CONFIMRED - Matt Miazga

[Brain Traysers]

Interesting that he was frozen out at Nantes after the new manager came in - he started 7 of the first 8 games of the season (only 1 game was a win), then only the first game under the new manager before being banished to the b team. Ligue 1 is certainly a step up from a Championship relegation battle, but the season long loan certainly didn't work out.

Chelsea recalling him and loaning out to us would suggest he is here for first team football.

[Snowflake Royal]

And this thread alone illustrates why I rarely visit this place any more.

Looks to me as if Gomes has identified what's required in the squad and gone and filled the gaps. Bringing in 5 new players mid season is a risk - just look how well Tommy Burns did with the magnificent 7. The positive is that there are 19 games to go. The next 4 months or so will be more than interesting.

All on loan. Doesn't solve the problem for next season. This is akin to Steve Clarke's reign in reverse. Short termism.

Disagree. This is exactly the time for loanees. You want players to come in and try to prove a point, but that you won't be saddled with if they fail or the worst happens.

Clarke loaned the players in the summer, so when they realised they weren't getting promoted they had nothing to play for.

We simply can't afford to saddle ourselves with more permanent contracts when we desperately need to shift perm players already.

The summer is the time for perm signings when you know what your budget will be and what division you're playing in.

[Nameless]

And this thread alone illustrates why I rarely visit this place any more.

Looks to me as if Gomes has identified what's required in the squad and gone and filled the gaps. Bringing in 5 new players mid season is a risk - just look how well Tommy Burns did with the magnificent 7. The positive is that there are 19 games to go. The next 4 months or so will be more than interesting.

All on loan. Doesn't solve the problem for next season. This is akin to Steve Clarke's reign in reverse. Short termism.

What problem are you trying to solve ?
The ONLY problem anyone should be working on at the moment is staying in the division.
Depending on whether we solve that we then have two entirely different jobs to dover the summer. No point solving one of them now and finding it’s the other one that faces us.

[CountryRoyal]

We were looking at this lad a few years ago before he signed for Chelsea iirc was definitely promising at that stage but I confess have no idea how he has progressed since then.

[Libertine]

He was given an extended look by the USMNT after the T&T debacle. Did reasonably well in the friendlies where the US weren't playing the top teams in the world. Looked a bit out of his depth against the better teams. Right now the Championship is the level he is probably most suited for...

[Duffy]

And this thread alone illustrates why I rarely visit this place any more.

Looks to me as if Gomes has identified what's required in the squad and gone and filled the gaps. Bringing in 5 new players mid season is a risk - just look how well Tommy Burns did with the magnificent 7. The positive is that there are 19 games to go. The next 4 months or so will be more than interesting.

This team bored is fine compared to the oddballs over on Anything Else.

Back to the OP - Pleased with this. Not the most technically gifted CB, but a good athlete and physical presence.

[Hound]

Its interesting as he actually seems to have found players who are genuinely comfortable in the system. Part of the issue with Stam I always felt was he was asking technically average players to play a game they struggled with.

Very interesting to see how it works out. For whatever reason the board have managed to back him with better pedigree players than were afforded to Clement or Stam and now Gomes has to make it work.

Have a feeling it will either go swimmingly and we'll start winning games in an attractive way, or else it'll be a disaster. I don't think we have a team that is going to scrap its way to safety like we managed to last year

Agree with most of this but not the last bit. I thought we were dire under Clement at the fag end of last season and very lucky to beat the fakes and Preston. I suppose they showed a bit of fight in those two games but didn’t show much fight in the other games under him last season.

I do like what Gomes has done in this window. It makes sense BUT we really must look to get rid of some deadwood over the next few days as the squad is as bloated as ever.

Here's what I think happened at the tail end last season.

The players were complacent and shit. Stam was clueless and inflexible. His sacking and Clement's initial work gave the players a kick up the arse and they developed some fight, getting those two early wins despite not much quality improvement. That reinforced their belief they were never in danger and they went back to being limp losers complacentley sleep walking towards a relegation they narrowly avoided thanks to a really atrocious bottom seven that year.

