Owlsbornanbred

The age is certainly a factor with some of the players. Hunt a prime example who's legs have completely deserted him. Although I think theres a certain type of player we have too many of - players who have never in their career been a player who runs at full backs with pace and intent, and has a few tricks in their locker. We have too many players who get the ball and look to get rid without gaining us any territory up the pitch . It also leaves us in danger of getting pinned in our own box because we don't have a pacy/tricky player as an outlet. There are still players knocking about who are 30 yrs or over who can skin a full back or drive through the centre midfield, Moore just doesn't go for them. Jermaine Johnson still had pace and a could beat a man when he was 31/32. Unfortunately he just had absolutely no end product or decision making, but that aside he could get us 40 yards up the pitch when under pressure. What I've found very frustrating, among many other frustrating things, is that Moore sticks rigidly to a wing back system when we don't have any wing backs. We don't even really have any wingers, other than Marvin Johnson who has is too inconsistent and looks burnt out because of no real competition or backup for his spot. Wilks looks like he might be able to beat a man, but gets the ball stuck under his feet constantly and looks very unfit, which he has no right to be for a.24 year old.

Most likely about the stoomp

What Windass gives us is something a lot more clinical, completely exemplified by his goal. Perfect control, turn and slick finish hitting it hard and low. So many times we get into good positions to shoot and the ball is scuffed, dragged or smashed wildly in row z. Luongo is an excellent box to box midfielder, so many great tackles - a Rolls Royce at this level. As others have said, it's just whether he can stay fit put a run of games together.

We have a few players who look like their confidence is completely shot, and are better players than what we are seeing. I think Johnson is one of them. Look at Lewis Wing - when we played Rotherham, Paul Warne had him dictating play like Iniesta. Now he can barely complete a pass. I just can't accept that these players are suddenly cr*p, useless, worst to ever put on the shirt etc etc. The manager and coaching staff play a huge part in these players decline in form, as the players look seriously unfit, lack sharpness and guile, and don't seem to have a clue where to play a pass to. The bigger issues with the club as a whole not having an kind of clear plan on how to progress is a conversation to long to be had on owlstalk, but I believe this toxic level of negativity at in the club seeps into the squad and makes capable players (certainly in this league) look like they simply aren't professional footballers.

I'm not opposed to him leaving as I think he's been inconsistent at best for a few years now, and appears to have always lacked leadership - what sticks in my throat is that yet again it's a player walking away for nothing.

I've still not calmed down from that free kick in the last minute against Forest. His stats for most sliced/shanked/uncleanly hit shots must be top of the table. I'm pretty sure he wears a pair of painted house bricks for football boots.

Did I just see Reach actually skin someone or was I hallucinating?

That'll be Tom Lees winning this week's red card bingo then. In the showers by the hour mark I reckon.

Valid point. He looked better with players like Hooper, Wallace, FF, Lopez (remember him?), as despite having their own shortcomings, they had much better close control, footballing brains and the ability to play in little pockets of space with one two's and triangles.

I was just starting to calm down, then I come on here and you tell me this. If I was a cartoon character I would have steam coming out of my ears right now.

Mate, don't talk about that Derby game, just don't go there.

I would question the timing and choice of his subs possibly, but he just has such a poor squad to select from I'm not sure what he can do. Such poor footballing brains, lack of technical ability and pace, right across the board. Not a great combo.

A 23 year old Dutch centre back who is highly rated and ends up going for £4m (or thereabouts) can definitely command £20k. Stevie May was apparently on £15k, and cost less than JVA. Tom Lees, as someone else mentioned, is on anywhere between £25k to £27.5k, depending which stats site you check. He got the improved deal just before the FF scandal at Norwich. Imo Lees hasnt been the same player since then. But regarding JVA, if you're his agent and you're comparing him to Tom Lees and other players on big deals at the time (David Jones and George Boyd were supposedly on £30k+), you would be asking for £20k for a young, highly rated centre back who is worth paying several million for. Especially after the buying club has looked at over 200 centre backs and decided on you...

With the layout of transfer fees and wages, and managing to get to a point (yet again) where we will end up with no transfer fee whatsover for these 2 really sticks in my throat. I hope at some point we get an owner and management team under them that can learn from the awful business we have done over the last 4/5 years (and arguably long before) and get a structure and philosophy in place where we sign players and sell at the right time with a profit to reinvest and build. Brentford, Peterbrough, Yoonited' all show how it can be done. It's nearly impossible to articulate how far away we are from that point at the moment. Apart from that, everything's great.