The Promotion Commotion Transfer Thread 2017

[boltonboris]

If he's good defensively and going forwards then great - I like all the other regular full-backs and Parkinson does too, so a tough choice

But one thing is clear. We need to fight. We need to do the hard yards and we need options. We cannot afford lethargy now, so good that we're building back up options.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Flanagan offers cover on both sides as full-back and wing-back, so I guess that makes sense

Can make a case for 3-5-2 but if it's wingbacks with Pratley/Henry in the middle (otherwise wide open) you've then got three positions (two forwards plus nominal No.10) to fit in Clough, Vela, Ameobi, ALF, Walker, Buckley, Noone. My feeling is that we've given up on Noone, Buckley might get the odd late run, and he's wondering whether to pair ALF with Clough up top – Walker perhaps as sub unless and until his performances merit more

Or it could be 4231 but we can't play the same style with either Walker, ALF or Clough up top

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

But one thing is clear. We need to fight. We need to do the hard yards and we need options. We cannot afford lethargy now, so good that we're building back up options.

This. They're going to run like hell.

[TANGODANCER]

Just chucking in a view for what it's worth now it's all dusted (for the present anyway):
Realistially, ( and realism's what we have to accept, like it or no) the Bolton of the past has gone. We have a superb stadium and facilities, but it's all a bit fair coated donkey jacket and no boxers. We're still skint, have no money to compete with almost everybody in this league (which we're still propping up with wings and prayers) and survival is the name of the game not trophy hunting. I've been around to witness the high, the mighty and the low in fair measures over the years, but it's 2018 and as grim as a Charles Dickens novel right now. All we have is a fight and that's something we can take on. First job is to admit it, stop dreaming about 1958 or Sam's sallies into exotic European locations, stop moaning about what might have been and get on with it. It isn't the likes of me that it'll all affect, I've had my story, but it still hurts to see the mighty Whites not up with the best. Today's fans have a tough job on but it'll get sorted. I still believe in Parky.

Madine? Sorry, I'm not and never have been mercenary and if he really did bang a transfer request in at the first mention of a pay rise, then good luck and goodbye. Forget him, he's as yesterday as knocker-ups and lamplighters for me but without the sentiment. How heartening that Zac Clough had his agent ask to come back and is delighted to be so. What a difference. Not everybody turns out a Gary Cahill and somehow I don't see Madine as one. He's a long way from a Super Kev, that's for sure. I wish him well...but, like my dinner, he's gone One thing that hasn't changed is the act that goals are all that really matter in the long run. Who gets them is immaterial. We'll get there, of that I never doubt.

COME ON YOU WHITES... ..

[Bruce Rioja]

Some quotes from PP - anyone who criticises this man wants their bumps feeling. So proud to have him as our manager......

So - Parky not in uber gutted / suicidal mode as per one's earier assertions then?

[BWFC_Insane]

Some quotes from PP - anyone who criticises this man wants their bumps feeling. So proud to have him as our manager......

So - Parky not in uber gutted / suicidal mode as per one's earier assertions then?

He's said what he's had to. I'm sure he's hurting, you can tell from the quotes. But he's getting on with it. Its clear both he and Ken consider it a big loss. Hopefully they'll turn up something to somewhat fill the gap on a free, and in the meantime get others firing.

[BWFC_Insane]

OOOFFF. After the professional official "club twitter" quotes from Parky. Here's one he gave to Iles at the same press conference...

"It's easy to say we've sold our top goalscorer but I don't pay the wages every month.

On whether squad is stronger: "You’re asking a question, I think you know the answer. Probably not, when you have taken the top scorer out of the team."

Paints a very different light to the selected quotes the club put up earlier. Mind it was blatantly obvious to anyone with a braincell that it wasn't Parky's decision to sell him and that Parky was going to be royally fed up.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

OOOFFF. After the professional official "club twitter" quotes from Parky. Here's one he gave to Iles at the same press conference...

"It's easy to say we've sold our top goalscorer but I don't pay the wages every month.

On whether squad is stronger: "You’re asking a question, I think you know the answer. Probably not, when you have taken the top scorer out of the team."

