Hmmm.... He's a tidy all rounder but I can't really see where he fits in. Not physical, poor in the air, standard quality passing, not particularly a dribbler or pacy etc. Feels a similar sort of players to Davenport but not quite as good. It'll be a bonus if he steps up, but I am not anticipating it.

Wowzers

Seems very do-able with Barnsley recently relegated and likely to have wages below what we could do anyway. Looking at the news there don't seem to be a lot of rumours about him and other clubs so maybe we will have a good run at him?

I do wonder if we as fans don't really recognise how good our academy is. I certainly didn't till I started looking into it. Premier League 2 (the Premier academy competition in the UK) has two divisions : Division 1 - 14 clubs, 12 of them clubs with senior team in Premier League. Just us (finished 9th above Chelsea and Everton) and Derby (finished dead last and miles off the pace) not in the prem. Division 2 - 14 clubs, 7 prem (including the likes of Villa, Newcastle, Southampton, Wolves) and 7 championship If you consider we have also aggressively promoted a lot of our youth players to the Senior Squad it's really an impressive achievement. Maybe there is something in considering our academy something really remarkable at the moment? And when we fret about using "kids" it's a different proposition to say promoting kids at Millwall or Bristol City (both of which are not even in PL2 Div 2). Details here : https://www.premierleague.com/tables?team=U21&co=16&se=438

If we promise him serious game time I can see we would have a chance of signing him. Going to Spurs theres a real risk he would just disappear into the U23s and endless loan factory. Depends if we can promise him first team football I would say, as obviously if it's a choice between Spurs U23s or our U23s he may as well go to London. I have no idea if he's good enough for first team or not.

I don't think its realistic for GB to not give an update on transfers until 1st September. He's going to have to give an update soon. People will get frustrated, not least of which will be JDT who will be asked over and over again in pre and post match interviews.

If JDT can improve Gallagher's back to goal and aeriel game he will be a much better forward. His focus, bizarrely despite his height and strength and lack of dribbling or crossing ability, has always been running with the ball wide. I don't really buy this is 100% Mowbray, I suspect it is part of his own personal preference too. I am curious to see what happens under JDT and if he can really be changed.

Not only that but we are the only non Prem team in PL2 and we finished above the likes of Chelsea.....

Funny reading on here. Total meltdown during the game, but soon as the final whistle everyone sounds quite positive.

Haven't watched it but sounds like we've on got a makeshift right back, and out of sorts left back, and we are not providing sufficient cover for them.

Went back and looked at youngest squads last season and how they did. Us and Bournemouth had young squads but did well. Rest of young squads (Barnsley, Peterborough, Cardiff, Swansea) had very poor seasons. So maybe my copium isn't very good afterall.

To be fair Jude Bellingham went straight into the Birmingham City team after eight months of U23s. Ash Phillips is in the same levels - started in U23s in Jan. Could start playing August. If he's exceptional he can play first team football at 16.

TBH if we go into the season starting six or seven academy players it reeks of incompetence from a management perspective but will be quite exciting for the fans. Also - without really having reviewed any data my feeling is it's not usually teams with a bunch of kids playing who get relegated. Its usually teams full of jaded journeymen. That's my copium anyway

Team Id like to see versus Celtic Kaminski Brown. Carter. Wharton. Pickering Travis. Wharton Dolan. Buckley. Brereton Gallagher What worries me is that defence.

Bottom line is I just don't think we have enough runway between the pretty late appointment of JDT and the early start of the season this year. It's certain we're going to crash into the start of the season very unprepared. Weird thing about football is sometimes that sort of thing doesn't actually lead to worse results. In the chaos things can be found out that were not known before. But also there is a big risk it turns into a disaster. Feels like we will start the season with a bench made up of the U23 squad. Maybe one or two signings.

343 worked really well for us first half of last season. However it really was very dependent on Rothwell picking up the ball centrally and driving forward, Van Hecke running the show from the middle of the back three, and Lenihan playing down the right of the centre backs. With all of those gone it will be a totally different proposition. Also it means Buckley/Dack will only get in as false 9s. And, as you say, we haven't really got any good wing backs. It seems more logical to me for us to go for 4231 as it suits the players we have left imo.

The one thing in our favour is he has literally never played a competitive game for Liverpool and joined for only £500k. So could be looking for very little for him.

Yes. Or take him on loan with option to buy and pay £20k with Liverpool topping him up. Hes literally never played for Liverpool and it doesn't sound like many clubs are in for him so this sounds like a potential go-er.

What's depressing is if we offered him that a year ago I'm pretty sure he would have signed.

I guess one possibility is that JDT and Broughton want to do an ultra homegrown strategy and that's what they've signed up for. Feels that's possibly Broughton's outlook, but JDT strikes me as wanting short term impact.

I agree with your analysis on what sort of players we need. But realistically the absolute maximum number of players we've been able to bring in over the years in a single window has been about 4 perms and 4 loans. So eight signings is the max achievable imo. it's also worth saying is even the best managers do well to get more than 60% of their transfers right. So while it's cathartic to say sell Ayala, Gallagher and Hedges I don't think it will be wise to move out more players when we already need to sign eight or so before they leave. Plus I think under new management they may improve. It's worth giving them a chance to see if that's the case.

Yeah, but 12/18 months is a loooong time in football. No sign of current interest by top flight clubs as far as a quick Google can find.

Further - looking at his wiki I really can't see why he would be out of our league? Only 15 appearences for Bordeaux, who are not a major force in France (as evidenced by their relegation), no sign of Prem, La Liga, Serie A interest etc. Seems very doable? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anel_Ahmedhodžić

Feels like the sort of transfer that could happen due to the managerial connection. We're likely to offer a decent salary improvement compared to Malmo and competitive with smaller clubs in League 1. One to watch for me.

Agree it's all a mystery. If JDT goes 442 as suggested by those analytical reports I think he will be a bit confused by Gallagher. Gallys physique screams a player whose attacking style is 70% back to goal linking up play, 30% running into the box to get on the end of crosses (great for 442). But his way of playing is actually 100% running with the ball at feet (despite not being very good at dribbling) It's just so weird. And not great for 442.