|
Post by Gastafari on Feb 1, 2024 20:41:11 GMT
The big man Elkan,Comes from Thailand Get past him if you f*cking can He's 6'6, and lightning quick The big man Elkan
To the tune of Wig Wam Bam
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Feb 1, 2024 15:42:24 GMT
I've been told by a very reliable source that we're very close to completing a deal for a Central Midfielder for an undisclosed fee and we should all be excited as looks a superb signing!
Flashbacks of Zain Westbrooke!
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Feb 1, 2024 10:28:29 GMT
And I forgot about Fletcher. I'd love to see their wage bill. Crikey Elliot Lee is another good player they lured into non league far below his level. Imagine if they had a decent manager Tbf we did that with Jermaine Easter, Chris Lines, Liam Lawrence etc when we had our back promotions out of The Conference and League 2. Wrexham aren't spending that outrageously. They aren't the mega rich superpower with limitless amounts of cash people think they are.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Feb 1, 2024 8:12:47 GMT
Any other players at Reading any good?
Might be able to get a few of them 🙂
I remember Holloway getting Mark Walters from Swindon, and raiding Portsmouth for David Hillier, Andy Thomson and Robbie Pethic when they were in similar predicaments to Reading.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Feb 1, 2024 7:56:21 GMT
I predict a day of bitter disappointment. One of the easiest predictions to make. Literally a foregone conclusion. We're Bristol Rovers, bitter disappointment is our DNA!
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Feb 1, 2024 7:38:16 GMT
Marcus Browning sold for 500k, Chris Lines for 50k but neither played much at a higher level so I would count Ollie as the last one who went to QPR in August 1991. David Williams. Geraint Williams. John Scales. Nicky Tanner. Devon White. Gary Penrice. Nigel Martin. +++++ to name a few Only the 2 Williams out of those were Midfielders though.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Feb 1, 2024 0:10:00 GMT
Still only 31, that is an unbelievable signing for National League level. Reminds me a bit of when we signed Jermaine Easter
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 31, 2024 23:16:03 GMT
we've had great strikers in the past and failed to get promotion. Rest of team needs to be better. Yeah it's weird. I always think in proportion to our league we've had better strikers than the sh**. Probably proven by many going upwards in their career after us. But we haven't had many in other positions. Especially centre mid. Who was the last CM, that got a good move from us? Holloway? In my time supporting Rovers I would say it's pretty much on a par in regards to the strikers.
C*ty have had Andy Cole, Shaun Goater, Leroy Lita, Tammy Abraham, Bobby Reid to name a few who were decent and gone onto play either at the very highest level or Premier League football.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 31, 2024 16:17:41 GMT
Yet Aaron Collins has still had more shots at goal and more shots on target than the Divisions top scorer. Devante Cole has scored 16 Aaron Collins has scored 3. Aaron Collins has had 61 shots so far this season, with 29 on target, only scoring with 3 of them. A conversion rate of just 6.25%. Last season he had 75 shots in the whole campaign, 46 were on target, scoring with 16 of them. A conversion rate of 21.33%. He's just missed a lot more chances this year, that's the reason he's only got 3 goals this season. It's as simple as that. Because he's shooting from low XG positions. Better in a more direct approach When he was in his best form which was pretty much the whole of 2022, he was scoring a lot more frequently because he was shooting from all over the place because he was full of confidence. He was shooting from lower XG positions then, rather than now. This calender year, it's not just this season, the 2nd half of last season his and Coburns goals dried up as well. He's missed the easier chances which he should score by snatching at chances or overthinking but he's also not attempting as many instinctive shots from more difficult positions or from long range which is what happens when you're out of form and confidence goes.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 31, 2024 14:22:04 GMT
I think the lack of red in the box, is an issue. In both seasons. He was scoring fantastic long pots when confident but that wasn't sustainable. Particularly when we switched to a position base side rather than counter attack. Yet Aaron Collins has still had more shots at goal and more shots on target than the Divisions top scorer. Devante Cole has scored 16 Aaron Collins has scored 3. Aaron Collins has had 61 shots so far this season, with 29 on target, only scoring with 3 of them. A conversion rate of just 6.25%. Last season he had 75 shots in the whole campaign, 46 were on target, scoring with 16 of them. A conversion rate of 21.33%. He's just missed a lot more chances this year, that's the reason he's only got 3 goals this season. It's as simple as that.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 31, 2024 3:16:33 GMT
I think some will and some won’t , but no players bigger than a club and in the event of it not going through then he can win the fans over with some good hard work and effort. Players have bounced back from worse.It’ll certainly be a test of his mental strength but who goes through life without a test of their mental strength ? Look he’s a well paid professional footballer who needs to perform to continue to earn good money for the rest of his short career, he’s probably only got 5-6 years left to continue to do that so the balls in his court. I can't recall any player bouncing back from going on strike, Muzzy did something similar and was soon sold. There's been a couple of high profile ones.
