[Archived] Simon Eastwood - Set To Sign

[onlyonejackwalker]

Pompey fans take the view they were patient with his errors early doors and he slowly improved over the season from tutelage under Alan Knight. Some feel let down, others that they already have better options.

For me, Investing in younger players is vital and has to be the way forward as our income diminishes. He is not necessarily that well known so I presume someone 'in the know' recommended him. I'm hoping that is Bowyer.

Easy to understand the disappointment of some fans as it smacks of doing things cheaply. Doubts over who has recommended him don't help. Luke warm comments from his recent fans don't encourage.

Positively however, we seem to be moving early to recruit players which has suprised me and gives me a little bit of confidence. I'm hoping it's Bowyer influence again. The squad needs a number of changes to achieve some balance and depth. I'll wait till later to judge as someone faces one heck of a job sorting this mess out.

Anyone other than Bowyer identifying players and we are cream crackered.

[T.J.Newton]

Pompey fans take the view they were patient with his errors early doors and he slowly improved over the season from tutelage under Alan Knight. Some feel let down, others that they already have better options.

For me, Investing in younger players is vital and has to be the way forward as our income diminishes. He is not necessarily that well known so I presume someone 'in the know' recommended him. I'm hoping that is Bowyer.

Easy to understand the disappointment of some fans as it smacks of doing things cheaply. Doubts over who has recommended him don't help. Luke warm comments from his recent fans don't encourage.

Positively however, we seem to be moving early to recruit players which has suprised me and gives me a little bit of confidence. I'm hoping it's Bowyer influence again. The squad needs a number of changes to achieve some balance and depth. I'll wait till later to judge as someone faces one heck of a job sorting this mess out.

Anyone other than Bowyer identifying players and we are cream crackered.

That's all the scouts out of a job then

[diziet2]

Pompey fans take the view they were patient with his errors early doors and he slowly improved over the season from tutelage under Alan Knight. Some feel let down, others that they already have better options.

For me, Investing in younger players is vital and has to be the way forward as our income diminishes. He is not necessarily that well known so I presume someone 'in the know' recommended him. I'm hoping that is Bowyer.

Easy to understand the disappointment of some fans as it smacks of doing things cheaply. Doubts over who has recommended him don't help. Luke warm comments from his recent fans don't encourage.

Positively however, we seem to be moving early to recruit players which has suprised me and gives me a little bit of confidence. I'm hoping it's Bowyer influence again. The squad needs a number of changes to achieve some balance and depth. I'll wait till later to judge as someone faces one heck of a job sorting this mess out.

Anyone other than Bowyer identifying players and we are cream crackered.

Hi,

I can give a fairly detailed view/opinion on Simon Eastwood as I saw him play 10-15 times at least as he came through the Huddersfield Academy and was in the reserve team (although we did not have many players at the time and over half the reserve team was really the U18 academy team).

Smithies our current keeper ( and one who will go onto big things one day) was the year below, came through and overtook Eastwood in terms of devleopment. Eastwood was a around on a professional/first year professional contract but got cut. He then knocked around in the non-league circuit and could not establish himself. finally Portsmouth took him on when the had to get rid of all the players they had and were looking for any recruitments. The most proessional football he had was while playing on loan at Bradford for 1/2 a season where he had a torrid time.

Ok thats the background. Now onto what sort of player he was (it has been a 1 or 2 years, maybe he has developed more).

he is fairly tall and wirery. He was actual a decent shop stopper. His biggest weakness was that he was terrible are knowing what to do when crosses coming in. Often putting the central defense under immense pressure as they did not know whether he was coming to collect or not. his kicking and distribution were standard, not poor but not standout.

He is actually fairly decent at penalty saves and is brave enough. Under pressure though he was dodgy and liable to make mistakes.

Overall I was surprised that he has made a career as a professional footballer. Hopefully though he has matured and developed bit from when he was 19 and has got rid of some of his mistakes. He did play for England u18's as I remember but smithies in the year behind over took him and carried on into the england U21 side.

I think I am being objective and this is based on watching him in 1 and 1/2 seasons of reserve football ( at home) and a couple of U18 games.

[ABBEY]

Sadly I don't Jal. I only know what certain people(ITK on twitter) have said who has recommend him to rovers which is our current GK coach John Keeley

just don't sadly. not interest who player's agents are tbh. Trust Bowyer to sign players he wants and not go on who player's agent.

other issues that have been discuss on other threads about certain people and things I have read and will continue read them.

So you don't care if things are dodgy or not ? Talk about happy clapping this CL of ostrichiness .

