Glenn Whelan - Released

[Brend'Watkins]

Bruce is going for the 'tried and trusted' player route rather than developing potential. Can't blame him really as his brief is to get us up and nothing else. We have enough in our own ranks of the latter catagory in any case. 

[Clark W Griswold]

Initially massively underwhelmed but I'm now warming a bit to this.  2 years is sensible and a bit of graft and nous in the middle of the middle of the park may be no bad thing.  Surely an upgrade on Gardner and we did struggle when Jedi was out.

I still wonder who's going to create goals though and we don't seem to have addressed this at all.

The middle of the middle, that's a pretty central role.

I agree that the final purchase should be a really good left winger who can create for the front 2. Someone who can take the ball forward quickly with purpose and actually beat a man.

Grealish?

Snigger. I said 'quickly with purpose'.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Surely this is the end for Gary Gardner? Like Whelan he's not got much pace and has a decent hit on him, unlike Whelan he's not proven at PL level. Sad given his early potential and local boy status.

You can probably add Jordan Lyden to the list too. I thought he could have shadowed Jedi and eventually made the position his own. That said, if the last two games are anything to go by Bruce sees him as more a box to box/attacking central midfielder. He's not. Maybe neither Jedi or Whelan have the legs to last a full season even if they alternate the defensive midfield role and Lyden can pick up a few minutes here and there across the season.

All that said, I'm assuming that Bruce has binned his idea of playing Jedi as a centre half?

[old man villa fan]

Stoke fans aren't suggesting he was past it as a PL player so as long as he has one more season at that level left in the tank he'll donfine for us.

FFP has clearly affected our transfers this summer along with players not being sold. So to bring in 4 for £2.5m is pretty good overall. What I'm most concerned about is what we've seen so far. We lack cohesiveness and creativity so hopefully that will come in time. We must get off to a fast start.

Problem is, how much are we paying in wages for those players.  We have to get a lot of players off the books cover their wages, let alone reduce the wage bill (which is our main issue with FFP).

[eamonn]

You're Lyden's biggest champion on here Mark, fair play I've not seen him play enough to express much of an opinion on him. Looks like he will struggle to get game-time this season too.

[Rudy65]

We had 51 points after the Blackburn game on 7th February.

We ended with 62 points on May 24th.

Even by our standards it was an extraordinary collapse in the last 3 months to even finish below Everton who were miles behind us at one point. Just the usual MON burning out the 12 regular players (Gabby had nothing left by March) and the unused squad players not being good enough.

I walked out of that Blackburn game convinced we could make a charge at the title, never mind the top four. We'd just delivered the kind of routine swatting of a pretty strong side that suggested we were serious players.

I should know better really, I was at White Hart Lane in 1990 as well.

Likewise or champs league at least

[AVH87]

Good signing IMO. Think his attitude means he's more of a 'young' 33 in football terms, and will be a good player at this level, a real asset.

People were more excited last year with signing the likes of Tshibola in this position, but that got us nowhere fast.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Welcome Glenn

That's the keeper, defence and defensive midfield sorted.

We also have two of the leagues top assist/creators in Adomah and Hourihane. Plus Lansbury and Grealish should also be in that bracket if playing at their best. Green is more than capable of creating as well. I'm told the Iceman also usually chips in with a few over the course of a season as well.

And we have three PROVEN championship goalscorers, regardless of what happened last season.

Now. We can either be all doom and gloom or take all that on board and just get behind them now as far as I can see

[old man villa fan]

Welcome Glenn

That's the keeper, defence and defensive midfield sorted.

We also have two of the leagues top assist/creators in Adomah and Hourihane. Plus Lansbury and Grealish should also be in that bracket if playing at their best. Green is more than capable of creating as well. I'm told the Iceman also usually chips in with a few over the course of a season as well.

And we have three PROVEN championship goalscorers, regardless of what happened last season.

Now. We can either be all doom and gloom or take all that on board and just get behind them now as far as I can see

Throw them all into a pot, quick stir with the magic spoon, promotion guaranteed, simple.  There is of course, one missing ingredient.

[Ger Regan]

A coherent plan on how to use them effectively?

[ASHTONVILLA]

Stoke fans aren't suggesting he was past it as a PL player so as long as he has one more season at that level left in the tank he'll donfine for us.

FFP has clearly affected our transfers this summer along with players not being sold. So to bring in 4 for £2.5m is pretty good overall. What I'm most concerned about is what we've seen so far. We lack cohesiveness and creativity so hopefully that will come in time. We must get off to a fast start.

Problem is, how much are we paying in wages for those players.  We have to get a lot of players off the books cover their wages, let alone reduce the wage bill (which is our main issue with FFP).

Cissokho, Sanchez, Veretout are all going hopefully with a transfer fee involved. Problem is that none of them help improve the wage bill over last season as they were all out on loan so were not on it last season.

Gil will stay off the wage bill, but no fee. Doesn't improve over last seasons finances at all, just stays the same and reduces as an asset as his transfer fee is amortised  another year.

We could do with shifting some players that can fetch a fee (Amavi, Elphick, Hutton, McCormack, Gardner) and that are useless and on big wages (Richards, Gabby). I think we will probably see a Elphick and Amavi move on, maybe Hutton but probably not the rest of them. We might be able to cash in on Grealish still (though I would rather we kept our own young talent).

I hope this does not mean that we have to let someone like Kodja go in January to avoid an FFP penalty at the end of the season.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

You're Lyden's biggest champion on here Mark, fair play I've not seen him play enough to express much of an opinion on him. Looks like he will struggle to get game-time this season too.

Ha! I think he's nails. Great attitude, can run all day, not scared to put a foot in, a real fighter that gives everything and can play a bit. Such a shame he suffered with injury just as he was breaking into the first team. Apparently he was "teacher's pet" with RDM thinking very highly of him but since returning from injury hasn't had a look in.

I can understand the logic of Bruce bringing in Whelan even if his legs are going. We were lost without Jedi last season, so it makes sense to have cover and competition. Just as long as he's not playing them together at the same time. It will be interesting to see how he manages it. With so many games maybe there is still space for Lyden coming off the bench.

[jwarry]

6 goals in nearly 10 years for Stoke, he'll fit in well

[Matt Collins]

Comparison to last season:

Gollini             Johnstone
Elphick            Terry
Richards          Samba
Amavi              Taylor
Tshibola           Whelan

This is a definite improvement in our solidity, surely?

On the flip side. This  time last year we had ayew and now it's hogan; and we were excited about McCormack and gestede in this division

One quality attacking player please. Even a loanee

[Tom_Mc9?]

6 goals in nearly 10 years for Stoke, he'll fit in well

His goal against us had more significance for us than any of his goals for them did for them. Appalling syntax there, but I'm sure you get my point.