Most liked posts in thread: Bloated Squad-New signings

The summers transfer business is up/down there with the worst Windows we've had. Horrendous performance from Hughes, Gent and Sparks.

 

Not just this window. There's an interview with Sparks somewhere where he is talking about the signing of Osudina. He says we payed a 'considerable sum' for him and signed him on a 3 year deal because he's going to be a 'big, big player' for us who he hopes will come on our journey with us but if not, it will be because we will have sold him on at considerable profit.
If you don't laugh, you'd cry.

 

Ridiculous summer looking back. Cant believe Hughes and Gent went through months of recruitment for a 541/532 type system, restarting the entire plan, but keeping most of the same players as last season.

Like Halliday and Ridehalgh are textbook back 4 full backs, neither are bombing on wingback. All our CBs lack pace and great ball playing abilities but only added Ash Taylor who again has neither quality. Only adding Smith to the strikers room, a forward with very little consistency or solid gametime throughout his entire career before signing was strange. Then we scrapped all of it to go back to the 4231 with days to go in yhe window and brought in any young winger we could find. Hope there's something to salvage in this season.

 

As CEO Sparks will have to sign things off but if Gent is still anywhere near our recruitment in January then Ryan has failed in the football front...yet again!

 

This was our submitted squad list, with 1 slot available for an over 21 year old player.



We only have 1 over 21 loanee in Tulloch. I'm fairly certain all loans can be recalled/ended in January when looking at the EFL rules in the last week or so. If a loanee is sent back rather than recalled, it had to be agreed by all parties. Wouldn't be against all of them going back to be honest.

Pace in the back line is needed, we are so slow it's unbelievable. Also a menace of a forward. Cook is off it, Smith is very inconsistent, Oliver is never fit, Derbyshire seems to be about done.

 

Yet two of that trio will be in charge of our next recruiting period and folk think it will dramitacally change in January ????

 

The money we have wasted on players who were supposed to be investments in the future is sickening tbh. Not the players fault or maybe their Agents were playing high stakes and we fell for it. When do we get an apology or someone taking full responsibility for these massive mistakes with our money. We pay our money to be entertained and to support the club in bringing excellent players to our club. This has not happened.

 

I personally think Walker is one of the very few in our squad who would be comfortable in league 1.

I like Chapman, and just when he started playing wider last season he looked really good until of course the unfortunate injury

Unfortunately I think it is a season too far for Ridehalgh here.

 

Indeed, it's ever the problem of having players on the fringes of squads that people just assume will pick up their bag and leave or want to go out on loan to some random team. They won't! Just like the rest of us, players have families and mortgages to pay, and at the fourth division, the wages and bonuses of players aren't high so when they have the choice between staying where they are and being more financially secure or moving and playing but not at the same financial level or it impacting their personal lives then some/many will take the financial option.

We forget every player has a family situation they are living in. We have to move past this blame culture of saying 'why doesn't x leave and play first team footy elsewhere, they're rubbish' and instead blame the recruitment team and football hierarchy that recruited poorly and left us with players that don't fit/aren't producing on long term contracts.

 

Great business. Same with Jake Young eh?

 

The dealings have just been a shambles. Worst thing is, the only way we can hope to fix it...... is with more transfers. We've got to hope that Gent and Alexander somehow get it right in January. But to get people in, we need to get people out and that in itself is a sticking point. With 1 slot open in the O21 allowance (but that's likely to be Youngs), it becomes a "who can leave" question before who comes in.

Realistically there's Cook, Gilliead, Halliday, McDonald, Odour, Pattison, Platt, Richards, Smallwood, Smith, Stubbs, Taylor, & Wilson who are unlikely to leave as they are either first teamers more often that not or just signed long contracts. The next pile are the more likely as either they aren't being used, or their deals are coming up in Chapman, Derbyshire, Kelly, Oliver, Osadebe, Ridehalgh, Tulloch & Walker. Of those, I reckon we shop Derbyshire to see if anyone will take him. Kelly doesn't make the bench too often, he might want out. Oliver himself said he wanted a move last Jan before getting a run in the team and has barely played for a year due to injury. Tulloch will get sent back and then there's Chapman, Osadebe, Ridehalgh and Walker because their deals are coming up.

I can see Derbyshire, probably Kelly & Tulloch being sent back, the rest are if they get a better long term contract offer and go 6 months early. But would anyone take Osadebe? Ridehalgh at his age and with him getting 3 or 4 injury spells per season? Unless Alexander can convince some teams that our fringe players are worth a gamble, I think we might be stuck with a fair few until the summer when yet again, we have our annual rebuild.

In terms of incomings, GA has signed the same player a few times in his career. Some are regulars in leagues above and Josh Morris has been mentioned a few times now, but he also has signed Ash Hunter a few times including at MK in the summer. Hunter has a hamstring issue until the new year, but as Williamson hasn't used him he might be open to him leaving. And there is also Emmanuel Dieseruvwe, a big striker from West Yorkshire currently at Hartlepool and has scored 11 in 17 this season. He might be tempted to come play in the EFL with a decent offer?

 

Yeah I knew this season was a write off about half way through the summer. Absolutely perplexing signings.

 

The only hope is that the new management team were also engaged in the recruitment process for a L2 team in the last window. With luck, there are players they are aware of that might help fill some of the gaps that we have. It isn't particularly strategic, but it can't be a worse approach than our last effort.

 

The only way out of the Gent Inspired Mess is to give him the role of getting rid of players between now and January 31st and then make him redundant, leave any future recruitment to Alexander or appoint a DoF.

 

This season was done at Carlisle away in the playoffs the whole thing should have ripped apart then.
How many shockingly bad loan signings came in last season ???
How many poor signings where brought in ........i mean which shit for brains recruited Oliver ????? A player who was never gonna fit our system yet somebody decided to bring him in on a 3 year deal !!!!!!!!

Still lets see what fooking gems are tbrough the door come January because if Gent jas any word in it then we really are fooked

 

If you look at recruitment as a whole from the Adams era to this point, the only decent/half decent successes I can think of are -
Cook, Halliday, Ridealgh, Platt, Lewis, Walker, Chapman, Stubbs, Smallwood, Pattison (so far), Banks, Crichlow, Wright (half season). Add Gilliead to that list from before and that's it. 14 players over 6 transfer windows who hit the bare minimum of consistency required to get 3 appearances in a row. Now consider how many players we've signed including loans and its pretty obvious and damning where the problem lies. You can invest in all the coaches that you want, but if the basic attitude and skill set isn't there, you're wasting a lot of time and resource. Not every transfer is going to work but as a key contributor to the success or failure of the club, recruitment has to be up there as needing investment to make sure you get the best you can afford. Otherwise you're wasting a hell of a lot money time and time again

 

You know what, you might have just hit the walker problem on the head in that L2 is a drop too far, and the reason he drifts in and out.