Savona is a centre back. Hopefully a rarely used one. He will never willingly be played as a wing back.
I don't get why people are down on Williams as a wing back. His engine combined with ability at both ends of the pitch makes him ideal.
Delap is an upgrade on Wood, have faith.
The concern has to be central midfield. Without Sangare on top form, we look weak and may require one of the 10s to do a lot of work as an 8.
I'm really excited about Delap, I'm going on Saturday and hope he starts, he's a player I would like to see live.
On the other comparisons I'm still not totally convinced with Sangare, but that might just be that I haven't seen enough games recently, and I always rated Mitchell when I saw him so that gap may not be as pronounced as claimed, much as I love Williams.
If Sels gets injured can we go straight to an "emergency loan" or do we have to kick Victor and Benda's shins until they fall over first?
We'd need to have no available senior keepers, the Premier League would have to provide specific dispensation, and I believe it would only be for 7 days.
Bugger.
Aaron Bott no longer qualifies as under 21, so may well be in the 25 man squad, given we have two spaces otherwise.
Honestly, I think keeper is the least of our problems. This is the most pessimistic I've felt about a season since we came up. I think we've finished summer with a weaker squad than we started, and the early signs from the manager give me no faith that we're going to get the best out of what we have.
I was pretty worried after the Leeds performances, but I think Delap and Munoz are both good signings, and after watching us against Liverpool (we were really good) I am feeling much more optimistic. I am hoping for a stable table finish, add a bit more quality in the summer of 2027, same manager, and really have a go at getting back into Europe in the 2027-2028 season.
You’ve just brought this up. Nobody had any idea that this is how you feel. Good to know
I don't know why Delap is seen as an upgrade on Taiwo bar fitness record. And if anyone suggests that we look at Delap's season in the Premier League at Ipswich as the true indicator of who he is, I would ask why the same logic doesn't apply to Hutchinson.
Obviously three games is far too small a sample to be anything other than vaguely indicative, but we lost twice to Leeds at home and looked good for 20 minutes against a bad Liverpool team who almost lost to a not very good Newcastle. I don't see much to encourage me so far, other than the fact that half the league is in a state of flux and there are probably going to be a number of flaky teams this season.
Give it a rest, mate. If or when we produce something to change my view I'll happily acknowledge that but until then I will continue to share my current position as part of the general discourse just as everyone else will. It's also really fucking hypocritical of you given your propensity to spend 3/4 of the season bleating the same message about how you're convinced we're going down.
think you need to update your emoticon to eyeore... its the 2nd September - can we save going all Guru until at least the clocks change and preferably January.
That's an easy one. Hutchinson has played 42 games for Nottingham Forest and scored one goal.
Hutchinson played 1688 Premier League minutes for us last season and had 6 goal involvements (1G 5A).
Liam Delap played 1107 Premier League minutes for Chelsea last season, a far superior offensive team, and had 1 goal involvement (1G 0A).
Taiwo Awoniyi played 494 Premier League minutes for us last season and had 5 goal involvements (4G 1A).
I'm not making a case for any of them, but stats absolutely do not make an argument for Delap.
Happy to help.
I'm unsure why so negative. I think the squad is stronger than last year.
We probably should have beaten Leeds, at least deserved the draw, could have beaten Liverpool, again deserved the draw, have added another player since then and are adapting to a new system that will take a bit of time.
We didn't sign half dozen random players on deadline day which is a good thing. We don't (sadly in a way) have midweek European games to complicate things and prevent the manager instilling his ideas onto the team.
Plenty of positives.
Taiwo has a massively superior scoring record in a significantly worse team. In fact, if you look at both players' overall Premier League records he's a better producer of goals:
Delap: 13 goals in 3700 minutes
Awoniyi: 21 goals in 3350 minutes
I am supportive of replacing Taiwo, because I agree with your assessment of his skills, and his durability is not good. But Delap does not look like an upgrade in anyway except his fitness. You can tell me about the eye test if you like but strikers are paid to score goals, you don't pay £45M for a guy who creates space.
