Thetownend.com

Greer end
          

  GORDON Greer should seal a £250,000 switch to League One rivals Brighton by the end of today.

          

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/8266135.Greer_end/?ref=rss
          

A slightly homosexual pun?
Is nevillew now working for the Adver?

Good work!

Only just noticed that...  :-[

Well done adver, that's quality.

I saw the back page of the Adver this morning and couldn't quite believe it. Seems a bit risque for the Adver!

 :cunt:

Although the more I think about it the less it seems homosexual and more car crash related...it's weird that my first reaction was of a gay one.

Freudian.

That's contrary to the rumour mill isn't it?

That's very saucy for the Adver. I'm looking forward to Ball playing for us even more now

Still not a patch on my all time favourite.  The linked story was also printed in the Adver.

http://archive.salisburyjournal.co.uk/2006/8/12/273863.html

If we dont sign him for whatever reason "balls-ache" ?

Yes, very much so. I wonder if Greer will speak out when he signs for Albion.

Why are people making Greer look the villian?

He didn't want to leave but the club more less forced him to make the decision as they weren't prepared to offer him a  new contract until October.  Greer had to make a decision for his family and Brighton were offering a 3 year contract you can't blame the bloke for doing the right thing by his family. If i was in his shoes i would have done the same.

As for the player manager bust up rumours they are just that a load of bollocks.

On another note an interview with Mr Fitton has revealed that the reason the club cashed in was because we have too many defenders and they will be looking at Lescinel & Morrison to step up their game.  This indicates to me that there will be no replacement for Greer.

I hope he does. Although hopefully not disparagingly of course.

I don't think we'll ever likely know the full truth, although I'm actually a bit meh about it now, knowing who, what, when, where and why doesn't change the fact he's off.

Agreed. I just think that October's not far away and he was the skipper, I would imagine a contract would've been very much on the table in the Autumn.

This is a MASSIVE gamble, especially on the LJF front. We need another Greer type player Im afraid, the lack of a defensive leader showed through at Wembley and Im not sure I could stand a season long defensive performance like that.

Massive gamble but if it fails a replacement wil be found. We may still have someone coming in from Man City or Caddis. You normally try not to show "your hand" to other teams. WE know from 2 seasons ago that Greer steadied the ship so ..... As I said in my other post. Southend fans said Morrison was a rock at defence. Morrison may flourish with Cuthbert alongside.

Where can this interview be found sir?

If that's the case then I'm seriously worried about the lack of experience/leadership at the back.

Me too, COuld be a bit of confusion especially with LJF and Cuthbert at the heart of defence.... Unless we are hoping Lucas can sort this and maybe DW puts our form down to Lucas' leadership at the back as opposed to Greer's?

It was on the sports bulletin on BBC Radio Swindon this morning on the Graham Mac Show. You can check the BBC website it might me up.

We're in a bit of trouble at the back then.

I heard part of it and the impression I got was that it was a financial descision in so much as we wanted to spend to strengthen other areas of the team as a priority over defense, and that the defense was strong enough to cope with the loss of Greer. In fact this is pretty much what Fitton said on the snippet I heard.

Now whether that is the story the club are giving, or whether it is true I don't know. But with the "Morrison time to  step up" comments from DW I'd imagine we won't be getting an experienced CB in.

If we can't affor it then I guess we can't afford it. May have to reset expectations for the comming season in that case. Oh well.

I still find the whole thing truly and utterly bizzare.

Financially, there's no point in wanting Morrison to step-up unless we commit him to a longer contract because if we give him 46 games and he does well then he'll leave next summer and we'll get rubbish comp at a tribunial.

Hmmmm as I said previously I don't think Fitton is right when he says this league will be weaker than last season and if he really thinks that and that we can get promotion on the cheap he is likely to have a bit of a reality check shortly. We need some sort of replacement for Greer as we have what a grand total of about 150 starts between our 3 centre backs, and one injury and we'd have no cover.

i haven't heard Sir Fittons interview but if indeed he is implying that they are happy to go with 3 centre backs for the season, 2 of which have never played a full season of league football i am a little worried. Cuthbert picks up an injury and then boom we're left with morrison and LJF and no cover.... bit stumped by this.  :hmmm:

My only hope is that Cuthbert becomes organiser in chief and Morrison and LJF see this as a massive opportunity and really step up their game....

Fitton quote on BBC

Whole thing is a bit bizarre but does losing Greer mean we drop from 5th in 6th to League One to 15th etc. A lot of doom and gloom re: Greer leaving. WE still have Cuthbert and LJF did ok when at Centre. We may still get someone in on loan as well so... a step back? Yes, the end of the world? No. I still think DW and AF have an ace up their sleeve and we will be ok.....

