never mind after watching the whole video again im fairly sure its Anthony Stewart with a new hair style I think I might need a new pair of glasses....
Ok, who's up for some unfounded transfer speculation?
A young goalkeeper named Henry Newcombe has started following WW on Twitter and he looks suspiciously like the mystery goalkeeper in the background of one of the pre-season training photos that went up earlier this week. Don't know how to include photos, so here's some links;
A product of Gillingham's youth system who was released this summer. Was on loan at Chatham Town last season (who were relegated from the Isthmian League Div 1) and has previously had a spell at Deal Town in the Southern Counties East League Premier Division.
Twitter can be an amusing source of info like that. I recall that Crewe played united a few years back and one Crewe player had a stormer. I looked at his twitter account to see how he was taking his adulation. I thought I would see who he followed as you do. Almost exclusively porn stars or porn bots. Maybe someone from their media team should have spoken to him.
Hang on. Sorry @trevor but having just responded to your comment on another thread about you moaning about signings "past their best" are you now saying we should have signed another player who is clearly also past their best? You do realise the irony?
Still nothing concrete about Pierre yet?
I wonder if his ass is flapping just a little with the big kick off 2 1/2 weeks away, and him presumably having to do his best to stay fit in the park/gym on his own interspersed with random short trials
I hope for his sake that he has not found himself in the same situation as Anthony Stewart. He is a young man who needs good advice from good people, not to be sold dreams that don't materialise.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub , different scenarios in fairness.
Pierre is totally free to move, whereas Stewart couldn't until some sort of compo was sorted out.
Still, if he doesn't get things moving he might still find he wastes a chunk of the season.
Shame he didn't really show some big faith his ability by signing a long deal with us, and if he's good enough, someone will come and bid. We've never stood in a player's way before and don't exactly ask outrageous fees.
I think it's not unreasonable to wonder why a team with a 5 year plan to be in the league above, yet failed to make the play-offs last year, has only announced 1 signing so far.
This time last year we'd made 4 signings in Weston, Southwell, Paris and Akinfenwa, having only really lost squad filller in Kretz, Lynch, Sellers and Ugwu. Freeman was signed after the first home friendly and imagine we'll do the same with Owain Jones this year.
This season we've lost genuine 1st team players (or at least 1st choice off the bench) in Pierre, Thompson and Wood. Still plenty of time to bring in more quality
Wwfc2015, the way I see it is we do not have the space for a great deal of new signings;-
Brown
Trialist keeper
Harriman
Jombati
El-Abd
Stewart
Muller
WDH
Jacobson
Gape
Saunders
O'Nien
Bloomfield
Rowe
Freeman
Cowan-Hall
Bean ( if he decides to sign )
Hayes
Tyson
Trialist winger (Swansea lad)
Southwell
Kashket
Akenfenwa
23 (assuming we take on trialists and Tyson), those three would replace Wood, Tomo and Weston. Maybe a loanee or two but we will see.
Given this is a thread for speculation, I would like to posit a speculation that Ainsworth's plans could well be being thrown into disarray by Pierre. The contract offer we've put on the table could well make him the best paid player at the club, or maybe top three with Hayes and Saunders. However it was probably drawn up with no expectation from Ainsworth that Pierre would sign it - hence why he went for el-Abd when he became available (also probably on a decent salary).
I can't believe anyone would have thought that Pierre would still be without a club two weeks before the season starts. But given that he is, and that means there must now be an increasing chance he will end up having to sign with us again, Ainsworth must be hamstrung when it comes to signing anyone else - he will only have a finite amount of money to spend on wages and won't be able to make any more offers until he has clarity on Pierre.
It's a shame we don't have some certainty because I'm sure we're missing out on good players that we might have been able to sign if a large proportion of our salary pot wasn't being tied up in this way. I really think we need another striker. Even if we sign Tyson and Jones we're still replacing three wide forwards with two.
What we don't need, as @Blue_since_1990's list makes clear, is another central defender. Last season Ainsworth set a deadline for players signing new contracts or leaving the club. He appears not to have this time, which could have created this impasse with Pierre (and to a certain extent, Bean).
It's just speculation as I say, but I hope it gets cleared up very soon for the sake of the club, if not the player.
As the Premiership circus has not finished or in some cases barely started I would think that until that trough has been well and truly fed from that we won't see what loanees are available. We are really down the pecking order so until that settles Ainsworth won't know what he has to play with.
I can only imagine that our "ball busting" offer to Pierre would have had an expiry date which would have now passed. As a guess it would have been the day before we signed El-Abd. Doubt if Pierre could hold us to it now?
Comments
Nathan tyson on trial!! Thoughts.
Was one of my fav players 35 now not sure hes what we need hope he gets a run out at slough.
any ideas who the black guy with the blonde streak in his hair running against Bloomfield around the 0:36 mark?
never mind after watching the whole video again im fairly sure its Anthony Stewart with a new hair style I think I might need a new pair of glasses....
It is Stewart. There's a photo of him somewhere on twitter sporting the rather bold new hairdo.
Ok, who's up for some unfounded transfer speculation?
