Conor McCarthy...

Would be nice to see him get a chance this season with him being retained.

 

No point in just paying him out of his contract mate. We may as well sell him if possible if we have no intention of playing him

 

I agree. If we don't sell him. Might as well be playing.

 

He’s nailed on to be sold

 

Looked decent imo before the injury but clearly not same player since otherwise he'd have been used last season.

Ideally one to move on if we can

 

Clarke might be a fan of Shepherd?

 

Lofthouse and Lopata to come in..think he's behind them

 

Why folks think that Lopata, Shepherd and McCarthy are suddenly going to become good players is beyond me, Lopata looked like a cart horse when last playing with us, Shepherd I am not sure if even league 1 standard and as for McCarthy, well this one is Conor not Mick lol

 

Reason I mentioned Shepherd is Clarke has just had him on loan for half a season. He knows more about him than we do.

 

Fair does mate, but knowing him is one thing, him being a good enough player to help us push for promotion is another thing though

 

Being a nerd and purely looking at the stats & ratings, for large parts Shepherd was Cheltenhams best defender, if not player for a lot of games mate. He had some good & bad games for us, but considering the jump up, I think he's handled it extremely well - thrust into the deep end like we did with Moon. Perhaps with an actual professional set up and better coaches there might be a player there. Would have cost literally peanuts so worth the 'risk'

 

Dont rate any of the 3 but Lopata played fairly regularly before injury. personally I'd sell all 3 and use their combined wage to buy 1 good CB. lots of us on here mention Shaw and Dallas plus these 3 as wasted money. get rid and buy 2 good players

 

Did Swindon not rate him?

 

If only it was as easy done as said bud!

 

That's odd. He only started 8 games for Cheltenham. He'd play a couple then get dropped back to the bench.

 

Average rating was just over 7 about a month or so before season ended mate, I remember checking at one point he had 7.9. I also checked Dallas & Shaw and that wasn't great viewing.

 

I’d have said exactly the same about Andersen when he first signed. I’m not suggesting Shepherd is going to be a world beater, just won’t be surprised if Clarke has him in his plans based on working with him at Cheltenham.

I hope they’re al knocking at the door for a start.

 

I think we have currently got worst bunch of centre backs I remember in all my time watching reds, we need to get rid and start again because I don’t honestly think we can do any worse again. We always had a great reputation for bringing on up and coming centeyhalves. Last season was the exception to the rule, we need to cut our losses and move on. No room for sentiment in football. Those we have had present are not good enough. Pines could be very good( hopefully), the Frenchman still needs to convince me, but could come good I suppose, as for the rest, let’s get rid and start a fresh

 

Love your optimism mate, but he his no Anderson never mind a world beater