Reconstruction time again: the summer 2018 transfer thread

[twilight]

This Grounds looks like Frank Lampard in his interview!!

[GhostoftheBok]

This Grounds looks like Frank Lampard in his interview!!

If he scores as many he might be an okay left back.

[GhostoftheBok]

Looks like we are rotating the squad a bit for the cup game. Parky says the two new lads will start.

[mullayo]

Looks like we are rotating the squad a bit for the cup game. Parky says the two new lads will start.

Remi
Grounds
Ozzy and ALF
Darby and Little

[GhostoftheBok]

Zouma got his clearance and we've signed Marcus Wood for the youth side. Wood was seen as a potential first team player by City not long ago, so I assume his development stalled. Must be nearly 21 by now, so presumably keen to make an actual impact here.

[GhostoftheBok]

Looks like we are rotating the squad a bit for the cup game. Parky says the two new lads will start.

Remi
Grounds
Ozzy and ALF
Darby and Little

Can you imagine Ozzy and Alf as an attacking duo? "Little and Child's Large"...

[mullayo]

Looks like we are rotating the squad a bit for the cup game. Parky says the two new lads will start.

Remi
Grounds
Ozzy and ALF
Darby and Little

Can you imagine Ozzy and Alf as an attacking duo? "Little and Child's Large"...

I was just thinking of who needed a run out. Unfortunately fitness is an issue.

Remi,
Little, Hobbs, Wilson, Grounds
Murphy
Ozzy Wildschut
Donaldson/ALF

[GhostoftheBok]

I was just thinking of who needed a run out. Unfortunately fitness is an issue.

Remi,
Little, Hobbs, Wilson, Grounds
Murphy
Ozzy Wildschut
Donaldson/ALF

I believe Pritchard is also making the squad, not sure if the team or not...plus Gary O'Neil should be available.

[officer_dibble]

Decent signing Grounds by the sounds of it - looking forward to seeing him play tomorrow night.

Pritchard? Is he one of the new U23s?
Stephen Darby will hopefully be nowhere near the team.

Think Hobbs will play. What about Wilson and Donaldson - are they fit?
Le Fondre will start as well I expect.

[palindromeofbolton]

Decent signing Grounds by the sounds of it - looking forward to seeing him play tomorrow night.

Pritchard? Is he one of the new U23s?
Stephen Darby will hopefully be nowhere near the team.

Think Hobbs will play. What about Wilson and Donaldson - are they fit?
Le Fondre will start as well I expect.

Pritchard was released by Spuds after a long time with them. 21 now so yes predominantly Dev Squad though he may sneak the odd appearance in for the 1sts I reckon.

That knock Donaldson got at p'boro wasn't meant to be serious, but he hasn't even made the bench since. Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow and run things off and be a viable option for Reading. Wilson I'm not sure about... did he have some personal/family stuff to contend with, which has set him back a couple of weeks fitness-wise? Tomorrow night's the time to get some time tbh so hopefully he travels and features.

There's a match thread up and running on the Leeds game here, btw: viewtopic.php?f=30&p=1060587#p1060587 I can't remember what happened last season when the match thread section got set up... did match day threads go up there? Up here then go there? Canny remember...

[GhostoftheBok]

So as I'm currently failing in my battle to get the new baby to sleep, I've been watching full match highlights involving Grounds to try and get an up-to-date view on him. Bloody interesting (in my world it counts as interesting) I must say.

Firstly, the lad is better on the ball than I thought. He's not Roberto Carlos and he's no dribbler, but he can see a pass and he can cross a bit better than I remember. Always looks for a forward pass first and tries to find his winger. He demands the ball, his touch is good (for a defender) and he's calm with it.

He talks and organises and he sees danger. He can also head and tackle. Had a young winger in front of him and kept giving him good advice and telling him where he needed him. On set pieces Brum used him as an extra centre back, going forward to stand on the keeper or in the melee marking big lads.

He's far from perfect. Doesn't like lads running at him, has an issue with being caught under the ball and his decision making is a split second behind a top-level player - means he sometimes ends up stretching for challenges or doesn't get in to close down when he had time to. You can see all the reasons why he didn't make the grade in the Prem and had to drop down to work his way back to the Championship.