Its possible though that what is said and what is done are two different things.

AF has backed DW last season in wages for loans/perms, and I don't see why this would stop unless our budget is being reduced. Which if it is then so be it, we can't keep making a loss. But its a shame **IF** we can't keep the momentum from last season. A ball hasn't been kicked yet though so lets see what happens up to December..

edit: interesting quote Mr Pullen.

I am sure DW and AF will want to build on last season and not take a step back. There are plenty of decent players out there to make a difference and we may even have them in our squad already. Big year for Morrison though.


If Rich's quote is right it seems like DW and AF are quite pissed off that Greer wanted to see what Brighton had to say so he said well fuck off then.....

i thought fitton said he wouldn't take less than £450,000 for greer?read it on here and not a direct quote, so was that bollocks?

i thought as soon as the move was on that it would be down to a better contract on offer from brighton that would tempt greer away.if fitton told him they had accepted a bid prior to any contact between greer and brighton then that changes it significantly.

we never get to hear the truth anyway as what they all tell the press is lies with a bit of truth in there.what i think is a must is that greer is replaced with a like for like player.we need a leader at the back. however people want to dress it up we have lost 2 key players from last year.both are big losses

In a business sense, 250k for a player you got on a free is excellent. It's now up to them to spend it wisely.

I'm sure Wilson hadn't been looking for a defender, a colossus and potential captain, until now...

Well whatever it sort of seems like it wasn't the happiest of endings really.....

Everyone is being a bit harsh on LJF and Morrison and their ability to step up to replace Greer.

LJF has only ever played a few games at CB and got a lot of praise for most of them, and if Sheehan was available for the Leeds game its possible he would have kept his place ahead of Cuthbert. Give him some more games to get some experience and who knows what he'll be capable of.

Morrison had a poor season no doubt largely due to the injury, but the season before he was excellent. With a pre season he can start afresh and there is every chance he'll regain the form that we were all raving about at one point.

Sure we could do with an extra CB for cover, but for most of last season we were without cover in one position or another. Isn't one of the youth team players that just signed a contract a CB? Couldn't Douglas or Prutton fill cover in an emergency? Then there is always the loan market if necessary.

A year ago this would have worried me, now, I'm a bit non plussed to be honest.  We don't know what the money is, the Adver have taken a punt and when asked the club probably just said, yeah, print that, we are not telling you the exact amount.  More than £250,000 for a near 30 year old centre back in League One is still a lot of money.

Greer is probably going to be missed because he came in when we had an awful defence, with Ifil managing to miss out on having the blinders he could.  His consistent approach was something we hadn't seen in a while, but it's no more than a mid table team in this league should have.  Cuthbert coming in has shown that real quality exists, and can be had for a fraction of the cost.  NOw that we have the ability to pick up such talent, losing players like Greer need not be the issue many make it out to be.

Anyway, go back 12 months, everyone was in a state of frenzy about the lack of players.  We didn't do too badly.  We've just got to accept, that until we get decent crowds supporting the budget, if someone offers more than 1/4 million squids for good league one pro's in our team, it's likely they'd be sold, just as we'd sell Austin if someone came in with £1.5m plus right now.

It's a good point Rob. Cuthbert has been just as influential in making our defense good in my opinion and we got him for a reported £100k.

In that respect Brighton have paid over the odds.

Quite, we sold Fallon for something in the same order as we've got for Greer.  Fallon was far more influential on that team than Greer is on the current team.  Greer was worth more to us 12-18 months ago mind.  Now, knowing we can sign players like Cuthbert, knowing he had 12 months on a contract to run, knowing he was not the stand out player in the last 6 months of his time here, knowing someone wanted to pay us a decent sum - it's business.  Any loss making club at this level (probably all bar Southampton and Sheff Weds) would have sold-up.

Morrison and Jean-Francois may not be able to step up, we don't know, but it won't cost us £300k or more to find someone who can.

If we picked up another player of Cuthberts ability for 100K then I'm sure everyone would think selling Greer a good bit of business.

I might be wrong, but didn't our entire first team squad cost us less than £250k in transfer fees?

it is only good business if greer is replaced with a player as good as,or better.if not it means the side is significantly weaker

...or we better last seasons performance without him regardless of replacement.

Time will tell.

This is what I'm thinking. All we need is either Morrison or Lex to come in and get some games and consistency. For what it's worth I think they could both do it given a few games.

Not replacing Gr££r could be the difference between 5th and 12th.

A loan signing from Man Citys youth team wont cut it either.

Replacing Gr££r and Paynter - with Pericard and Morrison - not good enough, doesnt improve the team in the slightest.

