Mcgugan

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Davedarkly; you have to remember he was offered a new deal which he turned down. Lewis needs to be a regular starter to push on with his career and its clear he wouldnt get that at Forest as his workrate wasnt good enough. Good luck to him I say, we need to clear the decks a bit and he needs a new start, simples...

I like McGugan but he was at a real cross roads this summer. Personally he must feel he will get a lot more game time at Watford and thus put himself back in the shop window, maybe even for the Jan transfer window.
With Lansbury about to have a full pre-season's training, I would hope this will be a defining season for him at the CG and we won't miss McGugan.

Delighted he's left. He should've gone years ago. Had enough of him.

My point would be that right of this moment, we are weaker without Mcgugun. Despite playing fewer games than most, his impact was was more significant. I'd argue that we wouldn't have had a shot of being in the playoffs on the last day of the season if we hadn't had Mcgugun in the squad albeit from the bench. We've not just lost a good player, but also our best deadball specialist. Players like this are hard to replace. I totally agree that he would more than likely have wanted guaranteed first team football, but while that's great for him and our promotion rivals Watford, it's not great for Nottingham Forest, which is my concern. We are weaker without McGugun, whether it's from the bench or in the starting 11, and I hope they have plans to spend big, because we've just lost that ability to change games from the bench and our biggest threat, statistically in front of goal. I'd like to get excited about a 21 yr old lad from Walsall coming in a tearing the division apart, but realistically guys, that's expecting too much. There is still time, but we aren't competitive IMHO at the moment. We need a left back (Nicky Shorey), a centre back (big Wes would do) and a striker capable of outperforming the best in the division.

I agree with your last sentence Dave but last season was unusual for McGugan and it was the right time for him and us for him to go. We need freshening up as a squad and players like Paterson will make the difference in my opinion.

Billy sharp and Lewis Mcgugun were our most dangerous players in front of goal, statistically, when you look at how many shots they had and chances created. Neither of these players are on our books anymore. However much you like each of our current crop of midfielders, each has their merits but none are as dynamic as Lewis was and this is what we'll miss. He wasn't the complete player by any means , but unless you can afford an adel taraabt or a Charlie Adam, he's the closest thing we had to this type of player. It will be interesting to see who we bring in now, because in my mind there is still a lot of work to do before we're ready.

We're a lot stronger without Lewis. Suppose you'll have to see it to believe it.

That doesn't even make sense mate. How are we stronger without our best goalscorer and dead ball specialist, and about the only real game changer in the squad?

I'm not sure he was our best goalscorer. He had a fantastic spell in 7-8 games last season where he was on fire (although half his goals were penalties) and for that it might have been worth keeping him. But he's never been that prolific before or shown any consistency. I don't agree that we're stronger without him but I can't see him being hugely missed. We've got other set piece specialists - Raddi, Pep, Reid etc who will score free kicks.