Ok. Suppose Roy, telling the African contingent who divided the dressing room, that they were the most toxic, disrespectful players he ever had worked with, didn't happen either ?
I’ve no idea about that - but I’d say it was unlikely framed as you put it about the ‘African contingent’. But Deeney swinging for Dennis didn’t happen either way.
Ok, I'll bite. Which players, specifically? What specific behaviour did Hodgson find toxic and disrespectful?
Looks like @Del Payne's Left Sock is fixing up to style himself this forum's QAnon. In a couple of years, there will be US Congressional candidates campaigning on a SockAnon platform. God help us all.
He never connected, it was broken up, but he did swing for him. The time Roy lost it with "half" the dressing room, and gave a rant starting with everywhere he'd managed and what he had achieved in the game in 50 years and then how he'd never seen such a small group of toxic, disrespectful, uninterested players in all his career, was definitely the group who were forever on their mobile phones and having no connection with the rest of the dressing room at all. The dressing room was split, two types of everything. Ask why certain "star" players weren't played towards the end of the season. And it became such an issue, Roy and Ray didnt take the last 2 sessions at the bequest of club officials. All this stuff is from a person who was there, not 10th hand twitter gossip. I have put up a couple of things that only regard people who are longer involved at the club or soon not to be. Nothing to do with current players or staff. And put nothing up whilst the season was still being played. People seem a bit disconcerted about knowing the **** side of a dressing room. So I'll leave it there.
Split between the British players and those from overseas? I can see Hodgson preferring Catchcart/Cathcart/Gosling over some of the others.
Ignore the other comments, many of us appreciate the insights People can pick and choose what they believe but sharing the info is always welcome
Wow! DPLS seems incredibly on the money with his/her comments so far RE: Foster and Elliott etc. This doesn't surprise me, there seemed to be a lot of disinterested players during the latter part of last season. It almost seemed a lot of them had big egos.
Jordan Larsson is being released by Spartak Moscow. Decent record there, wouldn’t be an awful option. But not homegrown…
I’m pretty sure the Sarr fee was mainly paid for by a £14m profit, we made on Lukebakio. Therefore we could sell Sarr for £6m
I think him or Erik Botheim (provided he can get a WP on appeal) would both fit the system really well and you’re getting a £10m player without a transfer fee. Worth taking on now and figuring out later. I wonder if there are any other players from Russia who are in a similar boat. Maybe Anders Dreyer (Danish midfielder), Matteo Cassierra (nippy Colombian striker) and Sebastian Szymanski (Polish attacking midfielder) could be available for free/cheap. Polish players unlikely to be willing to stick around given that the country won’t pick players playing in Russia.
Not saying I agree but I reckon the board are looking at our team like this and believing it’s good enough for promotion. Probably 4 more signings to come in and that’s it. My guess is that 3 out of the 4 will be home grown if not all 4.
Pedro is more likely to be the attacking midfielder I think. I also doubt Asprilla and Quina will start many games at all. You also forgot Sema and WTE.
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Edwards sees Quina as a bit of a ‘project’ player and he becomes a regular.
The boy has talent but it's unlocking it and getting his head in the right place. He's had many opportunities at different clubs yet always seems to muck it up with his attitude. Hopefully he's grown up in the summer and will take his last opportunity to prove everybody wrong
Hopefully he's physically grown too, as last time out in the Championship he kept getting eased off the ball miles from goal and teams soon sussed that pretty much took him out of the game completely.
If we'd signed him this summer after he'd played how he did for Barnsley in the second half of last season I think we'd be quite excited. But we've been here before with him of course.
In our 20/21 season he averaged being dispossessed 2.4 times per 90. Last season for Barnsley it was still 2.5 times per 90. For context, we only had two first teamers who were dispossessed more regularly in the PL last season: JP at 3.2 per 90 and Sema at 2.7 per 90. Suggests it could still be an issue. Quina also had 3.5 unsuccessful touchers per 90 in 20/21, and 4.3 per 90 with Barnsley. For comparison our two highest regulars last season were Dennis with 3.7 and JP with 3.5. 75% pass completion with Barnsley as well, which isn't great. Basically, Quina loses the ball a lot (as does JP, who combined with those other stats above also had a 70% pass completion).
Not sure about that. Some comments from Barnsley's message board: "Quina is toss. He just is. Petulant little baby who thinks he's messi" "Someone thought Quina was good?" (in end of season thread) "Bassi & Quina were decent & definitely improved us but Quina’s been dire since the last international break." "Quina is showing exactly why Fulham and Watford didn’t want him. Absolute show pony." "Quina is a Stoke City signing if ever I saw one."
Fair. He started excellently but maybe dipped after their relegation was effectively confirmed (which may explain their supports' general mood, too).
I watched a couple of Reids highlights of him and he looked just the same as ever. Lost the ball almost every time he had it, but a couple of decent shots for the highlights reel. "Show pony" is right.
Think Sema will head back to Udinese as we continue to trim foreigners from the squad. Ekong I left out because I truly hope the board realize how bad, awful, woeful, shocking, rubbish and dire he is, so won’t want him. (They won’t though and I will moan everytime I see him play for us)
