I truly hope that....

This is the nub for me. When we bought Scowen, Hourihane, Winnall, Mawson (who were all known to me) they were recognised as being in the top 10 players in the league below ours, all with excellent records and prized by their clubs' supporters. Once they'd adapted to the higher league (and remember this was a process slowed by the baffling tactics of Johnson) they flew. It wasn't so much a punt but a matter of time and the managerial nous to get them to gel.

We then went into the Championship with the best players in the league below again. Not surprisingly we took a bit of time to find our feet but then, having done so, we got going well again.

Therefore, buying players who are the best from the top of the league below wasn't that much of a punt imho.

As you say, it was the arrogance of thinking that you can go much further down the pyramid and/or scrape up players from the bottom of their leagues en masse and have the same results that's left us where we are.

 

Of course. But that’s what I was getting at when I said at this level solely buying punts is fundamentally flawed

 

It's fundamentally flawed if you field a whole team of punts at once. If we still had Watkins, Scowen and Roberts, for example I reckon that would have been enough to carry the rest of the punts through this season and let them bed in. Trying to bed a load of them in at once is a recipe for disaster, especially in this league. Hourihane Winnall and co would have fared little better if dropped straight into the Championship. The first half of 2016-17 proves that.

 

Thing is, the new owners main link with the old regime is Crynes son. He's part of the reason they bought the club. They (or Billy Beane) like the way we've been doing business.

If mistakes have been made, James Cryne is the last one that's going to put them straight.

I fancy they are on a learning curve. Yes they are doubtlessly good at business, and have done well in France, but this isn't France.

 

Agree. But we were desperate to shift Roberts out to keep proving the plan was working and didn’t bother trying with Watkins and Scowen.

 

If James was part of last summers recruitment fiasco he ought to be learning sharpish from it

 

I just hope that they don't think that losing the majority of our team over the space of a season is doing good business for business sake.

Like someone else said, if we had kept some of those players that walked away at the end of the season, the current crop wouldn't be so out on a limb.

 

Agree. But proving the plan was working as all costs was more important than league survival

 

Gardner would completely boss League 1. Whether we stay up or go down he would be a top signing in my opinion.

 

Got to disagree. I’ve seen nothing but dross from him. He had a 3 game spell where he did well, but that was 3 months ago.

 

Played well on Friday I thought. I like him, but each to their own.

 

For me, he plays better without Williams next to him. When Williams was suspended I thought Gardner had a few decent games in a row and I thought he was also right up there with the MotM contenders on Friday without Williams in the team again.

I wouldn’t be against him here next season at all.

 

I'm sure that people claim to like these sitting/holding/deep-lying/doing sod all midfielders because it makes them look like connoisseurs of the game.

 

He’s a poor mans Dier, Wanyama, Matic, Xhaka, Fernandinho, Can, Noble, Livermore, Mijojevic, etc. Not my favourite type of player but every team needs one and we’ll be lucky to get one any better than Gardner.

 

For every Ronnie Glavin you need a Ray McHale, for every Eden Hazard you need a N’Golo Kante. The problem doesn’t lie with a perfectly efficient Gardner, it falls firmly at the feet of those he’s carrying the water for.

 

We had one. Called Scowen. But only made half arsed attempts to keep him because his development had “plateaued”

 

Can’t possibly disagree withi but he’s not coming back anytime soon.

 

No but I’d rather we got someone akin to him

 

I would say Scowen had far more to his game though.

 

Between Ray McHale - who I never saw play- and say someone Hugo Colace, who else would you say played that role? I just can't see the point of a player whose job is to come short to the centre half and pass the ball sideways and backward.