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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 20:27 7 Aug 2025
"Hard work starts now,"... Should have been working hard when pre-season started over a month ago even if he was without a club. No wonder he can't bang them in. With that attitude he can go to Hull and back. |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 18:18 7 Aug 2025
Without a shadow of a doubt stronger. A LOT stronger.
Darling will be the big miss of course but genuinely think Burgess will prove to be an upgrade.
For his consistency and ability to cover multiple positions it was a shame to see Naughton go, and Allen just because of my love for him, but the time was probably right for both as presumably they were on decent wages with not a huge amount of return on investment with regards to minutes on the pitch.
Of course a lot of other teams will also be strengthening g over the summer so whether we are strong enough to compete for a top 6 remains to be seen but comparing this year's squad with last year's there's a clear improvement IMO |
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Reply | If it is a crisis up top.
at 23:48 6 Aug 2025
Hardly a crisis.
We've sold two players who were out on loan last season so no worse off.
We've brought Wales in so arguably in a better position than how we finished last year which was pretty strong under Sheehan.
Yes we'd all like to see another exciting striker come in. But there's 3 weeks of the window left, and we haven't seen what VIP/Wales/Cullen can do this season yet. Maybe the expectations are low at present, but maybe we shouldn't judge until after a competitive ball is kicked. |
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Reply | Morecambe FC ...
at 23:06 4 Aug 2025
I think Tyson Fury would make an excellent Chairman. Imagine the fly on the wall documentary! |
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Reply | Kaelan Casey : A sensible option
at 12:30 3 Aug 2025
Makes sense, but any young player is going to want to play so it's going to be a hard sell to get a player to just cover us for the first few games and then be demoted back to the bench, unless Sheehan decides to switch his tactics around a bit which will accommodate three at the back |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 23:10 24 Jul 2025
Can't say I'm one that's got a particular dislike towards Wrexham. They've done excellent over the past 4 years since the new owners have come in, and love them or loath them they've done an excellent job in putting Wrexham back on the map and putting some much needed positivity into North Wales. Don't get me wrong, I hope we stuff them and do the double on them being our only Welsh Derby this year, but otherwise I'm indifferent towards the rest of their results/success.
I do think however they're going to have a year of consolidation as their progress will severely slow down and they'll struggle for consistency in the Championship. They'll do enough to avoid the drop, but I certainly don't think they'll set the league on fire. |
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Reply | Managing our mental health
at 22:25 23 Jul 2025
Thanks for the messages all. Pleased to announce I'm in a much better place than I was just two weeks ago. Some great people have taken the time and reached out and shared personal experienced which wasn't expected but has given me a lot of food for thought. I'mm very fortunate have some very close and supportive friends (who aren't jack's sadly) away from here, but the last couple of weeks have shown how the indy community can be just as supportive. Thank you all. [Post edited 24 Jul 7:14]
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 20:17 22 Jul 2025
I suspect we'll know by the end of October how hard he's worked over the Summer Period to shape his game and fit the mould Sheehan wants. He's injury free and will have had a full pre-season. After an underwhelming 24/25 he needs to hit the ground running this term or those who still have blind faith will soon lose it. |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 20:00 20 Jul 2025
All boils down to whether he's going to sign an extension or not. If he's not interested/or a deal can't be struck then 4m+ can't be turned down surely? |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 09:22 19 Jul 2025
I think he also tracks back deep to help the defence also, not sure exactly where he'll be played and under what role under Sheehan but from what I understand he doesn't hang around waiting for the ball to come to him, he'll drop back, put a foot in get the ball and set off on his travels 40+ meters up the field. Exactly the player we need to get us up on our feet. |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 12:08 12 Jul 2025
May be a blessing In Disguise, hopefully we'll go out and sign a competent LB now who can give Tymon competition for his place for the remainder of this season and help push him on, completion for places is healthy.m. It's a position we have no depth in anyway given Naughton, Pederson and Tjoe-A-On have all left the club. Hope it's a quick recovery though and he's not in too much discomfort. |
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Reply | Managing our mental health
at 19:05 11 Jul 2025
Having yet another low point. Completely out of nowhere, been a couple of weeks now. Not posting this looking for sympathy/support, just highlighting the roller coaster of mental health. You feel great... Then out of nowhere the blues kick in.... Then you feel ok/great again.... Then the blues return. It's a circle at the moment i'm determined to break. |
