Hindsight

Without those wins we'd already be down.

Hindsight as you say is wonderful - but the bigger mistake was keeping Payne. I said at the time that him staying was a boost - but only of it didn't impede our other business, which it clearly did. The 10-12 grand we're paying him would've been far better off spent on 3-4 players to strengthen the team. A proper CB, left back, left winger and striker. Our position in January was salvageable but we completely ballsed that window up.

 

Yep have to agree with this, if indeed that money being spent on Payne could have been invested elsewhere. I think the key piece to this would have been actually getting those 3-4 players in, and they being successful. There would have been uproar from us all had Payne left and we didn’t bring in new faces. Bowyers early team selections highlight just how inbalanced and lacking in pace we are. How different could this have been, we’ll never know.

However agree with @simons (woking bantam) to the extent that Decembers run of form meant many of us got way too carried away, and I wonder if some of the players and management did? But @Faithful Bantam is also right, without those points we would be down already.

One thing is sure, where we finish this season won’t be defined on the above. It’s been on a number of failures and poornclub leadership from the beginning.

 

I think it’s blatantly obvious that he was given the choice of Payne or spending the ridiculous amount of money he’s on on other players. Where Hopkin shot himself in the foot is that he prattled in about the need for a winger as we needed genuine width.....yet didn’t bring in a winger. Add to that we have so blatantly needed a target man since last summer and haven’t bothered has been a massive issue. Our ball retention at the top end of the pitch is poor and certainly under Hopkins tactics a target man was essentially despite what shite he might have said about not having one at Livingstone.

 

We would never have got rid of Hopkin in time for January . He would have had to walk earlier and wouldn’t

 

I'm not sure about that to be honest. We didn't spend 100% of our budget on Payne, we still had sufficient funds to pay for Anderson, Woods, Clarke, O'Connor and Butterfield - that for me is where the money was completely wasted. Three aren't good enough, 1 is a sick note and the other, whilst good, is a carbon copy of what we already had.

I'm delighted we kept Payne personally and wouldn't change that. Hopkin wasted the money that was left on the wrong players in the wrong positions, no two ways about it.

 

I wouldn’t say Butterfield is a carbon copy. Similar yes, but think they can coexist in a starting XI.

Woods is unfortunate due to injuries but as you say due to his past this was always a risk. If he’d managed to stay fit I argue he would have started every game since he arrived so in that sense, bad luck.

Anderson I see a player there, certainly in the system Bowyer is playing. That said not sure he’s entirely what was needed.

Clarke, I really believe he was signed for two reasons. One, his past and affiliation with the club/area made it an easy signing for Rhodes and Hopkin and he does offer back up to Ball/Payne. Secondly is purely for next season, since there’s no guarantees who will be here. Even if we do down, Clarke would sign and we have a good player for league two.

O’Conner is the confusing one but again, with McGowen going and Mellor injured we had no back up CB.

I can see logic in all signings. I think the issue is that aside of Butterfield and perhaps a fit Woods, they were pretty uninspiring and didn’t offer a challenge to the existing first team which haven’t exactly pulled up trees this season.

 

Agree with pretty much everything you say Ollylondonbantam
But Billy Clarke is very much a downgrade on Payne
And will struggle with the physicality in L2 i IF he stays
We need a different kind of player indeed team for L2

 

Totally agree. On his first stint I was never actually never a huge Clarke fan as a player however as a club man he clearly had a good affiliation with the club which made his endearing to supporters. I think he would have something to offer in league two, but I would be very concerned if we were using him as a main starting forward.

 

Quite a scary thought that
If the January signing of Billy Clarke was with one eye on him being a reserve striker in L2
when we still had a chance of survival in L1
We really don't do transfer windows

 

To me, whichever division we are in, Billy Clarke is still not a striker

 

Hindsights wonderful but the failure of this season came before pre season started. Buying players without a manager and then appointing a trio of woeful managers (maybe decent coaches but not managers) under a deluded chairmen set the standard.
HopkinS failure came in around Oct/Nov when he said we'd have players in for the NYD game. He put a nail in his coffin at that point and then we waited for all of Jan to scramble for players right at the death. His Jan signings, so far, have been very poor with only Butterfield looking good in a handful of games. He was out of his depth and did the right thing and walked.

The season was a mess before it had started.

 

We did not need hindsight to know what was needed in the January window, Most fans were desperate for the window to open and most knew we needed at least an experienced centre back ( or 2 ), A centre forward and a winger, This was the minimum we needed to compete and try and escape relegation, What we got was entirely different because a poor manager ignored what we needed and brought in 3 midfielders to add to the many we already had, That is not hindsight it is pure stupidity

 

Bit early for post-mortem's

 

Trevor are you aware Hopkin definitely made the decision not to strengthen in the positions we agree needed to be made?
Were his hands tied by the amount of funds available - what were the instructions by Rupp and Rhodes on recruitment.Who was available on the wages we could meet? Lots of unknowns and I do not think it was as black and white as some make out.

 

The funds were there to pay a massive wage to secure Payne for another few months, and Butterfield cannot be cheap either.

I think every fan was delighted to secure Payne, however, I'm sure most wouldnt have wanted that to the detriment of bringing much needed other players in key positions where everyone knows where we are very weak.

It was a very poor January window, despite noises from Hopkin that we were ready to bring in much needed better players.

 

I think Simon is right December lulled Hopkin into a false sense of security.we did look very good that month scoring goals for fun. He must have thought secure Payne and bring in one or two and we would be fine.
Unfortunately it was just a flash in the pan.and our deficiencies are very apparent

 

Agree.

Think fans made that point at the time too. Big gamble putting most of your eggs in one basket when you could have got 4 players for the wages Payne is reportedly on.

 

Agree, I remember Hopkins first game in charge at Blackpool, 2-0 up with 8 minutes +i njury time, the football was mainly hoof but 2-0 up who cares, then our defenders for some reason hit the panic button and before we know it were 3-2 down, poor goals conceded and our keeper was as much to blame as the rest of our defenders, unfortunatly we are still vunerable at the back as shown by Luton in the first 20 minutes.
Unfortunatly our defending has been IMO one of the reasons Hopkin played Doyle as our loan striker because he knew how vunerable we were in defence.
With regards our new manager he has a major task to keep us up with only a dozen games to do it in.
I think what we saw against Posh and Luton second half we are capable of picking points up lets hope the players have confidence in the system and themsleves to do whats required.