Long way to go before the season starts but at the moment we're going backwards.

I think that's an unarguable fact. 

ljf had some fine games at centre back(alongside greer)and morrison could well step up a level this year.but,neither look like leader material and a team needs someone to call the shots from the back line.we've seen how shambolic our defence can be over the years without a natural leader in there.greer coming in addressed that problem.williams did it in our promotion season.

maybe it's time for cuthbert to take on that role? i have my doubts that he is that type of player to be honest.
what is certain is that somebody will have to take charge as it will only be to the detriment of the defence as a whole if they dont

Out of the 2 I am more concerned about goals up front than our defence. Morrison and LJF have both shown they can do the job. Can they do it consistantly? Time will tell. I am sure if they dont a replacement will be found. Anyone who thinks Pericard as you say is going to score more than 10-12 goals this season is deluded. I am not convinced Pericard will score 5. I am more concerned about replacing Paynters goals than our CB as I say LJF and Morrison have shown they can do the job. Its weather they can do it all the time. Hopefully we can get a few goals from midfield this season but even then if our midfield cover 10-12 of Paynters goals we need another 20 or so goals from somewhere else especially with our perhaps weaker defence. i almost think that Wilson is crediting Lucas for leading at the back as opposed to Greer.

We haven't replaced Paynter or Greer with anyone. Morrison and Pericard were here last season. So saying we're weaker is stating the bleeding obvious as we've lost two players from our squad.

Neither, Morrison or LJF have shown they can lead a backline and I dont think they will any time soon.

Why a replacement must be found.

Yes - club is in the shit, its all terrible, sack the manager, sack the board, its all pointless.

This time last year we didn't seem to have much of a squad.  We're on a tight budget and being run properly.  Here's a thought - why don't we put a bit of trust in Wilson and the board.  They've done us pretty well so far.

Yeah because we've all said that ::)

How can you say that when between them they only played a dozen games for us at CB last season? Added to which all of those games was with a more experienced CB alongside them so there was no need for them to lead the backline.

It's just pointless writing off players based on a handful of games. Wilson seems to know what he is doing so if he's happy with them then I don't see what the problem is. Pericard, O'Brien, LJF and Morrison could all step up next season.

Cuthbert can lead the back line, perhaps Morrison with Cuthbert can emerge as the player he was touted to be. As I said before, most Southend fans said Morrison was great there (i know they were shit last year) but with the right player alongside him Sean M may be able to perform as people say he can (that player being Cuthbert). I think the leading the back line job now falls to Lucas and Cuthbert (to state the obvious).  Anyone who comes in will need time to adjust to the team. Totally agree a replacement is ideal but at the min not mandatory.

LJF was praised at centre back whenever he needed to deputise there last season. Infact I can probably trawl through many posts and see people say LJF was a lot better at Centre Back.

I'm making a point through exaggeration Dave.  My point was, two players have gone, and our loan players have returned.  There is still the nucleus of a good squad, and there is quite a while until the beginning of the season.  A year ago there was no sign of Ward, Ferry or Austin, or of the season that Paynter was going to have.  Good signings are not easy to make or everyone would be signing great players.  A bit of patience, realism and trust is needed, and a few on here, including yourself, seem to want to make our current situation out to be some sort of mini-crisis.  It isn't.

gréer, gérer, Gruyère, gr££r

I see Pericard and Paynter as very similar players. In fact, the way some fans are carrying on about how Pericards [lack of] ability is very similar to Paynter's first season or two.

I really hope the fans realise that with our current squad, Pericard will have to play a significant part of our season next season. Let's not repeat the mistake many made with Paynter by writing him off too soon.

But if Pericard can up his game like most players in the squad have, he'll be a very good player for us.

Well said.

so squad players of last year are now expected to step up and replace proven quality?
fucking big ask imo

I hope your right. Not slagging Pericard off, he hasn't done too much for us but there is the argument that he hasn't had the chance bar 10 minutes here of there. I can see Pericard playing a role where he is the target man, gets the ball down for Austin who has run forward and scores a few as well. I certainly hope thats the case. With a full pre-season (which I dont think he had last year), a bit of faith from the fans he may do well. Pericard needs to remember he was in the football wilderness before Carlisle came along and took a punt on him and being the last year of his contract, this is a huge season for him. If he doesnt deliver this year he could very well find himself dropping out of league football, he almost was last year after his release from Stoke. Plenty of incentive for Pericard to do well this year.

I know where you are coming from but JPM & Amankwaah are perfect examples of players who had ability but were previously underwhelming at STFC having great seasons.

Before this season I'd have booked and paid for the taxi for mcgovern to piss off elewhere, he used to annoy the hell out of me. Last season I'll happiliy admit he was a different player and one of our best.

