Super Steve Earle
Well-known member
To my mind, this is a pointless debate at this stage. We don't know how serious the Bong injury is. BG mentions London Prem club DS squad LBs, but to my mind they might be no better than our own DS squad players and certainly equally inexperienced. Ashley Cole is just a non starter. Hasn't played competitively for probably 6 months so, regardless of his pedigree, he can't just walk in to a top of the Championship team and perform to the standard we need. Even if we wanted to meet his undoubted wages requirements! There has been comments to the effect of Calde being past it, but I have to disagree. Past it as a first team regular maybe. Rosenior was clearly brought in to replicate the role Calde played effectively at the end of last season at right side midfield but with more energy having younger legs. But don't underestimate Calde's enthusiasm, skill and commitment plus obvious levels of fitness and understanding of what's required by Hughton. We don't want to lose Bong, but may have no choice. Rosenior is the obvious choice to move to left back. Calde is the obvious choice to replace him as Rosenior was brought in to play the Calde role. And don't underestimate the obvious desire of the existing squad to maintain the unbeaten record. Any loanee, if Hughton identifies the need, will have a lot to live up to and need to fit in immediately. A young DS player from the Prem, or any player who isn't match fit, is going to struggle to slot in as we saw against PNE with Crofts. At the moment, I think the answer lies fro within the present squad.
