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Just seen that Crole got injured in a B team game for them a couple of weeks ago so I'll assume that's the reason for his absence but the fact he was playing for the reserves in the first place isn't encouraging.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undercoverinwurzelland
No, not great.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
Sounds like Eli King is going to be challenging for a starting spot next season (and probably would be if he were here now)Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
Xavier Benjamin at Dunfermline:
https://dafc.co.uk/xav-continues-his-scottish-tour/
If the guy who does the BBC ratings was picking the team he'd be captain here already. I'd like to think Eli will be there or thereabouts next season but the central midfield situation will take a bit of sorting out.Quote:
Originally Posted by PhyllisStant
Siopis lost his form quite early on, Wintle hasn't had the best of seasons and Ralls never seems fully fit these days. Even so, Adams and Rinomhota weren't able to dislodge them but the fact they've been picked up by (and are starting for) clubs not far below us on the EFL 'ladder' shows they're not total patzers. They both have a year left on their contracts, Wintle and Siopis two, Ralls' is up at the end of the season.
I've no idea how this will get resolved. It feels like we need a refresh there but I also feel King and Joel Colwill (if that ends up being his position) will have to show a lot from now and into pre-season if they want to make a spot their own. If Bulut's still here it's hard to imagine him blowing all the other five out to make room for them. I think I'd rather bet on Gateshead making up the 26 points gap on Chesterfield.
So positive, must be a great guy to have around the place. Must've been a dent to his pride to go out on loan having been on the edge of the first team here for the first half of the season but he's reacted in the right way, good luck to him.Quote:
Originally Posted by jon1959
Thanks for posting that.
Interesting article here on our two lads at Dunfermline (if you can access it, The Courier isn't too user-friendly)
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/?post_t...0moves%20north.
I haven't seen Fagan-Walcott play but all the reports I've read make me think of Semi Ajayi. What Purse says about him in this article is pretty much word for word how you'd have described Ajayi when he came here from Arsenal (basically, remember what Darren Purse was like as a centre-half then imagine the complete opposite).
By the same token, Purse could be talking about himself in some parts of the Xavier Benjamin section of the interview.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
Eli King must be some player.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
After his recent ratings , I wasn't too surprised to see he had the MOM again last night in the Freiburg Bayern draw.
Doubt he'll bother with a bunch of losers like Bayern after this loan spell. Another man-of-the-match performance today for Eli, with a 9.64 rating. Rather like Spinal Tap's amps, the BBC will need to take their ratings up to 11 before long.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy the Jock
I'm pretty sure those ratings are voted by the public - so it could be a large proportion of Ross County fans who have scored that.
Yes, I noticed this in the week and someone mentioned it in the Academy thread too. There's a public vote which is open for about half an hour after the final whistle. I suppose it could be open to manipulation by Ross County fans and Eli's family and friends but I'd like to think it's only being used by knowledgeable football fans who've been at the game and are voting according to what they've seen. Jimmy the Jock will agree with me on that, I'm sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by PhyllisStant
Isaak Davies scores again.
Get him in the Wales squad! :wales:Quote:
Originally Posted by Undercoverinwurzelland
Is that his seventh goal of the season? If it is, then he’s scored more in a bottom of the table team than anyone in our first team squad has done for a side in the middle of the table.Quote:
Originally Posted by Undercoverinwurzelland
I think he was on 6 so yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
Indeed, I also stumbled across that fact yesterday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
The cynic in me thought his friends and family have busy keyboards immediately after a game.
The club's loan report from today:
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news...eport-04032024
Thanks for posting that.Quote:
Originally Posted by jon1959
Bagan's been in and out over there lately. He signed a 3-year contract last summer, it'll be interesting to see how his future plays out here.
Benjamin has sat out the last two Dunfermline games, I think they've gone from a back five to a four and he's the one who's missed out. They obviously see Fagan-Walcott as the better bet for now, two clean sheets this week makes it hard to argue with that. No mention of Crole there, by the way. Still no sign of him.
