Fiacre Kelleher Signs

ha ha ha ha Blackpool a Championship club and Sunderland a top side in div 1 but he decided to join a bottom half Div 2 club. ha ha ha behave!!! Serious! Behave.

 

Yes, we get it, we have to place faith in Derek Adams, but you're going a bit overboard IMO.

He's not going to get every decision right, he's not a magician, this of all the signings we've made is the most questionable so people are going to question it.

Seems to be you're trying to shut down a lot of debate because you don't want any nay-sayers?

 

If it's not misplaced faith and you trust a guy with a good track record, which he has. A manager most of us wanted.

 

I'll talk to Mr Adams. He seems like a man that would say it how it really is. He can work on a budget but he will soon understand expectations are higher here that at Morecambe and Plymouth.

 

What's funny?

 

Because every footballer sees out their contract?

 

What's funny?

I agree but that's the next step, after the immediate aim after getting out of this league. What I meant was you would have the opportunity to explain why you know better than him.

 

Is Kelleher left footed? If so, what about Staunton and Foulds?

Is Kelleher right footed? If so what about Sikora and FCD?

Either way, we're over stocked in back up centre halves and have only one specialist full back. You do the maths.

 

Well as I suggested last night, a lot of eggs in the basket, when it comes to Adams.
As for the squad, I need to see how it knits and binds together. Blind faith alone ain't enough.

 

No I'm not. I'm just trying inject a bit of humour into things. Plus although I've played a bit of footy but I don't think I am a better judge than a guy who does it (quite successfully) for a living.
I am in no way trying to close down debate but I am entitled to my opinion just like everyone else.
Why do you always try to jump down my throat all the time mate. Take a chill tablet.

 

You said 10th at BEST. I offer you £20 we are higher. Loser coughs up, winner donates to Burns unit.

Are you confident in your statement Fordy? I’m game, ,are you backing up your statement?

 

No I'm not. I'm just trying inject a bit of humour into things. Plus although I've played a bit of footy but I don't think I am a better judge than a guy who does it (quite successfully) for a living.
I am in no way trying to close down debate but I am entitled to my opinion just like everyone else.
Why do you always try to jump down my throat all the time mate. Take a chill tablet.

 

I'm not trying to jump down your throat, but I get that I have posted a few times in disagreement recently

We have to do something that you're not going to be totally sure about, surely!

 

I was just going on what Adams said about wanting a squad of 24 with two players for each position. Grow up.

 

I give an opinion and you are straight on it. At least Fordy has a sense of humour.

 

Didn't you read about their interest?

 

Okay, so I'm going to challenge the idea that questioning signings EVEN THOSE OF ADAMS is overly 'negative' - which kind of implies that he generally gets his signings spot on, hence his success at Morecambe.

So Derek Adams joined Morecambe in November 2019 in a season where Morecambe struggled badly, no real fault of Adams, they were already performing dismally by the time he joined. So, let's see how he performed in the transfer market, shall we?

His players are all judged on whether they were released or retained, wanted or unwanted, and how many games they played.

January 2020:

Toumani Diagouraga - Toumani looks to have been an important player for Morecambe last season. He played 36 times, and scored 3 goals. They've also re-signed him ahead of their League One debut. Looks a good bit of business!
Jordan Slew - Striker Slew has scored 1 goal in 28 appearances, making 17 last season. That's dismal, and the 6'3 striker bears a fair amount of resemblance to Lee Angol. It will be no surprise if Angol performs just as badly as Slew. Poor signing.
Christian Mbulu - Hasn't featured for Morecambe, a nothing signing.

Success in this window? Very limited, one good signing, two unsuccessful signings, but it's January, so I'm letting him off.

Summer 2020:

Stephen Hendrie - Hendrie made 22 starts for Morecambe, and 14 substitute appearances. A left back/centre back, Hendrie was released at the end of the season, implying he was an average player in a successful side. Mediocre signing.
Harry Davis - A mediocre-looking signing on paper, the ex-Grimsby man made 22 starts and 5 substitute appearances, before being released at the end of the season. See above, mediocre.
NKP - NKP made 29 starts and 2 substitute appearances, denoting an important player in their promotion season. He has since moved on to Tranmere, but still looks like a good signing.
Liam McAlinden - Journeyman forward McAlinden started 4 games, making 24 sub appearances and scoring 2 goals. He was released after what is described as a disappointing stint at the club. Poor signing.
Ben Pringle - For whatever reason, Pringle has hardly played for Morecambe (4 starts, 7 sub appearances), and I'm not even sure he made it to the end of the season. A poor signing.
Kelvin Mellor - Mellor made 29 starts and 3 sub appearances in a stint that has been notably similar to NKP's. Once again, I'll have to rate Mellor as a good signing, particularly as they've tried to keep him on.
Liam Gibson - a left back who made 22 starts, I've no idea who he is, but they've offered him a new deal, so I'm going to rate him as a good signing as opposed to Hendrie and Davis. 22 starts isn't mega, though, so he could easily be rated as an average signing based on stats alone.
Yann Songo'o - not much arguing that Songo'o was one of Morecambe's best players, he played 34 times from the start plus 4 more as a sub, scoring 6 goals. A very good signing.

January 2021:

Kyle Letheren - Kyle signed for Morecambe until the end of the season, and was offered a new deal after making 21 starts. Since he took over, I'm rating him a good signing.

Overview:
Strikers - dreadful. Even so, Morecambe were the 4th highest scorers in the division.
Midfielders - Toumani and Songo'o have helped them to promotion, which is excellent, while Pringle was a nothing signing. Adam Phillips, loan signing from Burnley, was also excellent.
Defenders - Adams has packed in a load of defenders. NKP, Mellor, Gibson, Hendrie, Davis and the late Christian Mbulu. A real mixed bag, but overall some good success. Morecambe had the worst defensive record in the top 11, and the joint 8th worst defence overall.

Star players for 2020/21 (30+ starts and/or goalscoring achievement):

Carlos Mendes Gomes - 15 league goals saw Mendes Gomes top scorer with a slew (geddit?) of admirers. Quality player, flourished under Adams - but wasn't an Adams signing.
Cole Stockton - 13 league goals saw Stockton produce the best season of his career by a mile - but again, not an Adams signing.
Aaron Wildig - 8 goals from midfield is Wildig's best ever performance, but not an Adams signing.
Sam Lavelle - massive defender and captain, Lavelle really flourished under Adams, but he is not an Adams signing.
Adam Philips - 8 goals from midfield, Adam Phillips was an excellent loan signing from Adams, whom he brought in twice.
Yann Songo'o - 6 goals from midfield from the enforcer, an Adams signing.
John O'Sullivan - the only other player to make more than 30 starts, midfielder O'Sullivan scored 4 goals. Not an Adams signing.

So two of the seven 'star players' based on the statistics were Adams signings; the rest were already in place.

I think given that Adams signed 9 players for Morecambe last season, and realistically half were good, half were mediocre or poor, we're going to be looking at a similar ratio this season.

I'm not expecting much from Angol and Kelleher, Ridehalgh and Threlkeld are probably average, Eisa and Gilliead look decent (potentially), and Cook is a good player. But if Adams' success at Morecambe tells us anything, he's more likely to get results from the CURRENT players than the new ones - so yes, my conclusion is we definitely SHOULD be looking at his signings with a good degree of scepticism.

 

Eh?

You do realise that there's only 11 positions on a football team?