(That long since we've had any, couldn't find the thread)

Alan Nixon: "Top Liverpool starlet Cameron Branagan will Ben allowed out on loan in Jan.

Bolton lead the race for the 20 year old midfielder"

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by Ratwhite

8 minutes ago, kent_white said:

If he was then we wouldn't have had our best run of the season when he was out of the side! 

Honestly - I think you've all been hypnotised by Ian Evatt 😉😁

I think he played some of worse stuff under Evatt as he was a lamb to the slaughter against high pressing teams and struggled. Highlighted in that pod I posted the other day and Des Buckinghams video.

With better players around him and a more direct style of play I think he's been our heartbeat. Everything runs through him.

I think he gets labelled as soft and shot because he's easy on the eye. 

His vision, ball retention and pasing is the best we have in the team by some margin.

He's not a starter for Wales for no reason either.

7 hours ago, L/H White said:

Forss released by Boro

I'd have him back, I feel better when there's a Finnish player in the team 😊 

5 hours ago, kent_white said:

That's literally his job in that position. And he does it adequately if not spectacularly in League 1. There's a huge question mark for me about whether he can do it adequately if not spectacularly in the Championship. 

We'll find out one way or another come the new season. Big year coming up for him. 

Yes and no.  We'll watch him playing, but we won't "find out" because its never black and white.

We've been watching him for about 5 years and we still don't have an agreement.

Same goes for GJ, Toal, Tutu, Simons and EE, they do their best, they contribute well at times but never a definitive "they've nailed it" over a significant length of time.

As usual, there will be games Sheehan looks good, and others we lose comfortably and the game passes him, and others, by.

17 minutes ago, SalCity Biggie said:

I'd have him back, I feel better when there's a Finnish player in the team 😊 

He's not Finnish, he's only 26

32 minutes ago, gonzo said:

I think he played some of worse stuff under Evatt as he was a lamb to the slaughter against high pressing teams and struggled. Highlighted in that pod I posted the other day and Des Buckinghams video.

With better players around him and a more direct style of play I think he's been our heartbeat. Everything runs through him.

I think he gets labelled as soft and shot because he's easy on the eye. 

His vision, ball retention and pasing is the best we have in the team by some margin.

He's not a starter for Wales for no reason either.

He's not a starter for Wales is he? 

Not that I watch many Wales games to be honest 😁

See I think his ball retention is very good and his vision is OK, but his execution isn't. Which is probably why he's been playing in the lower leagues for most of his career. 

Conceivably it's SS instructing him to play that way of course.

38 minutes ago, gonzo said:

I think he played some of worse stuff under Evatt as he was a lamb to the slaughter against high pressing teams and struggled. Highlighted in that pod I posted the other day and Des Buckinghams video.

With better players around him and a more direct style of play I think he's been our heartbeat. Everything runs through him.

I think he gets labelled as soft and shot because he's easy on the eye. 

His vision, ball retention and pasing is the best we have in the team by some margin.

He's not a starter for Wales for no reason either.

Just checked - apparently he's had 17 caps but only 6 starts for Wales in his career (vs Gibraltar, Georgia, Finland, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia and Northern Ireland). None of which were in 25/26. From AI though and I haven't checked of it's accurate or not. 

 

2 hours ago, Chrisj said:

Isn’t that because of the emergence of one RR.  We were so reliant on Sheehan for moments of quality so he had to be everything in one.  Now we have RR who can create so not much pressure on Sheehan all the time.  

RR only started 6 league games (excluding play offs).  And he was subbed well before the end of all but one of those (we only won 2 of the 6 he started, Plymouth and Stevenage).

IMO there was no Sheehan improvement post Christmas, he's one of the most consistent players we've got, year in year out.  He's probably had 10 midfield partners in his time here and he's always our best midfielder, and that's not to say he doesn't have poor games like everyone does.

One of his absolute best performances was at Wigan and his midfield partner was Simons, who was hardly seen again.

