HG players.....

Ok, we all know that we must replace and improve our HG squad players for next season.

We've so far been linked with the following players for this and how much the papers think they'll cost us:

Barkley - £50m
Sterling - £50m
Ward-Prowse - £20m

these are just to name a few. Include this kid Ben Gibson from Boro at £10m, that's £130m worth of players!

2 of these players are in England first team, the other two are in the England U21 squad.

Now, apart from Barkley and Sterling that we've all seen on numerous occasions, and both have their attributes and issues - injuries, attitude etc....Ward-Prowse looks a prospect, but that's it and Gibson is unknown as a CB - which we don't need. So that's:

A striker - wide player
x2 attacking MF's
A CB

all for approx £130m - if we believe the figures.

So let's deal with them individually and save ourselves a shed load of cash on transfers and wages with what we've currently got on our books:

A striker/wide player - instead of Sterling we have Brandon Barker.

Attacking MF's - we have Lopes, Pozo, Bytiqi, Cellina and now Angelino.

CB - we have Rekik and Denayer.

Yes, none of these are at a level of Sterling or Barkley, and don't have the experience of Ward-Prowse, but what's to say they couldn't get close or even overtake their PL worth if given a chance?

This is the match report from our EDS game yesterday against a Leicester team that have beaten us the last 5 times in the EDS league and regularly do well each season....and we're talking about a LB scoring a hatrick and yes, another goal for the bang in form Barker:



The Elite Development Squad ended their run of defeats to Leicester City in emphatic fashion on Saturday afternoon.

Following three successive losses to the Foxes, City ran out 4-2 winners over the league’s third-place side to move past Chelsea in the U21 Premier League standings.

In their first league fixture for a month, an Angelino hat-trick lit up what was a dominant and exciting performance from Patrick Vieira’s side.

The left-back scored one in the first-half and two after the break, while Brandon Barker also netted with a trademark finish after 33 minutes.

Two late consolation goals gave the scoreline a more respectable appearance for the visitors but it finished with a deserved 4-2 win for City EDS.

he day’s visitors had been responsible for a couple of the low points for City over the past six months.

Already this season, the Foxes had scored nine goals in two victories over City, including the 6-2 in the reverse fixture at the King Power Stadium in October.

More recently, Steve Beaglehole’s men visited the Academy Stadium in February and came from behind to win 3-2 in the International U21 Premier League Cup.

That left Vieira’s side with plenty of incentives for a victory and the teamsheet contained few surprises with just two changes from March’s 3-1 win over Fulham.

Jorge Intima came in for the injured Thierry Ambrose, while Spanish playmaker Manu Garcia made his first U21 Premier League start in place of the suspended Jack Byrne.

"Buoyed by their four successive wins at under-21 level, Leicester started the game on the front foot and went close to taking the lead twice inside the first ten minutes."

Angus Gunn produced an excellent block to deny Liam Moore who was clean through, before Jack Barmby had the City ‘keeper at full stretch with a venomous, dipping 25 yard effort.

However, it was City who could boast the best chance of the opening quarter of an hour when Garcia produced an inspired through ball to unlock the defence but Jose Angel Pozo was bested by goalkeeper Adam Smith when he attempted an outside of the foot clip.

On 24 minutes, City were denied a credible shout for a penalty as Ben Chilwell felled Pozo inside the area but Scott Oldham waved away the protests.

Frustration turned into elation three minutes later as City took the lead courtesy of Angelino’s first league goal of the season.

The Spanish full-back arrived at the back post at the end of a sustained period of pressure in the opposition third and defied the acute angle he found himself in to blast his shot into the roof of the net.

It only took five minutes for the lead to be doubled and the left side was once again the source.

Barker was this time the scorer with a typically Barker-ian goal, cutting inside from the flank and drilling the ball across Smith into the far corner.

He could not have placed it in a better position by hand.

City had to weather something of a Leicester storm in the following minutes as Moore should have reduced the deficit from a yard out but somehow conspired to knee the ball away from goal and Jack Barmby brought the best ouf of Gunn with another effort from range.

There was not much between the two sides in the first 45 minutes aside from the home team's clinical edge in front of goal, so Vieira would have been wary of another Leicester fightback when the match resumed.

In February, City had been 2-0 up against Leicester only to surrender the advantage and ended up losing 3-2.

Angelino ensured that there would be no mirror repeat of that by doubling his tally for the game and for the league season with an exceptional volley.

Pozo lifted his cross towards his compatriot at the far post and the ball had been in the air for what felt like an age, giving the full-back plenty of time to think about the finish.

It was testament to Angelino’s technical proficiency that the finished looked so calm – a roll into the far, bottom corner.

He moved to the left-wing when Adam Drury entered the game after this, his second goal, and went on to ensure a torrid final 30 minutes for the Leicester right-back, twisting him inside and out and getting in behind time and time again.

Only the inside of the post prevented him from making it a hat-trick on 55 minutes but he would only have to wait until the 73rd minute to claim the match ball.

Leicester were caught up the field and Angelino raced down the left wing, dribbling half the length of the pitch before drilling the ball past Smith into the corner – an almost carbon copy of Barker’s earlier strike.

There was time left for Anthony Knockaert and Joe Dodoo to score and halve the deficit but this day belonged to City and their outstanding Spanish full-back.

Back-to-back league wins for Vieira now then, with Everton away up next on Sunday 12 April.

We can keep our 'big' money to bring in some genuine world class players like Pogba, Koke, Bale, Pedro....and use our current EDS squad to supplement the HG rule and get them genuine experience.

couldn't agree more

We shouldn't be paying that sort of money for potential. And we shouldn't be getting defenders from the championship for £10M when we have players in loan at Celtic and PSV which are at least a similar standard to the championship. I can't believe Gibson is better than either of those players.

We shouldn't be paying anything at all for potential. We have a youth squad full of potential. We need to use the money for the marquee signings, not to buy unproven players when we have plenty kicking around.

So our dick of a manager says we are spending big on an English player this summer. I thought he was intelligent? That's another 10m on the Barkley price then. Didn't think I could dislike a manager any more! This man is stealing a living from us.

See for yourself:

Okay...  So at left back we have Kolarov, who can get forward but not defend, and Clichy, who can defend but not get forward.

And then we have THIS KID in the EDS who can do both.

Do we really need Kevin Bacon at this point?



Say it with me...