Luis Suarez pretty much refused to play for Liverpool and was banished from the training ground for a couple of months. He said sorry, stayed for another year and ended up having his best Liverpool season scoring 31 goals in 33 games.
Harry Kane too, went on strike for a few days and didn't report back for pre season training, trying to force through a transfer away from Spurs. He ended up staying another 2 years scoring another 47 PL goals before joining Bayern.
Obviously the size of clubs,standard of player and finances involved are on another stratosphere to Rovers and Aaron Collins, but there are similarities in that they were the clubs most saleable assets who refused to play, went on strike or initially downed tools. They ended up getting back in the clubs good books by saying sorry and by continuing to put in top level performances. I suppose the other main difference is Collins hasn't been putting in top level performances, if he had been then maybe we would be looking at a far more substantial fee, and also there'd probably be a bit more good will and understanding from Gasheads. As it stands basically refusing to play to try and orchestrate a move away when he's only scored 3 goals this season is a bit of a p*sstake.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 30, 2024 23:36:27 GMT
Is that all you take away?
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 30, 2024 17:16:53 GMT
I thought this was an intersting stat.
Devante Cole is the top scorer in League 1 so far with 16 goals. He has had 59 shots in total, and been on target with 28 of them.
Aaron Collins has actually had more shots with 61 and more shots on target with 29 than the leagues top scorer. Yet has only scored with 3 of them.
Funny old game.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 30, 2024 16:11:43 GMT
I don't necessarily agree or disagree with any comments here, but I am surprised there is little recognition that Aaron Collins last season spent most of the season as the Striker farthest forward and this year has been shifted over the left somewhat. I think the shortage of goals is not only confidence, lack of focus but inevitably, he did score a lot of goals through being the main striker, picking up on errors, hassling defenders and latching on to loose balls where he was strong. Moved over to the left this season has inevitably impacted his effectiveness where scoring goals are concerned. It's definitely a lack of confidence thats for sure. However the amount of sitters, one on ones and clear cut chances he has missed this season is shocking, not only that but he's also been guilty many times of not passing it to team mates for simple tap ins, taking too long on the ball when in acres of space allowing defenders to get back and disposes him reguarly and just generally making poor decisions, like shooting from ridiculous angles instead of looking for teammates and vice versa, trying to pass instead of shooting in good positions. It's not like he's not been getting chances, he's just either hit them straight at the keeper, put them wide or ballooned them over. I don't know the exact stats but I wouldn't be surprised if he's had more attempts and more big chances to score this season than last. He does still create though, and is the 2nd most creative player in the division, in spite of the amount of poor decisions he has constantly made this season. That's the most frustrating thing.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 30, 2024 9:44:37 GMT
Just a thought, do you think Bolton have been after Collins for a while, and that Collins was fully aware of that?
Or do you think Boltons serious interest came about after his performance in our win there recently?
That was certainly Aaron Collins best performance for a long time up at Bolton.
