Summer transfer rumours, speculation and out-and-out b*ll*cks.

[Dave]

Luke Young was injured and unavailable for tomorrow. Lichaj or Beye will play right back until Cuellar's fit I presume.

that just sums it up for me. a kid or a duffer to play there until a centre-half gets fit .....

Although that's obviously JJ's opinion and not the offical line from the club, but don't let that get in the way of good whinge.

well to be fair to JJ, who else is there?

Not knocking JJ, it's a possible scenario, but maybe Young is being moved out to make way for a younger better RB to be bought in. Or maybe McLeish thinks Lichaj is ready to cement the place for himself. Let's me fair he's shown glimpses of being a good player and at 22 is hardly a 'kid' anymore.
I think getting a fee for a 32 year old and shifting a rather hefty weekly salary allowing development of the team is a smart move by AMc.

He's still our best fullback currently and you can't have ALL kids. It's all very well selling him if we can get as good in, but lets face it we'll be paying less wages for them so who is there? Someone like Hutton who's failed at Spurs is hardly inspiring. Personally i get the feeling the only reason they've accepted a bid for Young is because its the only offer they've had, and they are still desperate to reduce the wage bill, not because AM wants to sell him.

Although the very thought of it makes me wince, I agree with Greg.

There's no point in this at all.

[TheSandman]

I don't believe that Hutton will be on much less than Luke Young and whilst he's younger and better going forward he's also more injury prone and less dependable than Young. So basically we will be paying a few million pounds to sign a player who is just as average as the one we are selling.

In all honesty I think Lichaj and Beye are good enough to get by on and am hoping we are interested in a defensive midfield player. Even then I've been surprised about how well our midfield have performed so far this season.

[JJ-AV]

Another pointer towards it being a midfielder is the African nations in January will see Makoun off for a month or so, I guess?

Presuming Cameroon have qualified, that is.

[tarzansbrother]

I don't believe that Hutton will be on much less than Luke Young and whilst he's younger and better going forward he's also more injury prone and less dependable than Young. So basically we will be paying a few million pounds to sign a player who is just as average as the one we are selling.

In all honesty I think Lichaj and Beye are good enough to get by on and am hoping we are interested in a defensive midfield player. Even then I've been surprised about how well our midfield have performed so far this season.

Disagree. Younger, has something to prove, strong and can tackle well and also will also wa t to perform for our current manager. Young while consistent has just been collecting his wage foe a while now.

[hawkeye]

Luke Young was injured and unavailable for tomorrow. Lichaj or Beye will play right back until Cuellar's fit I presume.

that just sums it up for me. a kid or a duffer to play there until a centre-half gets fit .....

Although that's obviously JJ's opinion and not the offical line from the club, but don't let that get in the way of good whinge.

well to be fair to JJ, who else is there?

Not knocking JJ, it's a possible scenario, but maybe Young is being moved out to make way for a younger better RB to be bought in. Or maybe McLeish thinks Lichaj is ready to cement the place for himself. Let's me fair he's shown glimpses of being a good player and at 22 is hardly a 'kid' anymore.
I think getting a fee for a 32 year old and shifting a rather hefty weekly salary allowing development of the team is a smart move by AMc.

He's still our best fullback currently and you can't have ALL kids. It's all very well selling him if we can get as good in, but lets face it we'll be paying less wages for them so who is there? Someone like Hutton who's failed at Spurs is hardly inspiring. Personally i get the feeling the only reason they've accepted a bid for Young is because its the only offer they've had, and they are still desperate to reduce the wage bill, not because AM wants to sell him.

Although the very thought of it makes me wince, I agree with Greg.

There's no point in this at all.

Agreed it just looks like penny pinching, Young is a very decent right back  as you say no point

[Clark W Griswold]

Ah well. Down to zero decent fullbacks at the club to go with zero decent defensive midfielders. Why not go the whole hog and sell Cuellar as well. We'll be down to one promising defender and a pile of shit as the 'defensive team'. I'm starting to despair with the direction the club is going.

[KevinGage]

As an individual deal, I'm not crazy about seeing Luke leave.  A good player who played with a bit of tenacity and rarely -if ever- let us down.

But in the wider context -not just reducing the wage bill, but getting the average age of the squad down, it makes sense.

We were always going to face this day with some of our more popular players -MON signing them as late as he did into their careers made that inevitable.  Maybe losing Friedel and Luke Young all in one summer (following the likes of other, younger players like Ash, Downing and NRC) is too much too soon. But it clears the decks and gives us more room for manoeuvre bringing in the next  raft of potential crowd favourites.

Big Eck has done well to already bring in players of the calibre of Given and N'Zogbia (particularly considering the interest in the latter).  Lets see what we have by Sept 1st.  If by that date, he's brought in 3 (hopefully 4) guaranteed first team players (including those already signed) then it won't have been that bad a summer.

[David_Nab]

If he goes, then best of luck to you Luke except for when you play the mighty Villa, he has been a good player for us and we should have signed him earlier in his career.

I agree ..like a season earlier when he was £2.5 mil not £6mil

He was going to go on a free at the end of the season so getting soem money now and his wages off the wage bill is smart thinking.He was very good in defence but attacking wise he was limited in the modern game.

[ozzjim]

Wonder if Hogg going means another midfielder is coming in too. I reckon we might get 2 in by Wednesday now. Midfielder and a full back. Still reckon Cuellar may end up back in Spain too.

[Dave]

Wonder if Hogg going means another midfielder is coming in too.

Hogg is probably what, sixth choice central midfielder?

So I'd be surprised. Probably just another £5k a month off the wage bill.

[ozzjim]

In the current formation though, Delph, Petrov and Makoun are the only ones you could say can play the deep lying role. Any sort of injury worries like last season and Hogg would look useful. Think a DM player will be signed.

[Dave]

In the current formation though, Delph, Petrov and Makoun are the only ones you could say can play the deep lying role. Any sort of injury worries like last season and Hogg would look useful. Think a DM player will be signed.

So he's fifth choice in a specialist role (as Clarke would also play there before Hogg did). I don't think we'd be signing someone in case four people were all injured in the same position at the same time.

[KevinGage]

Players that might realistically be available:

-Huddlestone
-Palacios
-Diame
-Etuhu


Capoue at Toulouse -if we think Big Eck might go crazy and go for a player with no previous Prem experience...

[garyshawsknee]

Youngs always been a steady Eddie,i can't believe that selling him now will save a lot of money or be able for us to bring in someone who will dramatically strengthen the team. It now leaves us with a promising but inexperienced player,a ring rusty parasite and a player we wanted to sell a month ago.

Unless he really wants to leave I can't see the point.

[KRS]

Are than any decent fullbacks available if Luke leaves? I dont consider Hutton to be decent so any other options out there? Would Ferreira from Chelsea be worth a punt as he seems surplus to requirements or too old at the age of 32?