Olivier Ntcham

If you're meaning Brown, Christie and McGregor I think there's valid reasons for all 3 being more favoured over the period.

Brown - Captain for more than a decade, experienced, was the heartbeat of the team up until recently, legs going this season but I still think he was playing to a high level before lockdown eg. 2 games v Lazio he was superb

Christie - the numbers he puts up are ridiculous, 2nd top scorer last season, already on 3 goals and 6 assists for this season, his ball retention and possession play could improve but you simply can't leave him out when he keeps delivering moments that win games.

McGregor - ultra-consistent, versatile, never injured, another who chips in with more goals and assists than Oli.

 

McGregor is the first name on the team sheet for me. I understand him not being dropped.

Brown simply can’t play every game now at a high level. We all know and love why he’s the captain and why he plays. But who else does the job he does, does Soro do it? We don’t really know. But we need to start experimenting with the midfield to find the right combination.

Christie’s stats are good but his overall game for me isn’t as beneficial to the team as I think Ntcham would be. And this is a recent thing for me. As I’ve said I think stats and success has gone to his head. Unfortunately we are at a point where we are winning some games based off moments such as Christie’s.

I can understand why we keep them in the team even pushing Christie out of position to do so at times, but I don’t agree with it.

 

Aye, going forward I think Oli deserves a run of games and for me Brown is the one out of the 3 that misses out.

Without Christie I think it's a certainty we'd have dropped more than 2 points so far and McGregor was at his brilliant best at the weekend.

 

I'd like to see him in the 10 position again, played there a handful of games last season and was brilliant, also allows Christie to play in his best position as box to box and McGregor to be the sitting mid. Brown needs dropped without a doubt.

 

West Brom are chasing the signing of Celtic star Olivier Ntcham before the transfer window shuts, Football Insider can exclusively reveal.

Slaven Bilic is keen to strengthen his midfield options at the Hawthorns after starting the season with consecutive Premier League defeats.

A Baggies source has told Football Insider the club are working on prising Ntcham from Parkhead but face competition from other Premier League and European clubs.



Football Insider revealed earlier this year that Celtic value Ntcham at around £12million, nearly three times what they paid for him in 2017.

That may be deemed an inflated price by West Brom given that the Frenchman is not a nailed-on starter in Neil Lennon’s side.


He has made nine appearances for Celtic this season, five of which have been in the starting XI.


In Lennon’s favoured 3-5-2 formation, Ntcham started the weekend 3-2 win over Livingston in a central playmaking role.

He was used almost solely in central midfield alongside Scott Brown in his first season and has subsequently played in more advanced positions.

The former France Under-21 international has been a key man in the Hoops’ domination of Scottish football since his £4.5million transfer from Man City in 2017.




Ntcham has made 132 appearances in all competitions for the Hoops, scoring 23 goals and supplying 13 assists.

He has two years remaining on his Hoops contract.

The summer transfer window in Scotland runs until midnight on 5 October

 

Given there will likely be no match day revenue coming in this season I can see that we may need to sell a player to get through the season financially and given our strength in depth in midfield I hope of the players being mentioned it is Ntcham and that we are able to keep both Edouard and Ajer. If we can get about 12m for him that should be enough for us to get bye for the season financially and squad wise we have good depth in central midfield even without Ntcham.

 

Think it's almost a certainty that ntcham and rogic are for the off.

And although they need replaced, they are the two that will be sacrificed and not replaced.

Ajer and Édouard need to stay, Édouard needs a new contract.

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Football insider is alot of pish

 

Wouldn’t break my heart if he left. The result isn’t matched often enough with the talent.

 

Think your right about Rogic as well going. Your also right I think about nobody being signed to replace them beyond David Turnbull. Rogic if he goes probably gets us back the money we paid for Turnbull while if Ntcham goes his fee should cover what we paid for Barkas and Ajeti and some of the fees we paid for the Duffy and Elyounoussi loans with Kouaasi's sale likely covering the rest. The net result being we likely if Ntcham and Rogic are sold cover any money that went out on signings and the fact we sold all our season tickets should then allow us to be ok financially for the season even with no match day revenue.

 

I think he needs to play against rangers. Typically plays well vs them and has the ability to draw players in and beat them in the middle of the park.
If im being honest i feel like we missed him in the games he didnt play vs them.

 

Rogic has been a great servant (crackin’ all-round player in his day, great feet and silky skills for a big guy and has scored a lot of important goals, and I, no doubt along with many other supporters, will miss him), but his time is up. As for Nitcham, well, I’ve stated my opinion about him on here recently — i.e. he’s a very good player, strong, good passer, rarely loses the ball, can score goals from anywhere on the pitch — but he’s too inconsistent and has looked uninterested and detached since Rodgers left. If West Brom make an offer of 10 - 12 mil before the summer transfer window shuts in October, we should grab it with both hands. That’s a no-brainer, for me.

 

He has had some excellent performances against them but also a couple of very poor ones

 

We simply shouldn’t sell him.

 

Totally agree mate ntcham is one of our top 3 players Edouard and McGregor being the other two no way any of them can go this season

 

Sorry mate but if he was our 3rd best player he would be in the team every week. He’s got unreal potential but as it’s been said on here countless times, he lacks application.

 

Av always been of the opinion that he is fed up being benched for the big games and isnt one of these players that gets the motivation for accies away kinda like samars but every time he get a run of games and especially big games hes always stand out just my opinion I think hes a class act

 

If selling him and ajer stops us from selling edouard this season then It has to be done


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We shouldn't have to sell any of them in this window just to keep afloat.

The pandemic will have eaten into our cash reserves a bit, as will the purchases of Ajeti and Barkas but there shouldn't be any immediate danger to us given season ticket sales, Adidas deal, merch sales etc.

If any or all of them try to push through a move if an offer comes in then that's when we may be forced.

I'd like to think we're preparing for all eventualities and have replacements in mind for them. Hopefully it's not another deadline day sale followed by an 'oops that came out the blue and the player forced the move' scenario.

We've taken some risks in recent seasons that we've managed to get away with. There should be no reason that we go into this season with a lack of cover in any area.

In terms of squad depth at the moment, Ntcham is probably the one we could most afford to lose, having just signed Turnbull.

Ajer is our most mobile CB which will be important if going with a back 3.

Eddie, goes without saying.