The Official Summer Transfer Rumour Thread

Quoted from mariner91

He's had three good goal scoring seasons in the NL, the  most recent of which was three seasons ago. His goalscoring has not been anywhere near as prolific since his injury whilst at Chesterfield and was generally thought of as being abysmal by Posh fans because even before when he was scoring, he didn't do anything else during a game. His record in the FL makes Pyke look prolific. I'd be disappointed if we signed him, let alone paying a fee.

Fair enough, all about opinions. Personally, I think 7 in 16 games this season for a team that was relegated is a decent ratio, and as I mentioned all his FL games were in L1 not L2 so judging on that seems a bit harsh to me.

The Ryan Bennett argument is a no brainer. Played at a much higher level for a large part of his career and has the class to still be very very good at this level. I get its the old 'ex-player' stuff. However take that out of it and I think we'd all be very for it and the only reason we're talking about it is it's nearly happened twice, apparently.

His calmness, ability and leadership would have been invaluable this season and would be next.

Quoted from Mikey_345

The Ryan Bennett argument is a no brainer. Played at a much higher level for a large part of his career and has the class to still be very very good at this level. I get its the old 'ex-player' stuff. However take that out of it and I think we'd all be very for it and the only reason we're talking about it is it's nearly happened twice, apparently.

His calmness, ability and leadership would have been invaluable this season and would be next.

agree totally

would continue another trend I hope to see continued - the recruitment of players with local or regional links . It must make life so much easier , as they're already settled, or have roots in the locality/region.

Quoted from louth_in_the_south

How many players are likely to be at a club for 3 years ? If they’re young and any good they’ll be gone . If we can sign a player of RB pedigree for a year or two it’s a no brainer .

Beat me to it, almost word-for-word what I was going to say.

I sometimes think people who play Football Manager and take a L2 club to the Prem think it’s actually really possible! If you have a young player who’s good enough, they’re gone, end of story. If you’re in L2 and you have a chance to sign a former Prem player who’s past his best but still far too good for this level, you sign them. It’s short term-isn because that’s life down here.

The big EPL clubs build for the future by buying young talent. If we had an average age of 28-29 in L2, I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit worried.

I'd like Ryan Bennett back for 2/3 seasons. He has the experience to hold the back 3/4 together and smoother opposition attacks.

Yes, we need youth as well but need an experienced head when all's not well.

My only issue with Bennett would be that it wouldn't address the attribute we lack a bit at the back, pace.

Mullarkey, Rodgers and Tharme are all under contract and in the case of Rodgers and Tharme have 2 years left on their deals.  I don't really think any of them will be leaving.   Neither are blessed with pace.  Bennett's a fine player and would bring plenty to our defence, but pace wouldn't be one of those attributes.  I think it would have to a case of Bennett in for one of those of three and then AN Other coming in to bring some pace.

Our quickest defender is the one who's out of contract, Maher.

Quoted from diehardmariner

My only issue with Bennett would be that it wouldn't address the attribute we lack a bit at the back, pace.

Mullarkey, Rodgers and Tharme are all under contract and in the case of Rodgers and Tharme have 2 years left on their deals.  I don't really think any of them will be leaving.   Neither are blessed with pace.  Bennett's a fine player but he wouldn't bring pace to the defence.  

Our quickest defender is the one who's out of contract, Maher.

I've seen a few comments about Tharme being slow, I actually think he covers ground really quickly. I think the pace at centre half has been made to look a bigger problem than it is because we've had no pace at full back for a while. Glennon moved like he's stuck in mud and Hume isn't much better and then like you said Mullarkey isn't blessed with extreme pace, especially made to look worse when he was playing against a quick winger but reads the game very well at centre half so doesn't really get caught out. I think pace is something we lack throughout the whole squad.

Yeah I don't think any of them are slow, just average.  Which is the point across the squad isn't it?  No real tortoises but no actual pace either.  I don't think he was rapid but Efete was probably our quickest player.  Good point down the left side, can add Amos to that issue too.  It badly exposed us too often last season.

Be it defence, midfield or attack, it's something we really lack and I'm certain Artell will be looking at.  Lost count of the times this season when we had the opportunity to hit sides on the counter but teams easily recover because we've no one to stretch away from them.  Crying out for a Max Wright against Wrexham type break.

Quoted from Mikey_345

The Ryan Bennett argument is a no brainer. Played at a much higher level for a large part of his career and has the class to still be very very good at this level. I get its the old 'ex-player' stuff. However take that out of it and I think we'd all be very for it and the only reason we're talking about it is it's nearly happened twice, apparently.

His calmness, ability and leadership would have been invaluable this season and would be next.

This is why we could/should consider Ryan if the deal comes up - we constantly bemoan the lack of leadership on the pitch. Ryan would organise the defence, instil confidence into other players and be perfectly happy to hand out a b*llocking to anyone who needed it. And do his own job perfectly well.

And we'd be behind him 100%

Say it quietly...the new Paul Futcher.....

The only thing certain is, this thread will get 200 pages