I'm not saying that pericard / Morrison or LFJ are definatly going to replace Paynter & Greer, but stranger things have happend.

If we don't add to the defense or the attack we're going to up shit creek. So we can't reasonably say Greer and Paynter have been replaced with squad players of yesteryear.

Is this thread a dad's army script? I'm half expecting Corporal Jones to start posting. There's a month to go before kick off, lot's will happen between then and now, no reason to doubt, or panic.

i'm sure replacements will already have been lined up.no panicking from me,but i dont think we have players on the books capable of replacing the 2 who have gone.those mentioned can up their games and become better mind.

Precisely, SuttonRed.....we know, because he has said it on the record, that DW has at least four more in the pot, including an experienced striker.  None of us really knows whether the Greer departure is a shock or included in the plan; but we have all seen what DW can achieve.  Now lets just trust him to put it together for 7 August....when my son is getting married, so I won't be around to know!!

5 pages of utter crap.

The TEF surpasses itself.

Say we signed Caddis and I have my doubts we will, the feel good factor would come back right away!! All if's and buts right now. Agreed we are slightly worse off than last season. I hope that because Fitton said this division was weaker, he didnt think we need to weaken the team to get the same result as we may need less points etc...

Sorry but i don't agree with all that bollocks from Fitton about this league being weaker, It's not, Fitton's comments were wrong in my opinion.

Sheffield Wednesday have made excellent signings and have a very strong squad for this league, The same goes for Huddersfield who have made some very good signings for this level Plus Southampton & Peterborough have very strong squads too, The league is no weaker in my opinion, It's just as strong as last season.

Our team is significantly weaker, Unless we now bring in an experienced defender to replace Greer and an experienced striker to replace Paynter as well as numerous other players then Fitton might have a shock when we struggle to get into the top 6 next season, Sorry but that's reality.

I agree. Let's not beat around the bush - we've lost our top goalscorer and arguably our best defender (after Amankwaah imo).

Add to that the fact we won't have Ward who was one of our best attacking assets and I'd say there is reason for concern as we're losing siginificantly more than we're bringing in... so far.

OK we've brought in Prutton but I'd say we need another CB (if only as back up to Cuthbert and Morrison) and a proven striker.

No need to panic but we need to bring in some quality as expecting all we've lost to be replaced by existing players improving would be too big a gamble and I'm sure Danny isn't planning on relying on such a gamble.

they dont have to be proven,have to be good enough.which complete unknowns can and have been in the past.

This thread is beginning to make me feel angry.

Really?

not Cuthbert?

I trust Wilson and co to bring in adequate replacements.

Notes to self:

Do not read this thread again.
Don't get sucked in to the tef suicide pact.

This is what we all said last season about replacing Simon Cox. How many strikers did we start the season with?

Also the signing of Caddis whilst a good one, wouldnt fill the gaps left by Greer, Paynter or even Ferry and Ward.

Word. I think I'm gonna take some time away from the TEF until everyone's stopped working themselves into a depressive stupor, because I don't want to join in with this self perpetuating pessimism.

Must have woken up in a parellel universe. The comments on thisis appear more balanced than on here.

This is how the Bridgend suicides started.

I do rate Cuthbert. I just rate Greer and Amankwaah higher. Cuthbert this season could be as good as Greer tho.

Yes, and we all know how badly last season turned out.  Maybe patience pays off, rather than signing the first available players regardless of whether they fit in or not.  Christ Dave, you must really be a miserable fucker.

This thread reads like a discussion on emotional problems by a group made up entirely of hysterical emotionally traumatised women.

Did you even bother to read my posts or did you just decide to lable me miserable anyway like everyone else.

How good could last season have been if we'd started the season with Austin? Hypothetical I know but worth asking.

Our team is weaker than last season and we need to replace the players that have gone. That's not miserable, that's not pessism, thats not over the top, thats not wrong - its the bloody obvious.

It's July 12th FFS!  When have we ever had anything like a starting line up for the new season at this stage?  There are a few on here who would be useless in a crisis.  Quick!!  Where's the Panic Button!?

Yes there is plenty of time to bring in more players.

However most of us never thought we'd sell Greer and for whatever reason we have and we don't feel great about that which imo is understandable.

Yes I did read your posts.  I even responded to some of them.  What I am saying is that we can always look back and say "what if" - but nothing in life is perfect, and I would say last season was, on the whole, fucking brilliant.  This time last season a lot of last season's stars were both unknown and not at the club.  You seem to forget this and assume that as two player's haven't had direct replacements signed immediately, it must be time to panic.  Be patient.

