My mate used to be in the academy with Bond, Murray & Hoban. Bond and/or Murray have their own table in the VIP section at Oceania I think so i'd imagine that's how?
It amuses me that despite being pro footballers, they choose to get a regular table at an absolute dive like Oceana.
This guy, as well as being a good defender, is like some kind of promotion lucky charm. How many is that now for him?
I suspect a huge reason he was brought in was because he knows how to get across the line which is invaluable experience to have in a dressing room.
I've met Matt a couple of times and he seems like a good man, funny. He would have been very good for morale around the place to calm nerves, as well as clearly being a good footballer.
I'd still sign him up for next season if he wouldn't cost too much. He's really impressed me since coming in. With Ekstrand out for the foreseeable future, I think he'd be a valuable addition.
Local boy, wants to be here, decent player and home grown. Certainly ticks a lot of boxes.....still under contract at Cardiff though, so it will require a transfer fee. That may put us off.
It was his best game for us today but let's not over look that was an extremely poor Wednesday side who had 1 shot on target all game.... I'm also very wary over the fact 'yes this is his 4th promotion from the Championship' but there must be a reason why the other 3 teams DIDNT take him up with them...... Nothing against him, he's slotted in but we re going to the Premiership..... It may well be that he just isn't the player to make the step up... We ve only got a 25 man squad... And we could already include Ekstrand who Prob won't be playing at the start! We have to target Premiership quality players ! I recon we'll get a few very decent foreigners on free's so it means the money will be spent on the home grown lads.. Fingers crossed.
There are two sides to that statement. Sometimes when a team looks poor, it's because the other team does a good job neutralizing them. We were very good in the first half.
So far he's been very good for us.... but my concern is he didn't make the step up to premier league football at QPR, Reading or Cardiff.
He was outstanding yesterday (apart from THAT handball!)....his pace, positioning, timing and passing were excellent. Would love to see us sign him
Sign him up. Think the bloke can make a good job of it in the prem. Like Guedioura he seems to have felt at home since he arrived.
Never seen the guy play live and haven't paid close attention to him on TV but he clearly gets the job done when he's on the pitch. My concern is if he's good enough for the PL or only good enough to win Premier league promotion bonuses
Now let me see...who was the last experienced defender who won a few promotions to the PL but then got released by his clubs each time, only to end up with us, get another promotion and this time stay on and get his long-deserved crack at the top flight?
Fairly sure Malteaser was referring to Malky Mackay, who was promoted three years in a row with West Ham, Norwich then us but only played in the PL for us. I may be getting whooshed here, though!
Connolly has improved with games and adds versatility, however, I'm undecided on whether he's just a good championship defender who wouldn't make the step up. One thing which does make it more difficult is that he seems like a really good bloke, which makes me want him to be here, but objectively, I don't think that's reason enough. I'm very grateful for his contribution, but he's not our player, so there is no reason why we should look to him any more than the myriad other options out there. Guads is different - he really provided us with something missing. Connolly was just a very good loan signing. I don't feel strongly about him being here next season.
When has a centreback ever made such a big contribution that he could be described as 'providing us with something missing'? Attacking players are always going to make a more noticeable contribution to games and thus get the attention and praise for it. A highlights programme won't show a defender organising the back line, marking a striker out of a game or making a crucial block or interception, but it'll show a midfielder's long range shot that goes narrowly wide. You just need to look at the winners of awards to see how much almost everyone values attacking contributions, yet a defensive role is no less important and Connolly has done that role exceptionally well. I've been lucky enough to see Connolly play quite a few times since he joined us and I think he's been massively important to us. If he'd been with us all season, I think we'd be talking about him in the same light that we are Cathcart. He's also homegrown which, whilst not being the sole reason a player should be signed, is helpful. I'd be delighted to see him sign permanently if it was affordable. He signed a new two-year contract at Cardiff in Autumn, so is contracted until summer 2017, but I reckon we could get him for between £500k and £1mil. Of course, this is all dependent on who else the Pozzos have their eyes on. If they're planning on bringing Hummels to the Vic, I'll retract all I've said above.
Thought he was a good signing at the time, but didn't realise he was as good as what I've seen. A centre-back who is comfortable at right-back and left-back, has good height as well as a reasonable amount of pace, is a very decent passer of the ball, great anticipation, and can travel with the ball at his feet. Criminally underrated by his previous clubs - sign him up!
