How many yellow cards has Hourihane got?

I know he's got at least 2. I have a really bad feeling he's going to pick up his 5th against Villa and miss the Leeds match.

And was there (is there) any truth in the rumour Bournemouth wanted him, got rejected so they got Wilshere on loan and will be back in for him next year? He'd run the show there.

 

No idea about the Bournemouth thing but he's got 2 yellows, one at Ipswich and one against qpr so if everything was equal he would be likely to pick up his 5th card against Brentford at the end of October. Obviously everything isn't equal and we don't live in a statistic

 

Dunno, but I know who I'd rather have in my side out of Hourihane and Wilshere. I'm sure there's some crank in West Yorkshire who would disagree with me.

 

Bournemouth would be a great move for Conor. They have started paying reasonable prices for their targets, if you look at Ibe etc and they like picking up good players from lower leagues, such as Callum Wilson. If we get a decent price, we would have to steal Cameron McGeehan from Luton. Win-win. I think that Conor would be the hardest player to replace in the current squad, but McGeehan would do it for me.

 

Assuming that our fate is undecided in January (and hopefully we'll be in and around the top six or eight), I'm pretty sure we'll take the risk and hang on to Hourihane, unless somebody comes in with a ridiculous offer, and if we are in the thick of the promotion chase not even then. In any case, I think we should be looking at McGeehan. Pretty sure we can afford him within reason.

 

I'm fairly confident that, if we stayed up, Hourihane would stay with us, hopefully. Or at least sign a new contract to get us a good fee. He seems fairly committed in his interviews etc.

 

No chance in my opinion. He's committed alright but he will get a much better contract and a choice of clubs if he goes for free rather than having to pay BFC a fee. He'd be stupid to sign for us if he wants to really go to a big club and earn a load more money.

 

I think we have zero hope of him being here next season. I'd go as far as to say that if we totally overachieve and get promoted to the premiership, he would turn down the chance to sign a new contract to captain us in the top flight and instead play week in week out as a regular player for another premiership side but for more money.

 

He either goes for big money in January of he continues his current form.

Or it's for nothing at the end of the season but if he does stay the season I feel us as a team will have done well in our first season back in the second tier.

 

I posted in a thread last week. Let his contract run down, offer a signing on fee of up to £1m, with wages that do not break the structure. Key to this is staying in the league and not struggling. That would be a relatively cheap signing for what we would get/retain.

 

If he continues his improvement I can see Connor playing too flight football at some point in his career.

 

So can I.

 

With that some point being in less than 12 months time.

 

Of course they could but could offer more than we could even if they did pay a decent transfer fee, say in January. I'm just saying that it's not a complete unknown for players to sign new contracts to help their club, knowing that they're likely to get a move either way. Macdonald did it at Torquay, admittedly at a lower level, and if he were to sign a new deal with us, he would get more than he's on now, still be playing in the Championship and have a very good chance of moving to an even higher level.

But I get your point and even if he leaves for nothing in the summer, we would more than have got our money's worth

 

I actually think if we went up he'd definitely stay. He is desperate to pay at the top level possible as well as for Ireland. These are his primary motivations rather than money, from what I can gather. I get the impression that he's very close to Hecky and Cryne as well, so if he could achieve top flight football with BFC I'm sure he'd take it. I also can't believe he hasn't been picked for Ireland yet.