Sven Botman

[Holden McGroin 7546]

It sounds like he was given bad advice around his first knee issue.  Now it looks like it has happened again with his other knee. 
 

 

[Alex 36677]

5 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

 

That's certainly one desperate take you'd go with if you were desperate to try and win an already lost argument.

 

We need to spend huge amounts in the summer, hang onto all the dead wood indefinitely and still avoid the Anderson / Minteh situation again. Or something 

[Holden McGroin 7546]

1 minute ago, Alex said:

Not really. You reckon Kelly’s was a deal worth turning down or he’d have likely made much difference? We’re hamstrung by PSR which had greatly restricted our ability to build a resilient squad quickly. That’s all. The money is absolute nothing to our owners.

I’m playing devils advocate a bit. Do I think Kelly would have helped us beat Liverpool? No. But he may have helped us for the rest of the season.

If we are working on pure hindsight then I would brought someone capable of covering on loan (Eg Someone like Disasi).

[Alex 36677]

1 minute ago, Holden McGroin said:

I’m playing devils advocate a bit. Do I think Kelly would have helped us beat Liverpool? No. But he may have helped us for the rest of the season.

If we are working on pure hindsight then I would brought someone capable of covering on loan (Eg Someone like Disasi).

I think we’re playing the long game for the long term benefits staying within the regulations. Or that is the plan. It’s obviously not straightforward given every other club acts in its own interests. We’re frustrated as fans because we’re still of the mindset we reach cup finals once in a generation. FWIW I was as gutted about the Brighton result as any recent result I can think of. But it’s the job of the people running the club to see the bigger picture in terms of the short, medium and long term. Whether they’re actually doing a good job remains to be seen of course. 

[Holden McGroin 7546]

Yeah, at the end of the day it’s all the fault of PSR. Whether we make the right choices or not under these circumstances is another matter. 

[Ayatollah Hermione 14653]

No matter the here and now, Phil Mitchell has a fucking job on in the summer. His reputation for unearthing gems is going to be tested to the limit considering there’s about 8 teams all shopping in the same market these days. And we need about 8 players 

[Kid Dynamite 7613]

53 minutes ago, Holden McGroin said:

Yeah. That really exposes the risk of the Kelly transfer. Botman hasn’t been fully fit for ~2 years now and we’ve bought and sold his backup (and Halls). I guess money is more important than silverware.

There wasn't a single fan demanding we turn down £20m for our 4th choice CB  

 

Although I'm pretty sure Howe wanted to hang onto him to prevent the very predicament we are in now. 

[Holden McGroin 7546]

8 minutes ago, Kid Dynamite said:

There wasn't a single fan demanding we turn down £20m for our 4th choice CB  

 

Although I'm pretty sure Howe wanted to hang onto him to prevent the very predicament we are in now. 

I don’t think anyone would (in a PSR world) but I’m sure Eddie would have liked to keep him or at least have some other experienced backup to play in the case of this very situation. 

Edited 14 hours ago by Holden McGroin

[Dr Gloom 23576]

8 hours ago, toonotl said:

 

It's not a bad shout. I don't know if Howe will go for it though.

 

I definitely agree he'll play three at the back for the final. It worked well against Arsenal (even though it was markedly different circumstances). Keeping it tight, praying for some luck, and hoping to hit them on the break is our only chance. But, knowing us, we'll play well and everything will go to plan, only to be brought low by even more bad luck.

 

Liverpool are so good though that even hoping to be beaten by a bit of bad luck is wishful thinking.  

 

they were shit last night, but that might be partially because psg were so good. on that evidence psg would storm the "great league in the world™"

[Dr Gloom 23576]

1 hour ago, Holden McGroin said:

I don’t think anyone would (in a PSR world) but I’m sure Eddie would have liked to keep him or at least have some other experienced backup to play in the case of this very situation. 

 

i have no issue with them selling kelly and miggy to comply with psr - we got good fees for two squad players. but why not bring in a couple of loans to plug the gaps? villa did it and are reaping the rewards. 

[wykikitoon 22744]

Just now, Dr Gloom said:

 

i have no issue with them selling kelly and miggy to comply with psr - we got good fees for two squad players. but why not bring in a couple of loans to plug the gaps? villa did it and are reaping the rewards. 

 

The right players for us weren't available?

[Dr Gloom 23576]

1 hour ago, Holden McGroin said:

I’m playing devils advocate a bit. Do I think Kelly would have helped us beat Liverpool? No. But he may have helped us for the rest of the season.