Keiron Evans has an FA Trophy quarter-final coming up this week which I assume he's eligible for. A Wembley appearance on top of likely play-off games would make it a worthwhile loan spell there I'd have thought.
It's a shame for Ryan Kavanagh. Quite a prospect here but injury has ruined his development. I saw him play for our under-21s against Sheffield United a while back at the CCS. He was only 16 so I thought he might be a bit nervous and struggle to get involved. What actually happened was that he spent the whole first half kicking lumps out of the Sheffield players to the point where their coaching staff had to start appealing to all the match officials to stop making allowances for him. It was pretty funny to be honest. I wondered how long ago that was, guessing it was about 5 years. Looked it up, it was Monday, March 4th, 2019. Quite a good guess then.
One more thing about the Truro v Taunton game that will be of absolutely no interest to anyone but that's how I roll. They played it at Gloucester City's ground, as you do. Apparently Truro haven't played a competitive home game even in Cornwall since 2020, they've been ground-sharing with Plymouth Parkway among others. They've got a new stadium being built which, I imagine, will be a relief for the home fans there.
Isaak Davies and Eli King have had very good loans - and my guess is both will be part of the squad next year. I imagine Ryotaro Tsunoda will too.
Has anyone else? Tom Davies, Joel Bagan and Xavier Benjamin trading water?
Fagan-Walcott seems to be ticking boxes - but he is not likely to break into the first team squad - is he?
Ebou Adams doing OK at Derby - but probably just enough to earn permanent transfer interest?
Zimba, Evans and the others on their way out?
I can only see Isaak Davies, King and maybe Tsunoda getting a chance with our 1st team in pre-season.Quote:
Originally Posted by jon1959
Hard to know, isn't it? Especially as we're not sure yet if Bulut will be here.Quote:
Originally Posted by jon1959
I said earlier that central midfield is complicated, plenty of competition there as it stands. King seems to be doing well and is playing regularly in the Scottish Prem but then so are Matty Kennedy and Marley Watkins so it's tough to say what level he's at. I'd like to think he'll be pushing for a place next season, Davies too, but I don't want to let my heart rule my head and go overboard about their chances. Surely an on-form Davies could fit in somewhere but we'll see.
I'm not sure what the issue is with Fagan-Walcott. If it's an injury/fitness thing then the regular games he's getting may help dispel that. Even if we don't want him for now he may be a player we regret letting go for nothing, as it turned out with Ajayi. Ditto for Evans, who's a nice little player. No real sign of him turning into a Foden yet but I'd like to see him here a bit longer personally.
There's a lot of Ebou Adams love at Derby!
https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/de...der-in-summer/
There's some value there if we sell him but I've no idea what's going to happen. Him and even Rinomhota seem to be Championship material but they couldn't get past an out-of-sorts Wintle and Siopis or a barely fit Ralls this season so it makes you realise how tough it'll be for Eli King to break in when he comes back.Quote:
Originally Posted by jon1959
An interview with Ollie Denham here. He's playing every game for Sligo and made the League of Ireland team of the week after a 5-0 away win on Monday. Seems a bit of a weird move but good luck to him there.
https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soc...ollie-32244779
Not a lot to report here, things seem to be moving along much as expected. That probably won't stop me turning this into an essay though.
Isaak Davies is getting a lot of mentions on here, and rightly so. I'm certainly no expert on him but he seems to have gone full circle since I first saw him play. He looked like a striker then but Bellamy's Academy team had another player like him so Isaak played a bit at number 10 and out on the wing as well as up front. While he struggled to adapt at times he soon picked it up to the point, a year or so later, when he started an FA Youth Cup tie against Ipswich as a striker, scored the opening goal then switched to the wing when Crole came on. Having been a handful out there he then came up with a brilliant bit of play to beat his full back and pull it across for Crole to tap in the winner.
