bluebruce

Aye there's some definite pot and kettle in there.

Until this loan, I thought it was just Kofi's surname.

Forgot about Hyam. Would be weird of us to spend even 10k pw on Baker given we also signed Cantwell who I bet is on 15k upwards, and have Travis, known to be one of our highest earners, and Tronstad, all in the same part of the pitch. I suppose Cantwell and Baker may play a little further forward at times though, but they'd be competing for the same spot as each other. Seems an odd way to use the wage budget to me.

Absolutely, perhaps we shouldn't have signed him at all. But once signed he had to take up a slot. Perhaps the club didn't think we'd be maxing out our slots and still want another foreign based player or something, so might as well get a prospect, but I wouldn't have done it myself, especially on a limited budget. All the best bargains are abroad. They'd better be really confident that he's going to be a very good player, but it doesn't sound like he's even pulling up trees in the U21s yet. It's one where I can envision us selling him on to free a slot back up, but time will tell. We really need to be sorting Siggy's permit or else we won't be able to sign any foreign-based players in January without selling one. Part of me wonders if they're considering selling him and that's why there's no permit, but as has been pointed out, having a permit here expands our sale options and potentially his value. Any foreign club would just be able to sign him to a pre-contract in January, which would leave us stuck with a player taking up a slot until summer if we didn't get him onto a permit. We wouldn't be able to sell him to another club at that point, so the best case scenario would be a bargain basement sale to the pre-contract club. I'm not clear on whether he could just be de-registered (wasting a decent wage)...I assume so, but maybe he'd have to leave the country if so? All hypothetical of course, but we need to decide fairly soon what we want to do with him or it will end up out of our hands. If he kicks on he could be a useful asset worth contracting for longer, but I think he could have a hard time establishing a starting berth now, and he likely commands a pretty hefty wage. I'd be surprised if he's not one of our top 3 earners. I'd guess it's him, Travis and Cantwell.

It's irrelevant if he's a first team player. He doesn't qualify for a permit so we must use a slot for him. We could play him in the next game if we wanted to.

I think we're well aware which players are in the slots and how it works. It's basically all publicly available. What I'd like them to ask about is Siggy's work permit.

Not yet. They've been in the third tier before. But very good times for them for sure.

Or we could have just got Siggy's work permit done. It's mystifying that we haven't done this. There are only really two explanations - nobody at the club realises it can be done, or it's seen as a convenient excuse to why we couldn't sign another player from a foreign league. This is assuming it hasn't been done in the background and not announced or leaked, which would be odd.

Whilst Raya did an interview some point after leaving us, where he thanked mighty Southport for developing him during his 4 month spell there, and I believe said it was the most important part of his development, and made no mention of Ben Benson.

Aye, it's only up to one person to give him a chance - the manager. And up to one person (Pears) to take that chance. Pears has frankly had far more of those chances than he has deserved, and fluffed the majority. Given how poor he has been, frankly he is lucky he hasn't been booed at games. The fans have been surprisingly relaxed about him. (Not that I agree with booing your players, but football fans be football fans)

I don't think he is one of those keepers. The rumours around the time he signed his extension were that he wanted assurances over his playing time first. He has had first team football since a fairly early age with Boro, I don't think he intends to be a backup at this stage of his career. Which really is the only use I can see him serving to us or any other team in this league. Most League One sides are unlikely to pay what we paid (again, believed to be more like 400-500k) for a goalie.

The fans have seen him get all those chances and have had plenty of opportunity to make our minds up and see that he is shit, and should be cover at best. If he had impressed enough everybody would have forgotten about the old pals act. Do you honestly think we would care about that if he had shone for us? There was a preconception, sure, but the problem is Pears has done nothing to dispel it. When he did play well for a little spell, everyone eased off him and many of his long term critics (including me) gave credit where it was due. Believe we paid about 500k for him actually.

Au contraire, Pears has been given many chances and failed most of them. Burnley goal not particularly his fault though. A top class keeper may have prevented it, but I don't expect a top class keeper for us at this level. I mean, he does kinda move out of the way of it, but Foster had so much of the net to aim at, you can understand a keeper starting to move as he has a lot of goal to try and cover. Overall though, he simply isn't good enough. And it's not a snap judgement, or some weird pointless bias, it's from watching him play for years.

We must have watched different interviews, because I didn't get that impression at all. He asslicked the owners, made feeble excuses for our piss poor spend, and said nothing of any insight or interest. The only part I can agree with is Waggot and Suhail are missing football brains and ambition.

I'm much happier if they take away the gnawing, crushing pain and sense of injustice that can last for a week, of when a bullshit decision costs us a game of football. I'll happily lose the spontaneity of instant gratification and certainty to lose this too.

Replaced by celebrations when a decision that went against us got overturned.

Time for Ben Benson to prove his worth...

If we don't sell I still think we'll get one or two loans. Maybe stretch to getting Germain since he'll be free. A surprise win in court for Venkys might rob them of their excuse and shame them into putting a mill or two in, but I think the most likely outcome there is probably another case postponement.

Had a feeling this guy was going to become a cult hero ever since his interview where he said 'Mr Shearer'.

Won't be a long wait.

Yeh I love when millionaires tell people to spend more.

3 times in the league and once in the cup. Looks like he's played the full game each time, at least in the league. For what it's worth, Sofascore has given him ratings of 6.9, 6.3, 6.9 in the league. Interestingly, his best rating was 7, in a 2-1 defeat to QPR in the cup, the highest level of opposition he's faced. The 6.3 was in a 4-4 draw with Blackpool, I doubt any defenders on the pitch came out with credit from that one! Plenty of stats here if you're interested: https://www.sofascore.com/player/connor-oriordan/1133480

Technically there is a bit more difference than that - Leo was 24 and had a Sweden cap (they're ranked 29th currently) and Toth is 27 tomorrow and has zero caps (Hungary are ranked 32nd). Wahlstedt had better international credentials at roughly 3 years younger. Of course, this is all relatively meaningless, but worth pointing out to anyone who wants to say he is an international keeper (which he isn't yet despite making some squads) and therefore isn't a gamble, when someone with better international credentials failed here recently. You're right about mentality being key. Half of being a keeper happens in the mind, even moreso than other positions I'd say. Focus, confidence, communication and ability to read the game are absolutely essential. The physical attributes, raw talent and reflexes can only take you so far before you're found woefully out of position, or getting to something too slowly because your low confidence has slowed your decision making.

In the league, he has 3 assists in 224 minutes of football, so one every 74.6 minutes. In the cup he has 2 goals in 92 minutes of football, so one every 46 minutes. Total goal contributions across both competitions is one every 63.2 minutes. I'm not sure where 58 minutes has come from, even if you count it as 4 assists as discussed above, that changes the average to 52.6 minutes in all comps, or 56 minutes in just the league.

I keep seeing him described as a Hungarian international, but as far as I can see he has 0 caps. He has played his entire career in a weak league. He's a gamble, he's unproven at this level. Hopefully he's a gamble that pays off.