[blueboy3333]

If you know who recommended him surely you know who his agent is.

that doesn't even make sense. Why would one follow the other. Also, if you took the time to read the link accompanying the OP you'd see the info re John Keeley is in there.

[McClarky]

We now have 4 goalies then. Know nothing about this bloke but am getting more worried that we are signing players with no sign of anyone leaving. I would like to see us with a net reduction of at least 10 to our senior playing staff but not confident it will happen.

[gumboots]

We can't sell players yet so unless they are out of contract they can't go anywhere much.

[chaddyrovers]

So you don't care if things are dodgy or not ?

have I say that tho???

No I haven't. I read the topics about this and will continue to do so

We now have 4 goalies then. Know nothing about this bloke but am getting more worried that we are signing players with no sign of anyone leaving. I would like to see us with a net reduction of at least 10 to our senior playing staff but not confident it will happen.

we got Kean, Robinson who I wouldn't be surprise if he was pay off, Eastwood and Urwin.

Matthew Urwin is the Academy Keeper who is looking a good young keeper from what I've seen from Academy and reserves games.

[den]

have I say that tho???

No I haven't. I read the topics about this and will continue to do so

we got Kean, Robinson who I wouldn't be surprise if he was pay off, Eastwood and Urwin.

Denis Urwin?

[donnermeat]

Hi,

I can give a fairly detailed view/opinion on Simon Eastwood as I saw him play 10-15 times at least as he came through the Huddersfield Academy and was in the reserve team (although we did not have many players at the time and over half the reserve team was really the U18 academy team).

Smithies our current keeper ( and one who will go onto big things one day) was the year below, came through and overtook Eastwood in terms of devleopment. Eastwood was a around on a professional/first year professional contract but got cut. He then knocked around in the non-league circuit and could not establish himself. finally Portsmouth took him on when the had to get rid of all the players they had and were looking for any recruitments. The most proessional football he had was while playing on loan at Bradford for 1/2 a season where he had a torrid time.

Ok thats the background. Now onto what sort of player he was (it has been a 1 or 2 years, maybe he has developed more).

he is fairly tall and wirery. He was actual a decent shop stopper. His biggest weakness was that he was terrible are knowing what to do when crosses coming in. Often putting the central defense under immense pressure as they did not know whether he was coming to collect or not. his kicking and distribution were standard, not poor but not standout.

He is actually fairly decent at penalty saves and is brave enough. Under pressure though he was dodgy and liable to make mistakes.

Overall I was surprised that he has made a career as a professional footballer. Hopefully though he has matured and developed bit from when he was 19 and has got rid of some of his mistakes. He did play for England u18's as I remember but smithies in the year behind over took him and carried on into the england U21 side.

I think I am being objective and this is based on watching him in 1 and 1/2 seasons of reserve football ( at home) and a couple of U18 games.

Cheers for the input Ben, sounds just like your standard third choice keeper, maybe second choice.

All in all I'm glad he's a free transfer as I wouldn't want to pay a transfer fee for ANY third choice keeper and I'm sure most people would agree.

[T.J.Newton]

Cheers for the input Ben, sounds just like your standard third choice keeper, maybe second choice.

All in all I'm glad he's a free transfer as I wouldn't want to pay a transfer fee for ANY third choice keeper and I'm sure most people would agree.

agreed

[JAL]

Just doesnt sound good.

[roverandout]

this signing has made my day...punk

[patrickvalery]

Just asked my Pompey supporting mate about this lad and he said Pompey are gutted to be losing him. He said that when he got into the side he had a nervy start but really started to look the part the longer he stayed in the side. When they went on a 23 game (or something like that) winless run he was often the big the reason they didn't lose by 5 or 6 goals in a lot of matches. Make of that what you will.

[john.leigh]

Was there all this fuss when we picked up Shay Given on the cheap?

[Mike E]

Was there all this fuss when we picked up Shay Given on the cheap?

Probably in letters to the LET instead of online

[Parsonblue]

It's a good job this messageboard wasn't around when Howard Kendall signed Jim Arnold from Stafford Rangers and yet that turned out to be a brilliant bit of business. You can't judge this lad until he's played a few games. Clearly John Keeley rates him and he knows him better than any on here.

[Pete1981]

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10423564.Keeper_to_leave_Blackburn_Rovers/?ref=twt

[LeChuck]

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10423564.Keeper_to_leave_Blackburn_Rovers/?ref=twt

Think the first comment on there sums it up (unusual for LET comments!):

"pity but to be fair, why pay a fee for your 3rd keeper when you can get on for free."

[Majiball]

It also remains to be seen if forward David Goodwillie will still be at the club at the start of the new club, with Hearts interested in the 24-year-old.

