Russell...

Could it be that Hourihane has had his hand forced by the player? In the sense that he's got a year left on his contract, fully fit, yet not being selected?

The player hasn't signed a new deal, we bring in Kelly. As a coach you know Russell is a top player but you can't pick someone who wants to be off (regardless of how professional they've been) when you have Yoganathan and Kelly chomping at the bit.

 

Could be or could be the fact he played through the Summer and needs his time managing.

 

Agree with this. As others have mentioned too though, his mobility is poor without the ball. Players can just glide past him at times. I think the other options offer so much more defensively, closing down, keeping pressure on them with the press, better shape etc.
Its a shame because he's got an abundance of quality when on the ball. Saying that, if he had both, he'd be top end championship player imo

 

Wouldn’t be surprised if Russell went in the next week. We have a decent midfield and need cash to reinvest.

 

Both him and Phillips need to learn to smile. They look so bored, even when scoring.
If I was on five grand a week or whatever I'd be walking round all day long with the stupidest big grin on my face, so much so that people would be slapping me.

 

I would say he's least suited to way Hourihane wants to play of the midfielders he has at to choose from. Russell has many assets but high press high energy isn't two of them.

 

Maybe it's because half of that 5k a week will be deducted in taxes, and it never gets spent well enough?
Doubt it though - I think he's just a morngy bugger

 

If he scores 1 in 2 for this season he can look like a slapped a*se as much as he likes...

 

I think the same was our most productive midfielder last season. Linked to championship clubs recently. Wouldn't be surprised to see him leave before the window ends. And people saying he doesn't tackle etc is just untrue for the most last season for definite YT posted the after game stats to back this up last season aswell.

 

I think it’s a combination of the two.

He will have been behind on his pre-season due to his Jamaican commitments but Hourihane is probably also of the belief that he will be sold if we get a decent offer due to him only having a year left so it’s allowed him to start with a midfield that doesn’t include Russell.

 

It works out that he'd be keeping 59% of that £20+k a month after tax as the higher rate of 40% only kicks in after £50, 270 earned and 45% after £125,140 earned.

So on £5k a week his take home pay would be £2944 per week. If paid monthly, for comparison with most folk, that's £12759 take home a month after tax and national insurance.

I'd look grumpy too if I only earned that a month

 

Maungiest player ever was Andy Payton, didn’t stop him being an absolute goat.

 

Not bad for a part time job in the third tier of football. Obviously we don't know the exact amount, and there will be bonuses too, but the level players are now paid is obscene and fans seem tolerant if not encouraging of it.

 

We've got a wealth of talent in midfield and Conor prefers other options. Russell is very effective as an attacking midfield player but so are others. He wouldn't be in my first 11.

 

I think he's a quality player and would love it if we could afford to keep him. But the fact that we've got a midfield stacked with talent, plus it looking like we want to play with pace, means we may have to sacrifice him - especially with his contract being up at the end of the season, and his market value likely to be in excess of £1.5 million.

Last Saturday I was absolutely sure that Conor needed to bring Russell on after about 70 minutes when the game was getting messy, in order to calm everything down. Instead he brought on Kelly and Cleary to up the tempo, and it worked.

That doesn't mean that Jon Russell isn't a valuable member of the squad - he is. But his departure would weaken us significantly less than Phillips or DKD in my opinion.

 

If Russell is not sold this window I would be very surprised.

Last year of contract, relatively young and the club have brought in players over the summer to strengthen midfield.

If he can command a fee of £1.5m the cost of keeping him to be a squad player is north of £1.75m for the season. Doesn’t make any financial sense.

The big unknown is will any club be willing to part with over a million for his signature?

If BFC are to try to get to a sustainable position this is the type of trade that needs to happen.

 

I’m not arsed either way has off decent game rest of time he either looks disinterested or like he’s never played football before.
Think folk are getting carried away with s few half decent performances in a turd of a season when even Lee Ctookes would have stood out! If he was consistent fair enough but don’t like his attitude

 

He can tackle but lacks the defensive awareness and recovery speed that our other midfielders have

 

I really like Big Jon. I particularly enjoy the fact that stats completely defy most of the criticism he receives. Similar to Phillips, his numbers are great yet a lot of folk concentrate only on his flaws. Whereas others who don’t produce much in terms of numbers and have a lot more bad games than good, they get a bit of a free pass. It’s weird, but that’s football.

It’s great that Conor has six decent options in midfield and I’m sure he’ll pick the trio he thinks is best depending on the opposition.

But it does feel like Jon is most likely to be sacrificed for obvious reasons.

 

Or he's not been swayed by a good couple of months last year and rightly thinks Phillips is more effective in the one spot we've got for an attacking midfielder.