[url width=600 height=700]http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/genImageCairo.aspx?data=YT03MDAmYj02MDAmYz1BdmVuaXImZD05NiZlPTQ0JmY9JTIzZGRkZGRkJmc9JTIzRDAyMjIyJmg9R1JFRVInUyZpPUdPTkUuJmo9Jms9TEVUJ1MmbD1QQU5JQyZtPWZvb3RiYWxsLnBuZw%3d%3d[/url]

Oh Ben! you never fail to make me chuckle!

[url width=400 height=388]http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/cgo/lowres/cgon595l.jpg[/url]

I think I've been slightly mis understood or not put my point across too well.

I've said in other threads on this subject there is plenty of time to bring in replacements, however first of sometimes it will take a while to find a replacement (Cox - Austin) so I'd rather we started sooner rather than later (I'd hope we already have)

Secondly, from the noises coming out the club it sounds like we are planning to replace the likes of Paynter and Gr££r from within the current squad.

Personally I don't think the players in question LJF/Morrison/Pericard are as good as those we are trying to replace.

I'm not saying we have to panic and get someone in right away, what I am saying is we will need to get someone in and again, just in my opinion a new CB with Gr££r like on pitch qualities is now top priority.

http://blog.commandomarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/yp071.jpg

Anyone thinking of committing suicide i wouldn't advise this.  It could hurt you & it might be fatal  ;)

Suicide is painless

At the end of the day Dave, it's just football, no need to get so wound up about it all.

Blimey, is it that day of the year where everyone goes Bonkers for no real reason?

Reading this thread makes me chuckle.

Greer's departure hasn't changed my outlook on next season at all, still pretty optimistic!  I know I may be in the minority.

Don't think you are in the minority at all Berni. Rather it is the minority who are being more vocal.

I'm going to put a tenner on us being relegated now by December! :D

Joking aside, I am more worried about goals than losing Greer. We have replacements for Greer but not Paynters goals but lets see who we find!

One piece of pessimism at a time Gazza.

That's probably true. Nobody I've spoken to outside the TEF (!) seems to care at all!

I think there's some dented pride out there due to the banter with the Brighton fans over the last week or so.

Plus Gordon Greer was the TEF sponsored player.

Oh and the fact that Greer is sort of a symbol behind our improvement. Greer came in and helped us avoid relegation and then led us to Wembley.

However, it's all hysterical - especially during this time of the year.

Players come and go and they're all replaceable, except 'legends' and Greer ain't a legend.

:D Give it a week when Douglas is sold to Southampton and is replaced by Timlin in Midfield!! ;)

i cant seem to see any gay pun in the adver write up, looked at it about 100 times now, could someone point me in its direction as its bugging me now :headhurts:, and no im not gay :D

Not sure about that - spoke to a few people yesterday who don't post on any forums who were pretty pissed off about it. But I suspect a lot of people will do the initial knee-jerk "Oh, FFS" and then get over it quite quickly.

Which is clearly the wrong reaction BECAUSE THIS WILL DEFINITELY CAUSE THE TOTAL COLLAPSE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS RIGHT AND GOOD IN THE WORLD AND NO LEVEL OF HYSTERIA COULD POSSIBLY BE TOO EXTREME

[url width=198 height=198]http://imgur.com/uKjTO.gif[/url]

Nah, I think its more the fact we seem to have sold a key player to a rival which on the face of it seems will make us weaker and looks like a lack of progression. I guess we all hoped we'd keep most of the squad together and have another go at auto promotion next season.

What we are guilty of a) not seeing what happens to the squad between now and the end of August b) not placing faith that is deserved in the management and c) not faciing the financial realities of running STFC.

Does the fun EVER stop on here???

Oh my dads a wee bit annoyed - he was a Greeranarian?? is that what we called fans of him?

Put it into perspective. Did we get promoted with Greer? Will Brighton get promoted with Greer this season? Not likely, 2 steps back, 1 forward IMO. Plenty of time yet!!! On a side note would love for his knee to go and he misses the season! :D

The headline is "Greer End" a witty take on the phrase "Rear End" which means bottom, or anus. I think you can work out the rest.

Think we're flying well under the radar so far with the whole Greer doesn't matter thing. Mwhahaha, Brighton must think they've got a right worthless crock thanks to us carefully hiding our true emotions.

i fail to see how this thread can be labled hysterical,suicidal or over the top?
dave pretty much has it right as far as i'm concerned.
i think a fair few of you just think it will all be alright off the back of last season.that's fair enough as they aint let us down, but we have lost half that team already.

some people are more optomistic than others.i think i sit in the middle(others probably think not mind)i have faith that we will bring in decent replacements.i also think some might step up to the plate.but in the back of my mind i can't help but think this coming season wont live up to the last one.
if we had kept hold of the majority of the team and added a few better players to it then i would be confident of success this season.as it stands we have plenty of shoes needing filling

Exactly Arriba. The concern is totally logical and those expressing the concern have all admitted there is plenty of time to get some decent players in. That doesn't stop them being labelled hysterical and being ridiculed for the sake of humour tho.

