This is how I see things shaping up in a 3-5-2 with Edun and Taylor through the door.
We know there’s a need for a striker as Aneke can’t last and Leaburn also prone to the odd injury. We also were in for a right back so I would be surprised if we aren’t still looking in that area.
I personally would also like one more centre back which would allow one of Mitchell or Elerewe get minutes on loan somewhere.
As others have mentioned as well, having four quality centre mids also allows us to switch to a diamond when the 3-5-2 isn’t working. Would still need a proper target man through the door though.
You cant go into the season with Kirk/CBT, DJ/Campbell as makeshift strikers.
We've done so well up to thus point assembling a decent squad to get top 6, can't ruin it by not signing another proper striker.
I think we only need 1 more as Leaburn will feature heavily after Sept & Aneke might be "ok" later in the season too.
But please, no more make do & mend.
I have a feeling that's what we're doing with our keepers, maybe unfair as I've not seen much of either but certainly on last nights showing Isted is an accident waiting to happen & AMB seems a bit hit & miss. Surely we're not going to put what looks a decent squad together & not bring in a quality keeper. Also think we need an Experienced CB, Elewere has a dodgy knee & Mitchell isn't ready imo
Isted did brilliantly at Barnsley, helped them secure their place in the L1 playoffs and they were really disappointed not to keep him. Hardly a make do and mend keeper. Pretty ridiculous to base your perception of a player on one preseason game
As I said "maybe unfair" but he didn't fill me with confidence with his suicide pass outs to put us under pressure. their second goal seemed to go straight through him, he fumbled a weak shot & just managed to grab it off the line but yes pretty ridiculous to dare to criticise a charlton player on one game & hopefully he will prove me wrong. Of course it would be fairer to judge him over the course of his career so far but I suspect there's a very good reason why at 26 he's only played 22 senior games.
It's not 'maybe unfair' though is it, it's ridiculous. You can criticise a player for a performance, sure, but saying you think we've signed a make do and mend keeper (whose last competitive game was a man of the match performance in the L1 Play-Off final) because you didn't like some of his distribution in one pre-season friendly is silly. There's a world of difference between a poor performance and a poor player.
If we do get Nombe I might go as far as to say this is the best transfer window we've had since 2011. 2018 with Lyle Taylor, Cullen and Bielik will be tough to beat as individuals but we didn't strenghten anywhere near as well across the whole team imo.
If we do get Nombe I might go as far as to say this is the best transfer window we've had since 2011. 2018 with Lyle Taylor, Cullen and Bielik will be tough to beat as individuals but we didn't strenghten anywhere near as well across the whole team imo.
Don't forget that the 2018-19 promotion squad contained the nucleus of our team that made the playoffs the previous season. A major rebuild wasn't so necessary, mostly just adding better quality in a few key positions.
Is Nombe actually good does anyone know? Yes he got a reasonable amount of goals last year, but Kirk had reasonable stats the season before we signed him (remember thinking from his video at the time, he looked a bit average though). So are we blinded by the stats or is he good?
"Tough one re the Nombe situation. A fantastic player for us over the last few seasons.
"But… if we’re being offered the best part of £1Million or over that, it’ll be very hard to turn down for someone with 12months left on their contract"
"Tough one re the Nombe situation. A fantastic player for us over the last few seasons.
"But… if we’re being offered the best part of £1Million or over that, it’ll be very hard to turn down for someone with 12months left on their contract"
Surely Exeter are along the lines of Cheltenham where they really need the money. I'd be shocked if he cost any more than about £300k
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A major rebuild wasn't so necessary, mostly just adding better quality in a few key positions.
The Exeter link above suggests that they wouldn't sell Nombe until they had first brought in a replacement.
Looks like Exeter have that player about to sign and will now sell Nombe.
Exeter tweet:
"Tough one re the Nombe situation. A fantastic player for us over the last few seasons.
"But… if we’re being offered the best part of £1Million or over that, it’ll be very hard to turn down for someone with 12months left on their contract"