Atalanta

[CroJack]

Grimes....Clearly this is the future of the club ... if we can hold on to him. How long can he continue to fly beneath the radar of the Prem clubs.

I suspect the misterious Brighton scout was at the Liberty to watch Grimes. Grimes was our POTY last season and Potter knows how important Grimes was/is for our style of play.

Other Premier League clubs? Of course. They all use advanced statistical tools like Whyscout and it takes no time for them to identify the best talent in the Championship. They all know Grimes was one of the best, if not the best, for progressive passes last season in the Championship.

So, why there isn't any bid for him?

Well, here are some of the reasons:

- some of them already have better defensive midfielders like Kante, Fernandinho, Fabinho...,

- many PL clubs don't play from the back and progressive passing is not their priority, they want more physicality in DM position,

- some of them are waiting to see whether Grimes will continue his positive development or not.

Will we play 3 at the back. Is that in Cooper's repertoire.

I doubt it. We are going to dominate the vast majority of our games and we don't need to play 3 centre-backs. When we attack it's Grimes who drops between Hoorn and Rodon to provide extra defensive cover in case we lose the ball and opposition tries to counter-attack us.

plans for Montero at this point in time and that Montero is nowhere near the squad. Thoughts?

The same thing happened to Dyer and Routs last season. In the beginning of the last season Potter was told they would be sold and he didn't use them. When it was clear they would stay they became an important part of the squad. I hope there is no bid for Montero and Borja in this transfer window and they stay. That would significantly strengthen us.

 

[ivoralljack]

Despite his tender years, as @Ladygargar said to me, Wilmot looks like a bit of a chunk. Even standing still there's something aggresive about his stance. As for whom BHA was scouting, the obvious suspects are Grimes, Oli, Celina and Roberts with maybe VdH in the mix. You pays your money.......

 

[CroJack]

Despite his tender years, as @Ladygargar said to me, Wilmot looks like a bit of a chunk. Even standing still there's something aggresive about his stance. As for whom BHA was scouting, the obvious suspects are Grimes, Oli, Celina and Roberts with maybe VdH in the mix. You pays your money.......

Allegedly, we are still short £15m, and
only if we sell Oli we can get that sort of money.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Allegedly, we are still short £15m, and
only if we sell Oli we can get that sort of money.

How much .... that is a ridiculous amount to be short. Can't wait to see the financials for the year just finished and run a three year comparison .

 

[CroJack]

How much .... that is a ridiculous amount to be short. Can't wait to see the financials for the year just finished and run a three year comparison .

i've always questioned that famous £30m hole in our finances. In summer 2018 we had almost £40m profit from transfers,but the trouble is the amortisation. We are still paying transfer fees for Andre Ayew, Borja...

 

[Yankee_Jack]

The amortization is on our payments due for transfers-in - some of that cash is offset by loan fees on the Ayew brothers, Montero, et al. For transfers-out, we received cash there and then by factoring the receivable on behalf of the buying club. I don't see how we could be running a deficit.

 

[ivoralljack]

Some disappointing and brief highlights of the game. I hope we'll get a better standard than this during the season else I'll be giving @jackodiamonds a call cos he'd definitely do a better job than this. eg no sign of Bidwell's attempt and some other tidy play.

 

[CroJack]

no sign of Bidwell's attempt and some other tidy play

I've created Bidwell's 1st half pass map:




16 passes, 12 successful and 4 unsuccessful = 75 % passing accuracy
2 shots, 1 on target
2 unsuccessful clearances (giving the ball away in our penalty box, which was dangerous, panicking)
1 beautiful long ball from our third to Oli who was in the middle of the pitch
1 clever pass into opposition third for McKay on the left flank
0 crosses
Too slow to close down Atalanta player who scored their first goal
I was impressed with his defensive discipline and man-marking

 

[CroJack]

Norwich 1 : 4 Atalanta this evening. We are not so bad after all.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

Norwich 1 : 4 Atalanta this evening. We are not so bad after all.

Apparently not. Looking forward to the start of the season.