Summer transfer, gossip, speculation and the usual butter ollocks thread

[brontebilly]

We absolutely must acquire a proven top goalscorer - neither Wes or Davis can claim to be that and, we must not go into a new season so limited up front.

I think we need stronger options at LB and RB - Freddie and Targett both showed glimpses but also showed inconsistency and Taylor/Elmo aren't up to Premiership quality.

I think we are ok at CH - as others have said, we started to look more stable there.

Midfield is where I think we need one or two really creative players - if Grealish goes, then 2 is an absolute must because our midfield lacks creativity in the final third. I think McGinn and Luiz are very talented and will kick on next year but, stronger defensively than creatively. Our other midfield players are squad / bench impact players - Nakamba, Hourihane, etc.

So 4 or 5 for me - with that, plus a stable spine of Heaton, Mings, Konsa, Luiz, McGinn, and Grealish, I think we'll improve by at least 12-18 points and mid table comfort.   

Im not sure about how stable that spine is. Heaton is 34 and coming back from a serious injury as is his backup. Just hope it's not another Shay Given type scenario with Heaton.

Mings, Konsa and McGinn have a lot to prove at this level still. Konsa has a horrible ball watching habit that could have cost us big time against West Ham as it did regularly during the season. He definitely needs competition for his spot. Mings had a poor season really and McGinn's conditioning needs a lot of improvement. If fit McGinn is more than capable so let's see if he sheds the timber before the start of the new season.

LB, LCM, CF, RW are all must have signings to go straight into the first team. And we need cover/competition at RCB, RB and possibly GK.

[john e]

Nah. Defence is sorted. Go get some attackers. They'll all look a lot better if oppositions are scared to go all out attack because they know we offer a threat going forwards.

defence did improve - thankfully....

Yeah when he started playing Guilbert and Target instead of Hause and Taylor

if you play your best players you will get better results

[john e]

Think we needed an experienced head alongside Mings (who let’s not forget hasn’t had much top flight experience himself) and still believe that.

Konsa has the raw ingredients, but raw is the key word there. Happy to see how he comes on over the next few years. Hause seems a solid option as centre half and left back cover.

Hause is anything but solid

One of the worst players we have in the squad

[cdbearsfan]

Hause is a reasonable squad filler who can play two positions.

[cdbearsfan]

Nah. Defence is sorted. Go get some attackers. They'll all look a lot better if oppositions are scared to go all out attack because they know we offer a threat going forwards.

defence did improve - thankfully....

Yeah when he started playing Guilbert and Target instead of Hause and Taylor

if you play your best players you will get better results

We also played Konsa instead of Engels...

[john e]

Nah. Defence is sorted. Go get some attackers. They'll all look a lot better if oppositions are scared to go all out attack because they know we offer a threat going forwards.

defence did improve - thankfully....

Yeah when he started playing Guilbert and Target instead of Hause and Taylor

if you play your best players you will get better results

We also played Konsa instead of Engels...

I know I’ve already said we would have been clear if we could have played GEMT for most of the season

[cdbearsfan]

Nah.

[SaddVillan]

Spoofed?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollie_Watkins

[SamTheMouse]

Konsa is still a youngster really, and I've been impressed with him.

He's going to be great for us.

[cdbearsfan]

Spoofed?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollie_Watkins

Looks legit to me. Wikipedia have agreed that only authorised ITK influencers will be allowed to edit it during the transfer window.

[pauliewalnuts]

Hause is a reasonable squad filler who can play two positions.

Badly.

[Risso]

Engels is a better footballer imo
Konsa did improve but he won’t be able to make up for his limited ball playing abilities
I would rather we go with someone more comfortable on the ball which is not Konsa

if we could have played the back 4 of Guilbert-Engels-Mings-Target for most of the season we would not have been scrambling around at the end in my view

The Man City (home) game was one of the worst displays I’ve seen in a long time an utter disgrace

I’d have it the other way around in terms of Konsa and Engels myself pal.

Yes, same here.  Bizarre how people see things differently.  Konsa looks very calm and composed on the ball, whears Engels looked decent to me when all he had to do was head the ball away constantly when we were under the cosh, but didn't seem to have much more to his game.

[PeterWithesShin]

People that 'humorously' edit Wiki pages are generally twats.

[cdbearsfan]

I, genuinely, don't see the point. Do they imagine that the player is undecided and thinks "well, I wasn't sure about turning down £300,000 a week from Real Madrid to move to South Yorkshire, but now someone's gone to the trouble of editing Wikipedia so it looks like I've signed for Barnsley, it would be rude to let them down"?

[Richard E]

It’s how Dugarry ended up at Small Heath, apparently.