Jack Shepherd

If Mladen says it's raining outside, I'd have to go and have a look myself. Why anyone trusts anything this bloke says is beyond me

 

To be fair, you are quite right

 

Honestly, everyone w*nking on about him like he's the new Baresi. Only a year ago, if i was being generous i would describe him as 'raw'. Hes had a few good games a level down. See also, Kyran Lofthouse who turned out to still be just as babber as before he left.

 

Still think Shepherd will want the move to Bradford. He’s built a rapport with players and fans and is a guaranteed starter. They’ll have 20k at every home game too.
Coming back to us he could end up being a bit part player again and our home gates will be less than half Bradford’s…probably a lot less.
Can Bradford afford to buy him though?

 

I imagine after he’s been assessed in preseason they’ll make a decision on what to do. I wasn’t really convinced before we sent him out on loan but he may well have developed quite a lot as he’s only 23 and is still really new to professional football. If he’s good enough to get a lot of game time with us then great, if not I don’t think a sale with a chunky sell on him would necessarily be a bad thing.

 

They'll sell Shepherd, and Mladen will be asked about the "big part" comment, and he'll say that Shepherd played a big part in us being able to be financially capable of completing the season, what with him being the slippery lizard that he is.

 

Our club seemed to conclude that our defence was better without these two in it last season. The defence we felt was good enough was simply awful. Not just as 4 defenders but as a team. So will the club now decide these two are better in it? Or will we try to rebuild from a blank sheet and they may be collateral on the way. Personally i think they maybe worth keeping and seeing how they go from here. But either way they arent the solution.

 

Lofthouse didn't pull up many trees at MK Dons from what I remember though. He'd had a decent spell in the last month of the season, but I'd read their forum at the start of April and they weren't overly impressed.

I agree Shepherd was very raw last season, but he's the sort of centre half we'd be looking at had he been a permanent Bradford player. We've had success in the past signing League 2 team of the season players (from memory, Potts, Cadden and Hourihane were in the tots), so at least this time we're not having to part with a fee for one.

 

If you state a player will play a big part but then sell him and use the money to strengthen the team for the better, then I would suggest he had played a big part.

 

Still think he may go to Bradford.

The crowds, settled very quickly there.

Here, he's not guaranteed to settle, as bad as we have been we still have better players than Bradford.

We will see...

 

Shepherd wasn't in the League 2 Team of the season was he?

 

Be ace Al going out on loan for a bit o speed .
They would all be after a bit lol

 

Have a day off

 

It’s a typical slow news day story. Course they’d like to keep him, same as I’d have liked to keep Bobby Thomas or Daryl Dike after their loan spells with us.

 

His team are also second bottom and they’ve conceded 64 goals.

Like I say, not convinced there’s such a gap in class. Perhaps the old firm aside.

Hibernian have finished third in the division, and their player of the season was Nicky Cadden. Five goals and seven assists from left back and left midfield.

We missed Nicky, but he didn’t exactly tear up the league last season.

In any case I’d have no issue having both back and in the first team squad - though I do worry lopata is even slower than the centre backs we’ve had this season.

 

The fact is that unless Conor has watched one or two City games he’ll have seen little of either Shepherd or Lopata. He needs to make an assessment of both in the pre-season

 

Shepherd (like all our defenders) was fine but also always had a mistake in him, reports from Bradford fans have largely said the same thing. Overall I’m ok with him but I’m not sure he’s the answer to solving all our defensive problems either. If we’re offered £500k for him I’d consider it tbh.

 

No, was he heck. Though you'd think he'd won the Ballon D'Or the way people are talking.

 

Bradford won’t be offering anything like that. Be surprised if they could offer more than £250k but if we had a hefty sell on I guess we’d consider it.