Competitive Budget.

I fail to understand your logic in your first paragraph. So had these players done their job this season I’m guessing Edin will have taken all the credit?

On paper they all looked pretty decent signings. The hundreds of posts on here during the summer transfer window confirms that the fans thought so too. Collins wasn’t a great appointment but our transfer dealings in Jan without Edin were laughable and we are now on our 3rd manager who is doing a pretty terrible job at even getting the players to put up a fight. Again not Edin’s fault.

 

If edin didn't sign the players then who did? Greg was recovering from his illness and we had no manager, so that only left edin and his puppet. I'm sure a few players like Riley and Mellor will have been on Greg's lists from previous windows but the vast majority were signed by one man.

Sure we signed a few good individuals but we didn't sign a team, we didn't sign any leaders and we didn't sign any characters. We signed players like Isherwood, Riley, Seedorf who were like fish out of water in this division and haven't worked out here because they're shite and not good enough. That's no one else's fault other than edins. He signed a collection of individuals based on their names and reputations with no thought to their play styles and how we would be able to field a balanced side.

 

I’m not disagreeing really I just don’t think the players we have signed are bad players. I think the likes of Scannell and Payne especially were far better than what we had the season before. We all thought O'Donnell was a decent singing and we all laughed at Aberdeen fans for being "bitter" on their analysis of O'Connor. You cannot guarantee that the players are going to gel into a team. You can absolutely try and make sure you have the right characters to build a team around but again there is no guarantee.

I am not sticking up for Edin here in anyway shape or form but I’m not having that the summer recruitment is the reason we look down. We signed plenty of quality. Or what appeared to be quality based on reputation and experience.

 

You're right, the summer recruitment is not the only reason we'll go down. Sadly the managerial appointments fully killed us off. Collins was a joke, Hopkin didn't have a clue and it's too late for Bowyer to do anything. It's really disappointing because I think if Bowyer was here in January and had that window to sign players, then I think we'd have stayed up.

 

well yes.
on paper they looked like good signings. yes they did. but the fact they haven't turned out to be good signings is on Edin, because he should have known far more about these players than we do.

 

No we didn't. this season has proved that.
just because theyre alright on paper doesn't mean they're gonna turn out to be good on the field.

 

Most have played higher than the bottom of league 1 with varying levels of success. But it was clear, even in pre season, that actually making a competitive team out of them was nigh on impossible.
It soon became apparent the jigsaw pieces didn’t fit, evident at Blackpool away when a fresh faced 19 year old Lewis O’Brien with no experience looked far better than players who’d been around the block.
Fans tend to blindly look at Wiki stats and which divisions these guys have played in rather than what position they will fill.
And then theres the coaching team and the Edin scenario. The Collins fiasco was one of the most embarassing things i’ve seen happen at this club and was a precursor for what was to happen all season. Its been damage limitation ever since. Lets face it this was the expensive toy train set Rahic had dreamed of for years, funded by the bank of Rupp.

 

It's fine signing well know names, in most cases we'd all be over the moon with that but when there's no thought on how the team might set up, what a team needs beyond the starting XI etc we've been absolutely horrific that's a fact.

I do agree Edin has to shed most of the blame but for me the blame should be split between both Edin/players. I've posted this before there's no way 3 different managers have been able to explain to some quite experienced pros about shape, people run straight through the midfield every single week without fail. I don't know whether it's lack of discipline or what but it's been so poor, I'd genuinely rather have Barry Conlon, Kyle Nix, Ndumbu-Nsungu etc playing for us than this lot.

 

The summer recruitment is arguably the main reason we look down. Square pegs and round holes spring to mind. Edin couldn’t have got more things wrong if he tried, being able to turn a ship completely round (the wrong way) in a season and a half takes a special level of incompetence.

 

Agree Olly. Parky would have got us to the Championship IMO with this season's budget if he hadn't run for the hills at the sight of Rahic.

 

So in your opinion, Payne and Scannell look decent players on paper but Butterfield is laughable?

Weird that Butterfield is a far better player than either....

 

Spot on.

Being able to spot a player with talent isn't impressive, and doesn't require any ability.

That's obviously where Rahic's understanding started and ended.

Rahic proved you could sign some decent players, and simultaneously create the worst team in the division by a country mile.

I have to say, even back when people were happy with some of the names, quite a few of us were pointing out it wasn't a team.

 

Yeah but come on really, when it was announced we'd signed Scannell, Doyle and Payne we were all creaming our pants. I challenge anyone on here that wasn't. It's easy to look back now and say they were only great on paper, but I don't think ANY one of us would have guessed we were going to be at the bottom of the table when they put pen to paper in the summer.

 

Its like me when i pick a team on fifa19 to play my lad. Stats loom good but i still get my arse kicked. Look at the team Parky built, or the team McCall got to a play off final. Who would have thought a 35 year old would have had so much influence on this clubs history, with McCalls team only one player from that team has gone on to better things and that was Meredith. And he came from non league.

 

I was talking about the summer so I have no idea what point you are trying to make.

 

I didn’t think we would be bottom and managerial appointments etc have contributed to that.

But most stated we were missing a few more even if we kept Wyke. We signed Wyke and only got doyle and ball in at the end.

 

mccall and abbott brought chicksen in, not edin. mccall and abbott also brought NKP in after he'd had a stellar season with shrewsbury. mccall brought mcgowan in and he looked good to begin with and then went downhill and got injured. o'connor was a CB at a club that had finished 2nd in the SPL behind celtic 4-seasons in a row of which he played 61 games over two years - anyone in league one would've signed a player with that record.

we also had pace in robinson and scannell, but unfortunately both unavailable for the season due to differing issues.

but hindsight is a wonderful thing - not many people thought we had a poor squad at the start of the season.

 

Edin might not have scouted them, but I’ll be happy to bet he was contacted by dozens of agents telling him their player was the best prospect since Messi was lad and the daft *@?$ believed them and signed them on daft wages. He put a shit coaching team in place far too late leaving a dreadful pre season. He fired or drove anybody out of the club who disagreed with him.

So yes, it is Edin’s fault.

And no, I’d say we weren’t all positive about all the signings. O’Connor left Aberdeen slagging off the fans, hardly anyone thought Wright was a good signing. And Akpan. And people were questioning the balance of the squad from day one. On the Cow’s Arse where will we finish poll on page one in July people are saying it’s going to be a shit season. If the players are that good, then why are they still bottom after the fourth manager of the season?

 

Of course it’s Edins fault, if anybody thinks otherwise they are either Edin himself or they “don’t know football” which amounts to the same thing.

His biggest 3 feck ups were -
1) not understanding that in league 1 you need a strong, physical spine. Centre half, centre midfield and centre forward should have physically strong players....he ignored all 3.
2) Appointing coco the clown Collins as head coach with a bunch of players who blatantly had zero respect for him
3) expecting Hopkin to be able to just come in and sort out a totally unfit and disorganised squad who’s personality clashes were causing problems.

 

'Our signings in January were laughable with Edin' or whatever you tried to claim.

Riiiiight.