Paints a very different light to the selected quotes the club put up earlier. Mind it was blatantly obvious to anyone with a braincell that it wasn't Parky's decision to sell him and that Parky was going to be royally fed up.

There's some of us out there without brain cells. It's not our fault, it's how we were born. You need to stop slagging us off, it's brain-cellist.

[Harry Genshaw]

Madine putting in a transfer request and chasing the cash would at least mean Parky knew he'd be leaving.

Be interesting to see the true figure in the accounts. When will they be overdue again?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Oh, and by the way, can I just point out before the tears and hysterics have petered out, that on the day the transfer window slammed shut that we (Bolton Wanderers) were, [how does DSB put it?], below the dotted line. So just think on all you Madine/Parkinson fanatics, just how low the bar was you set!

[Bruce Rioja]

Mind it was blatantly obvious to anyone with a braincell that it wasn't Parky's decision to sell him

Can you find me anyone who's countered this? It was, in part, Madine's himself. Of course Parkinson's going to be pissed off at losing his top scorer, but do you honestly thing he's naïve enough not to have seen it coming?

[dave the minion]

OOOFFF. After the professional official "club twitter" quotes from Parky. Here's one he gave to Iles at the same press conference...

"It's easy to say we've sold our top goalscorer but I don't pay the wages every month.

On whether squad is stronger: "You’re asking a question, I think you know the answer. Probably not, when you have taken the top scorer out of the team."

Paints a very different light to the selected quotes the club put up earlier. Mind it was blatantly obvious to anyone with a braincell that it wasn't Parky's decision to sell him and that Parky was going to be royally fed up.

No it doesn't at all. Its just plain facts that are obvious to all of us - take out your highest scorer from the team and don't replace him with like-for-like - of course the team is weaker. Parky knows this and we know this - its his job now to move on and try to get the best out of what he has available. At the end of the day he's lost Madine and gained Walker, Clough and potentially ALF if he has to change the system to allow him to play to his strengths.
Parky knew what he was in for when he took on the job. Fact. Will he be disappointed? I guess so, but he's a pro and knows the score, and he can't say he is surprised.
As soon as any of our players start to shine and attract attention, he will be expecting to have a battle on his hands to keep them. I'm sure he's had many conversations with Ken about keeping Madine, but in his heart of hearts he will have known that he will be sold for the right offer. Add into the mix Madine & his agents engineering for a move once they got wind of Cardiff's interest, I'm not sure anyone can have reasonably expected a different outcome. And there's no guarantee that Madine would have carried on his rich vein of form if we'd refused to sell - in fact i'd wager that his performances would have dipped if we'd kept him against his will.

[BWFC_Insane]

OOOFFF. After the professional official "club twitter" quotes from Parky. Here's one he gave to Iles at the same press conference...

"It's easy to say we've sold our top goalscorer but I don't pay the wages every month.

On whether squad is stronger: "You’re asking a question, I think you know the answer. Probably not, when you have taken the top scorer out of the team."

Paints a very different light to the selected quotes the club put up earlier. Mind it was blatantly obvious to anyone with a braincell that it wasn't Parky's decision to sell him and that Parky was going to be royally fed up.

No it doesn't at all. Its just plain facts that are obvious to all of us - take out your highest scorer from the team and don't replace him with like-for-like - of course the team is weaker. Parky knows this and we know this - its his job now to move on and try to get the best out of what he has available. At the end of the day he's lost Madine and gained Walker, Clough and potentially ALF if he has to change the system to allow him to play to his strengths.
Parky knew what he was in for when he took on the job. Fact. Will he be disappointed? I guess so, but he's a pro and knows the score, and he can't say he is surprised.
As soon as any of our players start to shine and attract attention, he will be expecting to have a battle on his hands to keep them. I'm sure he's had many conversations with Ken about keeping Madine, but in his heart of hearts he will have known that he will be sold for the right offer. Add into the mix Madine & his agents engineering for a move once they got wind of Cardiff's interest, I'm not sure anyone can have reasonably expected a different outcome. And there's no guarantee that Madine would have carried on his rich vein of form if we'd refused to sell - in fact i'd wager that his performances would have dipped if we'd kept him against his will.

Some people have suggested we are stronger now.

