De_La_Vega

Chris Moore went down for fraud did he? I didn't know that one... Glad to see somebody sticking up for CM a bit, because despite him leaving the club in the :censored: I always felt that we rather glossed over the fact that he lost a lot of money with it, in order that we could call him names. Interesting stuff.

We already have Smalley, Taylor & Purdie who are out and out wingers, with O'Grady and Lee who can step in there and do a job. After that we have Black and Eardley who could play there if we were desperate...

I don't see why we are looking for more midfielders - surely it is defence and attack that are the issues now? We have already got a pretty congested middle of the park so are we looking to move players out?

Eyres and the mighty leader that was Paul Murray (hallowed be his name) are surely both legends due to providing consistent quality over a number of years, providing memorable moments and giving everything to win over the fans. Both seemed to love it at Latics, which goes a long way too. I'm not too daft - Tony Carss came in at the same time as the silver fox, but he'll never be a legend despite giving excellent service and a sensational goal against (I think) Bristol City. Eyres had a quality and excitement factor about his play which set him apart - maybe it is just because he's a winger? Who knows? All I know is that in my eyes the salt & pepper wing commander is a legend!

Controversial new equation; Eyres + ball at feet tricky wing wizard scores goals played like he meant it + loves it = Legend. Incontrevertable proof that David Eyres' talents have made him a legend.

Sinclair's + masters football x all-day session = top banter. A potent equation.

I did say I was being pessimistic; I look at us as a selling club (as most are at this level) if the price is right. When you have a small fan base and are trying to rebuild a whole team then you are in a weak position - hopefully balanced out by the owners' continuing commitment and the length of Taylor's contract. Looking at Taylor without rose-tinted spectacles I'd say he still needs a lot of work. He needs to bring more subtlety into his play, learn that winging isn't all about dashing forward, and he needs to work on his crossing which is too often below what a star player should be producing. Balance that against the fact that he's tremendously talented at running with the ball, and clearly wants to do well and should hopefully have the desire to rectify the faults in his game. He isn't the finished article, and he is not going to attract multi-million fees. Beckford has 2 or 3 seasons of goal-scoring, Delph is massively highly rated and Maynard looked quality whenever I saw him - Taylor had a poor second half of the season. All these things have to be considered when you think about what fee you'd expect. I'd love to see a big £1m price-tag slapped down, but I still think if somebody put over half a million in front of the owners they'd be extremely interested. I'd bracket him exactly as I would Eardley.

Well this is fun! Many good and worthy posts covering what should happen, but I have a terrible suspicion that if we get an offer of £500k plus some achievable add-ons then we'd allow them to talk to the player. I'm never confident in our ability to get the best value for our players (hopefully just paranoid). As for Taylor, I think he'd be in a similar situation to Kilkenny - he enjoys it here but Leeds have more money, more fans and a better prospect for going up. I wouldn't bet on blind loyalty holding him here if the clubs do agree a fee. As for what I'd accept - £1m would be nice but I think £600k is more realistic. I'd try not to sell to Leeds though because they are dirty, rotten bastards and in our division.

Like I say, I might have been putting 2 + 2 and getting 4. It just seems that if he's had a conversation with Hardy after the Plymouth offer, where they've discussed the club not selling him as long as he promises not to go to Scotland, then his head may not be entirely on the task in hand. When he played after that towards the end of the season he still looked good, but the team spirit and confidence went. It just seems too convenient for there to be no correlation, but then stranger things have happened and I might be wrong - if you know better then I bow to your superior knowledge!

Maybe so, but I was really referring to the loss of form and team cohesion in the new year. Something went wrong because we went from a team that was spanking everyone, playing terrific football and celebrating together, to a side that began to slide and that just looked less sure of itself - given the rumours that have abounded since I can't see that his obvious desire to leave had nothing to do with it. I might be wrong, but from the outside looking in that is what it looks like.

Oh, and I don't think we've ever properly replaced hard-working, "good honest professionals" like G-Mac and Paul Warne. Guys like that are the platform that quality players operate on.

To be fair to Latics we have had some bad luck - the season with Dowie that culminated in the play-offs we were horrendously hard done to with injuries. Then Shez's first season seemed to come unstuck with Porter deciding that he wanted to leave in January... The issue is that we had the Dowie season then went bust, then Portergate ripped up the team that got to the play-offs. Last season was a disaster when the league was there for the taking, and the off pitch issues that arose were unacceptable. Somewhere along the line we seem to have lost sight of the fact that the keys our successful seasons have been built on are; excellent fitness levels, team-spirit and trying to keep the ball. Last season we looked only fit enough to play in bursts, the team was divided and we went long and gave the ball away far too often. The way I see it if we can get the players properly fit and motivated then we have some aces in this squad. I'd like to see Lee trying to take the playmaker role alongside Worthington who should bring a bit of beast into the midfield, and then look to hit our best players who play down the flanks. We do that and get a target man in then I think we have enough of the ingredients that have given other teams success at this level. All big if's and but's though...

It is a strange one, but what I mean is that there are few teams that are outstanding but some that are very poor. Look at Scunny and MK Dons for instance - both did well last year and yet I thought both of them were awful at centre-half, really poor. Not many teams are great 1 to 11, but that said there are a couple who seem to be getting their houses in order (i.e. Huddersfield). Organisation and fitness can get you a long way in this league from what I've seen, and I think if we can sharpen up those areas we'll be okay.

