Youth contracts / comings and goings.

[Din]

In my opinion they would be better strengething left back and making Russell backup RB.

Pretty sure they are going to make Martin back-up right back. Farke heavily hinted at the fact before the season started that both he and Zimmermann will be mainly squad players. That leaves Franke, Klose and if we bring him in Flint. Essentially 3 centre backs competing for 2 places, or 3 places if we play with a back 3 which I actually believe is how Farke mainly wants to play. Even when Raggett comes back the fact we were happy to leave him at Lincoln to January perhaps suggests he's only mainly going to be a squad player too, at least for this season. If we do play a back 3, that's 5 players competing for 3 places.

Don't think we'll sign another left back, although it is an area that looks weak so far. We've got Husband, Steipermann, Toffolo and Lewis all as options there already. Know he's injured for a while as well but I have high hopes for Lewis, be interesting to see whether he can force his way in once he's back.

 

[GJP]

Hard to comment on Stiepermann at this point. Is he even really a left back by trade/preference?

Husband looks lightweight. Toffolo isn't up to this level. And you would think this season will be too soon for Lewis especially now he's out a while.

 

[Din]

Hard to comment on Stiepermann at this point. Is he even really a left back by trade/preference?

Husband looks lightweight. Toffolo isn't up to this level. And you would think this season will be too soon for Lewis especially now he's out a while.

I don't know to be fair but the fact that Farke played him there in the Charlton game suggests to me that he has plans to play him there at times this season.

Husband has looked poor so far. Though I would give him a few more games yet. He only played 1 game in the whole of last season, and only 37 games overall in nearly 3 and a half years. Might take him a few more games to get properly used to playing football again, plus like the rest of the squad he's adjusting to the new style. That all said, if we signed another left back I'd be quite pleased.

 

[Canaryboy]

“We knew if we played to our strengths and were physical, we didn’t think they’d be able to deal with it because they’re a very nice team, very nice to watch, but you could see what happened out there – and I think we ran all over them to be honest" - Steve Morison

So basically Millwall went into that game knowing that they could let us ping the ball around all we wanted, because they knew they'd beat us physically. So exactly the same as last season then, when we were losing all of our away games to the likes of Rotherham, Barnsley, and Burton Albion. 

And the problem is.... bada bing.... bish bash bosh.... the midfield. Harrison Reed is a tidy little player but he's no 'enforcer', and we desperately need a Hayden / Jedinek / Cattermole type warrior in midfield, or at least somebody who can break up the play. 

Contract talks between Jay Spearing and Bolton broke down in the summer and he left on a free, they did want to keep him but presumably he was on high money as he was a legacy player from the time when their days on parachute payments. It would be a pretty depressing signing on paper, a poor mans version of what we'd ideally be signing, but he's got 5 years experience in this league and may be able to do a bit of a Gary O'Neil type job for us. 

There are probably better examples within our budget, Sam Morsy at Wigan perhaps. Right now I'd even be attracted to the idea of Bradley Johnson in centre midfield, even though we know his passing is crap. The English game is notorious for being fast and physical, but we seem to think we can get away with building squads for the Eredivisie.... starting when Bradley Johnson was sold and then Gary O'Neil released. 

Surely there is room for a determined workhorse even in a possession orientated team. 

Although part of Millwall's strategy seemed to be to just pump it into our left back position because they knew that Husband had been struggling for us? 

 

[GJP]

They seem to be working on a deal for Grant Hanley.

 

[OldRobert]

Grant Hanley from Newcastle is the latest.  Rumoured to be at the club now or at least his agent is.  One potential downer, he's on international duty with Martin and Naismith.

Quick update we want a loan with a future buy clause, they want to sell.  At least he's got plenty of Chumps experience.

 

[OldRobert]

Apologies GJP beat me to it!

 

[Canaryboy]

Contract talks between Jay Spearing and Bolton broke down in the summer and he left on a free, they did want to keep him but presumably he was on high money as he was a legacy player from the time when their days on parachute payments. It would be a pretty depressing signing on paper, a poor mans version of what we'd ideally be signing, but he's got 5 years experience in this league and may be able to do a bit of a Gary O'Neil type job for us. 

After a good nights sleep... I'd rate Jay Spearing as the worst idea I've had in 2017, but it would be nice if we had a bit of fight in the side, we need a Lee Cattermole. 

