Thetownend.com

Has not played since pre season injury

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/10686852.AFC_Bournemouth__Ritchie_rocked_by_another_injury_setback/?ref=twtrec

I was speaking to his uncle in Spain recently, he said Richie was not happy at Bournemouth. :cry:

Gossip - He also told me that Marlon Pack was Richie's step brother (same mum) :girlgiggle:

Think he'd struggle to get into our team at present

He'd definitely get in. Pritchard on one wing, Ritchie on the other.

Dont be daft he would walk in!

I hope he recovers and does well for himself, hopefully not at Bournemouth though!

:soapy tit wank:

I fucking love this place sometimes.

Yeah, he'd never displace Byrne or Pritchard.

Hugely overrated

It does make one wonder how many of last season's squad would make the first team now though.

Would Ferry get in?

No.

There would be a case from some people for Flint or Devera over Grant Hall perhaps.

Collins would be in if we played 2 up top.

Ritchie/Hollands be in.

I am struggling here.

Agree with Chang although I think over the next few months Ward could be the question mark at CB rather than Hall.  He looked like a very old player on Saturday.

Ritchie would thrive in the position that Bryne, Reis, Ajose have played this season opposite Pritchard.

Rooney>Collins

Whilst its never going to be a fool proof 100% accurate comparison - after 7 games last season we 11 points, 3 more than this season.

Our next games was a 4-0 thrashing of Bournemouth.

Loooooong way to go. We didnt make the play offs due to fluke last season, we had a good solid team.

Ritchie would walk in. Him opposite Reis or Pritchard would be fucking bootiful. Would have him over Byrne any day, even, no wait, especially at left back.

He was in the unfortunate position of being the clubs best asset at a time when we needed to get some petty cash in to stay afloat. I'm pretty certain he didn't want to go (more, having read/heard the interviews with him, that he was pushed), and can't blame him for not settling properly into muff's setup, if that is indeed true.

Agree with DV in that our team last season was good and solid, but I honestly have similar expectations with our current one. Our current team could easily give last year's a good old run for their money.

Go on Jed/Cooper, make a cheeky loan bid for him. Ignoring all the 'never look back'-ers, he would be a brilliant addition, and we have a spare loan slot.

Could even make a perm bid for him in January. It's possible his 'pre-season injury' is just an excuse for 'is not in favour'.

Indeed, according to many on here we've better players and a better manager this season....therefore we should make the PO's at least if not auto.

The more realistic like yourself realise that Div 3 is hard attritional graft...atm we're on an edge, lose to Shitty and with a couple of tough away games coming up v Preston and Rotherham, both norvern and going well, things could look considerably less rosy. Beating Shitty and getting an away win under the belt, would certainly boost the players confidence.

If you can find a single post stating that that I'd be very surprised.

Richie yes, ferry bench.

Lg1 is even harder this year
Wolves,Posh and even shitty are tougher teams to beat than donny and yeovil

We have had a tough away start this season too - playing 3 teams in the top 6 with 2 more coming up

Take it from me SY...there are plenty more dotted around.

Have you seen us play recently?

Not sure the team could play with any more confidence than they currently are

Div 2 and Div 1 player of the season voted by fellow professional footballers and some of you question whether he would get in our team.
Unbelievable.
Some of you struggle with short term memory loss. Were the Di Canio days not good.
Granted we have a lovely footballing side now but we were also a cracking side albeit a different style under Di Canio. We didn't concede many but we rattled in a fair few as well with Matt Ritchie one of the best players we had.

Only the one person questioning whether he would or not, the agreement that he would walk into the current side is unanimous otherwise

Did anybody say they weren't?

Confidence comes from winning matches, or getting draws from losing positions etc....as I said at the moment we're on an edge, ideally we want a little run of positive results.

Yep...lets play shit and win the next 5 :D

Wolves did.

Of course it's a football cliche that playing poorly and winning is a good sign, and conversely playing well and losing is to be avoided.  A chum who's a Wolves ST holder, reckons they're terrible..

Would have him back here in a flash if possible, and yes he'd walk straight in to the side...voted League 2 and then League 1 player of the year back to back seasons! Who wouldn't want a player like that?!

As Walsall proved,sort of.

Bournemouth apparently...

Surprised noone has highlighted that with Ritchie, Bournemouth did the same to us as Blackburn did with Shearer. Bought our best player to stop us challenging for promotion.

That's a bit of a stretch. Blackburn did that, but it wasn't the same with Ritchie, we had to sell. If we weren't going through the takeover it wouldn't have happened.

Matt would be a fantastic addition to this squad, he'd have no problem fitting in with the style of play and he'd be firing quality balls into the box for Ranger deal with. 

With Ritchie in our side last Saturday we'd have butchered Wolves, mostly because you could always rely on him to bag a goal when others were being a little wasteful.