Having developed an all-round game, however, the goals started to dry up. I seem to remember mentions of bad misses and a general decline in front of goal at under 23/21 level and while there was plenty to be encouraged by when he broke into the first team there wasn't as much threat in front of goal as there could have been. That threat seems be well and truly there now though. His striker's instincts are back from the goals I've seen; good positioning and movement along with confident finishing.
What now though? If Bulut sees Kieffer Moore as his ideal striker then it's hard to imagine him starting Isaak up front but will we be killing the goose that lays the golden egg a bit if we stick him out wide again. Him and Tsunoda both seem to be flourishing in a 5 at the back system, maybe that would suit them both best here too. Time will tell.
Malachi Fagan-Walcott seems to going from strength to strength at Dunfermline. Excellent performances week in week out, mature interviews and an obvious desire to be a team player while working on improving his own game. I don't think I've seen a bad word said about him yet. I never quite got how Casey Ryback ended up as a chef on a train in Under Siege 2 and I'm equally unsure why Fagan-Walcott is at Dunfermline. Maybe he's going to save the planet too, we'll see.
As I mentioned in the Academy thread, a few loan players are missing out. Benjamin, Crole, Kavanagh, Bagan and King didn't make their squads this weekend, King's injured but I'm not sure about the others. Zimba hasn't got on for three games, Keiron Evans was sacrificed ten minutes in after an early red card for Gateshead and Sheyi Ojo didn't get on for Kortrijk.
Ollie Denham is still going well at Sligo though. Him Adams and Rinomhota all got 90 minutes in this weekend. Joe Ralls new deal means we've now got seven central midfielders still under contract going into next season. I'm sure we'll be looking to get Joel Colwill out on loan and probably move Rinomhota on but that still leaves five going for two places.
While some players are struggling to establish themselves on loan it's nice to see 18-year-old Jake Dennis getting into the Gloucester City team. He'd been on the bench until the regular keeper shipped seven recently and he's done well in the two games since. A 2-1 defeat at league leaders Tamworth was followed by a last minute win at Warrington yesterday, the winner being scored by City old boy Harry Pinchard. A happy ending for you there, just like Under Siege.
Great report, Thankyou. Dunfermline because he was previously at Dundee under the same Manager (He must like Malachi (Great name) on loan from Spurs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
It is. Thanks, Loramski from me too. Interesting read and really well written :thumbup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuerto
Yeah, I was aware of that. I just meant I don't get why he's playing at that level. Mourinho rated him enough to bring him on in a Champions League game and yet here he is. That loan spell at Dundee was ended by injury and there seem to have been other injuries at Spurs so if the guy is made of glass then obviously that'll hold him back but he's just gone straight into the team at Dunfermline (ahead of Benjamin) and plays 90 minutes every game. I've probably jinxed him now but it's been an impressive start for him there in a number of ways.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuerto
Malachi is an excellent name, yes.
Thank you:thumbup: Keep any success stories on the downlow, those Prem clubs are infesting any sniff of talent.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
Andy Rinomhota was MOM for Rotherham against Huddersfield (0 - 0).
https://www.themillers.co.uk/news/20...e-match-award/
Sean Morrison came second in the vote.
Not much to report this week but a few players saw some action.
Ninety minutes and an important goal for Keiron Evans as Gateshead won 3-2 at play-off rivals Altrincham. He got the equaliser to make it 2-2. He gets interviewed after the game and just manages to keep the lid on his excitement.
https://x.com/GatesheadFC/status/177...919381719?s=20
Another 90 minutes and another clean sheet for Malachi Fagan-Walcott as Dunfermline won 1-0 at Greenock to go fifth.
A couple of chances for Ebou Adams as Derby went down 1-0 at Northampton. It was the first time Northampton had beaten Derby in 115 years of trying. Look out for us beating Maidstone in 2105 then.
