Theo Robinson - Signing Confirmed

They thought Guthrie was a marquee signing.

 

At least he seems better then the kid from Wolves or Boro.

but with a young loanee there’s the hope of potential and that they can be taken on a perm if they do well enough.

stop gap signing, he’s effectively got until Jan to prove himself and then maybe the purse strings open.

I hope Adams dislike of loans doesn’t apply to loans out too-if like to see Staunton and Sikora in the conference on loan getting games

 

So you'd sooner take the opinion of posters from a football forum rather than have faith in Derek Adams ?.
You only have to read when fans from another club sign one of our ex players and ask how he's performed fof us.[/QUOTE]

 

They wanted out because of his wages similar to Bogle at Doncaster

 

Football isnt the game it was back in Bobby Campbell's day. Back in the day your main striker played 46 matches and did nothing but hand around the box. It's moved on, those games involved 1 sub and a 12 man matchday squad. Rotation wasn't heard of and strikers would regularly get 20 a season as it was their only job.

The days of one player hitting 20 a season, year in and year out are gone (at this level) and it's more common to see even a centre forward have one brilliant season in five then score single figures in subsequent seasons. A one in four strike rate over a career is good now and a one in three is exceptional. Look at as many strikers below international and PL standard as you like and you wont find anyone who scores one in two over a career.

You will struggled to find many who score one in three. The Billy Sharps are like gold dust,

Less goals are scored in general, and if the team scores 60 in a season its often a lot more spread around. Lee mills is regarded as one of our best ever centre forwards yet his career strike rate is 30%. Hanson is derided (by some) and his is 28%. Small margins.

Give Robinson the chance to prove his worth, and if by the end of the season he is a flop then jump on his back. Until then, trust the judgement of Adams and see where it takes us.

 

Was he training with the under 18's when he scored the first goal against City in the 2-1 loss to Port Vale in April 2021 ?

 

He's our player now let's give the lad a warm Valley Parade welcome if he gets game time on Saturday.

 

Alex Jones is nearly 27 and has played less than 100 games for a reason. He's also only ever scored 24 goals in his entire career. He clearly wouldn't have been the right signing.

 

Short term journeymen signings got the smallest club in the EFL promoted to league one last year. Just saying like

 

Robinson was on a bang average salary for the time he signed, don't know why people keep bringing that up like it's anything special. Average L2 wage the season he did well for Colchester was as near as makes no difference £2,200 pw according to a report in the MEN through EFL clubs books. Vale signed a bloke who just did very well with 10 in 19 starts and paid him the going rate for this level.

A bit of reference, below is our forwards goal returns in League Two, over their careers. It's all well and good saying they look a 1 in 5/6 man over their career so far, but strikers these days don't play 90 minutes twice a week all too often. Looking at the numbers, It's very clear Andy Cook was and is the main man, the others brought in to pitch in over random minutes, with the odd starts.

Andy Cook - 22 goals in 68 appearances with a goal every 170 minutes
Caolan Lavery - 22 goals (1 pen) in 116 appearances with a goal every 291 minutes
Lee Angol - 16 goals (5 pens) in 75 appearances with a goal every 269 minutes
Theo Robinson - 34 goals (2 pens) in 116 appearances with a goal every 220 minutes

 

Robinson is clearly no world-beater, but what on earth do people expect in terms of a signing for a 3rd or 4th choice striker in a league 2 side?

Get a grip FFS.

 

His record is almost identical in percentages to David Ball, a last minute window signing that many thought was a good one. Its all about perspective, because we haven't signed Eoin Doyle, Billy Sharp or some other uber striker, some will always take an immediate negative view.

I appreciate Robinson is on his last chance here and may just react well to that. Unless he proves me wrong, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Remember the stick Ashley Ward got because he couldn't score in team that created nothing for him (and went down with a wimper) yet always put in 110% and put his body on the line ?

Some need to realise that the Bobby Campbells, Billy Whitehursts, Keith Edwards of this world simply dont exist anymore, and we are way below being able to sign a Billy Sharp even at his age. In fact, if we did there would be plenty who went MEH if he didnt score twice a match.

We are a league two team and if that means we sign 20 journeymen players on one year contracts to get out of the league then thats all good by me.

 

Absolutely NOT

 

For example , Bogle remains at Doncaster, Doncaster didn’t buy/ recruit the earth shattering centre forward Wellens promised , whose fans were donating £2 each only Tues of THIS WEEK.( I think they raised £50!!! . Will Grigg didn’t arrive from Sunderland.!

Transfer window was a damp squib , and we were no different. How many L2 clubs actually paid a transfer fee?

 

Is that why the voice bloody grates around my head. I know , says the man at the BBC , let’s have a squeaky commentator to get the lads interested.

 

They won’t be laughing when he’s scores the winner with one minute left against…….yep Port Vale. Wouldn’t that be nice?

 

He looked isolated before being taken off last night.

 

Good shout!

 

Regardless of the ins and outs its time to get behind him as a City player I guess. I've a feeling he'll be needed more than some think, it's clear Angols contribution was missed and Cook looks isolated on his own.

 

No. The accusation which they claim was similar to Bogle was that they both don't mind training and watching from the stands whilst being paid. Not sure how they could come close to proving it but that's what they said.