Thetownend.com

Today's XI | 📋

McCormick, Hunt, Conroy, Baudry, Fryers; Lyden, Doughty, May, Trialist, Woolery, Yates.

#STFC 🔴 https://t.co/e9xfGEHXjE

COVENTRY TEAM NEWS: Marosi, Mason, Rose, McFadzean, Dabo, Kelly (C), Allen, Shipley, Hiwula, Jobello, Bakayoko.

SUBS: Wilson, McCallum, Pask, Drysdale, Bayliss, Westbrooke, Biamou, Bapaga.

Looks like 4-3-3, with Isgrove presumably the trialist. Like the look of that team.

New @Official_STFC triallists (amongst subs) v Coventry this afternoon : goalkeeper Ted Smith (ex-Southend) and midfielder Sidy Sanokho #stfc

"7/8 I see starting the opening game of the season if everyone is fit. Strong side. Hopefully Hyam and Kastaneer are okay."

Strong side out from Cov which is good.

Sign him up!

Couldn’t agree more! 22 year old French midfielder who has been playing in Italy.

Likens his style to Ya Ya Toure!

Just about get the gist but we need Red Frog

http://www.onzemondial.com/etranger/123846-sidy-sanokho-interview-exclu-pepite-novara-france

Wonder if we're giving Paul Anderson another go.

Can't see Anderson (P).
Isgrove present. No Newell, Asante and possibly D'ath as well.

Conroy is back. No Keshi by the look of it.

Keshi is finished here surely.

Hope not but it doesn’t look good.

What you have all been waiting for! Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/EmamAaG7p7o

Yep, and Vieira. At that point, he was hoping either to sign pro at Novara in Serie B or to find a club back in France. Was being watched by WBA and Villa as well as Serie A sides. Reckoned he should be capable of holding down a first-team place in a side in the bottom half of Ligue 1 or top of Ligue 2. Clearly none of that has happened this summer. Odd one - can't imagine we've been tracking him. Expect his agent brother is just trying to get him a game somewhere in England to put him in the window. Will be curious to hear how he gets on today.

Cries of 'forward!' greet our ears after three precious months without. It's good to be back... #STFC

Hello darkness, my old friend.

Coventry edging it in terms of possession and probably chances.

very little in it though

Is Lyden still standing?

our new boy likes to put his foot in when the opportunity arises. just getting a lecture from the ref.

Not a bad thing, we need someone nasty to shield the defence.

How is Isgrove going? Pretty sure we need to sign him now?

So 'present' in the stands, but not in the squad?  If so, probably a positive sign.  RW has seen all he needs to see, and Isgrove not looking elsewhere for a contract.  Wonder why he's not signed yet, though, if that's the case.

HT. meh. preseason is what preseason does


I'd put that down as a solid workout. not much to moan about, not much to get excited over.

slight concern over our left back #3 (fryers??), but he settled down a bit.

embarrassed to ask, who is our #7?

Isgrove.

thanks. thought so but then read the content about being in the stands... got confused.

looks half handy

My first match this pre-season.

Isgrove looks a class act, some really nice moves to beat his man and get the cross in. He'd add an extra dimension to our attack, hope he signs soon.

Fryers has been pretty good going forwards, especially when linking up with Woolery down the left, but runs the risk of leaving us exposed if caught out of position. Needs Conroy to be able to cover him.

All in all very promising so far.

https://twitter.com/AdverSport/status/1155125051991252992

Liking Hunt, Baudry and Lyden. Couple nice bits from Yates and Doughty looking very classy.

Not much going forward (except doughty chance) as Coventry have slightly more possession and have put a few good passes through.

In other news I have some right negative knobheads behind me saying oh my god every minute and:

- we have no pace except Isgrove
- Conroy can’t pass a ball 20 yards
- all new players are crap (a lot of stick for May and Yates who they compare to Norris who had a better touch apparently) after saying I can judge a player in 30 seconds
- doughty doesn’t run
- Jury still out on Wellen’s as he doesn’t have a track record of getting good signings


Apologies for the rant all

Standard stand stuff for us then. Just want to complain.

Honestly I really do hope we sign Isgrove

Isgrove looking tricky again. Even game with not a great deal to separate both teams. Yates is not a lone striker; doings lots of the hard running (ditto Woolery) without much to show for it. Fryers caught out of position a couple of times, not sure if he's quite up to where he could be physically. Not sure how anyone could come to the 'Doughty doesn't run' conclusion, seeing as he's pressing in line with Yates at times. Few nasty challenges flying in for both teams, with the new lad lucky to escape a booking (at the very least). Would've been sent off in a league game I reckons.