I've watched four matches so far and I'm pretty impressed with him. He makes the right choices (when to go tight, when to stand off, what ball to play etc) and he's physical enough to mix it up when needed. If he plays for us like he has in the games I've watched, he'll be a popular signing.

Anyone who is as bored (and sad) as me could do worse than watch this one. Shows the good and bad against Sunderland...also lets you watch Wilson.

https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/201 ... tch-replay

[mullayo]

Anyone who is as bored (and sad) as me could do worse than watch this one. Shows the good and bad against Sunderland...also lets you watch Wilson.

https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/201 ... tch-replay

You called?
I will get straight on it.
I must say that Sunderland site is very generous with footage their fans wouldn't want to see.

[mullayo]

GROUNDS FOR CELEBRATION?

Yeah, he's not much going forward.

Great communicator, composed and runs the show but probably same speed or slower than Taylor. Lot bigger and more physical and mixes it up, Really is a left centreback, tucks in well to defend crosses as a third centreback.

Good passer and calm under pressure.
Won't overlap the winger at all but a header threat at corners.
Walks about for the main getting into good position, does lunge into tackles a bit - this was before the injury?

Makes himself available as an outlet for keeper throws - wasting his time here - and attempts to organise attacks from the back.
If Parky/Alnwick used him to launch attacks we may transition better...

Insane wanted a first and foremost defender and got it. Probably lower our goals conceded without adding much impetus to our goals scored. MIght be a much needed calming influence on field.

[DJBlu]

ALF gone.

https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2018/august ... wanderers/

[Jugs]

ALF sold! Pathetic decision. Parky has never liked him. Bad, bad call this one.

[BWFC_Insane]

ALF sold! Pathetic decision. Parky has never liked him. Bad, bad call this one.

He wanted to go. At his age I can’t blame him rather playing in Australia than a struggling championship side.

Nonsense that Parky doesn’t like him. You’ve got to find a way to fit him into a side. And we built a side last season at the start purely to fit him in. And it didn’t work.

[Mar]

Ridiculous news coming out of the club both in timing and in personnel changes.

How many more times are we going to get rid of our top goalscorer?


I genuinely believe that he doesn't fit Parky's mold but Parkinson wanted him to come good in that role. He gave a lot of effort in his time at the club but its hard to see why he's looking to leave. Doing ever so well in league one only to immediately not get game time last season, delivering the goods on the last day of the season only to get benched and looking to get minimal game time.


Hopefully we've got a loan signing yet to come in but given our luck we may not get one.

[TKIZ!]

ALF can't be thanked enough for the season in L1 and keeping us up last season. Personally I'm gutted but can see why he wouldn't want to stick around when he's not getting games and Magennis has made an impressive start. Be interested to see who we go for now to try and help out upfront. I wouldn't mind Chris Martin (who's I know wages would probably put a kibosh on that) or Raúl de Tomás (not sure if Madrid would loan us a player)

[BWFC_Insane]

Ridiculous news coming out of the club both in timing and in personnel changes.

How many more times are we going to get rid of our top goalscorer?


I genuinely believe that he doesn't fit Parky's mold but Parkinson wanted him to come good in that role. He gave a lot of effort in his time at the club but its hard to see why he's looking to leave. Doing ever so well in league one only to immediately not get game time last season, delivering the goods on the last day of the season only to get benched and looking to get minimal game time.


Hopefully we've got a loan signing yet to come in but given our luck we may not get one.

You realise he started the season last time as Parky built a nonsense system purely to get him in the side....

[Mar]

Ridiculous news coming out of the club both in timing and in personnel changes.

How many more times are we going to get rid of our top goalscorer?


I genuinely believe that he doesn't fit Parky's mold but Parkinson wanted him to come good in that role. He gave a lot of effort in his time at the club but its hard to see why he's looking to leave. Doing ever so well in league one only to immediately not get game time last season, delivering the goods on the last day of the season only to get benched and looking to get minimal game time.


Hopefully we've got a loan signing yet to come in but given our luck we may not get one.

You realise he started the season last time as Parky built a nonsense system purely to get him in the side....

That game plan went out of the window 2 games in where we had 3 goals in the first 2 games to going to 1 goal in the next 9. Really doubt his game plan was focused primarily around the dynamic duo of Le Fondre and Morais, especially seeing as the likes of Jeff King got starts ahead of him.