Just now, kent_white said:

Just checked - apparently he's had 17 caps but only 6 starts for Wales in his career (vs Gibraltar, Georgia, Finland, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia and Northern Ireland). None of which were in 25/26. From AI though and I haven't checked of it's accurate or not. 

 

But 2 of those starts were full 90's and were 2 of Wales' last three games, so he's getting minutes.

 

3 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

RR only started 6 league games (excluding play offs).  And he was subbed well before the end of all but one of those (we only won 2 of the 6 he started, Plymouth and Stevenage).

IMO there was no Sheehan improvement post Christmas, he's one of the most consistent players we've got, year in year out.  He's probably had 10 midfield partners in his time here and he's always our best midfielder, and that's not to say he doesn't have poor games like everyone does.

One of his absolute best performances was at Wigan and his midfield partner was Simons, who was hardly seen again.

To be fair, they complement each other well especially in a 3, prefer EE as the 'ratter'

Just now, Traf said:

But 2 of those starts were full 90's and were 2 of Wales' last three games, so he's getting minutes.

 

I've no idea - AI seems to disagree. Like I said - I've no idea as I don't watch Wales. 

Did you watch them? Was he any good in those games? 

7 minutes ago, Traf said:

But 2 of those starts were full 90's and were 2 of Wales' last three games, so he's getting minutes.

 

Ignore AI - you're right. He started against North Macedonia and NI. 

Can't find a rating for NI but sounds like he had a good game in the former.

3 minutes ago, kent_white said:

Ignore AI - you're right. He started against North Macedonia and NI. 

Can't find a rating for NI but sounds like he had a good game in the former.

Getting on for 18 months ago now but I saw Turkey v Wales which was pretty much a play off for the Nations League and Sheehan was MoM. 

3 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Getting on for 18 months ago now but I saw Turkey v Wales which was pretty much a play off for the Nations League and Sheehan was MoM. 

He's definitely got it in him. That's partly why he frustrates me. 

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

100%

It's no coincidence his game improved massively this season with better players around him.

He's our whole heartbeat.

I got shot down months ago for suggesting this, off his performances for Wales, with good players like Ampadu, Wilson etc around him and against decent opponents such as Turkey and Montenegro.

He was done zero favours by Evatt's way of playing and use of him, a combination of having RR and EE to work with and us playing with a less-than-suicidal level of risk have helped him be what he can be.

He's waited a couple of years too long for this opportunity but he's still capable of taking it

I suspect there will be tactical changes in the summer to accomodate the new signings, maybe with a proper no 10 now, SS doesn't want a passer in the midfield 2 just two grugs to tackle and play short fast passes to release the no10. Maybe he wants 1 more than ever and that isn't Sheehan, it's someone we'll spend silly money on. Then again maybe it is Sheehan and nowt will change. 

Who knows.

I'd imagine were atleast 2/3 months from finding out. 

Edited May 28May 28 by Zog1

21 minutes ago, kent_white said:

He's definitely got it in him. That's partly why he frustrates me. 

16 minutes ago, ianofcleveleys said:

I got shot down months ago for suggesting this, off his performances for Wales, with good players like Ampadu, Wilson etc around him and against decent opponents such as Turkey and Montenegro.

He was done zero favours by Evatt's way of playing and use of him, a combination of having RR and EE to work with and us playing with a less-than-suicidal level of risk have helped him be what he can be.

He's waited a couple of years too long for this opportunity but he's still capable of taking it

Think he was left high and dry by so many of the combinations we tried as a 3. Or even SS trying a 2 which left him exposed.

But I reckon we’ve already seen enough of Rodrigues that he can do well in advanced positions, while having enough defensive responsibility not to be considered a ‘10’ in the same way we tried with Randall, McAtee etc. Fuck knows what number that makes him, mind. 

11 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Playing devil's advocate here for discussions sake!

But we can't say a player is a success because they scored 1 or 2 goals can we?   That makes Forss a success too.

If you sign for a season and have 2 great moments in 46 games, does that negate the other 40 odd?

This is NOT a dig at Cissoko who we've grown to love, but when we sign a player this summer we aren't thinking its a good signing if we have to wait till April for him to "contribute".

