Stevens off....NOT CONFIRMED

[ferrarilover]

Electric pace? Stevens?! He has little legs and decent close control which makes him appear quicker than he actually is. If all the players lined up for a 100m sprint, he wouldn't feature on the podium.

Gold: Macklin
Silver: Zebroski
Bronze: LRT

Kee would probably be about as successful as this lady in Lane 5: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rubbish, put a cheese burger at the end of the course, then see Fatty Kee run.

Matt.

[Jeff]

Electric pace? Stevens?! He has little legs and decent close control which makes him appear quicker than he actually is. If all the players lined up for a 100m sprint, he wouldn't feature on the podium.

Gold: Macklin
Silver: Zebroski
Bronze: LRT

Kee would probably be about as successful as this lady in Lane 5: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I cannot understand where this notion that Macklin is ultra-quick has come from. Sure, he gives the appearance of someone who should be quick - slightly built and with boots as white as snow, but' I've yet to see this "legendary" pace. Its become a running joke amongst the guys I go to away games with - Macklin got brought on in the away game at Shrewsbury, and we were expecting him to really stretch their tiring backline with this alleged pace. as it was he was beaten in a foot race every single time by their defenders. Similar story when he started away at Cheltenham. Macklin is the one player in the squad I cannot warm too - he was supposed to be a highly rated youth-teamer, when is he going to show us this?!

As for Stevens, I would actually place him right up with the quickest players in our squad. And as is mentioned, he has excellent close control - he is by far the quickest player we have with the ball at his feet. Stevens downfall is he has no footballing brain whatsoever. This scenario has happened time and again - we can all see from the stands that the full-back is blowing out of his ar*e, and we're all imploring Stevens to run at him. But Stevens can't see this, and decided to cut back, or inside, and ends up losing the ball.

As I've said before, i think its worth offering Stevens a year at a lower rate than before. If he accepts then great, we've got another body in the squad who CAN make an impact (albeit infrequently). But we should not be looking to him as first choice. If he rejects, no great loss.

[jocktheknife]

Stevens has enough in his game for Lge 2, there has been one thing holding him back for the whole of his 4 years here......and its the one thing that drove me mad about buckle.
You've got a right footed winger here who DOES have excellent close control and is definitely quick with the ball at his feet....

Here's a novel idea....



Play him on the right wing!

[tommyg]

I cannot understand where this notion that Macklin is ultra-quick has come from. Sure, he gives the appearance of someone who should be quick - slightly built and with boots as white as snow, but' I've yet to see this "legendary" pace. Its become a running joke amongst the guys I go to away games with - Macklin got brought on in the away game at Shrewsbury, and we were expecting him to really stretch their tiring backline with this alleged pace. as it was he was beaten in a foot race every single time by their defenders. Similar story when he started away at Cheltenham. Macklin is the one player in the squad I cannot warm too - he was supposed to be a highly rated youth-teamer, when is he going to show us this?!

As for Stevens, I would actually place him right up with the quickest players in our squad. And as is mentioned, he has excellent close control - he is by far the quickest player we have with the ball at his feet. Stevens downfall is he has no footballing brain whatsoever. This scenario has happened time and again - we can all see from the stands that the full-back is blowing out of his ar*e, and we're all imploring Stevens to run at him. But Stevens can't see this, and decided to cut back, or inside, and ends up losing the ball.

As I've said before, i think its worth offering Stevens a year at a lower rate than before. If he accepts then great, we've got another body in the squad who CAN make an impact (albeit infrequently). But we should not be looking to him as first choice. If he rejects, no great loss.

He came on in the 89th minute at Shrewsbury! This season though is make or break for him. I'm convinced he has talent. Some Swindon fans raved about him and he was even rumoured with a move to Chelsea (I choked on my Coco Pops when I read that). There are plenty of players who fall away after showing promise as a youngster (remember Troy Douglin?!), and Macklin is certainly in danger of pitching up in that camp. But I'm prepared to back him and hope he proves most doubters wrong.

[Jeff]

He came on in the 89th minute at Shrewsbury! This season though is make or break for him. I'm convinced he has talent. Some Swindon fans raved about him and he was even rumoured with a move to Chelsea (I choked on my Coco Pops when I read that). There are plenty of players who fall away after showing promise as a youngster (remember Troy Douglin?!), and Macklin is certainly in danger of pitching up in that camp. But I'm prepared to back him and hope he proves most doubters wrong.

Yeah, but there were at least 4mins of stoppage time. We pumped some balls up for him to chase and he got to none of them. It was the same story in the first half at Cheltenham - for someone who allegedly has pace he never once looked like getting in behind the Cheltenham defence, and that was in a game where we were comfortably in the ascendency. He's not as quick as we were led to believe.

I was aware of his Chelsea link (I think he hit 5 goals in one U-18 game or something), but in terms of senior football he just hasn't shown anything. If we were chasing a game, I'd much rather we turned to Halpin over Macklin.

[Mav]

in todays HE it has been confirmed he has a verbal agreement ona contract with Stevens. Also still in talks with Oastler and two other potential signings perhaps before the end of the week. Assistant role may take longer to fill apparently

[HarrowGull]

I live in NW London, and on Sunday I was refereeing a football tournament put on by Barnet FC. I heard their representatives there talking about him a LOT.

[Gulliball]

Didn't we agree a deal with Oastler a few months ago? I'm almost positive it was on the official site a few months back (although I can't find it now).

[Regiment]

Didn't we agree a deal with Oastler a few months ago? I'm almost positive it was on the official site a few months back (although I can't find it now).

agreed but not signed i believe was the case. another that buckle was obviously hoping to string along until he left.

[Gulliball]

Well if we agreed a deal then why are we still negotiating with him? I can't imagine we're trying to get him to take less than we agreed a month or two back, so perhaps he's had another offer and wants a better deal from us to stay.

[Regiment]

it could be that he was released from QPR, and is now a free agent, whereas i think the original negotiation was for another season long loan. i could be wrong tho of course.

[CP Gull]

I think we agreed a deal "in principle" a couple of months back with Joe Oastler - at that time I imagine he probably knew that he wasn't going to be offered anythin by QPR.

Of course since then a lot has changed and it may be that he has other offers to consider.

[Richinns]

Yes - I am sure Buckle as offered slightly higher to Joe now than what he offered him when he agreed in priciple a few months back!

[JamieE]

Stevens staying, according to the OS.

[Bloggy]

It's a great piece on the OS!
He's definately, maybe staying.
A 'poised' 'done-deal'.
'He'll be with us next year'. 'Unless there's any last minute hiccups'.
So, basically, we're still waiting.