My issue with the response is that we'd think we just lost the linchpin of our run since Christmas, and he wasn't.  He nearly cost us a play off final place at the end and other players were far more influential.  I think everyone hankers for the change he showed to us when he first arrived, when everyone else was shit and he was consistently good.

We've got good money for him, and we are actively seeking new players to add to the squad, at least 4 by current reports.

The Paynter one is amazing me as well, why the worry?  Yes the club have said current players are good enough (I'd be mroe concerned if they were saying the opposite), but we have also made it very clear we are seeking two strikers - so we are looking for replacements.

We've got Prutton and Easton has gone, we are after Ferry agin so we may have a better central midfield.  We've got one fullback and we are looking to buy another one, both of whom are rated for our current level and ambitions, so we should be the same if not better there for next season.   For me, the only one I'm watching closely is the wing's, where Ward was a bit of classy act and would eb tough to replace.  But, Wilson and Fitton have shown that we should have faith in their acquisitions on the whole.

It it was August right now, we'd be right to be concerned.  It's not, and it's very bloody clear we are in the market for a number of players, all of whom seem to be up to the standards we are hoping for (based on those who have already joined).

[url width=452 height=461]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/simon_pieman/Tears-For-Fears-Famous-Last-Words-3.jpg[/url]

My thoughts too  :clap:

Classy

"TEF Suicide watch.."  ???

Has anyone heard from DV since lunchtime?

I think losing Greer is quite a big step backwards. Now, the way Fitton and Wilson have operated so far would suggest that we'll be fine despite this. However, I'm not confident that (a) Morrison or LJF can step up or (b) 3 centre back will be enough. And the words coming out of the club seem to suggest we won't bring another CB in. Also, we definitely need a left winger and two strikers. I'm sure the club are working on this and I'm happy to be patient.

My main concern is that Fitton seems to be putting too much faith in a squad which is currently looking, at best, no better than last year's. Hopefully this summer's remaining signings will prove my fears to be unfounded.

I think Greerophile would probably be a little bit nearer......'arian' seems to go with 'octogen...' and words like that....

When has the club said they won't be replacing Greer with another CB? Did I miss that?

We've got quite a bit of transfer money in so far haven't we? Plus the budget put aside to make Paynter the highest paid player at the club. Then there was our Wembley windfall and the associated merchandise. Also West Brom got promotion which probably means additional money for Cox.

If past actions from Fitton are anything to go buy, he'll have put aside a decent chunk for Wilson to spend.


Now that I've thought about it like that I feel more optimistic than ever :)

You've reminded me about some fucking good stuff there, Si, and made me feel all rather chipper. Not that I was particularly worried anyway, being July 12 an' all......

I'm not going to read any more now because I want my 'Si-induced-high' to last.

Come back DV, it's not so bad after all!

Havn't read the whole thread, but get the jist...

If we get Caddis (which i doubt we will) can we not just put Amankwaah at CB?

We could just try it out in pre-season - it's what it's there for. See if him and Cuthbert can work well together, plus having CB that likes a run doesn't really scare me when we have Prutton & Douglas who could quite easily cover/sit back.

But ignore me, i have no footballing nous and that idea could just end up putting us in the shit.

Heh! heh!




Suicide Watch 8)

Yes. That and giving SONN a reason to go out of his/her house, for a reason other than buying cakes.

I have.


He said, I'm glad Gr££r is gone. I like League One - its fantastic

:)

BRING ON DAGENHAM AND ROCHDALE!!!!

I made you an avatar

I didn't say they had, but there has been talk of Morrison having to step up from Wilson, and somebody mentioned on here that Fitton believes we have too many defenders. These point loosely in the direction of not bringing in a replacement. Of course, there is every possibility I could be wrong and we could sign some top notch centre half.

I think you'll find it's Dagenham & Redbridge Gary 8)

Meh!

I'd have prefered Greer to have stayed, but I'm not going to get slashy about it

Lucas
Amankwaah
Cuthbert
JPM
Douglas
Austin

Have all proved themselves to be quality players here.

Rose & Prutton

are widely considered to be good league 1 players. Rose should solve the left back issue that was a problem position at times last season as LFJ clearly isnt very good there, and sheehan despite being decent had some shit games as well as a couple of months out injured.