Yep this pretty much. We were an absolutely appalling side when PC took over. However we did battle in the 2 wins, even though they were in truth pretty rancid performances

Like you say, then complacency set back in, and we were no way good enough to compete with that mentality

[Denver Royal]

And this thread alone illustrates why I rarely visit this place any more.
Looks to me as if Gomes has identified what's required in the squad and gone and filled the gaps. Bringing in 5 new players mid season is a risk - just look how well Tommy Burns did with the magnificent 7. The positive is that there are 19 games to go. The next 4 months or so will be more than interesting.

All on loan. Doesn't solve the problem for next season. This is akin to Steve Clarke's reign in reverse. Short termism.

What problem are you trying to solve ?
The ONLY problem anyone should be working on at the moment is staying in the division.
Depending on whether we solve that we then have two entirely different jobs to dover the summer. No point solving one of them now and finding it’s the other one that faces us.

LW, you're right. Given our predicament, short termism may well be a factor. And, why wouldn't it be? The first order of business is to stay up.

'Solving the problem of next season' is secondary right now, and will be addressed in the Summer (and how these 5 players perform until then, will go some way to determining if they are part of that future equation).

And of course, attracting and signing quality, for the long term, in a Jan window, given our finances and league position in the bottom 3 is, er, quite difficult.

[Hound]

And this thread alone illustrates why I rarely visit this place any more.

Looks to me as if Gomes has identified what's required in the squad and gone and filled the gaps. Bringing in 5 new players mid season is a risk - just look how well Tommy Burns did with the magnificent 7. The positive is that there are 19 games to go. The next 4 months or so will be more than interesting.

All on loan. Doesn't solve the problem for next season. This is akin to Steve Clarke's reign in reverse. Short termism.

What problem are you trying to solve ?
The ONLY problem anyone should be working on at the moment is staying in the division.
Depending on whether we solve that we then have two entirely different jobs to dover the summer. No point solving one of them now and finding it’s the other one that faces us.

Of course the main objective is to stay up. The very last thing we’d want is to be handing out big contracts to these lads to see them come in and be shit. We did that for the last 18 months and look where that long term view got us...

Thing I like on these signings is they all have a lot to play for. They could all earn themselves a decent move to us or elsewhere if they play well. If they play shit then they could all conceivably be hurtling down the divisions looking for a regular start. Almost last chance saloon for a really good career for probably all except Ejaria

[Lower West]

All on loan. Doesn't solve the problem for next season. This is akin to Steve Clarke's reign in reverse. Short termism.

What problem are you trying to solve ?
The ONLY problem anyone should be working on at the moment is staying in the division.
Depending on whether we solve that we then have two entirely different jobs to dover the summer. No point solving one of them now and finding it’s the other one that faces us.

LW, you're right. Given our predicament, short termism may well be a factor. And, why wouldn't it be? The first order of business is to stay up.

'Solving the problem of next season' is secondary right now, and will be addressed in the Summer (and how these 5 players perform until then, will go some way to determining if they are part of that future equation).

And of course, attracting and signing quality, for the long term, in a Jan window, given our finances and league position in the bottom 3 is, er, quite difficult.

Attracting top quality talent in the summer is not guaranteed either. Last summer was hardly a roaring sucess. Nor the summer before.

Other teams are far superior to us currently. Next Xmas we might well be clinging on yet again.

You would have thought a solid left back would be a priority transfer target.

[Denver Royal]

What problem are you trying to solve ?
The ONLY problem anyone should be working on at the moment is staying in the division.
Depending on whether we solve that we then have two entirely different jobs to dover the summer. No point solving one of them now and finding it’s the other one that faces us.

LW, you're right. Given our predicament, short termism may well be a factor. And, why wouldn't it be? The first order of business is to stay up.

'Solving the problem of next season' is secondary right now, and will be addressed in the Summer (and how these 5 players perform until then, will go some way to determining if they are part of that future equation).

And of course, attracting and signing quality, for the long term, in a Jan window, given our finances and league position in the bottom 3 is, er, quite difficult.