 

[splutcho]

Nick Mashiter saying we've agreed a fee for Hanley. I don't think he's been wrong this summer so looks like this one could be a goer.

 

[Fenway Frank]

At least the club are doing something about our defensive problems, let's hope he makes the difference.

 

[Din]

Hanley was actually someone I said I'd love us to sign on the 1st page of this thread! Would be delighted if it happened.

Was one of the best centre backs in the league a couple of seasons ago, hence why Newcastle signed him. Don't know what happened to him from there but they had Lascelles and Clark who were also 2 of the best centre backs in the league, in front of him. He obviously wasn't able to displace them, which is why Newcastle are happy to sell him. He's only 25 though, Scottish, so should get on with a couple of lads who are already here, and was captain of Blackburn and has also captained Scotland a few times so seems as though he is a leader. Would be really pleased if this came off.

 

[GJP]

Given that he's only 1 year into a 5 year contract I imagine Newcastle haven't put up too much of a fight.

As for us... this clearly isn't a deal we were planning on doing. A sign that they haven't got things right - but at least they are addressing it.

 

[splutcho]

How do you know it's not a deal we were planning on doing? I'm not saying you're right or wrong, but so many people are saying it as though it's gospel. Are you all privy to board meetings? How do I get in on that?

 

[Fenway Frank]

Splutcho, you need to learn the secret handshake ?

 

[Canaryboy]

Benitez has been told he needs to shift a couple of players in order to bring a couple in, which he is desperate to do, so hopefully we'll be getting a bargain here if they are under pressure to sell?

Remember that there is no longer a 'loan window' so when a team gets promoted with a big Championship squad they need to shed players to get below 25 senior players, because otherwise they'll be paying loads of players to do nothing at all until January. Previously anybody surplus to the 25 would end up going out on loan a week later. 

I've not heard great things about Hanley to be honest, but then we aren't a great side are we.... and he surely has to be better than Russell Martin at centre back. The fans have spoken RE: Martin, the club are responding. 

Not sure where we go from here with Russell Martin really, just given him a new contract and he's just not good enough anymore. Basically turn him into a player-coach immediately and get him involved with coaching the Under 23's? Reinvent him as a stalwart who we only see occasionally but who is part of the fabric of the club? Like Garry Monk in his final couple of seasons at Swansea, when he didn't feature much but was being primed as a future manager? 

 

[splutcho]

Whoever we get in, I think Martin will be playing at least 30 games this season.

 

[Canaryboy]

I was actually impressed with Martin a couple of times playing the sweeper role in a back 5 in the Premier League, behind two bigger centre backs (one of whom was Klose), but that was in games where we were under a heavy deluge and had hardly any possession and were aiming to counter attack (Man City was one of them).

But I guess that's a completely different kettle of fish to playing a back 3/5 when you've got 80% of possession, play the ball around the back line and you are relying on not giving the ball away in your own half. 

 

[GJP]

How do you know it's not a deal we were planning on doing? I'm not saying you're right or wrong, but so many people are saying it as though it's gospel. Are you all privy to board meetings? How do I get in on that?

Think this deal is happening if we'd have won at Villa and Millwall and kept clean sheets?

Just got to read between the lines sometimes.

 

[Canaryboy]

I think there is a very chance that we were planning to bring in another centre back to be honest, although I doubt that Hanley was the first choice. Perhaps Leistner was the first choice but he's been turned off by our poor start to the season? 

We play 3 centre backs and we only own 4 of them, one of them injured. Who knows whether Hanley was our plan A, B, C, D, or E.... but we do know that Leistner plays for a serious team in Bundesliga 2 who narrowly missed out on promotion last season, and that he'd be unlikely therefore to want to come to a second tier English side which doesn't look like promotion candidates this time out. 

Perhaps if we'd beaten Villa and Millwall we'd be getting Leistner. 

 

[Din]

Leistner by all accounts did seem to be our first choice, however I think it's clear we were going to miss out on him for a while.

Even so I'm pleased with this signing to be honest, even if it isn't one we were planning on making before Millwall. Hanley won Blackburn's player of the season 2 seasons ago, whilst being captain, and played in every game that year as well, in a season where they conceded the 2nd least amount of goals in the Championship outside the top 6. It's the reason he got his move to Newcastle, where admittedly he didn't get much game time, but then again he was behind Lascelles and Clark, who are still Newcastle's first choice centre backs now they're in the Premier League.