Morrison
LFJ
Timlin
P Smith

Can be consdiered dcecent squad players in my opinion, LFJ and Morrison have the opportunity to step up and claim a 1st team spot now. I'm backing morrison to make it, I've always thought he had a lot of potential

Pericard and O'Brien

need to prove themselves. Arguably Pericard has proved himself at this level (at Carlisle) but they both need to step up for STFC. My money is on Pericard stepping up and becoming a regular with Obien being a flop.

That gives us 8 players proven to be good at this level, with 4 adequate squad players and a couple with question marks hanging over them. In addition to that we have the youngsters like Kennedy, Bodin and now Ball who also have a lot to prove.

Thats the basis of a good 1st XI, albeit with question marks over CB, LM and CF positions. Other than that the squad needs padding out a bit.

I'm still optimistic.

I agree Morrison will probably claim a first XI place this year. I'm very doubtful Pericard will but we'll see.

I hope both do  :)

Again i see people are missing out lescinel. Only 21 himself and will only get better

Don't Haiti the player, Haiti the game.

Just for you DRS ;)

Very good.

A fair point. He's not 21 though is he.

He's 23.

23 is relatively young for a centre back.  Lescinel showed glimpses when put in that position that this was his best position and a position he will grow into week after week

He delivers a quality ball into the box as well

Still can only improve after his first full season last season i thought he did well.

And not forgetting that he played 1/2 the season knowing his sister was missing and to have the bollocks to want to play for us at Wembley a few days after he found out his sister was dead wins a lot of respect for me.

I think Lecs will suprise quite a few people this season

I think we all want Lecs to do well and have a good season, whilst it doesnt work this way - he fucking deserves it more than anyone.

not only his sister but his whole life and culture was fucked over big time, friends old school mates, totally destroyed. I have a hell of a lot of time for lecs for carrying on whilst all that was and is still going on.

that place is still in one hell of a mess too

More than that. In the week between the Playoff semi second leg and the final, the body was found, repatriated to France and Lecs went over there to the funeral, and then came back to train on the friday.


Absolute hero.

fuck i didnt realise that john. i have a certain amount of manlove for him now

I've loved him since the Boyzone/Westlife question!

I've read a few reports this week suggesting that only a fraction of the aid donated has actually been released. I'm not entirely sure who is at fault for this, whether it is governments or the aid agencies, and I've seen no report which has actually sought a justification so am unsure whether the money is going to be released more gradually. However, it is quite a worrying situation when so much has been pledged and so little is being done.

Wasn't someone going to order a Haitian flag for next season?

I caught a bit of a programme on Haiti last night and they seemed to be doing OK with getting the aid out there and doing good. Though it sounded like part of the problem is the level of devastation, with whole parts of the country literally being levelled to the ground, rebuilding a country from the ground up is going to take time.

Very true. There is no quick fix as the scale of destruction was huge, and it will inevitably take years or even decades to restore any sense of normality. The issue I was raising was that reports suggest only a fraction (apparantly as little as 1%, though this figure was neither cited nor backed up) of the money donated has been used. Whether that is good planning or a major fault is unclear, which is why I often find reporting on such things rather infuriating.

Worth pointing out that living conditions weren't that great before the earthquake - most people didn't have electricity or running water. Someone said they had to pay for water before and now they're getting it for free, so that's something.

To put the devastation in context they reckon 250,000 homes and 30,000 other buildings were destroyed which is the equivalent of a town at least five times the size of Swindon being completely flattened and destroyed overnight. How long would it take us in the UK to deal with a disaster such as that? It's going to take a hell of a lot longer in Haiti.

I too have a great deal of respect for LJF. I really hope he does well for us this season.

We should definatly do this, would show our respect for him.

Its getting to be a bit serious now,send me back to the old folks home.I am feeling suicidal!
Back to the football though,Greer will not be missed,Paynter will not be missed but Easton will be missed.
We were inconsistent last year otherwise we would have got automatic promotion.
There is plenty of time yet and our youngsters should be given a chance.
Why would we buy a flag he must know he has our sympathy.

I'd be interested to know your definition of inconsistent...in all our years in Div 3, we've only ever lost less games on one occasion 95/96.

we lost as many games in 85/86....albeit at a lower level.

The captain won't be missed, the top scorer won't be missed, but the benchwarmer will be? How does that make sense.

As for the flag, it's just a token gesture. There are plenty of others up there too so why not a Haitian one.

RE: Easton, a quick google search has him linked to Aberdeen and Falkirk.

Apart from your penultimate point, that is a bizarre post. But I find you entertaining, so keep at it you old cunting fuck-weasel.

