Nathan Wood

When we let him go, we were playing 3 at the back and his position was RCB. We had McNair & Dijksteel as 1st and 2nd choice there so Wood would have been 3rd choice. Smith and Lenihan could also cover that position. He had also it made it clear that he wasn't going to sign a new contract unless he was playing regularly and was on the back of a failed loan to Hibs.
Undoubtedly we screwed up developing him but it was a perfectly reasonable decision to cut our losses and sell him on. He's done well at Swansea and would probably have done well for us under Carrick though, again, he would probably have been 3rd choice for the right-sided centre-back after Fry and McNair.
 
Not sure what we are supposed to do, just keep playing young players at the expense of the teams success in the hope the odd one turns out good

Same argument we have for the 1 in 50 youth players we end up letting go

Then they would leave anyway if they did turn out half decent

He was here for years and got stale, and in his last season he went to the SPL a few poor standard and couldn't even get a game there

Good luck to young lads who are released/let go and make a decent fist of it somewhere else

Can't just continuing playing youth players and being defeated in games, if the players are good enough they get in the team,
Wood wasn't good enough and still would not have been good enough to start in our current XI and would have had zero progression
 
Diego said:
Can’t believe some people would rather keep Wood than sign Lenihan. He’s absolutely outstanding. This board is unreal at times
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I think folks would rather have kept the rising star that is now Wood than us spend £2.5m on the now injured Matt Clarke.
 
When we signed Clarke he was always a 'that will do' signing as we wanted Jacob Greaves from Hull instead. In the games that he played, Clarke didn't look like he had the attributes to play the overlapping role other than having a left foot.
 
erimus86 said:
When we signed Clarke he was always a 'that will do' signing as we wanted Jacob Greaves from Hull instead. In the games that he played, Clarke didn't look like he had the attributes to play the overlapping role other than having a left foot.
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He was playing through his nerve issue.
 
He was, certainly in the later games, but despite that he looked more like a traditional centre back winning the ball and playing it on rather than one to go running up the pitch playing one twos. Square pegs in round holes.
 
erimus86 said:
When we signed Clarke he was always a 'that will do' signing as we wanted Jacob Greaves from Hull instead. In the games that he played, Clarke didn't look like he had the attributes to play the overlapping role other than having a left foot.
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His strength was literally playing in the left of a back three. He's known as a ball-playing defender who likes to get forward. He had won player of the year in his two previous clubs and I think he was player of the match on his debut for us. Then whatever freak injury he has hit him and he was playing through it while Wilder was imploding.
Likewise, Lenihan was known for being best as the right sided defender in a three. Mowbray had been known to use him as a wing-back. I thought Wilder had bought him to play there until it become apparent that he was trying to force Fry out of the club. Lenihan has a great range of passing and isn't afraid to get forward.
Thanks to Wilder we have a good range of ball-playing centre-backs who are most comfortable in a three: Lenihan, Clarke, Dijksteel, McNair plus full-backs who can cover there: Smith, Bola. Then we have Fry who prefers playing in a 4 but is decent in the middle of a three.
Personally, I would have liked us to have signed Wood up to a longer contract and tried a loan (i.e. to Swansea) but it's clear that he wanted out. Shame but, that said, I'm not sure he's going to end up much more than a decent Championship defender.
 
Bruce said:
His strength was literally playing in the left of a back three. He's known as a ball-playing defender who likes to get forward. He had won player of the year in his two previous clubs and I think he was player of the match on his debut for us. Then whatever freak injury he has hit him and he was playing through it while Wilder was imploding.
Likewise, Lenihan was known for being best as the right sided defender in a three. Mowbray had been known to use him as a wing-back. I thought Wilder had bought him to play there until it become apparent that he was trying to force Fry out of the club. Lenihan has a great range of passing and isn't afraid to get forward.
Thanks to Wilder we have a good range of ball-playing centre-backs who are most comfortable in a three: Lenihan, Clarke, Dijksteel, McNair plus full-backs who can cover there: Smith, Bola. Then we have Fry who prefers playing in a 4 but is decent in the middle of a three.
Personally, I would have liked us to have signed Wood up to a longer contract and tried a loan (i.e. to Swansea) but it's clear that he wanted out. Shame but, that said, I'm not sure he's going to end up much more than a decent Championship defender.
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Think the last comment might be wrong. His ceiling is higher than run of the mill championship defender.

I understand why we let him go. I'm just lamenting it in hindsight. One more loan and half a season with Carrick would've been preferable.
 
didnt he go to hibs and end up coming back early due to some issue at Hibs..maybe not enough game time .. so much so he couldnt play for us either
 
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Granted I don't watch Swansea all that often but when I have he has consistently been their worst defender, in a team that defends terribly. Definitely a none story
 
You can't keep them all. He was clearly no where near our first team so for his own development he had to leave and get more game time.

Realistically how much would he have played for us this season?
 
Colin Warnek said:
He did exceptionally well on his debut away at Bristol City. For me Warnock should have kept him in the team from then.

Flogged him for 200k. Sh!te business from the club. Tavernier well under priced too.

We need to make sure Isaiah Jones, Coburn etc don't get flogged for peanuts too.
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his contract was up at end of season and he wasn't going to renew it so we sold him to get something
tav wasn't under priced, he went for prices that really good championship midfielders go for

BoroMart said:
Hoping we have a big sell on fee
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doubt we have that much of a good one since our position was not one of much leverage with his contract running out
 
I think the point with Wood though is that he wasn't just any young player. He was playing for the u21s at 15 and the first team at 16. He's always been highly thought of and he has quickly broken into the England u21s with Swansea. Could we have given him more opportunities?
 
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