honeybradger

Im not saying he's crap, im just saying that the squad and culture and whatever else that he left us with was not good. Maybe he would have done a better job than Cooper and RVN but in terms of leaving the club in a healthy state so that the next manager can benefit, which Pearson and Puel did, Maresca absolutely did not do. In terms of culture you cant factor out the way he left which left us in disarray and the whole "this is the way we play" mentality being drilled into the players made it an impossible job for the next manager to put his tactical stamp on the team. Also many of his favourites, Faes, Winks, Mavididi (who i like but he gives up too easily), Vestergaard and also Fatawu (who is our best player but also temperamental) are part of the culture problem at this club. Maresca didn't leave us any leaders.

Would be an upgrade on Skipp at least but I think we would be better off with Braybrooke.

Enzo was not a builder, the state he left the squad in when he left was not good. He played Faes all season and hardly gave Nelson a sniff, contributed to Vestergaard re-signing, hardly played Akgun who has gone on to be a good player, brought in Winks who has mostly stunk up the place, brought in Coady who entirely stunk up the place, brought in Mavididi who is as fragile as they come, Fatawu was a good pickup. A proper builder would have gutted that 23/24 squad and not brought in Winks and Coady, would we have gone up that season? Probably not but we would likely be in a better position now.

Who would we start instead. Even if Nelson was as bad as Faes, which he isnt, it's better for him to play than Faes as he's still learning and can also get us a decent fee if we sell him.

Are we just pretending that everyone wasnt saying "he's finally starting to get it" when the lineup came out?

Dom Ballard is better and younger.

Had a good run of goalscoring form but sadly outside of knowing where the net is he's a league 2 level player.

Aluko is the same type of player to Woyo but better.

He might want to stay at Newport but frankly we need him. A player that always plays to his best no matter the situation around him would be like gold dust to this side whose heads drop as soon as we concede.

I dont understand the love in he has for Ayew I just dont. Popov, Evans, Mavididi at striker, Hutchinson. Anyone over Jordan Ayew. We just need some dynamism up front.

His first goal in senior football coming from the halfway line? Would fit in perfectly with the tactical setup here.

We cant be doing this every time we have a bad game without him. He wasnt the whole problem but he was certainly part of it.

I know he didn't play much in league 2 with Barrow but id much rather see those quick passes from Popov in the first team than Ayew screwing up every counter attack and holding onto the ball for fouls.

We will get a better value for Monga the more we play him. Keeping him on the bench vs a full season of being second choice left wing could be the difference between a £5mil transfer and a £15mil transfer (and a healthy sell on clause). As much as I would like us to bed Evans in the priority has to be getting as much value from Monga as possible.

Popov seems to have a really nice weight of pass on him for a striker.

Maddison got 10 goals 9 assists that season. He might genuinely have had the best season of any player playing for a relegated side, i cant think of any better. You simply cannot blame him for us going down.

He should also have a look at this forum and see that he is being likened to Demarai Gray among our fans, who received a very cold reception when we faced Birmingham. Ironically Gray would be our top scorer this season and has been one of the best players in the league. We are the worst fanbase I am aware of when it comes to skilful players, Mahrez was slated every time he didn't score or assist, Demarai Gray's treatment was genuinely just weird, Maddison gets blamed for our relegation despite being our only player up to standard that season. Now Monga, who is already one of the best dribblers in the championship at 16 and has a goal and assist to his name is getting the "i thought he'd be better treatment". He's been good this season, as good as we could expect him to be considering his age and the form of the team when he came into it.

Even a full season at the level he is at is not enough to make him worth £25mil. Dewsbury Hall went for £30mil after playing far better than Skipp has the last 3 games and we said that was fair. Wharton went for £20mil after a performing well in the championship and he is far more talented than Skipp. A full season of the most recent performances and Skipp is probably worth £15mil and even then we would probably count ourselves lucky if it went through.

Bertrand had lost his legs though, even when he played he was bad. The transfer didn't make sense before his injury. With Benkovic at least he was showing promise and was getting compared to Van Dijk at Celtic before his injury. When Gvardiol transferred from Zagreb I remember seeing a Zagreb fan likening him to Benkovic and Gvardiol turned out to be a £90mil player. If we made more transfers like Benkovic from leagues like the Croatian one I am sure it would pay dividends more often than not.

Does Benkovic really count as that bad of a signing when he looked very good for Celtic before his injury and he just kept getting injured from there. He wasnt injury prone before that injury if I remember correctly so we couldnt have known. I dont think Ricardo Pereira's injury history lessens how good of a signging he was for example, just unfortunate circumstances.

Hutchinson has looked good at u21 level when he has played as well. It might be that they want him to be a regular starter with competition at striker in the u21s coming from Evans, Popov and Otchere. There is a strong risk he stagnates at that level as well, same with Evans.

Jake Evans is in a strange limbo where he's outgrown U21 football but he's also not getting minutes off the bench or getting onto it when Monga is available. His opportunity will hopefully come in the FA cup although im not holding my breath.

We probably could have gotten £3-4mil for him in the summer. Now we'll be lucky to get £1mil, will leave via mutual contract termination if had to guess.

People need to get over this Michail Antonio nonsense. Yes he was a good striker 4 years ago but now he's winding down his career, West Ham fans were saying he lost his legs last seasond and that was before the car crash, for a player that is reliant on strength and power that is incredibly worrying. He had 1 goal in 800 minutes last season in the PL, those are Patson Daka numbers. After an injury like that he might not be match fit for the rest of this season and when he is match fit there's a good chance he's no better than the terrible 3 we already have. We should be prioritising a player in Jake Evans who has a future at the highest level of the game, not someone who's best day's are in the past and who could retire tomorrow and it wouldnt surprise anyone. For me it's an absolute no brainer to prioritise Jake Evan's game time over relying on output from a 35 year old post car crash Antonio. I actually find it a bit silly that some fans see this as a sensible move.

Bit of a reach there? Im happy with Nelson as he is, being a defender is primarily about defending which he is very good at despite being only 21, being good on the ball is only a bonus. He haa shown that he has that 'on the ball ability' in his locker in the past so im surprised that he's not shown it yet this season, but I'll reiterate it's only a bonus to have on top of his very good performance today.