If we are working on pure hindsight then I would brought someone capable of covering on loan (Eg Someone like Disasi).

 

aye, exactly. 

 

cue gemill wading in to tell us off for questioning the decisions made by the club's directors.

[Dr Gloom 23576]

Just now, wykikitoon said:

 

The right players for us weren't available?

 

yeah. perhaps not. or they have rolled the dice on a smaller squad getting through until the end of the season. with this being newcastle, this sort of injury/suspension crisis at a crucial moment in the season should have always been priced in. good things don't happen to us 

[toonotl 3414]

33 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

 

they were shit last night, but that might be partially because psg were so good. on that evidence psg would storm the "great league in the world™"

 

Yeah. I watched a bit of it earlier. PSG did look streets ahead. It was pretty nuts to see the PL's best looking really second rate against them. I refuse to get my hopes up for the LC final though.  

[OTF 8396]

3 hours ago, wykikitoon said:

We've signed a defending version of Wilson haven't we? 

 

Forgetting this guy Wykiki?

[Dr Gloom 23576]

43 minutes ago, toonotl said:

 

Yeah. I watched a bit of it earlier. PSG did look streets ahead. It was pretty nuts to see the PL's best looking really second rate against them. I refuse to get my hopes up for the LC final though.  

 

aye, increasingly looking like a free hit as someone else said. the unusually long gap between the semi and the final has fucked us. if it had been a couple of weeks later before our form nosedived and all the injuries and suspensions kicked in i would have been more optimistic. 

 

mind, as long as isak is fit we have a chance. he loves scoring agains them. and surely the players have to get up for this game. 

[RobinRobin 12444]

2 hours ago, Dr Gloom said:

 

i have no issue with them selling kelly and miggy to comply with psr - we got good fees for two squad players. but why not bring in a couple of loans to plug the gaps? villa did it and are reaping the rewards. 

The wages for those two would be astronomic and given the way other clubs have treated us, it's unlikely we could get someone who would make a difference. Especially as they would've hopefully just been bench warmers. 

[Dr Gloom 23576]

2 minutes ago, RobinRobin said:

The wages for those two would be astronomic and given the way other clubs have treated us, it's unlikely we could get someone who would make a difference. Especially as they would've hopefully just been bench warmers. 

 

Miggy and Kelly were both on decent wages. I find it hard to believe we didn't have the PSR headroom to bring in a couple of loans for half a season on similar or slightly higher wages - if that is the case the system is even more fucked than i thought. 

 

Whether there were any players available of sufficient quality that might have helped plugged the gaps is another matter, but it's hard to think there was no one of a similar level. We're talking about squad players to help in the event of the sort of injury/suspension crisis we're currently navigating. It is a numbers game. Now we're dipping into the rotation options to start games, we no longer have many sub/rotation options. 

[ewerk 33122]

8 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

but it's hard to think there was no one of a similar level. We're talking about squad players to help in the event of the sort of injury/suspension crisis we're currently navigating. It is a numbers game. Now we're dipping into the rotation options to start games, we no longer have many sub/rotation options. 

 

For where we're at you're looking at cast offs from the best sides in that situation. No one is going to send us any promising youngsters knowing that they're not going to get regular time so you're looking at a situation like Villa where they're loaning established players no longer wanted by their sides and those players are few and far between.

[Dr Gloom 23576]

1 minute ago, ewerk said:

 

For where we're at you're looking at cast offs from the best sides in that situation. No one is going to send us any promising youngsters knowing that they're not going to get regular time so you're looking at a situation like Villa where they're loaning established players no longer wanted by their sides and those players are few and far between.

 

i'm sure there were conversations going on and approaches made, maybe they tried. i dunno. but the messaging throughout the window from the club was they weren't looking to bring anyone in, which was always a gamble after getting rid of two players. i think they rolled the dice on the squad making it through till the end of the season. 

[Kitman 2322]

Overplaying Botman when he'd just returned from long term injury feels more like asking for trouble than rolling the dice

[wykikitoon 22744]

1 hour ago, Kitman said:

Overplaying Botman when he'd just returned from long term injury feels more like asking for trouble than rolling the dice

3 90 minute games within 6 days two of which were intense games v Spurs and arsenal is to be honest irresponsible from the whole coaching staff. It highlights what great endurance and athletic capacity Botman has to come back and play 2 90min games in 3 days but fuck me that's just reckless by the club IMO.