Could be the new Richard Kell, except he had the excuse of a broken leg. Not sure what Christoph's is.
You would hope someone has been held accountable for why he passed a fitness test to join us, if that's the case. We've wasted millions in the past 18 months and it can't continue.
I thought fitness tests were primarily to determine underlying or long term problems. That's quite different to a lack of match fitness. I still reckon there's a reasonable chance he'll come good even if it's next season.
Interesting “we’ve wasted millions” line. Seems the owners are damned if they spend and damned if they don’t. Not every player we sign is going to be Mawson, Winnall or Hourihane, and that’s alright. Just look at some of the players Man Utd have signed over the past few years- a team with arguably the biggest and best scouting network in the world. If we want to progress, we need to take risks. We can’t afford proven players, so we do need to gamble slightly. As gambles go, he didn’t seem a bad one at all. Who knows? He could still come good and be a class player; might just need some time. I for one am glad we had a punt on him- it shows we’re widening our scope internationally, and aren’t afraid to spend a few quid on a promising player.
Have the owners spent anything .? Really, dint'Hecky say when the takeover was still up in the air that the money for the Jan window was available choose what.. But to be fair too em they brought Jose in and given some scarfs away... So fair do's..
I’ve said before - Hourihane, Scowen & Watkins didn’t exactly light up the league on their first season with us, did they? Even Isgrove was shocking at first. Got to give them time to settle to the area and also at the club. The problem is, this season, too many are settling all at the same time. Doesn’t mean they are crap though. But that’s a discussion for another thread!
Some people conveniently forget that all those exceptionally good players that we bought for peanuts were widely castigated (by the same people) as not being good enough for Division 1, never mind getting to just outside the play-off places of the Championship 12 months or so later.
What helped in league 1 was a smaller squad and being able to play as a consistent team more frequently. This season has been all over the place in signings, selections, formations and squads. I still think these players can get better. But that needs consistent formations, selections and guidance. Individually, there are times you can see positive attributes. I've thought at times this season one of the biggest issues has been decision making. Holding it too long, giving it too fast, not moving too much, emptying midfield suddenly. And confidence and bravery can play a part on that too. What we have done badly, is bring in a huge number of young lads at once who have all operated much lower in the pyramid and hoped they'd swim quickly in the Championship. History showed it took 18 months in League 1 with players with very good talent to gel and look like a team.
I believe both in preseason & in january we have bought quantity over quality & we have had two bigger squad , yet , fans clamor for signings , we had a top heavy squad going into january but some were in meltdown over a lack of activity right until the last minute of the window
Hourihane scores 7 goals in his first 10 games and was League player of the month. Scowen made a pretty immediate impact. I will give you Watkins. You are right about the rest though.
But Hourihane couldn’t tackle that first season if you remember. People used to just go straight past him. The season after, he added that to his game, which made him more complete.
If he's owt like me, every morning he'll sign into his online banking and smile in a certain Teutonic fashion. Unlike me, he won't be worrying about the leccy bill or going into Morrisons looking for yellow "reduced" stickers.
I think most people realise that, the point for me is, knowing that then it was naive perhaps almost to the point of arrogant to think we could do it with so many all at once and not be staring relegation in the face. Now perhaps whoever was behind the recruitment strategy did realise this but accepted it.