I don't think the permament signings in January were particularly positive (Cotter, Shaw, Russell). Two punts and one signing that is still trying to establish himself in the team. Thomas was very good, but think that was down to Duff rather than the recruitment team. Hopefully the coach has had an input in what he needs, but also hope that Hassell gets to have a say in where the value lies when it comes to the actual targets. We can't have another window of punts from non-league and Scottish lower leagues again.
We've two strikers in Scotland don't forget that we're paying for, brought in by this recruitment team And young Marsh that can't make the bench And you want more? Have to get rid of a few first. And like someone else said.. would you trust this recruitment team to bring more in?
Russell’s not 5th choice in midfield. He’s 2nd choice in his position. Let’s be right, he’s never going to start in the Kane or Phillips positions. He can only play in front of the defence & is only going to get a start if Connell’s unavailable or it’s a cup game where Connell’s rested. There’s other areas where we would all like improving but a centre back with height & pace should be the priority. We saw the difference having some pace at the back in Dodgson made at Peterborough when we were able to play further up the pitch & the midfielders weren’t constantly worried about what was behind them. Goals from midfield won’t be an issue if we address this in my opinion. Phillips will then make the kind of runs that have been mentioned above.
To date your right with the permanent signings from last year, I was thinking more Thomas, Ister etc players who made an impact on first team. History tends to show us we have had mostly good January windows with very few sales and some good acquisitions to impact the team, which is what we need now. The article says NC had identified positions and again history has shown the Manager does have a say. Personally I think BH involvement should be limited to negotiations which would include his ‘gut’ feeling on the person and how he would ‘fit’ something no spreadsheet or data could identify.
In another interview with Bobby he says how targets are identified ,Its a collaberation of coach,recruitment team Dof,Ceo and the board.
I agree that our build-up play is too slow and ponderous, but we have scored the second or third highest number of goals in the division and have scored in 11 of our 12 away games. Obviously, it would be great to score even more, particularly at Oakwell, but players like Glavin, Redfearn and Hignett are very hard to come by. I think we already score enough to have quite a few more points. Central defence is the major issue. We keep very few clean sheets. As is obvious to anyone, we have no commanding centre-back to win headers on a consistent basis and to sort out the entire back line.
"Chairman Neerav Parekh told the Chronicle this month it is ‘extremely unlikely’ Barnsley will sell any of their star first team players such as Devante Cole or Jordan Williams whose contracts expire next summer." In a Liam Kitching stylee.
The chairman obviously didn't think anybody would match the clubs valuation.In my mind fair play to the board for holding out.
I suppose that's why he said highly unlikely rather than won't this time. I don't think anyone expected us to get a 4.5m bid for Kitchen.
It is pretty simple. A lot of the time teams need huge changes but we’re really close & bang in the mix. Our weakness has been obvious for months & I’d like to think we’re entering the window prepared. It’s not like we’ve lost a player to injury last week in a key position that we weren’t expecting to need a player in.
But it's all dependant on the player we want being available now, which is rarely the case, and therefore the reason most transfers are done in the last week of the transfer window. It might also be dependant on us moving players on, whether that be on loan or permanently. We've a number of centre halves currently not getting anywhere near the squad who we're paying. I'd love for us to go and sign this seasons Bobby Thomas today, but in reality, it'll happen when it happens sadly.
And the same people who almost got us promoted last season. Mistakes were made in the summer, but that doesn't mean the same mistakes will be made again this window.
I meant individually. Mentioned in another thread how as a unit defensively we haven’t been outstanding once that I’ve seen. I wasn’t at Shrewsbury at home though and apparently we were solid but still a worrying sign.
Need to be rivalling Charlton for the signing of Macauley Gillesphey (spelling) from Plymouth. Was brilliant for them last season and hasn’t really featured for them this year. Nigel Lonwijk who was also at Argyle would be class and our typical target but I’m sure I read his loan spell at Grasshoppers was cut short due to injury from Wolves.
Do you think we've recruited badly, in the sense we've not signed defenders that complement each other? Or that the players all need to be better? Or the coach isn't organising them properly? Or all of the above?
As a unit, they’re poor. Stick any of them in the defence we had last season and all would have a role to play as individually they’re decent at this level, especially McCart. Not sure Collins could get much better out of them.
