Assuming this is true which is a big assumption. We would surely be thinking he is competition for the wide role or we are letting Obafemi leave or go on loan.
We should take risks where the upside is more than a functional squad player, though. We don't need more backup-quality players. We have so many that we could field a squad of backup-quality players.
You want a guaranteed first-team player for £5 million? Yikes. Welbeck could become a first-teamer without a doubt. We have loads of examples of players who have arrived at the club, unfashionable and unfancied, and totally surprised us all. Armstrong, Walker-Peters to name just a couple of the more recent ones.
No, I don't want to split backup minutes between an ever-increasing number of well-paid mediocrities just because their transfer fees were low. That's the Sunderland model. It didn't work well. How many of those were a few months shy of their 30th birthday?
I've posted two or three times now, given the choice, I don't want us to go for Welbeck either. Just saying he isn't as bad as some are making out. Be honest, you more than 'quite like' Spears.
We've needed cover for Redmond for a few seasons. Is Djenepo up to it? Hopefully. Would be nice to have another winger though. We're hardly spoilt for choice in that area. PS: 29 isn't old. He could have 4/5 more seasons in him. And it's perfectly okay to sign senior players sometimes.
I can't comment with authority as I've not seen Stoke games but the general feeling seems to be that he's gone downhill both in terms of his confidence and his performance, but when he has been on form, he's one of the very best at that level. Maybe he needs a change of scenery and some fresh impetus. Stoke as a club on the whole has been pretty lacklustre and backsliding for a while now.
I don't disagree about his underlying qualities, but that sounds like a keeper that needs to get his mojo back at a Championship club with something of a competent defense, not a PL side that has (at least on paper) an incumbent.
Bottom line for me, is if Ralph wants someone I’d back him to get them doing what he wants above most.
It is strange that would be interested in Butland, Unless we plan on actually selling Forster. When Butland was in the premier league he was a fantastic GK. And we do have a a great GK coach in Sparks too.
Why stick to three English goalkeepers, when we could have four? (Aside from speculation of us wanting him presumably being utter rubbish - even more rubbish that Butland himself was last season - I believe that he is entering the last year of his contract. Why would Stoke loan him for his final year? Nothing about that story makes any sense at all. Even manages to trump the Welbeck story.)
maybe to save on Butlands wages for the final year? But even if we loan Gunn the other way, that would still leave us with FF, McCarthy and then Butland, and if Butland does well do you then sign? But then what about Gunn and the other 1/5th of a million pound a week your spending on back up keepers? I think we need to cut down on keepers before bringing more in. oh and I actually rate Butland, in the premier league with confidence high he was a great keeper, a place where he suffered relegation, possibly crowd on his back, expectation of a former international keeper being in the championship, isn’t easy for a keeper, remembering for long periods of a game you are just standing there listening to the crowd, thinking about not letting your team down, it is mentally draining and a hard position to play and the worst position when your offf your game, but it is the best when your on your game!
Yep, every mistake magnified, you can be a villain or hero. There are some decent keepers in the pl. Welcome to the forum.
Alex is no.1 , Butland as a back up GK would be fair tbh. But dosent really make sense to me, Gunn is fine , take away the 9-0 , hes done okay.