Most liked posts in thread: Clayton Donaldson

Not as many as Parky, oh well they’ll be in league 2 in a year anyway.

 

If he scored a decent amount for Bolton he would not be coming to league two

Engage your brain

 

No i dont understand the excitement. Once again people are hearing a name and thinking it's fantastic. How did we get on with that last season. My only comments are that Donaldson will be 36 in Feb and by all accounts can't hit a barn door and James Vaughan has had one good season in his career. I watch football, I speak to people Involved in football, I follow clubs up and down the country and listen to what their fans say. I don't hear a name and pi55 my pants with excitement.

 

Why are you so triggered haha I literally said I don't understand the OTT excitement. Shall I just join in with the other 14 pages of drivel then and not express a difference of opinion.

 

Genuine question but what striker would you be happy with? Personally I think Donaldson and Vaughan are fantastic signings for a league 2 club where let's be honest the standard is extremely poor and nowhere near what those two have played at for the past decade.

 

You only joined in October, what alias did you post under before?

 

Agreed he was starved by a supply line that pure and simply couldn't deliver.

 

Young & hungry I give you Clare, Robinson, Patrick, Gibson, Jones, McCartan, Seedorf, Riley, I'm with you no thanks.

 

I agree, under the current ownership such a plan is unlikely, which is a major reason it holds no appeal for me.

A leader in midfield, along with the experience up front, is not a bad place to start.

 

Agree, and not thinking it can be done within a couple of seasons on the cheap, but at the time we wanted to believe our new owners.

 

Couldn’t agree more, the old adage fail to plan and plan to fail comes to mind. If you want to have developing youth at the heart of the club, you will need at least a ten year plan, with appropriate resources put in place. It is not a cheap option, you need first class youth team coaches and facilities. This needs to be separate from the first team resources, and don’t expect to see any money back on your investment for a number of years, and that is if we get it right.

If you have really good scouts, we might pick up the odd one here and there without a stampede from the PL to sign him up, but they scoop up all available talent at a very young age, a bit like dredge fishing that doesn’t leave any young fish in the sea, and damages the sea bed.

 

Where are those guys now Broncs? Only 1 you could say was young and hungry last season and that was LOB who was a loanee!!

 

Absolutely agree. The bigger clubs have more scouts and more sway. I remember being at a Shipley Juniors tournament with U6/U7s and the Man City scout basically said I'd like to look at these 4 or 5 can you introduce me to parents even though I knew that 3 of them weren't that gifted but we're just physically bigger and stronger at that age. I also recall a time when Man City and Sheff U scouts spoke to me about a lad, so I spoke to parents and they said we only want to speak to Man City. They do Hoover them up just to drop them later.

 

it was apparent that a lot of these guys wouldn't ever be good enough so to release is the best option. We aint here as a charity for shit footballers despite Edin's best efforts.

 

You have missed the completely.

 

Totally agree, the only difference with signings like Clare was that they were mostly over seen by Rahic/Abbot. I'd put more trust in getting players to develop under Bowyer and a proper development plan going forward. Players like Patrick, Gibson, Devine will definitely get the chance to develop under a proper coach like Bowyer rather than like the previous development idea before. Which didn't work at all, pure pie in the sky.

 

This, no issues whatsoever with allowing youth proper time to develop, but they have to have obvious and clear potential in the first place. Otherwise we'll continually hand out 3 year contracts the Omari Patricks of this world.

 

But this is my point. If we hand out a 3yr dev contract, with an option to the club to convert it to a full contract if they make significant progress, we should stick to it. The lads like Robinson and Patrick were signed on 1yr terms but after a couple of decent performances, we panicked into tying them down. Then, once they got those contracts, they were no longer deemed ‘development’ players and were suddenly expected to perform as 1st teamers. All rush, rush and no time to nurture them. This has to stop

 

Collins without doubt was a gamble by Rahic but I dont remember many at the time saying Hopkin was the wrong signing, in fact the very opposite the majority thought it was a very good appointment.