SpartyBlue

Fair enough. Less a money issue than a Tarkowski issue. The spot we are in is a tough one though. To get someone proven in our league that we can afford that would come to us..who else is on that list?

I mean what is an experienced premier league CB worth in average? 80k? Mina is 120k. Keane is now on 70ish I think. Godfrey similar at 23. Even if you think he’s just average that extra 20k is easily offset and then some. The financial commitment of the club is what matters.

But for the club it’s just math isn’t it? He would be unquestionably a cheap signing given the free. Let’s say in 3/4 years he goes for next to nothing (5m). That’s a year of wages. So effectively the cost for the club is even less. We can argue whether he’s worth 100k a week or not but what does it matter if the effective net cost to the club is 40k a week (or less)

We pay others more and because he’s on a free his salary over the length of a 3/4 year contract would be effectively halved as far as a commitment from the club.

This is before Richarlison goes though, and likely a couple others. So it might just be a temporary thing.

That isn’t really true though. Digne in particular was excellent immediately. So much so that the transition form Baines to him was not a transition at all. I guess I could scroll through the pages here but my recollection is that Gomes was quite well thought of after his first season. We were forced to let Gerry return but there is no chance that would have happened if it was t in the contract. The point is that all our Barcelona “castoffs” have at least had moments for us and Mina, Gerry, Digne were all good signings on balance. It’s just odd to me you think the likes of some of those weren’t players with potential that improved us. Unrelated, I guess, but it’s very rosy thinking to believe Dom could play for Barcelona. One solid year for Everton where all of your goals come from inside the penalty spot doesn’t make you a world class striker, much as I like Dom.

Like Gerry, Digne and Mina? We’ve done well with Barcelona “outcasts”. Even Gomes was excellent for us his first year before the injury.

Probably it still would have been Seamus in there given our situation.

I think it’s easy to forget that 3 seasons ago he was our best young player and there was real concern he was going to follow Stones to greener pastures. Injuries set him back and he hasn’t been the same. These last few games were encouraging. There is a player in there, or was. For me, I see enough that I’m willing to give him one more go.

We don’t have to replace him as such. We have to make the squad better. Could the 50m+ we would get for him make us better in the aggregate? Maybe. For as much as we all love him he’s not been a prolific goal scorer. It took a very goood run down the stretch to get him to 10 after 7 last season (and a fair bit of those were penalties). His defensive work rate and tenacity is what we would miss most

I imagine Frank would want him to stick around as depth and for his mentorship/leadership. It would be more up to Seamus and whether he’d prefer to move to a side where he can play and extend his career or be something of a coach for us.

Depends if he thinks he can get more guaranteed elsewhere. I tend to doubt he could, given his injury history.

This is 100% down to his change in haircut. Adult haircut, more mature performances.

I would imagine Branthwaite would go on loan. Probably at least one will go but he’s behind Mina and Godfrey at a minimum and probably Keane and Holgate as well based on their end of season form.

I’m not sure why people think we are so slow. Richie, Gray, DCL, Gordon all pacy up top. Godfrey is maybe the fastest guy in the team. Holgate is fast. Myko and Patterson are plenty quick enough. I imagine people are referring to our midfield. Iwobi and Doucoure are bigger guys so they can seem plodding but I wouldn’t say either is slow. The only truly slow guys are Allan and Coleman now due to age and I’d expect them to feature less going forward. Our problem is more to do with quality than quickness. We waste a lot of good opportunities because we have basically 0 good finishers. Our best finisher among the starting 11 is Richie and he still makes the wrong decision quite a lot. Our issues are that finishing and defending set pieces terribly. We make even a small improvement in those areas and even this current team is comfortably mid table.

Agreed that he can be a useful squad player in some situations. Experienced enough to hell see out a game or occassionally produce some magic. Also might be quicker out there relatively speaking if he’s only playing 20 or 30 minutes at a time.

Frank has spoken about wanting that togetherness. More than tactics or coaching guys up I think that’s what he’s brought. You could see it in the celebration when players like Davies and Townsend are joining in and exuberant. As long as we have that spirit we should never be in a relegation battle. Down the stretch we didn’t always play great but we had that belief we lacked earlier in the year. In the Premier League we had never come back from 2 or more goals down at half to win a game. I think that says it all for the will this club showed the last couple months.

True but we changed formation as well which had a lot to do with it.

Agreed. He has the skills he just doesn’t always have the brain. Forces things or chooses the wrong option a lot. His best attribute is that workrste and what he contributes defensively. I do wonder how he’d look for a better side where he has more time and space and isn’t getting battered all game. He’s 10% away from being a 100m world class player but I just don’t know if he’s ever gonna find that. Gordon is younger of course but similar. He just lacks that finishing/decision making that would make him truly great.

It’s an odd one. A couple seasons ago he was fantastic and looked like he was destined for the very top. Then he got injured, had his confidence shaken and the mistakes started to come. He’s been good down the stretch here when it mattered most. I think that, and previous good play has shown us enough that he deserves the chance to keep it going.

I agree with most here that Seamus is past it as our starting RB. It needs to be Patterson next season with Seamus staying on as backup/a mentor. I started supporting the club 7 years ago and Seamus is my favorite player in that time by a wide margin. He is the heartbeat of the club. There are a lot of hard miles on those legs though and I think his efforts this season and his leadership are a great send off as our on the pitch captain.

I like Richie but I get those who don’t. He has been petulant and undisciplined at times and hurt us because of it. Taking the ball for a PK and refusing to give it up, reacting to opposing players baiting him, diving…a lot (though I think he’s a little smarter about it these days). It’s all passion and that’s why I think we let it go but that impulse problem does exist.

Obviously no intent but damn was this stupid. If this was at an away game I don’t think a suspension would even be questioned. His passion gets the best of him sometimes.

The issue, for me, is that the ref would have to question his own judgement to initiate a review. He would have to say “I’m not sure” or “I may have missed that.” How many people in general have that much humility, never mind a person paid for their judgement.

I also have a theory that Richarlison is less petulant the less extreme his haircut is.