I first heard Jose Mourinho mention it during a press conference a few years back now, it confused me to begin with, but feel it simplifies the positions a bit for the average joe.
I think there’s an element of truth to him not being an “exciting” midfielder for sure.
I think in a team that already has a lot of attack minded players he would strike a very nice balance. Swansea don’t have that imo.
That was a disgrace of a move - we even loaned him to them a week before the transfer window so they could get him early
I think chucking him straight in at the deep end would be a poor decision anyway. Few sub appearances to ease him in first.
Just from many a transfer disappointment over the years, anyone else a bit sceptical this will just happen quickly and smoothly? Seems to good to be true
If it’s going to happen it will be in the next 6 days.
My bet is he doesn’t play for swansea on Saturday and signs for us on Monday.
We should get the deal done this week and allow him not to feature on Saturday. We shouldn’t change a winning team anyway so the quicker he starts to train with the team the better.
I'd feel much happier if they used 4/8/10.
Trevor Peake was a 6. Lloyd McGrath was a 4.
It messes with my head.
He needs to keep up his record of appearing in every game this season.
We'd have stayed up that season if we had kept him, as bad as that team was it was only a goalscorer away from being safe
or if Marlon King hadn't signed for Blues at the eleventh hour
If we pay 3.5m for a player I think we should decide whether he plays or not
It never happens though Pete, especially playing them so close
That’s a little idealistic.
It won’t be a popular sale with the Swansea fans and allowing him to play against them will be seen as poor management by the club. They won’t want that.
They may only sanction it before the game if we agree to the clause
I say we should finalise the deal Friday night/Saturday morning, then reveal our new signing on the pitch. That way they can say goodbye to such a good servant and we can take the piss.
Do you reckon we’ll still need to play three at the back to cover the midfield then?
To be fair if torp keeps it up, is he the Hamer replacement. Think Grimes is the Sheaf Replacement
If this happens you'd imagine Dean Austin's influence has been limited and Lampard has been given more authority as this just is not the type of signing we make off the last few years
It’s likely to be a short trip for him. Having such long service he may get away with coming on when we are losing 4-0.
It looks like 4-3-3 will be the way forward based on the Lampards comments about wingers.
I’ve been trying to think of a player to compare Grimes to and the closest I can think of is Ollie Norwood. Very gifted on the ball, plays deep, model pro but isn’t a tough tackling, shouty captain type at all. He’ll be doing Allen’s role now with the hope that Torp and whoever else makes up the midfield 3 provides a bit of bite.
Can we stop going on about a Hamer replacement? We've long since abandoned playing the way we did that suited him. We've got midfielders with decent output themselves.
Hamer is in a league of his own at this level. Behave.
If every midfielder we signed gets compared to Hamer regardless of player profile they are gonna be disappointed.
Grimes is more like Sheaf and we have Rudoni & Torp combined making up the Hamer role