Alex Dicken picks out one player he would like to see Birmingham City retain this summer ahead of the 2024/25 campaign in League One
[www.birminghammail.co.uk]
Its intriguing to me the difference in tolerance amongst the fans for Hogan and Jukes output.
Hogan has outperformed Juke in terms of goals comfortably over the last 3 years yet he gets absolute pelters. Juke on the other hand delivers an atrocious goal record and gets lauded as a hero.
Ultimately, neither are good enough but particularly Juke.
Hogan and Jutky were on inflated wages due to dong giving out silly length contracts with decent rises...
like Dean / Colin / Sunjic they would of been sold given the chance but no club went near them due to their excessive wage demands..
easier to run down their contracts on decent money than join a club on less money
Because Juke (used to) run around a lot displaying 'pashun'.
you be surprised how many of the outgoing squad would be effective in league 1..I think they would struggle in L1 imo due to how poor they have been past few years
we need a clean break.. we need it 2 years ago and we couldn't get shot of the high earners.. it cost us this year and now we want to give them new contracts for getting relegated..
sentiment aside we need young hungry players and a few experienced leaders..
Juke should be one of the first out of the door - HE IS FINISHED and has been for at least 2 years.
To try and rope Juke in with pricks like Robinson is so off the mark it's frightening.
Hogan on the other hand was passionless and for the most part useless.
The only two I would even consider retaining are Ruddy as a number two to a young keeper and Anderson if he was on a modest one-year deal.
KingCostlyI agree with this but the reality is we should release them all. By doing that we are sending a message to the contracted players that last season was not good enough. If there was compelling reasons to keep an out of contract player I would've offered them a new contract but there are no compelling football related reasons to keep any of them.The only two I would even consider retaining are Ruddy as a number two to a young keeper and Anderson if he was on a modest one-year deal.
I’d agree, but we’ve got to buy around 10-15 players anyway, and even with our supposed big war chest that’s a lot of money to put down. Why waste bits of that on 2 keepers, when we can just extend ruddy for a year as a backup and buy 1 keeper. Same with Anderson, he’s alright for depth in league 1. Gardner, hogan, etheridge, Oakley, Williams all can go. In regards to juke, if we can buy 4 strikers that are all decent enough quality, then let him go by all means, but maybe we can’t, so it might be worth keeping him as a last last resort or impact sub.
What’s the difference between extending Ruddy’s contract over getting in another keeper on a free?
If it’s about continuity I can understand but I’m a bit confused by the idea of getting a new keeper that’s good with his feet whilst is backup isn’t.
We need to have one way of playing so it doesn’t confuse the players.
Signing Ruddy on a free transfer I would of expected him on a decent wedge, especially as he came from a prem club
now we are in L1 we can give youngsters a bit more time to develop as the league is pretty poor in terms of quality
I’d be very wary of blooding in Mayo, in league one tbh. I haven’t seen him play but hear he’s a bit on the short side for a keeper.
In league one we will need to defend our box from
lots of high balls into the box. If TM, is happy with Mayo, as number 2 then so am I.
That said we need to get promoted next season,
ClaptonWhat’s the difference between extending Ruddy’s contract over getting in another keeper on a free?
If it’s about continuity I can understand but I’m a bit confused by the idea of getting a new keeper that’s good with his feet whilst is backup isn’t.
We need to have one way of playing so it doesn’t confuse the players.
If we can sign a decent keeper, and identify and get a decent backup for free, which both of whom can play with their feet as well as their hands, then by all means let ruddy go. I was just making the point that ruddy is a capable backup if necessary.