O'Riordan

[MeForCrewe]

Billington has long been identified as his replacement tbh.

I absolutely love Billington to be honest but personally don't think that he is quite ready to be a "proper" centre half, I would definitely leave him where he is playing at the moment where he is a great asset.

[duschko]

So who looks after Smith on Saturday?

[whosbrianwilson]

I absolutely love Billington to be honest but personally don't think that he is quite ready to be a "proper" centre half, I would definitely leave him where he is playing at the moment where he is a great asset.

Luke and Mickey as first choice if playing four at the back - Billo or Zac joining them when we want to play three centre halves.
Definitely see Billo as the heir apparent to Connor

[ShropshireAlex]

Luke and Mickey as first choice if playing four at the back - Billo or Zac joining them when we want to play three centre halves.
Definitely see Billo as the heir apparent to Connor

Me too, but before a back 3, do we want to lose what Luke's being showing in centre mid recently?

[gazan]

Me too, but before a back 3, do we want to lose what Luke's being showing in centre mid recently?

Depends really - we have 3 deep midfielders on the books now. Offord would make a fourth. However, I really like him in that position, snapping at heels and intercepting through balls. He's a natural!

[whosbrianwilson]

I think the fact that we've signed 2 midfielders says it all really. One is to replace White, the other to replace Offord as he moves back to ch.

[frogpole]

So who looks after Smith on Saturday?

Good question ...

At 1.98m (6feet 6inches in old money), Smith will be a handful. Connor would have been very useful against him.

Guess we need to work extra hard at stopping crosses into the box.

[MikeSB]

Wasn't there a similar situation with Nick Powell albeit a vastly greater amount. Didn't Manchester United pay £3m with a view to paying a further £3m in instalments. Powell, of course, fell out of favour after Ferguson retired and Moyes didn't rate him enough to play him so loaned him out to Wigan. The rest is history

Dario told me we got another milion when NP scored in the play off final. NP was one of our very best players and disappointing he did not play in the PL...Isn't he with Vale now? Why not us?

[gazan]

Stockport and a very poor injury record.