As for the transfer request, its obvious Ken would like to play on that. Interesting that Parky didn't mention it at all. He simply mentioned "the fee was going up and up". You do have to question the reality of the situation. Was it the player desperately forcing a move or was the player happy to go to more than double his salary, but equally prepared to stay and fight if required? We will never know. Parky certainly doesn't (in any of the quotes so far) say "we didn't want to sell but when the player wants to leave sometimes you have little choice". He talks about the fee and "the club having a decision to make".

[Prufrock]

Seems pretty clear to me that the XI is now significantly weaker and the squad significantly stronger.

Up to now when we've got the XI all out we've been at mid-table form, when we've missed one or two we've been ten-points-for-the-season form. Where in between we end up now will determine whether we stay up.

Flanagan hopefully means we'll never see Darby again. He played LB loads for Liverpool a few years ago and got an England call-up. He'll be first choice somewhere I think. Think he's a G. Neville type in that they expected him to be a CB but he isn't tall enough. Wouldn't surprise to see him play on a back 3 and be the one to step out.

Agree Little has been excellent so far. Think we've got the players to play 352 more now than we did. Or even super trendy 343.

[BWFC_Insane]

Seems pretty clear to me that the XI is now significantly weaker and the squad significantly stronger.

Up to now when we've got the XI all out we've been at mid-table form, when we've missed one or two we've been ten-points-for-the-season form. Where in between we end up now will determine whether we stay up.

Flanagan hopefully means we'll never see Darby again. He played LB loads for Liverpool a few years ago and got an England call-up. He'll be first choice somewhere I think. Think he's a G. Neville type in that they expected him to be a CB but he isn't tall enough. Wouldn't surprise to see him play on a back 3 and be the one to step out.

Agree Little has been excellent so far. Think we've got the players to play 352 more now than we did. Or even super trendy 343.

Having watched a lot of championship football this season one thing I'll say is that after the opening disaster we've been competitive in most games. Our solidity and fight has to stay. I'm concerned that we've lost some height in the team generally given Walker isn't as big as Madine, Clough is tiny - and that could be an issue on set pieces. Something we've generally done ok on so far.

But my big take home from this league is that most games are won and lost on nothing. I'd say our past few wins, we easily could have lost (Cardiff excepted). Both sides create a few chances and it comes down to who takes them.

Madine was taking them for us.

The big, two issues now are in general open play finding a way to be effective with these players, which will be tough at this stage.

And the other one is all the attacking players (including the new ones) massively stepping up their goals. Clough and Walker haven't been prolific at Forest. Here, Vela for an attacking midfield player is appalling in terms of goals scored. Ameobi needs to score more too. Because in most of our wins had we missed the odd chance we may well have lost the game.

For me its getting a couple of those players on a run goals wise and quickly. This isn't a league where we will play teams off the park and have the luxury of missing a few. Its a league where you scrap for 90 minutes and the odd chance here or there decides the outcome. We have to maintain our ability primarily to restrict the opposition and hope that one of our attacking players hits the same sort of form as Madine had in front of goal.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Seems pretty clear to me that the XI is now significantly weaker and the squad significantly stronger.

Up to now when we've got the XI all out we've been at mid-table form, when we've missed one or two we've been ten-points-for-the-season form. Where in between we end up now will determine whether we stay up.

Flanagan hopefully means we'll never see Darby again. He played LB loads for Liverpool a few years ago and got an England call-up. He'll be first choice somewhere I think. Think he's a G. Neville type in that they expected him to be a CB but he isn't tall enough. Wouldn't surprise to see him play on a back 3 and be the one to step out.

Agree Little has been excellent so far. Think we've got the players to play 352 more now than we did. Or even super trendy 343.

Having watched a lot of championship football this season one thing I'll say is that after the opening disaster we've been competitive in most games. Our solidity and fight has to stay. I'm concerned that we've lost some height in the team generally given Walker isn't as big as Madine, Clough is tiny - and that could be an issue on set pieces. Something we've generally done ok on so far.

But my big take home from this league is that most games are won and lost on nothing. I'd say our past few wins, we easily could have lost (Cardiff excepted). Both sides create a few chances and it comes down to who takes them.

Madine was taking them for us.

