Lewis Hall

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, GeordieT said:

 

A friend has oddly become quite pally with him over the last couple of months, and whilst he hasn’t been brazen enough to explicitly ask how he feels about his current situation and how what he expected upon signing, they have spoken about the positional question. He has said that long term he saw himself as a winger or a number ten. 
 

Whether he has any say in it, I don’t know.

He thinks he’s Cole Palmer?

[Hanshithispantz]

We weren't weak when we signed him though, we had Burn and Targett there with Trippier and Livramento for cover.

 

A lot of people underrate Burn and in hindsight Hall was probably signed purely for the future.

[Heron]

Just now, Hanshithispantz said:

We weren't weak when we signed him though, we had Burn and Targett there with Trippier and Livramento for cover.

 

A lot of people underrate Burn and in hindsight Hall was probably signed purely for the future.

Yep, and aside from Man United I haven't personally seen sufficient from him yet to suggest he'd be in our first 11 any time soon. That's not to say he's a bad player as he's barely had a chance, but I feel he requires some development, which is seemingly in line with Howes comments.

[SUPERTOON]

Definitely seems one bought in for the future, however in our position with FFP, 35 million seems an awful lot to pay for someone so unproven. Especially when we have other big holes in our starting 11.

[Heron]

Aye, we need to take that into consideration.

[Aiston]

Terrible to sign him for the future when we had some pretty big gaps that needed sorting.

[Heron]

Just now, Aiston said:

Terrible to sign him for the future when we had some pretty big gaps that needed sorting.

All about price re. This point. We should absolutely be developing our academy, youth set up and young players coming through by adding quality at that level, as these lads in our current situation in years to come should hopefully be able to step in, as they would be able to at City, Liverpool, etc. However, for £30m(?) I agree that's not our priority if it effectively clears out our current FFP spending capability.

[Isaksbigrightfoot]

3 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Definitely seems one bought in for the future, however in our position with FFP, 35 million seems an awful lot to pay for someone so unproven. Especially when we have other big holes in our starting 11.

I would much rather us buy a first teamer for now with 35m.

 

Honestly think the future development has to come second.

[GeordieT]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

He thinks he’s Cole Palmer?

Perhaps!
 

The “no one wants to grow up and be a Gary Neville” springs to mind. Do many budding youth prospects aspire to be fullbacks? When I was at a school I used to know and played with Patrick Nzuzi who had just moved up to join the academy. An unbelievably tricky winger that everyone else was just in awe of. But Pardew / the club shifted his development to RB and whilst obviously his career never took off, always found the positional move interesting. 

[Dr.Spaceman]

5 minutes ago, Isaksbigrightfoot said:

That’s why I think the 30m would be better spent for the now.

 

We need decent "home grown" kids coming through otherwise we're going to struggle in Europe for years to come. We can't keep relying on untested 17/18 year olds who are 50/50 as to whether they're even going to be professionals in a few years to make up bench space. We need to take risks with the likes of Hall & Tino. Anyway, Hall is nowhere near as raw or naive as some are making him out to be. He's there on merit because he's a decent player now, at the age of 19.

[Isaksbigrightfoot]

1 minute ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

We need decent "home grown" kids coming through otherwise we're going to struggle in Europe for years to come. We can't keep relying on untested 17/18 year olds who are 50/50 as to whether they're even going to be professionals in a few years to make up bench space. We need to take risks with the likes of Hall & Tino. Anyway, Hall is nowhere near as raw or naive as some are making him out to be. He's there on merit because he's a decent player now, at the age of 19.

At this moment I would still like players for the now or we won’t get into Europe. But I agree we do need both.

 

If however FFP is what it sounds like we either have to buy players for the now or sell assets which I don’t want us to.

 

I personally think our recruitment was quite good in summer but it’s just backfired a bit.

[gbandit]

Impossible for anyone to make a judgement on him. The signs from his time with Chelsea were that he’s going to have a massive future so I’m happy to wait and see. I find it frustrating how little time he gets but Howe’s gotten it right a lot before so I probably need to just suck it up 

[Dr.Spaceman]

1 minute ago, Isaksbigrightfoot said:

At this moment I would still like players for the now or we won’t get into Europe. But I agree we do need both.

 

If however FFP is what it sounds like we either have to buy players for the now or sell assets which I don’t want us to.

 

I personally think our recruitment was quite good in summer but it’s just backfired a bit.

 

We'll make Europe every year with this squad minus the ridiculous injury situation. In theory we should never have a worse squad than what we had last season, which got us to 4th.

[SUPERTOON]

4 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Impossible for anyone to make a judgement on him. The signs from his time with Chelsea were that he’s going to have a massive future so I’m happy to wait and see. I find it frustrating how little time he gets but Howe’s gotten it right a lot before so I probably need to just suck it up 

Don’t think anyone is questioning his potential. More that we are seemingly unable to spend due to FFP and we are already 35 million down in the summer on a player who barely gets a kick.

[Isaksbigrightfoot]

10 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

We'll make Europe every year with this squad minus the ridiculous injury situation. In theory we should never have a worse squad than what we had last season, which got us to 4th.

A lot of other teams underperformed last season. Aswell as us only losing 5 all season. We have lost 10 already.

 

I know we have a horrible injury list and this contributed to the issue massively.