Hughes was a mercenary in the same vein as Wellens, and I'm not too sorry to see the back of him. That isn't meant as an insult - they both came in and played hard, did their best and showed their quality but their loyalty is to themselves. With Wellens that showed itself by choosing the money at Donny, for Hughes it meant that he played to score and build his value up. I can't see that it is a coincidence that nobody scored up front alongside Lee Hughes. About 6 strikers tried and failed because (in part) he looked to be a difficult guy to play with; he never passed in the box and the lines he ran were all about scoring himself. Again, that isn't entirely a bad thing because he backed it up with goals - but I do think that having seen it for a season we did the right thing. When a guy like that starts to bring baggage and a poor attitude to the club then you have to be realistic and cut your losses. We should be looking to replace Hughes with someone younger - and if Alessandra is going to play at all then they have to have pace too because he is the slowest player since Starbuck.

He is, he's just played at right-back all his life to add a new string to his bow.

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I see quality in this squad that would suggest to me that we're stronger than when Ritchie was in charge. Fleming, Eardley and Taylor are three players who I think any team at this level would consider well worth a place... From what little I know of Purdie he sounds like a good signing, and I'm hoping for a good season from Lee this year because I am confident that we have a good player there. As has been said it is idle speculation until we know what players are still to come in, but the couple that we have signed fit what I see as being the model we're looking for - young but experienced, athletic and with a bit of steel to add to a soft midfield. If, and it is a big if I grant you, we sign well up front and at centre-half then we'll have the basis of a decent first XI which could do well if they can knit. There are some pretty average teams at this level and in light of the above I'm reasonably hopeful of seeing us do well next year. Whether that means bothering the play-offs or the top half will depend on the quality of our reinforcements, how well the relegated teams do and how good the promoted teams turn out to be.

Supposebly.

I'm guessing that amidst all this opinion, honest or otherwise, the only fact is that none of us really know what the owners' budget is... Personally I'll be surprised if it is anything like last year, which is why I think we need to look to cultivate a smaller squad this season with versatile players throughout the squad - for this reason alone I'd say that Purdie looks like a good signing. Eardley fits that mould too, as he can play full-back, CM and probably even RM at a push - the guy is just a good footballer and we need to do everything we can to keep players of his caliber. To me he is a full-back, and I think if we can get a steady right wing partnership going next season between him and A.N. Other such as he had with Liddell then we should see a real talent. Despite his nomination for team of the year I actually thought he was poor last year for long stretches, probably caused by apathy born out of being in and out of the team, abuse from the fans, bad club atmosphere and maybe even issues with Shez that others allude to. To sell him now, having had a season that has gone wrong, then I think we end up getting bottom dollar for him - £500k up to £750k if we are very lucky. Realistically I think Huddersfield will be more like to bid around £3-400k. I'd rather get a proper season out of the lad and hope to see him fulfil his potential, by showcasing the best elements of his game - athleticism and attacking full-back play. We do that and I think we could command £1m in the market, and should it go to tribunal we are unlikely to get less than half that. Maybe we have a good season with him a valuable contributor and get him signed up for longer?

Is there any room in this thread for someone who quite liked Allott but thinks Worthington may be a good signing? My fence-sitting is in danger of being disrupted by the invective being hurled from either side in this hugely emotional debate...

Agree in principal, but I actually think that ball down the flank was Sheridan's doing. Think back to the start of the season, and Eardley played it with gleeful abandon and Hughes got in behind the opposition full-backs constantly. there he could bully them, out-muscle them and possibly drive at goal. Later in the season teams figured this ploy out but we never changed tack. Plus when the full-back is advanced it can be a dangerous ball, but too often Eardley played it when the full-back was in position and it was money for old rope. At this stage I think our lack of a composed ball-player in the middle of the park meant we too infrequently had anywhere to go. Whitaker never did make that position his own.

I thought Allott was noticeably worse last year than he was in 2007/08 - apart from that wondergoal at Huddersfield. He was tidy as ever, but if offered a straight choice on footballing reasons between him and Maher I'd have gone for the latter. From what I understand Worthington may be less of a footballer but more of a "bite-yer-ankles" type in the middle, and I think that'll go down well. Realistically we aren't going to find another Wellens-type who can fulfil both "bad tackle" and "great through ball" roles, so I see no harm in the signing. Besides which, Huddersfield seem to have more cash to splash, so I'm not surprised if we come off slightly worse than them in the transfer stakes.

Fair point Stitch... If Latics had £200k praying on the mind then I'd like to see us maybe thinking about investing it in a new stand. Maybe put up some portacabins to prepare for the construction marvel to come!

The money we got for Trotman represented a great bit of business at the time too, especially if we can bring him back on a season-long loan (or until January). I've not got any issues with the club's actions with regards the young players we've produced - and even if don't make a huge amount on Smalley I would point to the fact that Naughton is regarded much more highly. BUT... as a simple point of fact Taylor and Eardley are hugely important to us and can't be released cheaply.

To sell either of those though the price has got to be absolutely right. If we get rid of Smalley for between one and two hundred grand - which I expect - then we are selling at the bottom of the price range. Not got an issue with that because Smalley has never quite convinced me, but with Taylor and Eardley that cannot be the case and if they go it has to be because the offer was too good to turn down...

Sometimes I think players need to be taken away from their comfort zones in order to thrive, and maybe Smalley is one of them. I don't think he's a bad player but I do think he needs to produce more consistently on the pitch. He isn't a key man for us, and I think from £200-250K would see us fairly well done by if we can invest the money back into the squad - maybe buy a striker of quality to replace Hughes. All the same, I hope this isn't an "open for business" sign for our better youngsters. If Eardley or Taylor start being put forward for moves then I'd react differently.