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Sammie Szmodics


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We signed him at a time when we were stockpiling players, so not a surprise he didn't get that many minutes.

In fairness to LJ, Szmodics did seem to struggle in the brief appearances he had for us. I recall coming away from games thinking "oh....that's why Szmodics isn't getting much game time".

Easy to say we should have persisted with Szmodics now we have the benefit of hindsight, but at the time he left the club for League 1 Peterborough, it didn't seem an unreasonable decision to sell him.

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1 minute ago, Supersonic Robin said:

We signed him at a time when we were stockpiling players, so not a surprise he didn't get that many minutes.

In fairness to LJ, Szmodics did seem to struggle in the brief appearances he had for us. I recall coming away from games thinking "oh....that's why Szmodics isn't getting much game time".

Easy to say we should have persisted with Szmodics now we have the benefit of hindsight, but at the time he left the club for League 1 Peterborough, it didn't seem an unreasonable decision to sell him.

This is true but I do feel that, if you sign players from a division below, you have to give them time to settle and prove themselves whereas Johnson was quick to discard players like Szmodics, Eisa and Adelakun. Obviously we will never know if they were his signings but - in Szmodics’ case - he must have been impacted by the fact he had a decent pre-season but then Kasey Palmer was effectively brought in to replace him before he had even played a competitive game for us…

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31 minutes ago, Redrascal2 said:

Lee Johnson

Just so. LJ signed Szmodics and then wasted a few million on Kasey Palmer. There is wasn’t room for both in the team so LJ decided to put his, mistaken, belief in Palmer. Without Palmer Szmodics could have been given time to adjust to Championship football 

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8 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

This is true but I do feel that, if you sign players from a division below, you have to give them time to settle and prove themselves whereas Johnson was quick to discard players like Szmodics, Eisa and Adelakun. Obviously we will never know if they were his signings but - in Szmodics’ case - he must have been impacted by the fact he had a decent pre-season but then Kasey Palmer was effectively brought in to replace him before he had even played a competitive game for us…

Agree, the fundamental issue was a dodgy transfer policy.

I think we were slightly unsure what we wanted from Szmodics. Was he "one for the future"? If so, a 24 year old from League 2 doesn't seem like a player with room for significant development. Was he "one to hit the ground running"? If so, you're asking a lot for a player to step up 2 divisions and immediately have an impact. As you say, the Palmer signing then complicated things further. Very much seemed like a signing made without any clear plan or thought process.

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11 minutes ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Agree, the fundamental issue was a dodgy transfer policy.

I think we were slightly unsure what we wanted from Szmodics. Was he "one for the future"? If so, a 24 year old from League 2 doesn't seem like a player with room for significant development. Was he "one to hit the ground running"? If so, you're asking a lot for a player to step up 2 divisions and immediately have an impact. As you say, the Palmer signing then complicated things further. Very much seemed like a signing made without any clear plan or thought process.

 

That summer was when we abandoned any notions of building a squad and were basically trading for the sake of it.

We signed Szmodics, he did well enough in preseason but then we brought Palmer in so that was the end of that. We also had Paterson who could play that position and ended up having to go out on loan, only to be recalled in January. In much the same way that we signed Massengo and Nagy so Pack had to leave when he didn't really want to.

 

Edited by Northern Red
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33 minutes ago, Supersonic Robin said:

We signed him at a time when we were stockpiling players, so not a surprise he didn't get that many minutes.

In fairness to LJ, Szmodics did seem to struggle in the brief appearances he had for us. I recall coming away from games thinking "oh....that's why Szmodics isn't getting much game time".

Easy to say we should have persisted with Szmodics now we have the benefit of hindsight, but at the time he left the club for League 1 Peterborough, it didn't seem an unreasonable decision to sell him.

He was our best player that pre season, then came the real thing and he found himself given a bit part role to play at best. Palmer might have been his direct competition but even back then there was only one of the two I would have picked and it wasn’t Kasey!

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On 01/01/2024 at 18:34, Mr Popodopolous said:

Another goal for him today.

Definitely badly handled by LJ. But he wasn’t the only player sacrificed in a churn that looked like Ashton was playing Top Trumps with potential signings, and ended up getting them all while SL’s attention was elsewhere.

On 13/12/2023 at 19:21, Mr Popodopolous said:

More fool LJ.

Albeit players do develop at different times, look at Wes Burns too.

