Absolutely nothing wrong with punts like these as long as the compo is right, from what I can understand Dixon-Bonner has a mutual agreement to terminate his contract which means there won't be a tribunal and so the cost will be minimal compared to settling a fee outside the tribunal. Will he be a star for us? Doubtful, but we'll need players for the U23s and speculative punts like these are what we have to do to fill our youth teams.
You think he’s for the u23s? I think he featured in the FA cup for the first team and given his age you’d think there’s no point him moving for youth football so far below PL2 level. But still - little harm on a free.
Much like my yellow tinted glasses when looking at our own academy players, here's a write up from This Is Anfield which obviously sees the plusses more than the negatives. A lot of things which sound promising but the big alert is the trial last summer at Portsmouth which lead to nothing. https://www.thisisanfield.com/2021/...ew-face-in-liverpools-champions-league-squad/
I think he'll be for the u23s to start with potentially an eye on him getting some first team games like we did with TDB. As ThePaperBoy said, Portsmouth didn't see enough about his game to offer him a deal which isn't a great sign (saying that as somebody who hadn't heard of the lad until this afternoon though!).
Absolutely no chance But Calvin Bassey CB/LB from Rangers. Nigerian born in Italy Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
How important do we think the World Cup break will be next season when we are considering signings? It’s going to be the most unusual season any of us have ever known. The fixtures will be even more intensive than ever up to November, and again from Christmas onwards, but in between there’s a long break. A chance for those not in Qatar to recharge batteries.
Final sentence made me ponder who could actually go. Assuming Sarr leaves, am I right in thinking it's only likely to be Louza and Masina (if they're still here)?
I think the World Cup will prove to be a really positive thing for us next season. That’s a 6 week spell for whoever replaces Edwards to get properly bedded in and work with the collection of losers, misfits, and mental-midgets Pozzbury assembles this summer. We’ll be able to give 66% of our coaches next year a full pre-season.
I’d love us to take a look at Cyriel Dessers. Nigerian international owned by a Belgian side (ticks a lot of our friend Mogi’s boxes then) and on loan at Feyernoord. Hasn’t started too many matches but has been banging the goals in, particularly in the Conference League. Not young at 27 but is a mobile target man types who gets goals when given minutes. 21 goals and 5 assists in 2000 minutes this season. 7 goals and 4 assists in 1000 minutes last term and 18 goals and 6 assists in 2500 on loan at Herenveen in 19/20. Feyernoord have an option for €4m but I don’t think they’ll take it up because they can’t really reach that kind of fee any more and have just signed Ajax striker Danilo on a free who is probably going to be the first choice striker next season. Not sure there are any better strikers of this profile for this sort of price. @reids - any chance of a radar? https://www.transfermarkt.us/cyriel-dessers/profil/spieler/317806
More chance of signing Shirley. And don't call me Shirley. Rumour is we may be signing Laurent Depoitre.
Apparently Rob Edwards had a good relationship with young Tommy Doyle whilst he was involved with Man City and the England academy.
He’s supposedly very highly regarded by City, but then so was Garner by their neighbours. If Edwards is able to utilise some connections to Man City then I think we’d be better served trying to bring in Cole Palmer to bolster our soon-to-be-depleted front line.
To be fair to all parties, the rejections by other clubs for Elijah Dixon-Bonner and Scott Holding are two quite different beasts. Dixon-Bonner, now 21, was looking for what appears to be a seasons loan at Pompey while on trial last summer. I don't imagine for a second he was leaving Liverpool to play for Portsmouth's category 3 academy, instead looking to get 1st team experience in League One. Holding, 18, was still part of non-league Stockports youth set up when he trialled at Sunderland's category 1 academy. I doubt very much he was going to be anywhere near Sunderlands 1st XI, rather a possible addition to their PL2 side. As I say, two different circumstances for their trials and subsequent rejections, with neither knock-back necessarily meaning they're bad players. Rather, they weren't what the two trialling clubs wanted or needed at the time. I happened to see Holding's trial game against Wigan and I can't say he really stood out as a major prospect. I remember he had good mobility, though occasionally stuck a little too close to who he was marking which meant he was turned a couple of times quite easily. He generally stayed on his feet rather than diving into tackles while his passing was tidy, especially the shorter balls he played. As one match judgements go he did alright without being exceptional at anything but yeah, I wouldn't hire or fire anyone on just 90 minutes football so I've no idea just how good or bad a player he actually is. We're not doing anything different to every other club out there by signing someone from another academy, so let's not knock that process. It's having the route into 1st team football the club needs to start getting right.
I sincerely hope we don’t pass up the opportunity sign a player with both ****s and boner in his name.
Can't see that. He's 33 and under contract for another two years so doubt we'd need to pay a fee for him. He's also utterly gash but I don't think that would stop us in itself!
Hopefully he's so rubbish that he might be released early just to save the wages. Welcome to Watford Laurent.
Thanks! Looks good in many respects but perhaps doesn’t offer enough in the air for the role. But offers a lot for the price.
I checked out a comp of him from this season and he appeared to me like Andre Gray with marginally better technique. Very much a fox in the box/poacher, not a slouch but with a slightly odd running style, and doesn't seem particularly good with the ball. Those stats seem fairly in line with that. If we're sticking with Edwards' 3412 system then he might be alright alongside someone better in the air and could nick a decent amount of goals in the Champ. In case we got promoted he doesn't seem like someone who has any place playing in the PL though.
A lot of that is fair but I do think he is a much better carrier of the ball than Gray and offers more aerial threat and is far better with his back to goal/aerial threat. I do worry about how he could handle a step up to the PL but frankly, unlike other positions, few strikers transition well between the divisions - look at Mitro or Armstrong. We can cross that road when/if we get there.
He should have had a perfect hat-trick vs Wycombe today - fluffed a left-footed pretty much tap-in, then a very good headed chance which he rose well for but put wide, but then finally scored with a decent finish from his right foot. It's probably unlikely he'll be sold now anyway with Sunderland promoted.
Seen Newcastle fans on social media talk about the players that won't get a look in after this final game of the season with all the players that they're going to sign, is there anyone there who we should consider? Isaac Hayden seems the most logical, average in the Prem but I bet he could do a good job in the Championship
Suspect we may have to look at cash plus players from Newcastle re sarr. Wouldn’t be a bad option. Maybe Gayle but he is a bit of another grey in that scores in champ can’t for it in prem
Of all their unwanted players, I wouldn't take Gayle, a) I think we already have 2 strikers who would play a similar role to him in the team next season, it's a physical presence up top that we need, and b) it's been a few years since he last banged all those goals in the Championship
This is the first transfer window, in 26 odd years, where I genuinely couldn't care less about which of our players leave.
