Tyler Walker’s Coventry links
Tyler Walker is a target for Coventry and I know he’s one a lot of our fans want here, so this is quite interesting news.
Coventry sold Connor Chaplin to Barnsley last week, getting a fee thought to be around £750,000 for him. That had been earmarked by supporters as a possible bounty to throw at Forest for Walker on a permanent deal.
That now looks to have a slim chance of happening at best. Robins has said that it’s unlikely he’ll be given the money from the transfer to spend on players, given that the club are ground-sharing with Birmingham next season and are unable to budget accurately with so many variables.
“I have not asked for that and I don’t necessarily need that,” was the former Scunthorpe boss’ response when asked if he wanted the Chaplin money for the squad.
“And I have got to be mindful because we have to manage the spend, and obviously moving stadium means we’re going to have a shortfall in revenue, and that’s unknown.”
Alan Judge’s Ipswich future
Ipswich are going to be fascinating to watch this season. James Wilson is on trial there with a view to earning a contract, something some Imps fans found amusing. I personally think there is a League One player in there and we might see him return to form when he’s played through the centre of a defence, but that remains to be seen.
Paul Lambert has been playing down their chances of going up, claiming they’ve got no money to spend on players just like Sunderland. That poverty hasn’t reached desperate levels just yet; they’re rejecting advances by QPR for Alan Judge.
He left Brentford for Portman Road last January and played a key role in them not avoiding relegation, but at least trying. It earned him a permanent deal, but now his former Brentford mentor Mark Warburton is back in management at QPR. He offered £250,000 for Judge last week, but that didn’t impress Lambert.
“If you think people are going to leave the football club for a value that, in my opinion, is absolutely nowhere near the level (then you’re wrong). Ok, so if we give him to QPR then who do we go and get in? At this time? It’s nowhere near it and that’s the state of play.
“Everybody has a value, absolutely, but there has to be some realism with it.”
Rhys Healey
Paul Tisdale is like the cat who got the cream after promoted Milton Keynes managed to bag Rhys Healey on a permanent deal.
MK had the Cardiff striker on loan at the beginning of last season and he thoroughly impressed, but earned a recall in the winter window. He didn’t got back to Stadium MK and as a result, they stumbled out of the promotion race.
They’ve added to their squad well this summer and have a range of attacking options including Kieran Agard, Jordan Bowery and Joe Mason, but Healey is the icing on the cake. Tisdale says his business is now concluded and he’s looking forward to the new season.
“We were trying it in December, then in January too,” he said of buying Healey.
“We’ve been waiting, it has taken us four or five weeks with Cardiff, but the deal has been done. Thank you to Neil Warnock for being reasonable and respectful to us. Now we have a player hugely motivated, he knows us, we know him and he’s raring to go.”
That should end their summer recruitment drive, at least for the moment.
“In terms of how we see it at the moment, we feel pretty complete in terms of balance, motivation and we’re ready for purpose,” he said. “But you never really know until the start of the season and you see how we’re playing. But we’re not out there desperate to sign players.”
Hi Gary, thought it would be interesting if you could do an item who in the squad of 75/76 would make it into the squad of 19/20 .
a quite strong chance that neither Bolton or Bury will actually be playing this season. Both have been docked 12 points, but as it stands there are no buyers for either and although these things in football usually get sorted out it is looking dark at the moment. Even that being said, the season begins in two weeks and they don’t have a squad of players and have not had anything of a pre season. Still, sure we will mostly hear about how Mike Ashley is ruining Newcastle or the Man Utd lot in the news.