Wes Burns always had pace and some skills. What he has gained is a lot of experience in L1 that has allowed him to finally flourish at this level. Just a shame it’s at Ipswich with Ashton!

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Few things to remember.

- He signed 4 years ago, and joined from playing in League Two.

- Palmer had 70 odd Championship appearances when we signed him

- Szmodics was likely to become a decent Champ player in time, Palmer was hoped to become a decent Prem player

- This is the first Championship season Szmodics has hit double figures

- Ambitions that season were play offs, so we wanted the best we could get

 

Can fully understand LJ's decision to prefer Palmer, however I'd personally wasn't sold on signing KP at the time post loan.

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1 hour ago, Selred said:

Few things to remember.

- He signed 4 years ago, and joined from playing in League Two.

- Palmer had 70 odd Championship appearances when we signed him

- Szmodics was likely to become a decent Champ player in time, Palmer was hoped to become a decent Prem player

- This is the first Championship season Szmodics has hit double figures

- Ambitions that season were play offs, so we wanted the best we could get

 

Can fully understand LJ's decision to prefer Palmer, however I'd personally wasn't sold on signing KP at the time post loan.

What is often forgotten is that the late signing of Palmer meant we had three “no10s”…Szmodics, Palmer and Paterson.  Paterson was hastily loaned to Derby, to return in January…which meant Szmodics was then loaned to Peterborough.

Clumsy / chaotic recruitment, wasteful too.

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5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

What is often forgotten is that the late signing of Palmer meant we had three “no10s”…Szmodics, Palmer and Paterson.  Paterson was hastily loaned to Derby, to return in January…which meant Szmodics was then loaned to Peterborough.

Clumsy / chaotic recruitment, wasteful too.

Agree. Both LJ and Ashton need to take blame for that.

Always felt Palmer was there as a glamour buy / ego buy. Glamour for Ashton to keep the Chelsea relationship, ego for LJ "I can bring the best of of him".

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4 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

Good job we never gave him a chance. Not a single ******* chance. Pretty sure he’d be our best player now. 

Oh well… I guess, like Ayling, he can’t have been doing it in training.  
 

🙄 

Blame LJ for allowing Szmodics to leave.

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8 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

Good job we never gave him a chance. Not a single ******* chance. Pretty sure he’d be our best player now. 

Oh well… I guess, like Ayling, he can’t have been doing it in training.  
 

🙄 

Yes - but if we had kept Szmodics then how would Kasey Palmer or Marley Watkins have got game time?

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13 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

Oh well… I guess, like Ayling, he can’t have been doing it in training.  

He certainly wasn't doing it in U21's games when he was given the chance to impress

Frankly he needed those seasons in L1 to improve himself, only thing we could have said was for us to loan him out instead of sell. 

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1 minute ago, Lrrr said:

He certainly wasn't doing it in U21's games when he was given the chance to impress

Frankly he needed those seasons in L1 to improve himself, only thing we could have said was for us to loan him out instead of sell. 

You probably had a far longer view Lrrr but I saw him in U21 ganevatbthe Gate after he arrived and he showed everything he is now in terms of being a livewire , ability to beat a man , quick feet , and busy busy busy - he probably worked harder than I’ve ever seen for a player in U21 games

The only thing absent in that game was his finishing

Ge certainly has improved but at the time he looked as if he could have a real X factor once he broke into regular starts 

Shame

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Rose tinted glasses. At the time we were trying to make KP45 permanent and I believe he went on Chelsea's Irish pre season tour so we signed SS and we ended up with Palmer as well. I don't think SS set the world alight in the limited game time he had and the rest is history. Ultimately our loss it has proved to be.

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3 minutes ago, Rob k said:

It will always amaze me this one, and it’s not hindsight either, those who know me will know I’ve moaned about this for a long time 😂😂

I think what annoyed me was the inconsistency. I’m not going to pretend I had any idea whether he was good enough or not but we signed him presumably on the basis that we rated him, he did well in pre-season and he never got a fair chance beyond the odd 10 mins here and there beyond one League Cup game where he scored a beautiful free kick. It felt like we signed a player who did all the right things but wasn’t wanted by a manager who pretty much admitted Szmodics did all the right things but wasn’t a player he rated.

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Great desire, when Sigurdsson picked up the ball you can just about see him on the left of the picture literally put his head down and power forward to make sure he was there. The Newcastle player couldn't keep up.

