James Trafford

[Zenmanc]

Posters complaining that Trafford is to much of a risk is the same people that complain about us not buying Livramento straight from Southampton

I'm stating Trafford is too much of a risk and I don't want Livranento so you're statement is false.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

I'm stating Trafford is too much of a risk and I don't want Livranento so you're statement is false.

Why is it too much of a risk? Should we only sign ready made players? Should we not sign players from the championship with obvious talent? - Wharton at Blackburn comes to mind

You could argue a lot of our recent signings have been unproven and therefore a risk

 

[Zenmanc]

Why is it too much of a risk? Should we only sign ready made players? Should we not sign players from the championship with obvious talent? - Wharton at Blackburn comes to mind

You could argue a lot of our recent signings have been unproven and therefore a risk

First off that's how an opinion works. But common sense tells me IF Ed goes, Traff comes, then Ortega goes. If we aren't putting big in for a seasoned 1 and Trafford is the guy... based on what we've seen it's literally too much of a risk.

 

[Twisted-wheel]

Sign him only if he changes his surname to etihad

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

First off that's how an opinion works. But common sense tells me IF Ed goes, Traff comes, then Ortega goes. If we aren't putting big in for a seasoned 1 and Trafford is the guy... based on what we've seen it's literally too much of a risk.

I didn’t know that’s how an opinion works. I won’t question your opinion or ask anything next time, but then again that is how a forum usually works :)

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

Trafford is 6' 6" in height.

Ederson is 6' 2" in height.

What will be will be.

 

[Carrl]

Does anyone know if he is qualified as "club trained" even though he was sold?

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

Yes he would be

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Why is it too much of a risk? Should we only sign ready made players? Should we not sign players from the championship with obvious talent? - Wharton at Blackburn comes to mind

We should only sign players from those sorts of clubs if we're confident we can give them the game time to develop, otherwise it doesn't help anyone. The point is that often these players become who they are because they signed for a team that can play them every week, rather than a top club that'll give them 15 substitute appearances and a few cup games.

It's the same with our youngsters to be honest. We definitely have a problem with that youth to first team step. It's natural, because even an experienced player has to be one of the best in the world to play for us, so to expect a kid who's never played in the professional game to make the step up is a huge ask. They can do it in Spain because of the B team system. A lot of players are seemingly seeing this and realising that the best thing for their career is to leave a club like ours when they get in and around the first team bench. Success stories like Liam Delap and Cole Palmer only add to this narrative. You have to wonder whether someone like Haaland would be the player he is today if he went straight from Norway to a team like us, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. Perhaps, because he's the best goalscorer in the world, but spending his whole career as a first choice at whatever level he's playing at has no doubt been extremely valuable.

 

[Dribble]

I agree, right back definitely.

Centre back I don't think we will go there. I'd love us to do so, but who can we get rid of to bring someone in? Stones, Ake, Akanji all want to stay. If a CB comes in, one of those has to leave, and then it's finding a buyer who will pay their wages. All on huge wages. Stones 250k, Ake 160k and Akanji 180k. Got a feeling Hugo Viana is trying anything he can to cut down the wage bill.

It was very telling that an apparently "fit" John Stones didn't play a single second of the CWC.

We know he'll break as soon as he crosses the chalk line, so thought it probably best to keep him away from kicking a ball in anger, so he remains fit enough for a transfer.

My hope is that he makes an emotional return to the blue dippers under Gollum. Surely they could get a combined half a season out of boulders & Branthwaite?

 

[lightning Rodri]

James Trafford is better than
Old Trafford you know,
Old Trafford is leaky
James Trafford is not

./bluemoon --logout

 

[Marvin.]

It was very telling that an apparently "fit" John Stones didn't play a single second of the CWC.

We know he'll break as soon as he crosses the chalk line, so thought it probably best to keep him away from kicking a ball in anger, so he remains fit enough for a transfer.

My hope is that he makes an emotional return to the blue dippers under Gollum. Surely they could get a combined half a season out of boulders & Branthwaite?