A rare start for Ryan Kavanagh in Truro's game at Tonbridge today. To call it an away trip doesn't really do it justice. I was reading about Ernest Shackleton earlier, even he would've said 'f**k that' to following Truro every week. Last Saturday was a 540 mile round trip to St Albans, today was a 575 mile round trip to Kent (in a league that's regionalised to simplify the travelling). 1-0 up with six minutes to go, Truro first let in an equaliser then conceded a winner 3 minutes into injury time. They'll laugh about it one day.
A few weeks back, Dunfermline fans were worrying about relegation but now they're 1 point from a promotion play-off spot. However, they're still 6 points above the relegation play-off in the ten team division. Now this is a format I can get behind; none of this shambling around mid-table for 8 months.
Jake Dennis was on the bench for Gloucester who lost 3-0 at Spennymoor.
Think Benjamin has gone a long way at Cardiff on the perception that he’s a bit of a throwback as he’s seen as the on field leader that we are constantly told barely exists these days among young footballers. I must admit I’ve never been overly impressed by him and, although I’ve not seen much of Fagan-Walcott, he seems the much better prospect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
Since they’ve started streaming under 21 games, I don’t watch matches in the flesh so can someone who still goes to matches tell me if Erol Bulut has ever watched one in the way some of our other recent managers did? I can’t remember the commentators ever saying he was there, but I suppose he could be watching the streams somewhere - for example, has he seen Cian Ashford’s recent goals at that level I wonder?
As for Isaak Davies, I’m not sure his goals this season will do him much good as far as being selected as a striker is concerned, but if we’re going to keep on insisting on playing a target man and wingers, I must say that by far the most impressive example of what must be called old fashion wing play these days I suppose was Isaak’s run and cross to Keiffer Moore back in 21/22 against Huddersfield - on the other hand, there was that forty five minutes when he terrorised the Leeds defence in that FA Cup match (for all of the good it did him).
It's difficult for me to be constructive about the Fagan-Walcott situation, I'm completely missing something there. All I can do is put the facts up and hope the answer reveals itself at some point. We obviously saw Benjamin as the better bet of the two, Dunfermline obviously don't. If we felt he wasn't physically strong enough, Dunfermline obviously do. If we felt there was an injury concern, the number of 90 minutes he's played up there says different.Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
I don't get why Bulut didn't even bother to have a look at him in the cup games when he was on the bench. Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday had gone with 20 minutes to go but he didn't bring him on even though he only used four subs both times. It's not as though we've had a big pool of centre halves this season, if he was a central midfielder it'd make more sense.
What I don't really want to do is start speculating but the situation is so baffling that it's hard not to. You could well be right that the club have been impressed by Benjamin's attitude and, equally, I don't think it's impossible to conclude that Bulut isn't impressed by Fagan-Walcott's apparent insouciance. Much in the same way that I imagine Warnock wasn't impressed by Ajayi's.
However, the way Ajayi committed to far from glamorous loan spells when he was here made me think there was more heart and determination in him than his demeanour let on and Fagan-Walcott's spell at Dunfermline makes me think the same. Don't judge a book by its cover and all that.
Isaak Davies is going to be an interesting one. Tsunoda too. Bulut (or whoever) will have a blank canvas to start with when it comes to setting up for next season but if we, say, get Kieffer Moore and a couple of wingers in June then it's going to commit us to a style of play that might not suit Davies and Tsunoda (if they're good enough of course). Obviously we can't wait for pre-season to finish before recruiting so this might need a bit of forward thinking, not something we're renowned for.
I've no idea if Bulut attends u-21 games. He's got a different approach to previous managers in that senior players have very rarely been given games, even when coming back from injury, until Sawyers and Robinson popped up recently. That may suggest he sees them as a waste of time but he seems to integrate the youngsters into first team training more than others have so it's not like he's uninterested in that section of the club.