You love to see it!

image.png.c33f72349e19d84064dfa24ab38ca737.png

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9 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

I think what annoyed me was the inconsistency. I’m not going to pretend I had any idea whether he was good enough or not but we signed him presumably on the basis that we rated him, he did well in pre-season and he never got a fair chance beyond the odd 10 mins here and there beyond one League Cup game where he scored a beautiful free kick. It felt like we signed a player who did all the right things but wasn’t wanted by a manager who pretty much admitted Szmodics did all the right things but wasn’t a player he rated.

Think the free-kick you’re referring to was Liam Walsh

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He's having a very good season but he's not shown this level in the Championship previously. I would hazard a guess that this is a bit of a one off season for him?

He's pushing 30 years old and it reminds me of the Weimann season with us a few years back.

If he backs it up with another 20 goals next year then i'll eat my words, but i doubt it.

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2 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

Great desire, when Sigurdsson picked up the ball you can just about see him on the left of the picture literally put his head down and power forward to make sure he was there. The Newcastle player couldn't keep up.

You love to see it!

image.png.c33f72349e19d84064dfa24ab38ca737.png

A player enjoying his football. Not sure you can say that about any of our squad at the moment.

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2 minutes ago, Swede said:

Rose tinted glasses. At the time we were trying to make KP45 permanent and I believe he went on Chelsea's Irish pre season tour so we signed SS and we ended up with Palmer as well. I don't think SS set the world alight in the limited game time he had and the rest is history. Ultimately our loss it has proved to be.

Bullseye.

This is " if only" hindsight, on stilts.

We correctly identified Szmodics as a quality player.

The problem was we had a manager who wanted a billion players, a club in the bag for every scenario, which meant there was no pathway for Szondics.

Why was he ever going to be satisfied with swapping first team football at Colchester for reserve yeam football with us?

The lad was absolutely right to leave, having realised we were run at the time by incompetent people more interested in Manila envelopes than youth development. KERCHING!

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1 minute ago, GrahamC said:

Apparently he was amazing against Maidstone..

I know that Maidstone beat Ipswich away, but it’s not like Kasey Palmer has been ripping it up regularly for Coventry this season. Unlike Szmodics at Blackburn!

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Just now, LondonBristolian said:

Yes - you’re right.

Thinking about it, Szmodics came on and struggled during that game. Definitely the right call to get rid!

Remember the Florida game v Derby before the lightning…he looked good, but in a deeper role than he’s playing these days.

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4 minutes ago, Street red said:

LJ oh the master of football and one reason why our club won't progress selling quality like that.

'The Master of Football'

Wasn't that what he called his first book? Also known as 'The Real Coaches Bible', with a forward by Pep Guadiola

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I was thinking exactly the same as the OP

He was never given a chance and I do remember the usual short sighted comments on here from a few saying he was nothing to write gone about, which of course you can tell from 30 seconds on the pitch (3 appearances in total)

At least someone in our organisation had the insight to get him on books but then the usual behaviour kicked in...

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16 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Apparently he was amazing against Maidstone..

Where are Coventry in the league?!

Unbelievable as it seems - and of course we couldn't afford him (so good luck with that Coventry) and he was rubbish for us - Manningball appears to be the future and what that style of football requires, and what we lack to make it work, is a technical, creative ACM who can receive the ball in tight, central areas, on the half turn, and then feed passes forwards to our attackers.

That type of player would transform us.

That type of player is Kasey Palmer.

Nuts.

Edited by Merrick's Marvels
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3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Remember the Florida game v Derby before the lightning…he looked good, but in a deeper role than he’s playing these days.

Yeah - he was the star of that pre-season and looked like a bargain. And then we signed Palmer. Then sold Webster, lost to Leeds and had a complete midfield reshuffle and changed formation. Then lost Afobe to injury and the rest of the season trying pretty much every playing system available with the only coherent thread being the fact that Szmodics had no role to play in any of them.

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16 minutes ago, Scrumpys Dietary Advisor.. said:

I was thinking exactly the same as the OP

He was never given a chance and I do remember the usual short sighted comments on here from a few saying he was nothing to write gone about, which of course you can tell from 30 seconds on the pitch (3 appearances in total)

At least someone in our organisation had the insight to get him on books but then the usual behaviour kicked in...

108 total minutes in the league. 🤦‍♂️ 

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