to know he would struggle to make an impact), Doyley, Mariappa and Avinel, (who need chances to develop), plus Malky for emergencies, so I can see why he wanted to fair to carlisle. It is a difficult juggling act but the point remains that Aidy has said he does not want too many senior pro's (who are not playing) and we probably still have too many. January will be interesting, i think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDVt8crKnYo well funny this! JAmes Brown watch to end and see who's once again on the scoresheet for watford! sadly missed!
Have you not heard Bubble, Championship manager is the next best thing for winning titles. Sir Alex swears by it.
The purpose of a game like CM is to provide an (entertaining) facimile of a real world situation. CM is probably not accurate enough to be able to predict the result of an individual match, but it can give a reasonable idea of some of the interactions that matter. If you have too many players, like in the real world, some of your players will get frustrated by their lack of opportunity. If you have too few players, an injury crisis can destroy your season. Of course, Bubble's wide experience managing Watford in the real world ensures that his advice is unparallelled, but most of us rely on gut feeling for our opinions. What little input playing CM provides can only help us to have slightly more informed opinions. Plus, of course, there is the concept of Irony. I promise you that I am not (quite) dumb enough to think that mentioning CM at the start of that essay would grant me some sort of expert status. It was, as usual, an uninformed, amateur opinion from the perspective of someone who has been a fan of Watford FC since 1977 but who lives in America and so usually only ever sees Watford play on their occasional televised matches. My only qualification for having my opinions read is that I have written them down. If you disagree with them, please tell me so and explain why. If you agree with my opinions, please start attending a 12 step program since you obviously need help reducing your dependence on recreational pharmaceuticals. Until we manage to persuade the entire team to have a regular on-line discussion of tactics, performances and their opinions as to why Aidy usually refuses to make any substitutions until the 80 minute mark, we are pretty much reliant on uninformed amateurs such as myself to provide anything to read on this forum. Kilgallon is a great defender according to CM, in case any of the Watford Scouts is looking for a tip.
Are you talking about Championship Manager, or Football Manager? The CM now is crap, whereas FM is still awesome at assessing and showing how good players are.