The big, two issues now are in general open play finding a way to be effective with these players, which will be tough at this stage.

And the other one is all the attacking players (including the new ones) massively stepping up their goals. Clough and Walker haven't been prolific at Forest. Here, Vela for an attacking midfield player is appalling in terms of goals scored. Ameobi needs to score more too. Because in most of our wins had we missed the odd chance we may well have lost the game.

For me its getting a couple of those players on a run goals wise and quickly. This isn't a league where we will play teams off the park and have the luxury of missing a few. Its a league where you scrap for 90 minutes and the odd chance here or there decides the outcome. We have to maintain our ability primarily to restrict the opposition and hope that one of our attacking players hits the same sort of form as Madine had in front of goal.

But... You stated categorically that if we sell Madune we're domed, totally utterly going down the pan domed!
And yet now we've got hope? Is that because you've transferred your hysterical man crush from Maxine to Parky perchance?

[BWFC_Insane]

Seems pretty clear to me that the XI is now significantly weaker and the squad significantly stronger.

Up to now when we've got the XI all out we've been at mid-table form, when we've missed one or two we've been ten-points-for-the-season form. Where in between we end up now will determine whether we stay up.

Flanagan hopefully means we'll never see Darby again. He played LB loads for Liverpool a few years ago and got an England call-up. He'll be first choice somewhere I think. Think he's a G. Neville type in that they expected him to be a CB but he isn't tall enough. Wouldn't surprise to see him play on a back 3 and be the one to step out.

Agree Little has been excellent so far. Think we've got the players to play 352 more now than we did. Or even super trendy 343.

Having watched a lot of championship football this season one thing I'll say is that after the opening disaster we've been competitive in most games. Our solidity and fight has to stay. I'm concerned that we've lost some height in the team generally given Walker isn't as big as Madine, Clough is tiny - and that could be an issue on set pieces. Something we've generally done ok on so far.

But my big take home from this league is that most games are won and lost on nothing. I'd say our past few wins, we easily could have lost (Cardiff excepted). Both sides create a few chances and it comes down to who takes them.

Madine was taking them for us.

The big, two issues now are in general open play finding a way to be effective with these players, which will be tough at this stage.

And the other one is all the attacking players (including the new ones) massively stepping up their goals. Clough and Walker haven't been prolific at Forest. Here, Vela for an attacking midfield player is appalling in terms of goals scored. Ameobi needs to score more too. Because in most of our wins had we missed the odd chance we may well have lost the game.

For me its getting a couple of those players on a run goals wise and quickly. This isn't a league where we will play teams off the park and have the luxury of missing a few. Its a league where you scrap for 90 minutes and the odd chance here or there decides the outcome. We have to maintain our ability primarily to restrict the opposition and hope that one of our attacking players hits the same sort of form as Madine had in front of goal.

But... You stated categorically that if we sell Madune we're domed, totally utterly going down the pan domed!
And yet now we've got hope? Is that because you've transferred your hysterical man crush from Maxine to Parky perchance?

I still think we're going down and domed. I'd love to be wrong though.

But equally I already post we're domed too much, so you know, a bit of variety.

[bedwetter2]

I do think that the pessimism is a little overdone. It all comes down to attitude, both of outgoing and incoming players. It wouldn't be a surprise to me if Madine quickly becomes a dud for Cardiff after his purple patch just as he was for us earlier in the season. That and the need to fit into a different team with larger aspirations. We shall see.

As for incomings, I would think that a burden has been lifted from Clough's shoulders. It may inspire him.
I see Flanagan and Walker as positives providing better quality competition for places.
If the style of play has to change, so be it. We couldn't hang on to Madine anyway if reports are correct.
The obsession by some of the way teams line up is very funny. 3-5-3, 4-4-2, 3-5-1, etc. Doesn't really matter because successful teams adapt during games to circumstance and opportunity. Sometimes a rigid back four, for example, is the answer but more often not.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

...right. Ok, I feel better already. The world's axis has not tipped.
Hopefully the £74 billion quid we've squirreled away for a rainy day will enable us to plan more than two weeks in advance...

[TonyDomingos]

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PSG (minus the P). “Here’s one I made earlier.”