Rotation, Rotation, Rotation

Apples and oranges. There's not much point comparing how they played for other teams as we have a specific system and way of playing that means we're often looking to sign 'attributes' rather than 'performance stats'.

Not to mention we don't have the money to buy established Championship or top L1 players. We signed Wheatley without too much experience because we don't have £10M to spend on a proven Stansfield to score 30 goals for us.

So, they're looking for players who they think will thrive in our system regardless of form at previous clubs or lack of experience. I get that and I understand where we are, so I've no problem with it.

And that's why I think on paper at least, the new recruits were all upgrades.

- Sibley won promotion from our division and played most games that season - proven winner at this level.
- Wheatley as we've seen, presses from the front, wins a lot of possession, and he's a nuisance for defenders. GA wants that energy for the striker which Cook doesn't offer you - whether we like that or not... and as we didn't have a player in that mold already, then it's fair to say he was an upgrade too. Personally, I'd have preferred to keep Cook - but that's a different argument altogether.
- Evans is also a serial winner from this league and we all know what he's capable of. He's played at a higher level than Tommy Leigh, and he was a potential replacement for Power with his experience and ability.
- White, I can't really find an argument for but signing players for their attributes rather than experience will always come with an element of risk. We won't get them all right, and I accept that.

You can also look at the destination of all the players that went out as further evidence the new signings were 'better on paper' because barring Byrne who we loaned to Donny, the rest ended up dropping down at least one league, while all the incoming players were wanted by L1 teams (and some Championship clubs).

I'm in agreement though that most of them have been disappointing.

 

I think he did 'okay' in a side that was expected to challenge for promotion but fell well short when finishing 6th bottom. I think he was supposed to be similar to Khela in that he's tall, good on the ball, and forward thinking. Maybe he isn't ready... good enough... or even has a bad attitude? Whatever is halting his potential, you could argue his insipid performance against Huddersfield ended his City career that day.

I'm not complaining though as I don't mind taking gambles on unknown players, that wasn't my point anyway. Fair enough that players are overlooked when they fail to take their chance or underwhelm in training. I completely go along with that, my point is that despite a number of first team players having too many bad days of late, they're keeping their places.