A bit late to respond, I know, but Tuesday's totally committed performance lifted the spirits. Any scouts there would have Brophy and Branco down as worth watching again. Early on, the 352 looked as though we would concede from crosses almost every time the ball went wide, but the work rate of the whole team meant that Walsall soon looked more worried about us dictating how the game was played, rather than us having to respond and cope with how they wanted to play.
I'd be more than happy if Doughty was signed - a goal scoring, box to box midfielder who would do more right than wrong in a game. I very much doubt we could afford him though.
I may be just pissing in the wind here but I would have thought that Doughty needs to take a step back (and pay cut which would result from that step back) to progress in the long term. With that in mind I reckon we could afford him.
I didn't go on Tuesday but I would think it emphasized how important Kasim is to us. He makes the team in general and Doughty in particular, way, way better. We would see far more of Good Doughty than Bad Doughty if he had Yaser along side him.
I am guessing there is no chance whatsoever of us keeping Kasim and replacing him will be extremely difficult but it has to be the absolute top priority in the summer. If we could somehow replace him with an experienced old head who's been around a bit in the top two divisions and maybe has a couple of seasons left (Power occasionally needs to say "bollocks to the model") that would be amazing. Easy - over to you Lee