I hope Stones returns fitter than he has in other pre-seasons, and that we keep him. But he may leave. And if he does then we will need one of Reis or Khusanov to come through and for Rodri to be 100%

 

[Dribble]

I hope Stones returns fitter than he has in other pre-seasons, and that we keep him. But he may leave. And if he does then we will need one of Reis or Khusanov to come through and for Rodri to be 100%

No one doubts the world class quality of Stones. The issue is that those qualities count for nothing if he spends the majority of the season on the treatment table. His advancing years won't make John's fitness issues any better either.

We had a shit season by our recent exhalted standards. I honestly think it best that we treat the 2025-26 season as a transitional one & focus on CL qualification for 2026-27.

It seems pointless spending what we have on young exciting talent, only to bench them, or send them out on loan, whilst we try to patch up our ageing superstars to get one last tune out of them.

 

[jaiguruKun]

I'm warming to the idea.
He's already a better shotstopper than Ederson and the club obviously feel he has the potential to be a ballplayer otherwise we wouldn't be interested. The fact Newcastle want him as well is also telling.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

When we signed Khusanov or Reis the amount of praise they got despite being unproven and not playing at the top level was pretty high. Feels like a lot of posters are more hesitant with Trafford.

Trafford must have something about him, otherwise why are we trying to get him?

 

[Marvin.]

No one doubts the world class quality of Stones. The issue is that those qualities count for nothing if he spends the majority of the season on the treatment table. His advancing years won't make John's fitness issues any better either.

We had a shit season by our recent exhalted standards. I honestly think it best that we treat the 2025-26 season as a transitional one & focus on CL qualification for 2026-27.

It seems pointless spending what we have on young exciting talent, only to bench them, or send them out on loan, whilst we try to patch up our ageing superstars & get one last tune out of them.

Well if he's over the chronic foot problem he had, why should we not keep him?

 

[Marvin.]

First off that's how an opinion works. But common sense tells me IF Ed goes, Traff comes, then Ortega goes. If we aren't putting big in for a seasoned 1 and Trafford is the guy... based on what we've seen it's literally too much of a risk.

What's the basis for Ortega leaving, if Ed's out and Trafford is in? Ortega is under contract as well.

Trafford would be our long term keeper but Ortega would have a season where he could fight to be no. 1.

I would prefer it if Ederson were to extend his deal, but he would have done that by now if he was going to stay.

 

[Blue Hefner]

When we signed Khusanov or Reis the amount of praise they got despite being unproven and not playing at the top level was pretty high. Feels like a lot of posters are more hesitant with Trafford.

Trafford must have something about him, otherwise why are we trying to get him?

Buying those two was exciting because we didn’t know who they were and what we did see was largely positive

With Trafford, rightly or wrongly, the hesitation comes because we have seen him play at this level and when he did play, he was largely awful

Now a lot may have changed in the past 12 months. But the reality is, we are buying a keeper from the division below who isn’t experienced at playing well at Premier League level and has never played at Champions League level

I hope he hits the ground running but let’s be honest, he probably won’t and there are likely to be teething problems

 

[jaiguruKun]

Buying those two was exciting because we didn’t know who they were and what we did see was largely positive

With Trafford, rightly or wrongly, the hesitation comes because we have seen him play at this level and when he did play, he was largely awful

Now a lot may have changed in the past 12 months. But the reality is, we are buying a keeper from the division below who isn’t experienced at playing well at Premier League level and has never played at Champions League level

I hope he hits the ground running but let’s be honest, he probably won’t and there are likely to be teething problems

Trafford was 20 /21 when he played in the PL with Championship defenders in front of him. I don't think you can judge him based on that season.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Trafford was 20 /21 when he played in the PL with Championship defenders in front of him. I don't think you can judge him based on that season.

By that metric last season he was facing shots from Championship attackers so we can’t judge him on last season either…

I’m interested to see how he gets on. I don’t know what an alternative would be so have no view

Hopefully the defence and be reasonably solid and help him settle. We don’t have an easy start so it could go very well or very badly, very quickly

Here’s hoping