Yates just missed an absolute sitter from a great pass over the top

Still missing that finisher.

I presume now clubs are having their final friendlies any players moving on will do so if other players have picked up no injuries.

baudry with a brain dead hospital ball square from our free kick, Conroy couldn't reach and in nipped cov to make it 1-0

Terrible cock up at the back between Baudry and Conroy.

That was my fault.  I mistook the opening post (below) to mean that Isgrove was not playing...as Wobbly Bob then said he was 'present'.  Apols.

sidy looks a beast.

only just come on, not actually done anything. but standing on the sidelines....

How does he look on the ball?  Sometimes looked hesitant to me on the video linked earlier in the thread.

On for Lyden?

he's only touched it a couple of times, beat his man but cross was well defended .  playing right mid, can't remember who he came on for. lyden still on.

sub Trialist keeper on now

Ballard and Broadbent on for Conroy and Baudry. Sanokho on for May, Reid on for Hunt according to Adver twitter

78: A couple of good chances for Town.
Isgrove whips in a delightful corner onto the head of Ballard but the Arsenal man is denied at point-blank range by Marosi. The ball then falls to trialist Sanokho, but his effort is blocked. 0-1. #STFC

Sorry but our finishing is woeful today :(

Today?

I’m being positive

2-0

ft

Looked ok. Missed some sitters. Starting XI looks mostly decent just missing a bit more upfront.

I like Isgrove, hope he signs.

We know where we lack, Wellens knows where we lack.

Confident we will get a striker or two in. Things look OK in my eyes for the season ahead

The way some people are banging on (not on here so much) it’s as if he’s said he isn’t after a forward or 2.

It certainly isn’t for the want of trying that he hasn’t been able to get bodies in

Keshi Anderson transfer listed

Where is this from?

Twitter, wellens said apparently

If Anderson isn't prepared to stay and fight for a play then good riddance, yes he has bags of skill and pace but zero end product, get Bennett in to replace him and his name will soon be forgotten.

Wellens said in radio free was surprised he hadn't had a call regarding Anderson.

also said a Dave was very professional but he needs to shift to free up wages

that's about all I caught

We should find a taker for Keshi.

Get a few quid, too.

Maybe, but I think we'd settle for getting him off the wage bill.

Doubt that TBH, any team that has watched him will see what we all see, pace, skill and the crossing and finishing of Douglas Bader.

If we get even a few quid it will be a coup.

Anderson was never going to recover from kebabgate, good riddance

You might need to enlighten a few of our younger contingent who Doulas Bader was 😁

I see ex Southend keper Ted Smith played the last 20 mins in goal.

He played a trial game for Spurs U23 side last week and was said to be on the verge of signing for them.

Must have something about him, Southend fans say hes a decent back up keeper but was 3rd in line there and he wanted game time at 1st team level.

I often saw him in the pub, absolutely legless he was.

Horrible fucker apparently. I was chatting to someone who knew him a few weeks ago. Nothing like the Kenneth Moore portrayal.

Wasn’t frightened to take a pot shot was he?

Met him a couple of times in Marlborough when he was getting his Porsche serviced by Dick Lovetts.

Bader or Anderson? :D

Believe half what you hear and all that you see. Even if he was as described, still a fearless hero that helped save this country at a time of need. You probably know a few horrible fuckers today. Would they do what he did?

He was an RAF Group Captain. He had the air of an RAF Senior Officer. At the same time, he was a internationally recognised military 'hero'. Yes he had something about him, but that was hardly surprising. I always found him to be pleasant enough.

Now reported on the Adver site.

Yeah maybe he was on an off day. It was something to do with his missing toaster in for repair..  No argument about what he did, and no, i doubt many now would do it.

Good, blokes a waste of space. Wellens seems to see the stuff that most of the fans who have some sense can see. It’s just a matter of whether his ability works at the budget he’s been given.

Hope that Sanokho triallist gets a good run out against Melksham, some potential there I reckon.

Sent from my CLT-L09

What sort of midfielder is he?

Francophone.... therefore experience tells us should be avoided.

What was the kebab gate scandal?

I understand he is an attack minded central midfielder with a bit of pace and can grab a few goals but hes not an attacking midfielder as such.

