Looking at the players we have been linked with or rumoured to have already signed pending confirmation it looks like the owners have finally seen sense and started looking at older players. I'm glad they seem to be learning how tough this division is and possibly after last years transfers where we brought in some talented young players that struggled badly before lockdown. Solbaeur turned our fortunes round in my opinion giving us the defensive base to confidently go out to win games without having to score 2 or 3 goals. The experience the players got and the manager now has in this country if we can add some quality we won't be in a relegation battle next season.
It’s ok having a few older heads - but we don’t want a team full of them. I think the youth policy is a good one. Next step would be to acquire more expensive valued players from the continent. Players around 20 years old in the 2 to 3 million bracket.
It's alright been linked with players but we could do with a couple in this week at least. The squad as it stands is no better than the one that finished in the relegation zone.
It's always about balancing it - we went too far down the kids route last year. Promising as most of those signings were, we needed the experience to go with them. I look forward to our next pronmising youngsters coming through the door - hopefully this business with the Crynes doesn't cut off our supply line there!
I think we ended last season in a bit of a false position if I'm honest. Since Struber came in our form would have seen us comfortably mid table so I'm hoping we continue in that way. The confidence the lads must have got after lockdown can only be a good thing going into 2020/21
I don't think it's coincidence that the players that made the biggest errors or weren't up to it have been removed from the first team or moved on.
I agree confidence should be sky high. There were still games post lockdown where we didn't look good enough however, the results we gathered masked the frailties in my opinion. I don't think we're a mid table championship side just yet.
I agree (although maybe £2-3 million is a bit steep yet) but if that's going to work then the fanbase will have to accept that, as well as increasing our chances of staying at this level, the older players are there to help the younger players improve and, inevitably, be moved on at a profit. It could be argued that we'll need to do that even more than with a youth-only policy as the more experienced players we bring in are less likely to increase in value and any loanees will be entirely outside of that equation so the turnover in youngsters will have to make up the additional shortfall. As you say, ideally the standard of player we can afford to bring in should increase incrementally over time but we're likely to see plenty of promising players move through the club for a good time to come and we're going to have to be patient.
I agree on your last point a few poor results and we are back to square one confidence wise. Its pivotal we bring in the right type of players who want to work hard and improve what we have.
