Liam Cullen

[CruzNoir]

9 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Doesn't mean he is a striker though. Ayew played there last season and it was our one major weakness all season.

 

As I said last night, Cullen did play up front under Martin in a front two. So the records say he has played a good amount of games up front but a chunk of that is in a front two and we don't have the profile of player yet to play alongside him. 

 

Even if we do I then wonder how you set us up with Chaplin there as well.

Yeh I get what you’re saying tbf Rik

Let’s hope Martin knows what he’s doing, I know it’s only preseason and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this about Martin, but I quite like what I’ve seen and what he’s done so far with the culture shift in attitude especially, fortunately Cullen seems to fit into that quite well 

[ceebeefox]

9 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

I dunno. I’ll ask. Welsh Ozakazi is literally the message 

Well if he works like Okazaki and creates space for others running past him, whilst scoring 10 or so, he’ll do for me.

[honeybradger]

6 hours ago, kingfox said:

So you want academy talents in the squad, but don’t class two of our academy talents as academy talents.

Same way you wouldnt consider Choudhury, Nelson and Thomas as academy talents.

 

If you're an established player then you're no longer a "talent" you're just part of the first team.

 

Alves and Braybrooke aren't clearly established with us for various reasons but they're a level above the rest of the squad. So it's just common sense that they play for us rather than giving them the opportunity to impress.

 

The point I'm making is we're not giving any young players a chance to prove themselves and make that step up.

 

Before the obvious comments of "it's a long season, let's see where we are by Christmas" the same was said last season.

Edited 17 hours ago by honeybradger

[trooky]

6 hours ago, honeybradger said:

What part of the logic is incorrect.

 

We simply do not have room in the 18 man match day squad to play academy players.

 

                 Cullen

Mavididi Chaplin Alves

           Skipp Braybrooke

Thomas Nelson Okoli Aluko

               McCarthy

 

Bench:

 

Stolarczyk

Choudhury

Faes

Mcfarlane

BDCR

Adebayo

Page

 

I don't consider the likes of Alves and Braybrooke as academy talent really as their involvement in the first team is long overdue and they are both clearly our best players.

 

No room on the bench for the likes of Evans, Hutchinson, Otchere, Carr, Joseph in a season when we are in league one is actually shocking. Our squad is beyond bloated.

 

People were worried we were going to have to play the academy this season as well.

Skipp, Okoli, Nelson, Souttar have told the club they want to leave, you could probably also add Faes and Mavididi to that list so I expect the starting lineup to be different come September. 

 

We can't just start academy players for the sake of it and hope they're good enough, we need competition for places and if the academy players are good they'll earn a starting spot or place on the bench over the season. 

Edited 17 hours ago by trooky

[teblin]

I agree the strange thing here, is if we are actually spending money it should be on an out and out Number 9. 

[Ric Flair]

12 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

Same way you wouldnt consider Choudhury, Nelson and Thomas as academy talents.

 

If you're an established player then you're no longer a "talent" you're just part of the first team.

 

Alves and Braybrooke aren't clearly established with us for various reasons but they're a level above the rest of the squad. So it's just common sense that they play for us rather than giving them the opportunity to impress.

 

The point I'm making is we're not giving any young players a chance to prove themselves and make that step up.

 

Before the obvious comments of "it's a long season, let's see where we are by Christmas" the same was said last season.

Yesh i'm waiting to be proven wrong here as this feels very similar to under Cifuentes. Used them all pre-season and then right at the end got the squad suitably full of powder puff so called experienced players and it was rinse and repeat. I say it every year but I really mean it now. We are one year away from administration in my opinion and there'll be no keeping the wolf from the door with £30-50m worth of sales that we've managed in recent years. Our only hope is we still build some feel good factor around the place with 5-6 academy players that increase in value and maybe we still stay afloat. 

[Ric Flair]

3 minutes ago, trooky said:

Skipp, Okoli, Nelson, Souttar have told the club they want to leave, you could probably also add Faes and Mavididi to that list so I expect the starting lineup to be different come September. 

 

We can't just start academy players for the sake of it and hope they're good enough, we need competition for places and if the academy players are good they'll earn a starting spot or place on the bench over the season. 

But history has suggested this won't happen, take last season for example. We were an utter disgrace and even worse when we cut aside the academy players and went with experience to try and save us. 

[teblin]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

Yesh i'm waiting to be proven wrong here as this feels very similar to under Cifuentes. Used them all pre-season and then right at the end got the squad suitably full of powder puff so called experienced players and it was rinse and repeat. I say it every year but I really mean it now. We are one year away from administration in my opinion and there'll be no keeping the wolf from the door with £30-50m worth of sales that we've managed in recent years. Our only hope is we still build some feel good factor around the place with 5-6 academy players that increase in value and maybe we still stay afloat. 

Yep, and for me that doesn't include Hamza and Thomas, which the press sometime try to create a narrative about. 

 

Hopefully, Page, Alves, Braybrook, Aluko and Joseph will all be in and about the squad/team. (maybe one other)

[coolhandfox]

59 minutes ago, HitchinFox said:

Nope. Not comparing at all. That would be mad. I was just naming utility players that were a bit good. 