[Smal]

It was good to see him out-pace Foden on one occasion when he came on. Hopefully a sign that he’s getting closer to what Howe needs from him physically.

[gbandit]

12 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Don’t think anyone is questioning his potential. More that we are seemingly unable to spend due to FFP and we are already 35 million down in the summer on a player who barely gets a kick.

They’ve always said our transfer policy is about the right targets longer term, rather than filling immediate needs. It’s frustrating and has meant that this season has been a huge struggle but if it pays off next season and beyond then it ends up being worth it. We have got a cheap deal for Hall long term but an expensive deal short term. Or at least, that’s what I hope.
 

Given the transfer approach, it would suggest that the board are all about the long term and won’t be too fazed by set backs but I’ll admit there’s a lot of inference and guesswork there on my part

 

 

Edited January 14, 2024 by gbandit

[Isaksbigrightfoot]

1 minute ago, gbandit said:

They’ve always said our transfer policy is abort the right targets longer term, rather than filling immediate needs. It’s frustrating and has meant that this season has been a huge struggle but if it pays off next season and beyond then it ends up being worth it. We have got a cheap deal for Hall long term but an expensive deal short term. Or at least, that’s what I hope.
 

Given the transfer approach, it would suggest that the board are all about the long term and won’t be too fazed by set backs but I’ll admit there’s a lot of inference and guesswork there on my part

I think they have to get the balance right. A lot of our transfers have been for the future.

 

Having said that no one could predict the injuries and Tonali situation.

[The Prophet]

58 minutes ago, Aiston said:

Terrible to sign him for the future when we had some pretty big gaps that needed sorting.

 

It's not like he was signed ahead of anyone else though. Fair enough, if he isn't seeing more minutes next season.

[Coffee_Johnny]

1 hour ago, Aiston said:

Terrible to sign him for the future when we had some pretty big gaps that needed sorting.

If we had a 20-20 crystal ball, then you might have a point. No Willock, no Barnes, no Targett, no Tonali, Joelinton , Longstaff, Wilson, Murphy, Burn, and Isak in and out. I’ve no doubt missed absentees. We have by far the most ‘missed days’ and the third best XG in the league. Still made a decent fist of navigating the group of F and tough domestic cup draws. Not much wrong all things considered. 

[The Prophet]

Still not particularly concerned about this. He was signed because he was available on a loan to buy, it's not like we'd have bought anyone else instead.

 

We'll be committing cash in the summer, but with a full pre-season behind him, I'd expect to see significantly more of him next season.

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

18 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

If we had a 20-20 crystal ball, then you might have a point. No Willock, no Barnes, no Targett, no Tonali, Joelinton , Longstaff, Wilson, Murphy, Burn, and Isak in and out. I’ve no doubt missed absentees. We have by far the most ‘missed days’ and the third best XG in the league. Still made a decent fist of navigating the group of F and tough domestic cup draws. Not much wrong all things considered. 

Probably missed the most critical one in Pope. Been why our defence has been sitting deeper and giving opposition No10’s all that space to operate in

[Ikon]

9 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

Still not particularly concerned about this. He was signed because he was available on a loan to buy, it's not like we'd have bought anyone else instead.

 

We'll be committing cash in the summer, but with a full pre-season behind him, I'd expect to see significantly more of him next season.

You don’t reckon that Trippier will start most games and Burn on the other side along with Tino when he isn’t playing RB?  30m is something I would use to strengthen the first 11 as a massive priority. Unless Howe thinks Hall will be more or less 1st choice. We also have Targett who seems more trusted atm (before his injury). No idea if we have to sign Hall now or what the deal is.  We have too many positions that need strengthening so I would not like us to spend 30m unless he’s certainly going to be a regular. In this case we might as well have gone for Barco for less than 10m. He is very well known and highly rated. 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2024 by Ikon

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

2 minutes ago, Ikon said:

You don’t reckon that Trippier will start most games and Burn on the other side along with Tino when he isn’t playing RB?  30m is something I would use to strengthen the first 11 as a massive priority. Unless Howe thinks Hall will be more or less 1st choice. We also have Targett who seems more trusted atm (before his injury). No idea if we have to sign Hall now or what the deal is.  We have too many positions that need strengthening so I would not like us to spend 30m unless he’s certainly going to be a regular. 

 

 

 

Think the likes of Targett, Lascelles and Krafth will be moved on this summer as a way of freeing up FFP funds, which will see his path to first team minute look less contested. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar renaissance for this lad as we've seen for Gordon this year. It takes time for many to get up to speed with Howe's system

[Ikon]

1 minute ago, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

Think the likes of Targett, Lascelles and Krafth will be moved on this summer as a way of freeing up FFP funds, which will see his path to first team minute look less contested. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar renaissance for this lad as we've seen for Gordon this year. It takes time for many to get up to speed with Howe's system

Aye hopefully. He just doesn’t seem like a Howe type of LB really. Fingers crossed that it works out if we sign him which seems likely. I’m hoping that Hall is the sign of us becoming slightly more possession based and look to control games more and better going forward. For this we need more technical players. Intensity is good but we can’t rely on that only so I think we need to find a better balance to evolve and get to the next level. This extreme intensity isn’t sustainable, especially when in Europe. We need to be able keep hold of the ball better to control and “rest”. Especially be able to control the possession much better once we recover the ball in our defensive third. Nowadays the opposition comes back straight away with the ball and we have to defend again.