Makes you wonder.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 30, 2024 9:26:19 GMT
If they choose Collins, I think Niall Ennis would be a good fit for us, initial loan until the end of season with a view to buy in the summer. He's not getting much of a look in at Blackburn, bar the odd brief appearance coming off the bench late in games. He's not exactly prolific but he's got plenty of pace, power & energy that we desperately lack up front, plus has got a promotion on his CV just last season at Plymouth. Blackburn say they want 500k for him. Either now or in the summer after going out on loan first. Sell Collins for 750k, sign Ennis for 500k. That looks like good business to me. I think Ennis would be smart replacement for Collins. Although I think if Blackburns asking price is £500k, then it's a bit of a p*ss take. They got him on a free in the summer, so it's not as if they've invested heavily in him in the first place and he's only played about 400 minutes of Football since being there, his only appearances have been the odd few minutes as a late sub. At least with Collins he's got a PFA Player Of The Season Award on his CV, plus even though his overall form has declined rapidly he's still in the top 2 most creative players in the Division.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 30, 2024 8:47:13 GMT
If they choose Collins over Niall Ennis and put in an improved offer, I think Ennis would be a good fit for us, initial loan until the end of season with a view to buy in the summer. He's not getting much of a look in at Blackburn, bar the odd brief appearance coming off the bench late in games. He's not exactly prolific but he's got plenty of pace, power & energy that we desperately lack up front, plus has got a promotion on his CV just last season at Plymouth.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 30, 2024 1:34:45 GMT
Wrong. Got 1 million and closer to 2 after add ons and a sell on. Still not mega bucks for a player of Lambert's class. Especially considering we got double that for both Hayles & Roberts a decade earlier.
Hindsight's a wonderful thing, but Saints paying £1M for Lambert who went onto play in a World Cup for England a few years after leaving us was an absolute steal!
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 29, 2024 2:09:41 GMT
Yeah I thought that when I read it , always been well supported for a smallish lower league club. Can’t be true mate. Planes with 7000 yanks on are heading over every week. It isn't true.
They haven't averaged more than 5k for over 40 years even when they had decent teams in the 2nd and 3rd tiers.
A couple of years before the actors turned up they were averaging barely 3k.
They've more than trippled their crowds miraculously in a couple of years, crowds they've only achieved a couple of times in the last 60 years.
Of course those extra 7k people now turning up have clearly always been avid Wrexham supporters.
It's just a huge coincidence that crowds have more than trippled all of sudden now a 4th Division club starts allocating tickets specially for 'International Fans', multiple Supporters Clubs have just suddenly appeared all over America, it also must just be a coincidence that since the actors bought the club visitors from both Uk and overseas(Mostly Americans) coming to Wrexham has increased by 33% to 1.9M visitors and a further 430,000 people are staying over in hotels etc from Thurs-Sun up a massive 98%, this huge increase in tourist numbers at weekends somehow happening after 2 Hollywood actors rock up and 7k more fans just suddenly turn up at Wrexham home games is again just purely coincidence.
|
|
|
Post by Gastafari on Jan 29, 2024 0:07:11 GMT
Anyone remember Drew Shore? Don't think he was related to Jamie. Unless I'm mistaken he captained us when we got battered by the Ted's days after the miracle of Pride Park and then disappeared without trace. Dwayne Plumber from the same sort of era too looked a tidy player but think there were discipline issues. Dwayne is a good friend of mine, as are all the Plummers. He is now a DJ/Record producer under the name Jay Anderson.
As Pirate has already mentioned his brothers have all played Football at various levels, Tristan was a very promising talent, one of the best in the country as a teenager, represented England at U16, U17 and U18 level. He was very close to signing for Arsenal at one stage. Here is an old clip of him as a 16 year old playing for C*ty's academy ,showboating before setting up a goal.
Tremaine was a decent non league player.
Twaine was a very talented player too, he has played at decent non league level, for Aylesbury, Frome Town and Bradford Town to name a few, he has been a teammate of mine at Sunday League Level for Bristol Weston United along with another Plummer, Neikell and other former Bristol Footballers you may remember Clayton Fortune and Jennison Myrie Williams, and also for Lebeqs where Carl Saunders(Billy Ocean) was also heavily involved at the time.
As Pirate also mentioned Tristan, Tremaine and Twaine can be found appearing on Goggle Box.
|
|