Chris Mepham

My question is... Is he better than Mings? Ok hopefully not as injury prone. Maybe hes the long term successor to Francis?

Time will only give us that answer.

But Mings hasn’t had a fair crack of the whip since he came to our club injury wise.

Started off as a substitute against Leicester when Daniels went off injured and then picked up a bad injury himself.
 
Unfortunately, personally I do not believe that Francis will be returning at least not in the Premier League. One has to take into account his injury, the length of time he will be out and the fact that he is now 34 years of age.

Going to be tough for franno but he is supremely fit and looked after himself so well plus he is doing rehab with Lewis cook so think they will spur each other on. Plus if Eddie is around he will give franno the chance to come back.
 
I think you will find that 7 sit on the bench every week, Whilst another 7 are not selected at all.
That's what a squad is all about.

As I posted earlier, it's about time we sold players rather than posting them out on loan.

Who was the last player we got a "market" fee for?

Try not to answer with another question, I have a busy day.
Been thinking about Al's question a bit more, and I think its a very narrow way of thinking.

Look at players like Pugh, Cook, Francis and Stanislas. Some examples where we've definitely got market value out of them. Pugh goes out on loan but his contribution to the clubs rise has been immense.
 
You're normally smarter than this Al.

Let's take Grabban as an example. After two successful Championship loan spells where he re-proved himself at that level by scoring a few goals, we managed to sell him for £6m. £6m!! Now I'm sure we could have sold him sooner, directly from our reserves as a flop. What would we have got for him? Not even half that would be my bet. Another example: we basically conned Bristol City into giving us our money back on Tomlin using the same tactic.

For a hypothetical, let's take Mings. What would we get for him now? One of the slightly wealthier Champ clubs might punt us 1-2m for him. That would be generous given his injuries and lack of game time lately. So instead let's loan him out. Best case scenario, he's brilliant and becomes a viable option for our first team. Next scenario, he does a solid job and we put the word out that we'll consider selling. This encourages multiple Championship clubs to look at a permanent bid in the summer. Then we probably get double what we might get now. Worst case scenario he gets injured or struggles, well then we're no worse off than we are right now.

Putting aside the human aspect, successful loans raise a player's stock and increase their market value as an asset to us. Just cutting and running gets us the very bottom end of their potential market value. We aren't getting relegated this season, so we are under no pressure at all to fire-sell. So why not be patient and see if we can increase the market value of one or two of our fringe players.

I want to say that I have not thought about player loans this way before, but it makes complete business sense.
 
I'm Totally and Utterly against all forms of Loan...in or out. I just see it as daft...you sign for a club...that's your club...! A pitch is a pitch. ...you play for them ..if it doesn't work out you sign for another club...keep it simple! No returns...no regrets ..As it stands...A player gets injured..you recall him ...wasting the other clubs time. Then it happens to your club....he gets recalled when you are on a good run..Mad!
If it made sense why wasn't it done in 1920?
Reserve sides in Reserve leagues is the way to go! Each league has its own Reserve and Youth Leagues! Move the players up and down on merit! No need for Loans .Simple! Total Squads of about 45 players!
 
I'm Totally and Utterly against all forms of Loan...in or out. I just see it as daft...you sign for a club...that's your club...! A pitch is a pitch. ...you play for them ..if it doesn't work out you sign for another club...keep it simple! No returns...no regrets ..As it stands...A player gets injured..you recall him ...wasting the other clubs time. Then it happens to your club....he gets recalled when you are on a good run..Mad!
If it made sense why wasn't it done in 1920?
Reserve sides in Reserve leagues is the way to go! Each league has its own Reserve and Youth Leagues! Move the players up and down on merit! No need for Loans .Simple! Total Squads of about 45 players!


Do you still have a man with a red flag, walking in front of your car, Bill?
 
Do you still have a man with a red flag, walking in front of your car, Bill?

Considering it ! .... I just believe in bringing things back to common sense...footballers knowing where they stand and what it is required of them ...I don't think the present system is geared to pleasing the fans, the customers who pay to see the games.....from their sometimes meagre pay packets from a month's work in comparison to the stratospheric salaries of players ' on loan' who are supposedly not ' cutting it' at the parent club!
I've got so much more to say on the modern game....and I'm primed to upset many another football fan as we move along! I enjoy ' putting it down ' and im prepared to be shot down in flames where appropriate!
I don't Walk...I Roll....with a few shimmies and sidesteps!
Btw....my car is bright Cherry Red !
 
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I'm Totally and Utterly against all forms of Loan...in or out. I just see it as daft...you sign for a club...that's your club...! A pitch is a pitch. ...you play for them ..if it doesn't work out you sign for another club...keep it simple! No returns...no regrets ..As it stands...A player gets injured..you recall him ...wasting the other clubs time. Then it happens to your club....he gets recalled when you are on a good run..Mad!
If it made sense why wasn't it done in 1920?
Reserve sides in Reserve leagues is the way to go! Each league has its own Reserve and Youth Leagues! Move the players up and down on merit! No need for Loans .Simple! Total Squads of about 45 players!


You can just imagine Bill when Defoe came to us as a youngster “ booo f*ck off back to West Ham reserves boooooo!!!”
 

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