Thank you one and all for your comments,nice to know I have been conspicuous by my absence.The captain gave away too many dangerous free kicks on the edge of the box costing us points in many games,The leading goalscorer was greedy and went for impossible strikes when a simple ball to a player in a better position would have been more advantageous for the team.Finally the bench warmer never let us down every time he came on as substitute and was apparently excellent in the dressing room.As for the flag where do you stop with these outpourings of public sympathy.It is already out of hand now,every time somebody in football dies we have a collective display of sympathy.HYPOCRITICAL!However it was a nice touch at the last game for the supporters of the club who had passed away to be recognised.As for my definition of inconsistency. It is being able to play most of the top sides off the park, whilst losing to sides we should have humiliated.Nurse quickly my bag needs emptying.     

In a weird and very strange way he has a point.

The old cunt is spot on (ish).

fucking bizzare.

Damn those top goalscorers for shooting. Greedy pricks.  Should have passed to Ferry so he could shoot like a girl again.

What we really need is a hardworking but inferior central midfielder

This happens to pretty much every top team. Teams at the top of the league will lose to lower placed teams they were expected to beat at some point in the season.

superb

Damn greedy goalscorers indeed young man,but could this greed be the possible reason we did not get many goals from our midfield.Football is a team game with a few stars scattered around,very nice when you have one but we dont.My wife says whats wrong with shooting like a girl.
As for getting beaten by lower teams,you win nothing if it keeps happening and we proved that because we did it more often.It has been suggested to me on more than one occasion that we did not want promotion.----DISCUSS!

I'd suggest the people making those suggestions are numpties

how many free kicks given away by Greer were actually scored past us?

I'd prefer the stronger term of brainless fucking idiots.  But then I have a feeling GON's comments were a bit fishy.

Old people can't help the way they smell.

Not really the point Dave you can't argue that he did give away needless freekicks.

Greer was a good solid defender for us and given the choice i would rather of kept him but people can't deny that out of our central defensive partnership he was not our best player and that teams didn't target his lack of pace.

He got frustrated very easily for a so called leader and would defend very deep when we became under the cosh.

Given some of the shit we have had in defence over the years i definatly undertand why people think he was the dogs bollocks but he was just as prone to lapses as anyone else last season.

He gave away free kicks, no doubt about it.

Some of those were Greer being stupid, some of them were the strikers going down easy and looking for the free kick and some of those were just to stop the other teams momentum.

The way people keep going on about it - you'd think he gave away 100 each game and they all went in.

True but also the way some are going on is like he was the best defender we have ever had.

no.just the best since shaun taylor

He wasn't our best last season Arriba, cuthbert is better but i suppose that's just my opinion.

and one others share of course.i'm just not one of them.
we'll find out this season how big a loss it is.i'm hoping he's not missed

Greer is actually a sex robot and this is why Poyet wanted him so much.

Goalscoring from midfield is nice but matters a lot less when you've got a striker who scored 29 with his partner scoring 20 in half a season. 

Calm down Dave,all I am saying is,it is not that big a loss.and I think Morrison could be given his chance.So should Kennedy and Bodin,but an addition of an experienced CB if available would be fine.A question[hypothetical]for you Dave[or anyone] Who would you sooner have lost Greer or Cuthbert?

neither.

If we'd lost Cuthbert, unless he went for proper money and to a higher div, I'd have hit the fucking roof. If we'd lost cuthbert to any team in the same division I'd react with so much angry-drama, I'd imagine not going to watch us for quite a few games. Even thinking about it makes me angry.

Greer reminded me a bit of a poor mans Culverhouse, gives you one or two seasons of being very elegant at the job, then begins a rapid end.  Cuthbert reminds me of Calderwood, totally.  I think he'll easily cut the mustard at the level above, not sure Greer had that left in him.

Would have preferred both to stay, much prefer to keep Cuthbert out of the two and £250k for Greer may turn out to be very good business - next season could be the real beginning of his decline and show the last few months of the season to be a truthfull reflection of his ability now.  On the other hand, he could be just as usefull for Brighton but even then we'd have £250k+ in the bank, possibly an adequate replacement and freed up some budget to get 3 or 4 players in to improve the overall squad.

It's a good question but the point is that they both offered different things to the defence/team, thus making an effective partnership. You're not going to have both players with superb all-round games - not in the 3rd division.

The main thing we're going to lose with Greer is the calmness & experience that he brought with him, which was evident from his very first game with us - all of a sudden we had some assurance back there. This is my main worry. The full-backs are experienced, but I'd like us to sign an experienced c/b. Shirtliff obviously has tremendous experience in that position, but I think it's important to have someone on the pitch marshalling the defence.