If there is any chance he might be available we should do whatever we can to get him, that would mean Storey going out on loan I would imagine, also something we should look to be doing I think.

Matt Ritchie would walk straight into the squad, but wouldn't be guaranteed a starting spot every game, in my opinion.

He's the only player from last years squad, for me.

Ritchie would be our first choice winger... better than anything we currently have by some distance, although Pritchard will get there. I'd still rather have Flint too, far stronger in the air than Hall, and I think could have adapted to the passing, and he did try at times anyway.

Not sure about Flint passing it as he took a good few minutes to ever get the ball under control!

Ritchie is injured - so would only hobble into the side!

Doubt whether he'd come back. He's in Championship now.

Doubt whether we would be prepared to match his wages if he was on the same structure as the rest of last years squad seem to have been.

Finally, and most importantly - Never look back, always forward!

I would have Matt back in a flash but, his play would need to adapt.

The current squad bears no resemblence to that which he thrived under. For me, his best period with us was when he had the overlapping interplay with Caddis.

Last season, before he was got rid of, there were times when he looked quite frustrated as Joe Devera didn't have the same understanding and play the same game as Caddis.

As I said though, I would have him back in a flash.

The thought of Ritchie in the midfield with Mason and Luongo makes me fucking moist. He would stroll into this team, and improve it immeasurably.

Here we are, a 'never look back'er! I do understand the sentiment Nmh, but personally I'd disagree in this instance.

Injury: There are rumours doing the rounds about him either being told 'take your time to recover mate, you ain't getting in the side for the forseeable future', or that he's (CONSPIRACY!) not even injured and has fallen out with the team/manager. This seems believable to me, what with the circumstances around his move.

Championship->Lower Tier: Loads of people have made that move before to get more game time, especially on loan. Everyone talks about how L1 is more difficult this year than last year, and whilst I'm not arguing it's nearly as hard as the top of the Championship (where you have millions and squillions of quid being spent), a middling to lower champo team would probably not look out of place in L1 right now.

Wages: If we sign him on a perm that could be a problem, but let's also look at the possibility he's unhappy and doesn't fit in at 'muff. People have taken wage cuts before because they A. want to play and B. are unhappy where they are. Look at Beauchump (using him to describe a point with Ritchie makes me feel a little ill).

Why shouldn't we look back if it gets us a better player? Byrne's alright, but he's no Ritchie...


The triangle between him, Ferry and Caddis was a beautiful thing to behold. I do think, however, that he'd fit nicely into the team now. Wes, Ward, Jmac, Storey and the Thompson twins are still rattling about, so there is still a sense of continuity in the side, and our style of play now would definitely suit someone tricky, quick, and with a killer left foot.

Nice post - Don't disagree with any of it.

I would have Caddis, Ritchie, Hollands, Bostock and A Rooney in this squad. The only starters would be Caddis and Ritchie.

Would you start Caddis over Thompson then? He wouldn't get a look in otherwise.

I'd definitely have Collins and Andy Williams 2012 up top...

I'd have caddis, ritchie, ferry, flint, devera collins and Williams in todays squad of the players who left.

Ritchie absolutely nailed on to play left wing (ajose or byrne instead, really??) flint or devera in place of hall whos still a bit naive for my taste. Possibly caddis for N Thompson but nathans tackling is a wonderful thing to behold.

The rest of them on the bench.

I'm getting my first look at Kasim today, and I don't doubt the reports that have been coming through about his distribution.  But I'm still surprised at the ease with which some are keen to play down Simon Ferry's contribution during recent seasons.  He was fairly consistent and, on his day, ran the midfield as competently as anyone I'd seen since John Moncur.

Plastic  :wink:

Kasim is IMHO at least twice as good as Ferry
Always has time on the ball and his passing is usually clinical
Add in his tenacious defending = legend in the making

Ferry wouldn't be starting if he was still here. Luongo and Kasim are streets ahead/

As good as Ferry was, I'm gonna have to agree with Jayo.

He can do all Ferry could, but does it better. And he's a monster defensively, something Ferry lacked.

And Luongo can actually shoot and score occasionally.

And that. And lets not overlook Yasser's beard. Dreamy.

Could not agree more. And he doesn't seem to be a twat off the pitch  ;D

We await Ardiles verdict on the swindon legend.

Never raise a point like this on facebook  :no: all i'm getting is stick  :D

Don't think my verdict counts for much.   :D

Impressed with Yaser, but I'm sure he didn't have his best game today.  Bristol matched us in the midfield for long periods today...something I wasn't expecting.  Luongo was hot & cold, I thought.  Topsy turvy game...really reminded me of some of our old tussles with them.  Proper derby game.

Still grinning.