A success is based on their contribution over the season, if Cissoko contributed to winning a few points he presumably also contributed to us losing some games otherwise why was he hauled off at Burton (0-3) etc etc?  The argument might be that if we'd signed a better player we would have been challenging for top 2 instead of getting 28 points less than Lincoln.

[B]Would we sign Bonham/Cissoko/AN Other with the benefit of hindsight if we could take all their good and poor performances again?[/b]

 

Surely it would be totally nuts to do anything other than the exact thing we did which ended in promotion? I wouldn't replay the second half of the season with Donnarumma instead of Bonham, if there was a chance he might not make the save at Bradford. 

As I said later on, I'm not saying it's a scientific criteria. But there's clearly a difference between players who ended up being key parts of the team in the playoffs (Cissoko, Bonham, Burstow) and those who got injured and/or bombed out along the way (Apter, Forss, TSL, Taylor).

I'd consider Fredi Bobic and Aaron Wilbraham successful signings. Okocha, Campo and Hierro were all wank to begin with and became key players in their first seasons. Anyone who is playing a meaningful part in us achieving our goals at the end of the season is a success to me. If you offered me a striker tomorrow who would do nothing all season until they score a hat-trick on the final day to keep us up I'd take it.

3 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

 

Surely it would be totally nuts to do anything other than the exact thing we did which ended in promotion? I wouldn't replay the second half of the season with Donnarumma instead of Bonham, if there was a chance he might not make the save at Bradford. 

As I said later on, I'm not saying it's a scientific criteria. But there's clearly a difference between players who ended up being key parts of the team in the playoffs (Cissoko, Bonham, Burstow) and those who got injured and/or bombed out along the way (Apter, Forss, TSL, Taylor).

I'd consider Fredi Bobic and Aaron Wilbraham successful signings. Okocha, Campo and Hierro were all wank to begin with and became key players in their first seasons. Anyone who is playing a meaningful part in us achieving our goals at the end of the season is a success to me. If you offered me a striker tomorrow who would do nothing all season until they score a hat-trick on the final day to keep us up I'd take it.

Its just chat, I get your meaning, I'll just agree to have a different view.

Bobic, Wilbraham, DeFretias, Farrelly, Kachunga etc all did amazing things in big games/finals - fair play and they are part of our history of great moments, that can't be taken away from them.  

But no I wouldn't want SS signing someone next month that might not contribute until next April.  We won't need someone to be the last day hero if we get it right sooner and we all want us to have quite a few good days next season that we can enjoy.

We're Sorted...

 

53 minutes ago, only1swanny said:

We're Sorted...

 

Down by Christmas 

Functional XI at least

5 hours ago, masi 51 said:

I must be living rent free.......Where have i mentioned Sheehan had a bad start to the season????

Just ignore the bin man - he’s just looking to wind people up, trying to look clever by taking partial quotes out of context and will persist until he gets banned again, just as he pissed off and banned everyone who disagreed with him on his own forum.  I guess he’s come crawling back here because there’s nobody left to lord it over on Bolton Nuts. 

Come on mods - fuck Sluffy off before he wrecks this forum too - after all he spent years slagging off WW.

He’s a cock and everyone knows it.

He might well be a cock lusty but to be fair to him he does his homework and his posts are usually based on facts. Whether you like, agree with or dispute those facts as I often do on Nuts is your choice but calling for people to be banned because you don’t agree with them isn’t very fair so if you don’t like his posts just don’t read them. I regularly do that when I see how long they are. 😁

7 hours ago, only1swanny said:

We're Sorted...

 

That sends a shiver down my spine

No need for him to be banned though i think he just goes off on one and says things about others to suit his agenda.

Two on me yesterday was my hatred for Evatt......I never agreed with Evatt the last two years of his tenure but i never hated the guy.

And where he thinks i said Sheehan started the season badly i have no idea.......Just random made up quotes from him.

Many agree and disagree with me on here, but i dont want them banned......That would only leave a handful left

Edited May 29May 29 by masi 51