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Give Hughton a Chance
One thing that is clear from all the reports I’ve seen from people who went to see Blues play yesterday at Middlesbrough is that the team is knackered. They tried hard first half, did well first half but the after effects of playing in Europe kicked in in the second half, and the team just fell away. It’s understandable really, and shouldn’t be used as a slight against them or Chris Hughton. However, with one and a bit weeks left in the transfer window, it’s getting down to a time period when things need to happen.
The worry for me is that we won’t be able to move on Cameron Jerome and Nikola Zigic. Both have injuries that are keeping them out of action, and (especially in Nikola’s case) we cannot afford to keep them at the club. Yet whilst both players are injured, it’s difficult to sell either of them. Throw in the fact Scott Dann still hasn’t played since injuring his hamstring against West Ham back in January, and we’re in a pickle. What really worries me is that the club are struggling to offload these three players, and as such will be forced to offload the two players that they don’t want to sell – Liam Ridgewell and Stephen Carr – for prices they don’t want to accept.
Furthermore, it’s evident Blues lack bodies in the squad. We still have Lomana Tresor Lua Lua and Darren Carter on trial at the club, but it seems evident to me that we need to shit or get off the pot; if they’re good enough for the club right now let’s get them fixed up to contracts and signed. If they’re not, let’s let them go and look at some other players. There is no time any more for indecisiveness; we need to start sorting the squad out before our stay in the bottom reaches of the Championship become more permanent than we’d like.
Whilst I’m chuffed that Hughton has turned to youth players like Nathan Redmond and Jordon Mutch this season, and has given them their chance, it appears to me we’re going to have to risk more youth in the team. Beausejour did his best in midweek against Nacional, but again, taken from what people have said who attended yesterday’s game he’s not a central midfielder in the long term. We have a central midfielder who is fit in Enric Valles – for me it’s time to throw our young Spaniard in to see how he gets on. It’s not like we’re going to be challenging for promotion so let’s blood a few players and solve our squad crisis a little from within. Likewise, I’d look at maybe giving Eddy Gnahore a squad number and getting him to train with the first team with a view to giving him a bench spot and seeing how he copes.
It’s been painfully obvious for a while we’re in for a very tough season this year – I’ve said before this season is about consolidation; staying in the black and in this division, and maybe ending the season with some young players who are worth a lot more than the season started. It’s down to the board to give Hughton a chance at being able to achieve that.
Tags: Cameron Jerome, Chris Hughton, Eddy Gnahore, Enric Valles, Jordon Mutch, Liam Ridgewell, Nathan Redmond, Nikola Zigic, Scott Dann, Stephen Carr
10 Responses to “Give Hughton a Chance”
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Doesn’t the Championship transfer window open for ‘Emergency Loans” after the first week in September ?
“In England, clubs from the Football League Championship to the Football Conference can loan in players from 8 September to 25 November and also from 8 February until 24 March”
We have 2 matches (Nacional & Watford) before the Internaional break which means after 28th August, we don’t play again till 10th September.
That should help with recovery and also give us a clearer picture of which players didn’t get transferred and on the the extreme edge at their clubs, and would jump at a loan.
:-) …. I hope.
We just sold Johnson and Gardner for championship price tags now bring in some quality I think mat killganon from Sunderland he’s cheap and good enough for championship also Jason koumas he’s a free agent and danny Guthrie from Newcastle also maybe get Leon best swell because they will play well under hughton
Excellent Summary OP as usual.
Last time Boro played prior to yesterday was last Tuesday giving them 48hrs more ‘rest’ than most of Blues’ Team who played their first game in Europe last Thursday at altitude and had less than 72 hours to recover. What they achieved at Boro was remarkable under the circumstances and was acknowledged by a couple of Boro fans who posted on the BCFC Official Face Book Page. Those Boro fans didn’t have to do that – they took time out to let us know because they were impressed and complimentary!
As an indication of the dire state of our finances – as if we didn’t know – is that to me it appears the delay in signing new players is to avoid paying them even one weeks wages unnecessarily; ie compared to signing them now we save ourselves two weeks wages if we sign them on Transfer Deadline Day!
It will be intersting to see if Zigic is fit enough to play for Serbia in the forthcoming European Championship matches against Northern Ireland and the Faroe Islands!
I do not believe that we cannot afford Zigic’s wages, I suspect that we would prefer not to have to pay them whilst in the Championship. However, if neither Zigic or Jerome are not sold then it is likely that they will both play. Given CH’s style of football both could score a lot of goals if they played in the Championship. So it may be a silver lining to what has been a very dark cloud if they are not sold. The sale of Dann may just take the pressure off allowing a couple more bodies to come in also. Hopefully!! KRO
There’s no guarantee that Zigic would be sold even if he was fit, from my understanding the only interest in him was created in his agents head (as per usual), there wasn’t ever any concrete interest or offers for him. It’s all gone quiet on both Jerome & Dann now, though I could still see someone snapping Dann up before the deadline. I’m not sure if my facts are correct but I believe neither Parnaby or Mcfadden have found clubs yet, why not bring them both back on short term contracts as they could both do a job for us
I don’t agree with this “chuck the kids in” solution. The reason we aren’t doing that is because the coaching staff will have assessed them as either not ready or not good enough or both.
It’s not the way forward and, in my opinion, will only be employed as a last resort should we fail to be able to shift out our higher value / higher cost “stars” (dann/jerome/zigic) and bring in the bodies we need i.e replacements for the above AND on top of that we could with at least 1 Centre Mid, 1 Wide Mid and 1 Centre half.
I do however agree that sorting this out sooner rather than later would be nice. But we have got to be realistic – the 3 players are injured and we are holding out for decent money – so it’s got deadline day scramble written all over it. As i’ve said before, we need Cahill to move quickly – I’d be amazed if bolton didn’t come in for Dann on the back of that.
Pannu has allegedly stated to Tom Ross that we aren’t going into administration “any time soon”. I suspect that this is a euphamisim for “we’ll go into adminstration on 1st Sept if we don’t shift some of our injured but otherwise saleable high cost assets”.
So our entire future as a club could depend on Wenger buying an English centre half from another club……..
I do agree that tiredness may be a factor but it was apparent yesterday the bench wasn’t strong enough. Maybe to consolidate we could give Dann a run out. Dann isn’t tired and we could have had 3 centrebacks on the pitch. Easy in hindsight but use all 3 when playing away from home especially if we are gonna ship goals in. It would kill 20 mins of the game although we conceded too early in the 2nd half to use that system. I am not saying use it all the time but there has to be room for Dann even if only to get match fit.
O.P.. Any news more news on the investment front?
I’d be careful, digging up rubbish about people from hearsay round the net, especially on people who haven’t done annything wrong, could find yourself facing a libel case
Good idea Bluehobba ! but in reality Dann may be on the bench , but he’s basically wrapped up in cotton wool awaiting shipment. His commodity value is such that he will not be risked unless all other options are exhausted. Hughton’s under strict orders there.
I suspect a similar story with Zigic , Jerome and even the hapless Ridgewell now ! ( Although I have to say Dear Ridgy actually looks quite at home dealing with Championship scenarios now ! A compliment indeed from me ! )