Goodwillie started Rovers’ final two games of the season but had featured rarely and had a loan spell at Crystal Palace earlier in the campaign.

Hearts’ financial issues mean they are likely to approach Rovers about a season-long loan. Rovers would be required to subsidise some of the Scot’s wages.

But Hearts cannot make a move until the SPL season is over because they are barred from signing players over the age of 21 until then, following a late payment of wages.

Venky’s are expected to hold further discussions in the next few days about a possible resolution to off-field issues at Rovers.

Global advisor Shebby Singh remains in India but could return to England in the near future.

It's the Goodwillie part that for me spells out exactly the state we find ourselves in, hearts cannot pay his wages so how much is he bloody on? 15-20K and god knows how many more of these we have. We will end up subsidizing so many players this summer in moves out as we're paying them well over what they are worth and the clubs that will be interested in our dross won't be able to afford them.

[LeChuck]

It's the Goodwillie part that for me spells out exactly the state we find ourselves in, hearts cannot pay his wages so how much is he bloody on? 15-20K and god knows how many more of these we have. We will end up subsidizing so many players this summer in moves out as we're paying them well over what they are worth and the clubs that will be interested in our dross won't be able to afford them.

To be fair, Hearts are skint and SPL clubs (outside Rangers and Celtic) struggle to match Championship wages at the best of times.

Also when we signed Goodwillie he was seen as a good prospect, we had to fight Rangers to get him here. We were a PL club at the time as well so £15-£20k was reasonable at the time.

Obviously in hindsight it's far too much, but I can see how he ended up with such a contract. It's a very different situation to the likes of Murphy and Etuhu, who were handed huge salaries when we were outside the PL.

[chris_h]

I've no idea how much Goodwillie is on but even so I can't see how he could go to Hearts. Finances north of the border are in such a parlous state that it isn't uncommon for SPL players to be on less than a grand a week and top earners outwith Celtic get about 5k tops. Rovers would probably have to subsidise about 80% of Goodwillie's wage and that is hardly worth our while and barely any advantage to us.

Anyway, Hearts are absolutely potless and often can't pay the players they already have on time.

[Majiball]

To be fair, Hearts are skint and SPL clubs (outside Rangers and Celtic) struggle to match Championship wages at the best of times.

Also when we signed Goodwillie he was seen as a good prospect, we had to fight Rangers to get him here. We were a PL club at the time as well so £15-£20k was reasonable at the time.

Obviously in hindsight it's far too much, but I can see how he ended up with such a contract. It's a very different situation to the likes of Murphy and Etuhu, who were handed huge salaries when we were outside the PL.

No club will pay Goodwillie 15-20K and that's the issue as we have the majority of our players on very good salaries. Compare and contrast to the good old days and us signing Andrews, prove yourself and I'll give you premier league wages was JW's promise to KA. Alas we gave up those willy skills and just resorted to paying people whatever they wanted, Samba 60-70K a week. We're now left in the position of having so many players earning well above their true worth that most will just stay here and milk the cow. We will struggle to shift players without paying them still and given the Venky's stance we'll do it week by week costing us even more cash over time.

[RevidgeBlue]

There's absolutely no advantage to us sending a player out on loan and subsidising his wages unless we feel that player is ultimately integral to our plans but needs time to develop.

Can't see Goodwillie ever making it but we need him off the books altogether. Otherwise we might as well keep him as back up.

No club will pay Goodwillie 15-20K and that's the issue as we have the majority of our players on very good salaries. Compare and contrast to the good old days and us signing Andrews, prove yourself and I'll give you premier league wages was JW's promise to KA. Alas we gave up those willy skills and just resorted to paying people whatever they wanted, Samba 60-70K a week. We're now left in the position of having so many players earning well above their true worth that most will just stay here and milk the cow. We will struggle to shift players without paying them still and given the Venky's stance we'll do it week by week costing us even more cash over time.

Andrews did little to warrant an improved contract and shouldn't have been given one imo but agree with the sentiment of your post.

[Majiball]

There's absolutely no advantage to us sending a player out on loan and subsidising his wages unless we feel that player is ultimately integral to our plans but needs time to develop.

Can't see Goodwillie ever making it but we need him off the books altogether. Otherwise we might as well keep him as back up.

Andrews did little to warrant an improved contract and shouldn't have been given one imo but agree with the sentiment of your post.

I don't disagree on KA but what JW did was more than fair as KA got a solid wedge on his 5K a week prior to his contract improvement.

I worry as quite a few of them have decent deals that if we don't go up we'll be in exactly the same situ as Leeds, City and Pompey found themselves in. Rubbish players hanging around as they'll never earn anything like the money we are paying them.