Attracting top quality talent in the summer is not guaranteed either. Last summer was hardly a roaring sucess. Nor the summer before.

Other teams are far superior to us currently. Next Xmas we might well be clinging on yet again.

You would have thought a solid left back would be a priority transfer target.

Good left-footed LB's aren't easy to get. There aren't many. A lot of teams would like one. The fact that we haven't signed one, doesn't mean it wasn't a priority and pursued, either now or going forward. As it is, we have 2-3 players who can be employed there until we are able to get one. Previous managers haven't been able to get one either, so not shocking that Gomes hasn't in one month.

[Nameless]

We’ve got 5 options we can use at left back ! Not all perfect, not all available right now.
Blackett has been absolutely fine there this season.
If signing a 4th keeper is questionable then signing a 6th option at LB doesn’t seem a top priority.

[loyalroyal4life]

We’ve got 5 options we can use at left back ! Not all perfect, not all available right now.
Blackett has been absolutely fine there this season.
If signing a 4th keeper is questionable then signing a 6th option at LB doesn’t seem a top priority.

Can see 2 of those options leaving this window

[muirinho]

We’ve got 5 options we can use at left back ! Not all perfect, not all available right now.
Blackett has been absolutely fine there this season.
If signing a 4th keeper is questionable then signing a 6th option at LB doesn’t seem a top priority.

Can see 2 of those options leaving this window

They might - but unless they definitely are going, signing a 6th option would be silly. None of them are in the "get out of this club" list as far as we know.

[Ascotexgunner]

Its interesting as he actually seems to have found players who are genuinely comfortable in the system. Part of the issue with Stam I always felt was he was asking technically average players to play a game they struggled with.

Very interesting to see how it works out. For whatever reason the board have managed to back him with better pedigree players than were afforded to Clement or Stam and now Gomes has to make it work.

Have a feeling it will either go swimmingly and we'll start winning games in an attractive way, or else it'll be a disaster. I don't think we have a team that is going to scrap its way to safety like we managed to last year

Agree with most of this but not the last bit. I thought we were dire under Clement at the fag end of last season and very lucky to beat the fakes and Preston. I suppose they showed a bit of fight in those two games but didn’t show much fight in the other games under him last season.

I do like what Gomes has done in this window. It makes sense BUT we really must look to get rid of some deadwood over the next few days as the squad is as bloated as ever.

As you rightly say it's worth a try. I'd rather try this than have stuck with Clement. We hardly scrapped our way to safety last season. It was other teams shitness that kept us up.

[Lower West]

We’ve got 5 options we can use at left back ! Not all perfect, not all available right now.

Given our current predicament. Adequate isn't good enough. With Barrow offering little cover. Opposition managers will simply target the weakness. Playing a right footer upsets the balance of the team .

[Crowbar6753]

Great work so far from Gomes, 5 great loan signings that should make us really competitive and at least give us a chance of staying up, which is all we asked for. However, players haven't really been flying out of the door so far, and the squad is probably bigger now than when Gomes first arrived.
We really need a big week now and shift at least 5 out of the door, otherwise there will be a lot of unhappy players around the club which could become toxic. Oh for some Nicky Hammond style Wheeling and Dealing lol, its definitely going to be an interesting week that's for sure.

[Nameless]

We’ve got 5 options we can use at left back ! Not all perfect, not all available right now.

Given our current predicament. Adequate isn't good enough. With Barrow offering little cover. Opposition managers will simply target the weakness. Playing a right footer upsets the balance of the team .

Blackett is absolutely fine at LB.
If the problem is Barrow not providing cover then deal with that instead of bringing in a 6th player who might not be any better than what we have and won’tget any better support if we don’t sort Barrow out !

[Wisconsin Royal]

Ton of potential, excited for this move. This is a great move for him, Reading, and the USMNT - if he plays.

[SCIAG]

We’ve got 5 options we can use at left back ! Not all perfect, not all available right now.

Given our current predicament. Adequate isn't good enough. With Barrow offering little cover. Opposition managers will simply target the weakness. Playing a right footer upsets the balance of the team .

Haven't most of our best performances this season come with Yiadom at left back?