That’s it, let cleverley and gosling go just to replace them with someone the same age and just as injury prone. Top work
What are we the over 30's club? Nothing wrong with a player if they can still be agile at that age but we seem to be turning into a retirement village for footballer's in the twilight of their careers. See Kalu for prime example.
He’s a free agent though so if these reports are true it’s possible he might just be training with us until his future is sorted? A favour from his ex manager etc
The comments from West Brom fans are not too favourable. They were pretty much universally pleased/relieved he finally went. "Highly paid dressing room leader". "Committed and aggressive in the tackle, but very poor on the ball." , "High on effort, low on ability". I'm getting Choudhury/WTE vibes here. Basically, for them, he was over-paid crap player, although they liked his commitment and he was a good pro. Very similar to the players we are now trying to move on in Gosling, Cleverley, Cathcart etc. Seems like another player of yesteryear.
We tried to sign him in January so wouldn't shock me. But if we sign him and Ince in the same week the club can **** off.
It's a bit like Sophie's Choice. I would still take Ince over Livermore though, so I do hope this is just what @Malteser2 said, he is simply training with us as a favour from Ismael.
No brainer, free transfer so we literally can’t lose by punting him a 4 year deal Knows the league and fits Ismaels system Ben Manga has been tracking him for years and has identified him as solid back up as long as we sign 3 other top class centre mids in the same window
IIRC we were linked in our PL days too. Pozzo loves to get his man, even if it takes multiple transfer windows.
Ashley Fletcher and Etebo spring to mind, tried to sign each on about 4 seperate occasions before finally "succeeding". Tbf, I think it was Bilic pushing in Jan and Pozzo didn't want, so hopefully won't end up signing.
For the record, he is absolutely gash so he's definitely the sort of player we'll be in the market for.
Ah jesus, I didn't realise he was 33! If he's a good leader etc then maybe not the worst option on a maximum of a 1 year deal. We certainly need some good influences and knows-the-league types in our squad of cowards. Can't imagine his injury issues will improve as he gets older and is 'looked after' by our medical team...
Agree that we need some good types/characters but there must be some out there with a recent record of contributing. Younger, hungry players like Styles are perfect, Ince has shown recently he has quality and in the past signings like Watson/Guedioura - a younger age, with minutes in their legs - worked out. I'm sure he's a good bloke, and there are theoretical reasons why this would work, but more compelling theoretical reasons why he'd be exactly the kind of washed-up hindrance we all want rid of.
Actually, on reflection, this is a perfectly acceptable signing as 3rd or 4th choice. With Ince as further back up, Kayembe, Gosling and Cleverley also as back up, the option of Gaspar as a back up option, Quina a possible back up, Dele-Bashiru as back up should he be needed, and Louza as a first choice, we should be fine, as long as we bring in an additional 3 central midfielders for that pile of **** to act as back up to.
I thought this fella retired years ago. He is a leader though and that is a big plus. That said he does have his flaws, and playing football is definitely one of them
Massively underwhelming if we do sign him .... but he's not injury prone .... basically played every game for the past 10 seasons bar in the prem when I imagine it was due to his lack of quality.... sometimes a signing like this, a strong character, good mental strength has more off the field impact on the squad he may possibly be seen as an ideal, cheap signing to help the squad improve this area
I think this is the sort of signing we make if we are also bringing in a younger more talented player in that position too. Livermore replaces some of the experience we’ve lost and knows what Ismael expects, but wouldn’t want him starting every week.
The sort of player who ten years from now we'll have to google to see if he ever played for us, and find that he made 117 appearances over 3 seasons.
We were missing leaders actually on the pitch, and at the fan's forum Dux spoke about the team having lacked leaders on the pitch last season. This guy has hardly played recently and will surely end up just another "leader" at the training ground who isn't actually good enough or fit enough to play. He doesn't seem what we need.
Feels like it's 1991 or thereabouts. Gino is Petchey and it's frees and cheap cast offs all the way. Might put on some Naf Naf jeans, a Chipie sweatshirt and watch some news re-runs from the Yugoslav wars before the QPR game.