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Reply | Diogo Jota
at 18:44 6 Jul 2025
Thankfully situations like this are very few and far between so we don't know if "most top clubs would have done it". Fact is Liverpool have, and that should be commended that they're stepping up and ensuring the family are well looked after. Nah e they don't need to (legally, or morally) as I'm sure the Jota family are wealthy and he'd likely have had a life insurance policy. But the fact they have and put an arm around d the family of one of their own players speaks volumes. Not particularly a fan of the club/city (although had a few cracking few weekends away there) but credit where it's due. |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 15:25 6 Jul 2025
On paper I think so, unless they see other existing players (Fulton/Cullen) as surplus to requirements and trying to move on. Fulton will be difficult from a wages perspective but if he's told you're having 0 minutes of football this season then it may force him to have a rethink. Cullen who may not be classed as a midfielder did play most of his football last season in the AM role so with the options brought in and still looking at midfielders he took could be for the chop? |
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Reply | Japan v Wales
at 11:23 6 Jul 2025
The current eligibility rules are the eligibility rules. I don't like them, and whilst I think there should be some room for qualifying on residency, that should be somewhere around 7+ years in my opinion.
However with the current rules in place which we are not fully utilising we are being considerably left behind and overtaken by some other nations who are taking full advantage of the eligibility rules.
I take the point a previous poster mentioned that the regions can't compete financially to bring in the best players from other shores, I hadn't thought of it that way before, but we do have 4 professional sides so I don't agree necessarily that we don't have the player pool, That's over 140 professional rugby players playing in Wales, excluding those choosing to play in England/France. I'm not going to get into the financial side of things as it's not my area of expertise, but to say we don't have a big enough player pool to compete with at least the likes of Italy, Scotland, Japan and even Ireland I think is wrong.
What were not doing is bringing through elite athletes from the U19's into senior rugby or developing them into elite athletes in the first two years of senior rugby. Fast, physically big players. Is it because we're a "small nation" or is it because of our culture or conditioning programmes.
Then.... And this is a big one for me.... We have been seriously lacking in skill and rugby intelligence for an awful long time. Wales, particularly under Gatland had a system, a structure, it worked for some time but the game moved on, we didn't. The game is quicker and looser now (for the better in my opinion) but we still seem to want to set up pods of 3 which slows the game down rather than play with width and pace. The golden years under Gatland have left their mark on Welsh rugby, most school coaches and junior coaches would have taken inspiration from that and tried to play that way... So Between 2008 and 2019 kids would have had certain playing preferences instilled in them... And where are those players now??? Our Senior players!!!
Something drastic has to change, I don't want/think cutting regions down is the answer as we want that larger playing pool, but the coaching in the 4 regions (as they currently are) and in particular in the identification of and development of talent at younger ages needs to be overhauled.
Here's what I would do :-
1) Scrap all junior pathways for each region - the money they could save on expenses, coaches etc can be re-invested back into their first team squads.
2) Centralise (probably under WRU) academies lnto East, West and North Wales for every age grade from U13's to U18's for those identified as the most talented players. Each year players need to "Graduate" to the next age band based knowledge improvements made whist continuing to account locally and hold regular trial days for any late developers/newcomers to rugby to not be missed.
3) Use a form of "draft system" for the regions to select which players they want to contract upon graduation from U18's into senior rugby.
Not all players will make it, that's life. But under a better, stricter and more consistent centrally funded development programme the regions would have the cream of the crop available for them to select to offer professional contract to. |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 17:28 5 Jul 2025
If they're valued by the coaching staff/board now is the time to extend - 4 year contracts which would mean not needing to come back to the table for a couple of years. If they start to drag their feet and risk walking on a free like Darling then we can actively look to move on in this or the next two windows for a decent sum and reinvest in long term replacements. |
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Reply | Here comes the summer transfer rumour thread
at 22:45 3 Jul 2025
Correct. But the same could be said for most other squad members. I was basing my opinion on needing at least one left back cover and an additional striker based on those currently on the books as of today (assuming Galbraith gets over the line). |
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