What about the 1000s of crap ones.

[HitchinFox]

4 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

What about the 1000s of crap ones.

Not disagreeing! 

You just asked someone to name at least one good one. There are plenty. 

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, CruzNoir said:

That’s probably where he’s going to play though isn’t he?

 

Thats where he played last time he was under Russels management so I’d assume that’s going to be the case now 

 

 

Obviously players can develop to play elsewhere as their career progresses, I remember Dion Dublin at centre back for us! But he’s not a striker by trade and his goalscoring record shows that. 
 

If we hadn’t signed Chaplin and BDR looked like leaving, this would be a great signing for this level.

 

But given we are stocked at the central attacking area, you are probably right he is the striker. And this feels like quite a square peg in a round hole.

 

It’s frustrating that it feels like anyone raising concerns about it is basically getting the ‘entitled, what do you expect’ responses when it’s a genuine concern. We’ve had years of imbalanced squads with players shoehorned into positions to accommodate them. I’d just for once, love to see us identify the gaps and bring specialists in those positions even if they aren’t high profile.

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, CruzNoir said:

That’s probably where he’s going to play though isn’t he?

 

Thats where he played last time he was under Russels management so I’d assume that’s going to be the case now 

 

 

Only score more than 10 once in his career, according to swansea fans that have watched over the years he has no pace and no physicality.

 

Just what we need in a striker.

 

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by coolhandfox

[mozartfox]

9 hours ago, Tommy G said:

What if we get the 4x4 too?

Rudkin is now scouring the internet for Trabants.

[Long Eaton Fox]

How much is he costing?

[teblin]

The only thing Martin did say in his interview was about having different types of options in positions, so hopefully there will be an out and out 9 coming in too. Trouble is, it might be Adebayo who is a risk fitness wie.

[Rubbersoul]

I’ve slept on it and this is a truly woeful signing 

[Brainy]

9 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Anyway that's me done moaning on this topic. 

 

20 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

What about the 1000s of crap ones.

Welcome back 

 

Can you name the 2000 crap ones

[coolhandfox]

Just now, Brainy said:

 

Welcome back 

 

Can you name the 2000 crap ones

No too busy moaning.........

[Gloria]

It appears that young (but proven), available (but free) and quality (but wanting to join a third tier team) 'bagsman' is hard to find. Maybe there's one on the way? Or maybe RM is being pragmatic and taking the opportunity to secure someone he knows - and believes can contribute goals at this level just in case? Maybe Cullen/Reid/Chaplin/Otchere/Opoku is what we have, plus goals from elsewhere. Beggars can't be choosers is literally the case for us at present.

[StinckleyFox]

2 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

It’s not about his age or profile! It’s about the fact he players in the same position we already have Chaplin, BDR, Alves and Page who can play there.

 

It is the last position we need when we have gaping holes such as striker and right winger.

 

I don’t have a problem signing a 27 year old to contribute now. I have a problem us doing what we have for years and creating an imbalanced squad which results in square pegs in round holes to accommodate them!

Just ignoring the fact that he played striker under RM and has played as a striker for the majority of his career then?

 

Someone else also posted something from RM himself where he spoke about Liam Cullen and the fact that he can play up front or on the wing. So perfectly covers the two problem positions that we are crying out for?

[TheGoldenGod]

44 minutes ago, trooky said:

Skipp, Okoli, Nelson, Souttar have told the club they want to leave, you could probably also add Faes and Mavididi to that list so I expect the starting lineup to be different come September. 

 

We can't just start academy players for the sake of it and hope they're good enough, we need competition for places and if the academy players are good they'll earn a starting spot or place on the bench over the season. 

People on here never learn....the experienced heads have let us down TIME AND TIME again. F**k em off, I want to watch a team I can actually get behind so no thanks, I'll enjoy watching the youth 

Edited 16 hours ago by TheGoldenGod

[MC Prussian]

42 minutes ago, teblin said:

I agree the strange thing here, is if we are actually spending money it should be on an out and out Number 9. 

We‘re limited thanks to our debt dilemma. Need to pay that off before we can really invest in more expensive players.

 

Hence the many free transfers as of late.

[coolhandfox]

7 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

We‘re limited thanks to our debt dilemma. Need to pay that off before we can really invest in more expensive players.

 

Hence the many free transfers as of late.

We are paying money for Cullen.

[Brainy]

7 minutes ago, TheGoldenGod said:

People on here never learn....the experienced heads have let us down TIME AND TIME again. F**k em off, I want to watch a team I can actually get behind so no thanks, I'll enjoy watching the youth 

I'll give you five matches until you tire of seeing our youth fail to see out games or do everything but score. We're in a position where our more experienced players are part of one of the more disgraceful eras of the club, I get there will be this hasty, OTT thought process of not wanting to see a 24yo+ on the pitch again but there is 100% room for the right bit of experience in a squad full of kids.

[jv1]

2 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

We are paying money for Cullen.

Couple of hundred grand max for a 27yr old that the gaffer has worked well with before and is the second profile striker he was talking about needing - that runs his socks off and should have some real quality at league one level 

 

him and Chaplin are the perfect kind of pros we need around the place