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This is the START

Bullet said:
I was watching a League One highlights show a few days ago... one of the teams played a nice one-touch passing move, they sliced through the opposition at ease.

The chap took a couple of touches and rifled it into the corner and I thought, nice, why can't Spurs do that?

And the commentator said "A great goal from the Aussie legend, Massimo Luongo...."

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Luongo is an interesting one. Was reported (by him?) that we do have a buyback clause, and speculation at the time he left was that it was a permanent deal because of the limit on the number of loan players Swindon could have or something like that. I have no idea if he's good enough to do what Mason did, step up from League One to our first team. And of course there's potentially other players that could do that instead.

But we do have Pritchard, Yedlin, Carroll and possibly Veljkovic along with younger players like Onomah and Winks that might be in consideration for a place in our first team squad next year. Add Luongo to that and it's a pretty solid list where expecting one or two to be given the chance doesn't look unreasonable.
 
braineclipse said:
Luongo is an interesting one. Was reported (by him?) that we do have a buyback clause, and speculation at the time he left was that it was a permanent deal because of the limit on the number of loan players Swindon could have or something like that. I have no idea if he's good enough to do what Mason did, step up from League One to our first team. And of course there's potentially other players that could do that instead.

But we do have Pritchard, Yedlin, Carroll and possibly Veljkovic along with younger players like Onomah and Winks that might be in consideration for a place in our first team squad next year. Add Luongo to that and it's a pretty solid list where expecting one or two to be given the chance doesn't look unreasonable.
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Some of the journalists at the Asia Cup reckoned we have a 50% sell-on, rather than a buy-back.

I kind of trust McDermott and co on their judgement about keeping or releasing players. No one has come back to bite us for quite a while (Des Walker and Souness being the only two real big mistakes).

I think having Winks and Delli Ali (both seemingly rated higher) in the same position, as well as all of Bentaleb, Mason and Stambouli under 25, means there is (and was) just no room for him
 
Gutter Boy said:
Some of the journalists at the Asia Cup reckoned we have a 50% sell-on, rather than a buy-back.

I kind of trust McDermott and co on their judgement about keeping or releasing players. No one has come back to bite us for quite a while (Des Walker and Souness being the only two real big mistakes).

I think having Winks and Delli Ali (both seemingly rated higher) in the same position, as well as all of Bentaleb, Mason and Stambouli under 25, means there is (and was) just no room for him
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Part of having a very good academy (and we at least hope to have one) is that some players will be released that later turn out to be "mistakes". I add quotation marks as there's no way of knowing how they would have developed if they had stayed with the original club, they should have course have stagnated due to a lack of first team opportunities or failed loans for example. I think this is just a feature resulting from the amount of players coming through a very good academy and the difficulties involved in evaluating how players will develop in the future.

Agree that we have a lot of competition. Just saying that he adds another option to the equation and that we have a significant amount of players that may be considered next season.
 
braineclipse said:
Part of having a very good academy (and we at least hope to have one) is that some players will be released that later turn out to be "mistakes". I add quotation marks as there's no way of knowing how they would have developed if they had stayed with the original club, they should have course have stagnated due to a lack of first team opportunities or failed loans for example. I think this is just a feature resulting from the amount of players coming through a very good academy and the difficulties involved in evaluating how players will develop in the future.

Agree that we have a lot of competition. Just saying that he adds another option to the equation and that we have a significant amount of players that may be considered next season.
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Out of interest, did United also let a few "mistakes" slip through the net back in the early 90s when Giggs, Beckham, Scholes and the Neville brothers were breaking through?
 
Pogba was the big one. Rossi has major fitness issues, Pique was sent back to Spain due to home sickness I believr? Pogba though is an absolute beast and just what that United midfield are missing.
 
Ah ok. Was that because they didn't offer him what he wanted or because he felt he was too big for them?
 
Cochise said:
Ah ok. Was that because they didn't offer him what he wanted or because he felt he was too big for them?
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It was a little bit of both really.... His agent was asking Man Utd for a huge amount of money. If I recall correctly Ferguson didn't think it was right to pay a player stepping up from the academy that much for their first proper contract.
 
I think the big things for us in the summer are clearing out 9-10 players, mostly players with no future but players like Lennon and Townsend that we might be able use as leverage in deals with certain clubs in exchange for a reduced fee on players that interest us. Lots of wages off the books and some valuable income. Bring in 5-6 players using p/ex on a couple of deals and some frees, players like Ayew, Milner and Vlaar would be perfect. Making sure most of the incoming are players with premier league experience is important as well whilst pushing 3-4 younger players into the first team squad.
 
Mr_B said:
some START then
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Given the players at his disposal Poch has done very well. Yes, there have been horror shows a la Stoke and Manure, but we beat the Goons AND Cheat$ki and got to a Wembley cup final and several young players have gained valuable playing time. This thread still applies!
 
90291Spur said:
Given the players at his disposal Poch has done very well. Yes, there have been horror shows a la Stoke and Manure, but we beat the Goons AND Cheat$ki and got to a Wembley cup final and several young players have gained valuable playing time. This thread still applies!
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Careful, you might bring some sensibility to this board ..

Likelihood is we will finish the season somewhat like this

- Cheat$ki and Scum beaten by taking the game to them (outplayed)
- An academy striker with a 30 goal season in his first season starting)
- Two midfielders with double figure outputs
- Multiple youth/academy/english players a part of full squad with pipeline to more (Ali/Pritchard/etc.)
- World class keeper
- Wembley cup final
- 6th place in PL (7th in worst case)

First 11 identified with weakness clearly known (ability to target upgrades)

Manager proven to handle himself well, and with full season and preseason to start next.

My question is, based on last 2-3 years, if offered the above at start of season, which of you wouldn't have taken it?
 
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