A young goalkeeper named Henry Newcombe has started following WW on Twitter and he looks suspiciously like the mystery goalkeeper in the background of one of the pre-season training photos that went up earlier this week. Don't know how to include photos, so here's some links;
https://twitter.com/henrynewcombe1
A product of Gillingham's youth system who was released this summer. Was on loan at Chatham Town last season (who were relegated from the Isthmian League Div 1) and has previously had a spell at Deal Town in the Southern Counties East League Premier Division.
Or it's someone else.
Great spot @Jonny_King seems plausible,
Thanks, you can tell I've got a day off today! At a second glance, I see the Gillingham GK coach has since started following us too.
If this proves to be true I think we should all be very impressed indeed! Have you considered a career as a detective?
Twitter can be an amusing source of info like that. I recall that Crewe played united a few years back and one Crewe player had a stormer. I looked at his twitter account to see how he was taking his adulation. I thought I would see who he followed as you do. Almost exclusively porn stars or porn bots. Maybe someone from their media team should have spoken to him.
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub What's worrying is when the porn bots start following you!
Mike williams training with Oxford!!! Anyone but them!!
Mike Williamson?
why haven't we tried to bring mike back ?
Who says we haven't?
Hang on. Sorry @trevor but having just responded to your comment on another thread about you moaning about signings "past their best" are you now saying we should have signed another player who is clearly also past their best? You do realise the irony?
How boring is this pre season? Lost 3 decent players and bought in 1 CB whos old fans have said is crap #midtablebordem
Excitement building, eh @Wwfc2015_ ?
Still nothing concrete about Pierre yet?
I wonder if his ass is flapping just a little with the big kick off 2 1/2 weeks away, and him presumably having to do his best to stay fit in the park/gym on his own interspersed with random short trials
I hope for his sake that he has not found himself in the same situation as Anthony Stewart. He is a young man who needs good advice from good people, not to be sold dreams that don't materialise.
@Wwfc2015_ out of interest what did you expect at this stage?
@TheAndyGrahamFanClub , different scenarios in fairness.
Pierre is totally free to move, whereas Stewart couldn't until some sort of compo was sorted out.
Still, if he doesn't get things moving he might still find he wastes a chunk of the season.
Shame he didn't really show some big faith his ability by signing a long deal with us, and if he's good enough, someone will come and bid. We've never stood in a player's way before and don't exactly ask outrageous fees.
Dodn't we stand in his way in the January window? I am not saying we were wrong to do so though.
I think it's not unreasonable to wonder why a team with a 5 year plan to be in the league above, yet failed to make the play-offs last year, has only announced 1 signing so far.
But how many players did we have at this stage last season compared to this? (Genuine question, not being facetious).
This time last year we'd made 4 signings in Weston, Southwell, Paris and Akinfenwa, having only really lost squad filller in Kretz, Lynch, Sellers and Ugwu. Freeman was signed after the first home friendly and imagine we'll do the same with Owain Jones this year.
This season we've lost genuine 1st team players (or at least 1st choice off the bench) in Pierre, Thompson and Wood. Still plenty of time to bring in more quality
Wwfc2015, the way I see it is we do not have the space for a great deal of new signings;-
Brown
Trialist keeper
Harriman
Jombati
El-Abd
Stewart
Muller
WDH
Jacobson
Gape
Saunders
O'Nien
Bloomfield
Rowe
Freeman
Cowan-Hall
Bean ( if he decides to sign )
Hayes
Tyson
Trialist winger (Swansea lad)
Southwell
Kashket
Akenfenwa
23 (assuming we take on trialists and Tyson), those three would replace Wood, Tomo and Weston. Maybe a loanee or two but we will see.
Given this is a thread for speculation, I would like to posit a speculation that Ainsworth's plans could well be being thrown into disarray by Pierre. The contract offer we've put on the table could well make him the best paid player at the club, or maybe top three with Hayes and Saunders. However it was probably drawn up with no expectation from Ainsworth that Pierre would sign it - hence why he went for el-Abd when he became available (also probably on a decent salary).
I can't believe anyone would have thought that Pierre would still be without a club two weeks before the season starts. But given that he is, and that means there must now be an increasing chance he will end up having to sign with us again, Ainsworth must be hamstrung when it comes to signing anyone else - he will only have a finite amount of money to spend on wages and won't be able to make any more offers until he has clarity on Pierre.
It's a shame we don't have some certainty because I'm sure we're missing out on good players that we might have been able to sign if a large proportion of our salary pot wasn't being tied up in this way. I really think we need another striker. Even if we sign Tyson and Jones we're still replacing three wide forwards with two.
What we don't need, as @Blue_since_1990's list makes clear, is another central defender. Last season Ainsworth set a deadline for players signing new contracts or leaving the club. He appears not to have this time, which could have created this impasse with Pierre (and to a certain extent, Bean).
It's just speculation as I say, but I hope it gets cleared up very soon for the sake of the club, if not the player.
As the Premiership circus has not finished or in some cases barely started I would think that until that trough has been well and truly fed from that we won't see what loanees are available. We are really down the pecking order so until that settles Ainsworth won't know what he has to play with.
I can only imagine that our "ball busting" offer to Pierre would have had an expiry date which would have now passed. As a guess it would have been the day before we signed El-Abd. Doubt if Pierre could hold us to it now?