He likes to pass it around and is still only 22.

Been playing until the end of the season in France with Racing CFF Colombes 92 for the last couple of years in the 3rd tier fo French football, before that he was with Novaro Berretti in Italy in Serie B but only playing at youth level for them.

He has played 16 games at scored 2 goals in Italy in the U21 league.

Hes a big lad who looks a lot like Toums predominantly right footed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmamAaG7p7o

When he came on he sat in a 2 with Doughty but made some good runs forward and played a couple of decent through balls that led to potential opportunities. Seems quite mobile as well and stuck in a couple of solid standing tackles. I was quite impressed with what I saw, which was only 25 mins tbf.

Sent from my CLT-L09

I was reading something somewhere about him on twitter with Vigs ?

I'm sure Keshi will get another club he's a tricky winger with no end product a manager may see he can coach him to score but suppose it depends what wages he's on and what he wants elsewhere.

It is slightly concerning that Wellens seems to be going through the squad and wanting out the big money earners so he can increase his budget, is his budget that bad ?

Why does it have to mean a 'bad' budget? Why can't it be a decent budget that is largely taken up by dead wood?

That is how I see it, dead wood tied up.

I reckon this is a complete list of all the Francophones who've played for us. One or two had good careers, but quite a few speculative misses that you'd expect from players you haven't scouted long-term. Which might be a bigger factor than their French-speaking origins. I think my favourite was Cuervo.

Darras - Comminges - Noubissié - Jean-François - Traoré - Cuervo - Diagouraga - Nalis - Robert - Balmy - Ruster - Zaaboub - N'Diaye - Kerrouche - Péricard - Dossevi - Sabin - N'Guessan - Téhoué - Razak - Bouazza

Not even dead wood. Just we have cheaper options now, and need to spend the wage elsewhere (up top).

Bloody frustrating though if that's the case (out before in). I don't blame the players, or the club really.

Nobody is really to blame, thats just the way of lower league football (and football in general), players can't come in until unwanted players leave, otherwise you end up like Bolton and Bury having wages far exceeding income.

We signed the players on good wages and they all either had a decent reputation or we thought they would develop into decent players. For whatever reason they haven't is not the club or really the players fault, thats football.

Its just that our budget is much tighter than some clubs so we can afford to have less "deadwood" in the squad.

Bradford seem desperate to offload Doyle who is apparently on similar wages to 3 first team players, even Man City cannot sign any more players until they offload some players that are not wanted.

I also don't blame the players for not wanting to leave for clubs paying less money as this is their livlihood and football careers are in the main quite short.

The only solution is what Salford have done and injected funds to cover new signings and upping the budget, even as a short term thing to allow the manager to bring in the players he wants while having the unwanted players still on the books.

I reckon you could add Claude Gnapka and Pat Kanyuka to that list *shudder*

One or two of those, looked OK for a game or three, and then it seems to be a Gallic :shrug:

I think the budget should cater for a certain amount of built in obselescence... there'll always be 1 or 2 not giving value for money.

Yes, well spotted. You could just about make a decent attack-minded 11 out of that. Not sure it's any worse than any random 11 of the last 20 years. But yes, few of them seemed to want to make Swindon their long-term home. Incroyable!  :french:

That's true. But it is more that 3 earners can't take up 25%* of your budget when its already tight and they've already been replaced.

*or whatever
=================
At this stage it seems SNAFU in the striker department. Which may not be true, but since its been an issue for a few seasons now I'll believe we'll get a good striker when the scarf is held aloft.

As always best to judge on what happens, or doesn't rather than what is said.... and certainly as things stand this doesn't look like an auto seeking squad.  It's debatable, again as it stands, that we're as strong as the end of last season... you'd like to think we will get in some reinforcements, so that we can at least improve on 13th.

Comminges was player of the year

The Minge.

Pericard was French, non?

Any excuse to post this work of genius again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGJ-xvj3iBc

Wasn't Freddie Darras 2nd in Player of the year too?

dual nationality, Cameroon+ French. Moved to France agreed 4.

I'd say we look slightly more balanced than we did a year ago - in both season starts we were lacking upfront, but the bits behind that front two seem more well thought out  I think you'd argue with me about the front line from two seasons ago being better than we have available for the first game this time around, but the rest of the squad looks far better composed than what Flitcroft had.  If you take his back 4 and central midfield combinations, there can probably be little argument we've upgraded there.