Joao Carvalho

[the jock]

rowett sold will hughes because he wasnt his sort of player. now hes in the prem playing great. actually got the better of pogba weeks back

[redreni]

well if its a choice between the 2 then it has to be goodbye MON. Carvalho is not superman but he has shown enough that he can score and more importantly as others point out create chances with one pass. noone else apart from lolly can do that. bear in mind i expect there to be massive interest in lolly from lots in the summer not least villa then potentially we are getting rid of our 2 players that can create things, crazy.

MON should defo be able to build a team that suits carvalho. he isnt going to be winning 50/50's but from what i remember certainly early season he certainly put the effort in to close people down etc. he wouldnt have played in a karanka team if he didnt. if you have 2 dm's behind him then thats fine.

for me mon has 4 games left to prove he can put something worth while on the pitch. otherwise for me the owners should admit its a mistake and move on. so its not simply a question of player against manager. it is about the clubs identity and how it wants to set itself up. this summer we went down the route of bringing in technical footballers. maybe not entirely successfully but i am happy with that route. no need to change players to different managers. managers should be bought in that can work with the players we have a perhaps add a few here and there.

i am not buying all this about the players not being good enough. they have been up there all year and from what i have seen they are no better or worse than most in the playoffs and around us. mon should have been able to get more out of them.

[the jock]

nixon said something along the lines that we quoted villa 13/14 mill for Lolley in January.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

That would be one for a poll. I suspect we will let go one of our major assets to fund yet another summer of rebuilding, whoever is in charge. I have moaned before about selling our best talent to fund 3 or 4 mediocre new players, often those past their best but on higher wages than those we have sold.

So if the worst happens, who goes, Lolley or Carvalho?

[the jock]

i think we could potentially squeeze out 15mill for lolley. if we got 25mill for both i would take it, no question. we could buy 4-5 very decent championship players for that price if we were sensible.

purse strings will be tighter this summer unless we sell.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Thats the thing Jock, we are never sensible. We cash in and then spend it on a load of dross, ex prem players after a last payday and journeymen. You watch us flog Lolley for £10M and spend it all on Gary Madine and James Mclean.

[the jock]

Thats the thing Jock, we are never sensible. We cash in and then spend it on a load of dross, ex prem players after a last payday and journeymen. You watch us flog Lolley for £10M and spend it all on Gary Madine and James Mclean.

bang on.  jesus thats a scary thought.

[Maltared]

We will be lucky to get 7-8 million for Lolley and if we have to sell Carvalho now, no one will give us more then 4 million topped up with some good add ons ...

[redreni]

then we wouldnt sell either player. i cant see either moving unless its a ridiculus bid or in carvalho's case geetting the money back.

[zicorice]

Do not sell this lad. Today he showed for almost 90 minutes what we could have on our hands. I am not vilifying MON for holding him back, indeed it may have contributed to his virtuosso performance today, But how many other players in this league can do what he can do? Add Lolley into the mix and we have the players to build the team around.

Focus on what he can do rather than what he doesn't do.

[Mcforest]

The whole set up seemed to suit carv. The space we created for players to make runs for his through ball was excellent.

[wassy04]

Yep formation did allow our best two players to flourish. Might be able to get our money back if any scouts were watching that!

I am going to vilify MON for not picking him though. Just why? He showed today why you find space for him, even if it means using a more defensive or energetic player elsewhere or changing formation. Build the team around him, we’ve invested money he’s clearly talented and he’s had a year to adapt now.