I've probably been guilty of reading too much into u-21 and Academy games over the years. My eldest tends to laugh when I show him goals from that level and I know where he's coming from. I like Ashford but the goals against Bristol and Swansea would have been dealt with comfortably at Championship level and even Colwill's for Wales u-21s the other night seemed a bit farcical to me (Wales second was a beauty though).
Equally, I think I've underestimated the importance of training. So much going on there that we don't see or know about. Fitness, stamina, ability, attitude, character etc all being put to the test day in, day out. Maybe Bulut sets up practice games that have an intensity about them that tells him more than u-21 games do, in his opinion. Hockey and football are much different, of course, but my youngest absolutely swears by the importance of training. He concludes a lot from it, about coaches and players, and is rarely wrong about either.
That's not dismissing the youth games, I'd still catch a few if work permitted. I'm just saying I probably read too much into them in the past.
Sorry that was so long, I'd better stop now or I'll use up the internet.
It does rather beg the question what can someone like Ashford do if he's deemed as part of the first team squad so can’t be loaned out and he’s never going to be used when named as a sub? He could score some fine goals I suppose, but then it may well be that Bulut thinks like you do and the goals are devalued because the defending was not Championship level? Ashford missed a chance I expected to score at Sheffield Wednesday so that may be being held against him, but he must have been the eighth Cirty player to miss a chance that night and I’d rather think of the good things in those goals against Swansea and Bristol City under 21s and in particular the one he got for Wales under 21s against the Czech Republic in added time to get a draw - the whole game was riding on that difficult finish and the fact that Ashford, first,went for the volley and then delivered it perfectly says a lot I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
Agree about Colwill’s goal - now that was a goal that would never be scored in the Championship!
It does rather beg the question what can someone like Ashford do if he's deemed to be part of the first team squad so can’t be loaned out and he’s never going to be used when named as a sub? He could score some fine goals for the under 21s I suppose, but then it may well be that Bulut thinks like you do and the goals are devalued because the defending was not Championship level? Ashford missed a chance I expected to score at Sheffield Wednesday so that may be being held against him, but he must have been the eighth Cirty player to miss a chance that night and I’d rather think of the good things in those goals against Swansea and Bristol City under 21s and in particular the one he got for Wales under 21s against the Czech Republic in added time to get a draw - the whole game was riding on that difficult finish and the fact that Ashford, first,went for the volley and then delivered it perfectly says a lot I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
Agree about Colwill’s goal - now that was a goal that would never be scored in the Championship!
One of the most enjoyable threads I have read in a long time. Thanks loramski in particular. Please keep it going. I for one really do hope Isaac is integrated into first team next season. Maybe heart over head I am prepared to admit - but really has grant got that much more than him, and many city fans seem to rave about grant. Personally just dont see it.
Tsunoda has a hamstring tear. Might well be the end of his season.
https://twitter.com/kvkofficieel/sta...62406691013011
I picked up on Ashford and Joel Colwill not going on loan, against Bulut's apparent wishes, at the time but I haven't heard any more about that. It looks like the scenario you suggest, I agree, but at the same time I've no idea what (if any) loan offers were made and who turned them down. The club, Bulut, the players themselves? It does seem odd but I wouldn't like to draw a conclusion without more info.Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
I made a point about training in my post but you've still reduced it all down to goals scored again. I'm not saying it's irrelevant but just that it's a smaller part of the overall picture than I used to think. If Ashford is struggling to impress against the senior players in training, or struggling to take ideas in, or struggling with strength and fitness etc then that has to be taken into account along with the fact that he ran 60 yards to score in an under-21 game.
Players like Velikonja, Healey and even Danny Johnson scored for fun at that level, it didn't mean the red carpet was laid out for them at first team level. Sawyers also scored for the u-21s recently, that didn't mean Bulut started him next game either. I'd love to see Ashford and Colwill get some game time but, with Bulut's contract up in a month or so, I can understand why the long term future isn't as much of a concern for him as it is for us.