Where now?

1) Scour the free-agent market for dependable veterans who could help us now, calm things down, and take some of the pressure off the younger players. Sign them.

2) We need points, we need confidence. Probably easier to get these from good defence than prolific offence, thus concentrate on becoming defensively tight. Even a few 0-0s will help us at the moment. If that means ugly, park-the-bus type football with a 5-4-1 formation, so be it. We have a decent keeper, at least.

3) Having accomplished 1) and 2), work on improving the offence. Now that the players have been reinforced, and also know they don't need to score 2 or 3 just to draw at best, they might loosen up in front of goal and actually start scoring.

I can see that each of these three might be problematic; indeed I hoped that Hopkin would already have managed 2) and a bit more of 1), but no.

I dunno; right now everything connected with the club is at a low. We need a spark, whether from a new player or a fluky win, or advancing in the Cup.

RCB

 

Things aren't as rosie as you are making out. It's two months until January.

 

Also, T&A article this morning confirming that Abbott has gone back to a recruitment role. God help us.

 

What sort of calender have you got? Thought we had the rest of November and the whole of December to get through yet, or has Edin cancelled Christmas this year?

 

It's all a bit 'after the horse has bolted'.

Not sure why the free agents weren't brought in 6-8 weeks ago. It was pretty clear we were short in certain areas from day one.

If we bring in free agents now they could take 6 weeks to get up to speed. That's just before Xmas.

Backroom staff is only getting looked at now. Why not 4-6 weeks ago.

He tried 2, got a win at Wimbledon and then gradually went away from it, to play more football on the deck.

We definitely need some ugly performances right now. The result is all that counts atm.

 

Perhaps his attempts to do those things have been stalled and it is only now Rhodes is back that he has been given the green light to start making changes?

 

Summat like that 1-0 at Peterborough the other year where Hiwula scored from McMahon's cross and we rode out the rest of the game. That'll do.

 

Without sounding too positive it is thankfully starting to look a little brighter with the return of Jim O'B and Devine plus Gibson back after a slight back problem.
Right back is still an issue which needs sorting asap.
Like the sound of a sports scientist coming in to help out, should help with fitness and injuries plus Abbotts out of the way but unfortunately is back as the recruitment guy!!
Hard fought point/win on Sat would be a huge boost and then on to the sell out home game against Oxford!!

 

Let David Hopkin identity 3 out of contract players, bite the bullet with regards cost and give the guy a chance.
It might cost us now but what cost can anyone put on relegation and the knock on effect, if fans are turning their backs on the club now they aren't coming back to watch league two football.

 

Maybe Hopkin has identified players and Abbott is more scout than recruitment hopefully. Or maybe to free up the wage bill, he's been sent out to see if he can offload some of the crap he's brought to the club.

 

We can't just sign a load of players.

We need to trim the fat, hopefully sell on guys like McCartan and Patrick, cut our losses on players like Brunker, Isherwood, Wright, and possibly even guys like Riley.

We need to lose numbers, while signing superior players.

Not easy at all.

 

That's exactly the opposite of what I'm suggesting, Hopkin will be aware of players out of contract who can do a job in Hopkin's and that players prefered position, I'm certainly not asking for money to be spent on a player as you put it to fit a square peg for a round hole, we seen that happen far too many times.
With regards your FFP Stefan may have to "gift" the club ££££ to get someone in and give Hopkin a chance, because league two will certainly be an expensive experience if we go down.

 

It would make sense, theres no guarantee we would bounce back if we did go down. Staying up isn’t impossible but its going to take time to right all the wrongs that Rahic has done. Might take a lot longer than a season to do that.

 

I get it's not as easy as just making signings, but if there are constraints because of FFP, surely that applies in the January transfer window, what is worrying is let's say we have targets lined up the earliest we could get them in would be 7 week if as last season it goes to the last day of the window it's 11 weeks, we have a minimum of 8 games and possibly 13 if it's late in the January window, which could make a massive difference to giving David Hopkin any chance of keeping us up.

 

I would hope the lads who are here on trial are players David Hopkins wants to play in specific positions, I don't see why getting someone in now is a compromise.