Seems to me that they are going to treat Smith in the same way they treat Sheppard - get them with first team games under their belts ready to be regulars for us next season. Perhaps.
Id hope it wasn’t the players who instigated this but you could be in to something, perhaps they hope with someone commanding the box more will address a lot of the basic mistakes made by the defence and can be quicker and cheaper than bringing in another defender
This is bizarre beyond words and another example of wastage. The net effect, unless we sell Smith or Killip, is that our costs go up. If we're sending Smith on Loan to a lower league, we'll still have a large chunk of his wages to pay, while we'll have Killip doing nothing, feeling very unmotivated, and some kid who's premier league wages we'll have to pay a portion of, plus a likely loan fee which is extremely common, and for a kid who's played a few minutes of football. You have to prioritise. Killip has done far better than Slonina and is good enough as things stand. Goalkeeper isn't in our top 5 areas to strengthen, and we've got to get players out. I know thats not easy, but we've got to get control of this ever burgeoning imbalanced squad.
The issues with the keeper are as much to do with how much confidence the defence has in him, as with their technical abilities. The big improvement when Killip replaced Slonina for me was in this area, as they seemed noticeably more confident with him behind them. I'm worried that going back to a young, inexperienced keeper will produce the same result, albeit I know nothing about Gauci and he might prove to be a world-beater.
I would just be surprised if he's giving up being understudy to Emi Martinez to come and be understudy to Ben Killip. He's here to play.
If he’s listening to any of our defenders trying to throw the keeper under the bus then it’s time he went
I do get what people are saying about prioritising positions of need but i have to say, at face value he appears to have a great pedigree. He's understudy to a bloke widely recognised as the best in the world.
Killip O Killip is out of contract in the summer so maybe he's one of those that's going out the door before Monday especially if we've had a 10k offer from Oldham..
He's out of contract in the summer, might just be the last we see of Killip in a reds shirt, we'll be 12 months further down the line with Smith who'd actually got 30 EFL games under his belt and we've borrowed yet another keeper without any mention of an option to buy, great planning
I think this quote from DC scares me more than the other one. We're after "1 or 2 more" before the deadline, which suggests tweaks to the squad, rather than addressing the deficiencies we've been seeing, and particularly given the injuries picked up recently. At least my expectations have been set now. https://x.com/SportGids1/status/1884912645502882203
You'd hope so but at 23 and 30 EFL games under his belt, there comes a point surely in the summer Smith is NO:1 or it becomes another poor looking transfer.
It could just be he's managing expectations because we've failed to get so many over the line. Or, the club are unlikely to move on players they'd like to and don't have the resource to bring in bodies. We've a few days left, but the last two windows so far haven't been what was needed.
Very harsh on Killip. I don't think he is the best keeper, but he has been very good last few months. Been player of the month this month for sure in my opinion. The one player on current form who does not deserve to be dropped, let alone have his manager air it in the media like this.