[Albion] Matt O Riley [26/08/24 - sings on a 5-year deal]

[Safe.]

I'd be shocked if he's not here next season, since when have we just moved on an up and coming talent because they hade some bad luck with an injury after their first season?

Literally makes no sense unless a massive offer came in, which of course is not going to be the case.

 

[Justice]

Which given our injury rate (which probably won't change very much unless we train less intensively) probably translates to an average of 4 players available at any one time. I'm expecting Baleba to leave this summer (unfortunately) so we need to maintain depth. Agree it's going to be almost impossible to keep all our midfielders happy though.

I might be in the minority although I don’t think Baleba is ready for a big move his game is still very erratic. When we play it’s Gomez who picking up a lot of plaudits.

 

[pigmanovich]

O'Riley has been in training and according to the Athletic "used the international break for rest and a full recovery from bone bruising to the right knee, sustained in the 2-0 win at Ipswich Town in the Premier League in mid-January."

 

[Milano]

Agreed, players kept or shipped out are in the balance depending on whether we get into Europe or not, as is the spend on new players in the summer.

Have to confess that O’Riley has disappointed me so far but he did have a really nasty injury. Patience may well be required.

Why? We weren't in Europe this season and knew this when we bought them all. The way we train/play we need a big squad of midfielders & wingers because they are asked to do a lot.
MOR has been unbelievably unlucky with injury this season, both of which were contact injuries. Shipping him out because of this is pure nonsense talk.
My most dissapointing moment of this season so far was Webster not chinning that Crawley ****, I'd have let him off the red card happily.

 

[Kit Napper]

Disagree. We don't have a permanent injury crisis, but have done for the past 15 months or so.
It's been well trailed on here that RDZ didn't do intense training, and multiple sources from within the club indicate that FH does have an intense training regime. That means it will take time for the squad to adapt to this new regime. Other squads have done it, notably Liverpool under Klopp -- after a bad start, their players managed to train and play at high levels of intensity across 60+ game seasons.
I see no reason why our squad won't adapt to the new situation, and there's a case to be made that this is already happening after a bad two or three months at the turn of the year.

I hope you're right of course but until we see sustained evidence of this, I would plan on the assumption of a highish injury rate.

 

[darkwolf666]

I might be in the minority although I don’t think Baleba is ready for a big move his game is still very erratic. When we play it’s Gomez who picking up a lot of plaudits.

I like your style, detract from how good he IS, by making Gomez sound even better win/win...

 

[Kit Napper]

I might be in the minority although I don’t think Baleba is ready for a big move his game is still very erratic. When we play it’s Gomez who picking up a lot of plaudits.

I agree he's not yet the finished article but there's so much potential I reckon one of the 'biggest clubs' will want to get him on their books before a rival does. Will be happy to be proven wrong.

 

[Machiavelli]

I hope you're right of course but until we see sustained evidence of this, I would plan on the assumption of a highish injury rate.

Sure. I think you're right on this -- we'll be above-average for a while -- but would hope that the plan is that the number and length of injuries diminish during FH's reign.
One of the more plausible explanations for our injuries is not just the training (and match) intensity, but also the profile of the squad -- youngsters and those coming to the end of their careers -- which is more prone to injuries than a squad at 'peak career point', eg Fulham

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Recent history has shown us how quickly things change, so I'm certainly not writing off MOR.

Ferguson went from being a £100m striker last season to struggling to get game time at the Happy hammers.
Enciso went from worldie-scorer last season to getting minutes for Ipswich.

In contrast:

Ayari went from being deemed not good enough/surplus to requirements last season to a pretty dependable midfielder now.
Webster went from, again, not good enough and 'I'll drive him to [insert town here]'-able, to being just what the team needed when Dunk was injured/off form.

I'm sure there are countless other examples that, to me (at the risk of being called a 'licker' or worse), show that the club knows what it is doing with the squad.

 

[sir_gullahad]

As much as our recruitment policy is data driven, it is not an exact science. The signing of MOR and other similar players should be seen as a hedge strategy, where is is unlikely that all are an unqualified success, but enough reach a standard for the club to progress.

Personally, I would like to see MOR stay and compete, but understand that in the end everyone is available at the right price.

 

[Machiavelli]

Recent history has shown us how quickly things change, so I'm certainly not writing off MOR.

Ferguson went from being a £100m striker last season to struggling to get game time at the Happy hammers.
Enciso went from worldie-scorer last season to getting minutes for Ipswich.

In contrast:

Ayari went from being deemed not good enough/surplus to requirements last season to a pretty dependable midfielder now.
Webster went from, again, not good enough and 'I'll drive him to [insert town here]'-able, to being just what the team needed when Dunk was injured/off form.

I'm sure there are countless other examples that, to me (at the risk of being called a 'licker' or worse), show that the club knows what it is doing with the squad.

Licker or worse

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I'd be shocked if he's not here next season, since when have we just moved on an up and coming talent because they hade some bad luck with an injury after their first season?

Literally makes no sense unless a massive offer came in, which of course is not going to be the case.

Barco?

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I might be in the minority although I don’t think Baleba is ready for a big move his game is still very erratic. When we play it’s Gomez who picking up a lot of plaudits.

You’ve been watching something different to me.

He’s single-handedly held our midfield together at times this year, particularly earlier in the season when he was often alone in our 4-1-0-0-0-5 formation that we deployed until the Forest battering.

For a kid in his first season as a starter in the Prem to put in the level of performances he has, in the tactical set up he’s had to play in for much of this season, is quite incredible. At this stage of the season, he’s probably just knackered. I dread to think where we’d have been this season if we’d not had him patrolling the midfield, to be honest, and he’s my player of the season by some considerable distance.

Saying that, Gomez looks a bit special too, and as a pair I think they’re very exciting.

 

[Safe.]

Barco?

How is barcos' situation anything like the MOR one?

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

How is barcos' situation anything like the MOR one?

More that I was highlighting that we moved him on pretty damned quickly. It can happen.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Barco?

But that wasn't down to injury. It seemed to be a case of his face didn't fit, he struggled to settle, the new manager didn't fancy him or something else. We'll probably never know

MOR's situation has a number of different factors to Barco's.

 

[pigmanovich]

But that wasn't down to injury. It seemed to be a case of his face didn't fit, he struggled to settle, the new manager didn't fancy him or something else. We'll probably never know

MOR's situation has a number of different factors to Barco's.

Not least age, experience of European football, and the initial fee paid

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

But that wasn't down to injury. It seemed to be a case of his face didn't fit, he struggled to settle, the new manager didn't fancy him or something else. We'll probably never know

MOR's situation has a number of different factors to Barco's.

I totally get that. It was more to highlight that we aren’t scared to get rid of a highly rated player very quickly.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Came on last night, and just barrelled into people. I think he gave away 3 cheap fouls in the short time he was on, which Villa clearly took their time with and eased the game down.

I think he'll be pretty high on the list of players, FH isn't in a rush to give more minutes to

 

[GJN1]

It's funny, but most times people will say "there's definitely a player in there" but in all honesty, I've yet to see anything from him that suggests he's the player we thought we were buying, even considering his injury.