Kante? They’re completely different types of players, though I’m sure Matt Palmer would enjoy the comparison. As you say, Kante at his best runs, tackles, gets into the opposition half and makes things happen. He was fantastic in the Champions League final last year. We regularly got swamped by the better sides in this league last season.
Obviously we need different types of players, that’s why I said Palmer was more effective when he had Vincent beside him. For whatever reason Burchnall didn’t rate him, let’s hope he or one of the new recruits works out better this season. The early signs last night were good.
If someone is offering 100k plus, I’d snap their hands off.
Thank you Elite for saving me the time and answering BFPs question.
You don't win the fans player of the season and the players' player of the season award if you don't affect games.
He was our best player last season, he was our most consistent performer (just ahead of Cameron, just!). It may not have shown in the obvious stats but the fans know, the players know and IB knew.
That might well be the case, but we didn’t beat anyone decent with 11 men for the whole second half of the season, finished 5th, and were knocked out of the playoffs at the first hurdle. So how high were the standards?
If we want to do much better my thoughts are that we need midfielders who can do more than what Palmer does.
Have I missed something? Is player of the year based on performances since the start of 2022? I always thought it was the season. I don’t get the fascination with the second half of the season. You mention Cal being harder to replace yet he played fewer games in the second half for whatever reason (folk can make assumptions about illness, injury, being mardy, coach fell out with him).
Palmer does what Cal can’t and Cal can do what Palmer can’t. The problem is we couldn’t get Cal on the pitch consistently enough last season, the playoff game was no exception. Different players influence the game in different ways. Personally i’m disappointed Cal has left and I will be if Palmer goes too. The reality is both players would thrive with a quicker and more mobile front line, which we now have.
I completely understand why anyone would make Matt Palmer POTY last season. He would have been in my top 3 for the reasons you and others have said. What I’m saying is last season’s standards were nowhere near good enough.
I don’t think we’ll miss the Cal Roberts of last season much either. He is though, a massively talented player who I hope can get back to the level of 2020 with Aberdeen.
Last edited by BigFatPie; 27-07-2022 at 09:51 PM.
But if you don’t get promoted and they leave on a free (and let’s not forget Palmer, Roberts and whoever else were part of a Notts side that fell a fair way short last season) then you’ve gained nothing. So it’s a really delicate balance.
Really you just have to take each case individually, I don’t think you can be like ‘we can’t sell anyone under any circumstances if we want to go up’ or ‘always sell if we can make a good profit’. You’ve got to look at how important someone is to the team, whether they’re likely to be more valuable in the future, who is available that you can replace them with, are they likely to kick off and sulk if they don’t get a move etc etc, balance them up and decide which is the better option.
With Palmer my view would be that he’s an important player who’ll be difficult to replace and, this close to the season, we should try and fend off any interest. But if he’s indicated that he’s desperate to go, for whatever reason, and the manager is worried he might down tools if he’s not allowed, that would change things.
Palmer said he joined us because he liked Burchnall's idea of how he would pivotal to the way we played. Under Williams I can see that not everything would have to go through Palmer, so this may be why he has asked the club to listen to offers. This is why, along with what I witnessed last night, I am not as worried about losing Palmer as I was when the transfer rumours first surfaced.
Actually, Williams was heard saying at the Leicester game (during half time) that he wanted Palmer on the ball as often as possible. Williams, like Burchnall, recognise that he has the ability to make us tick.
I wouldn’t get carried away with the way we played against Forest. I’ve said it before that the acid test will be when teams bombard us with long balls and pure physicality. That’s where in previous seasons we have fallen short. As well as not being able to play past the press.
Last edited by SwalePie; 28-07-2022 at 11:11 AM. Reason: Fixed typo