For me the approach we should take feels obvious which is probably why I find it so frustrating. Go back to what we did two years ago when we came down. Appoint an up and coming coach in the football league, in a similar mould to what we went after with Duff, someone the fans can get behind. The Northampton/ Barrow managers as suggestions of the type we could be looking at. We need to do much better with the frees this summer, like we did with Luca, Cadden, Norwood when we first came down and make sure we end up with a balanced squad. No gaping holes at CB for 6 months, no leaving us with only one LWB just do the basics right. If we get it right we don’t have to break the bank to be reasonably competitive, we just need to get back to running the club sensibly. I thought we were getting there 12 months ago, now I’m not so sure.
When I used to recruit we had a thing called “motivational fit”. That meant: is the applicant likely to stay” you’d assess this by looking at personal situation past history and whether the applicant has a tendency to move on quickly. Under this process we would never have taken Duff, because of his residence in Cheltenham meant family pressures. If Collins relocated then he would pass this one. The Austrian carpetbagger would not fit because he’s had too many jobs in a short period of time. You wouldn’t be thinking “can I sell this person at the end of the season”. The whole culture of Barnsley FC is made for carpetbaggers passing through and the only ones who stay are us mugs. I’ll always love my club, but the culture needs to change or I’m not coming back.
Need some experience and leaders on the pitch and a manager/head coach who has past promotions on his CV and that will get them organized and working hard. Sean Raggett on a free from Pompey would be one high on my list for a start. Just won league with them but not being kept on and has been released.
He would be a great acquisition. Was actually reading their retained list and thought exactly the same. Definitely one we should be looking at getting in already.
Year in year out new players get pilloried. Andersen, Roberts, Kitching etc etc and turn out to be good players down the line. I'm confident that, with the right coach, we have at least two promotion quality centre halves. We do have to recruit a bit of quality in certain areas though and definitely some experience. If these owners are willing to put a few million each year then it must be worth taking a sensible investment on two or three players of quality.
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/...-for-sean-raggett-to-leave-portsmouth-4614449 Sounds like the Norwood situation with us. Because of his age letting him go for more stability somewhere else on a longer contract. Nothing to do with not being good enough for the step up. As you say he'd be a good one for us to go for.
I'd propose trying for Marc Roberts. He's out of contract at Birmingham and I doubt they'll offer him a new contract. He won't get any offers from Championship clubs or on anything like the money he's had at Birmingham. If he wants to carry on playing he'll have to accept a massive wage cut. He's 31 but strong, excellent in the air still and we wouldn't get bullied or concede as many soft goals from corners and free kicks with him and Pines in there. He's also a leader and would be a good captain imo. Plus he's a local lad. Maybe he might consider coming home?
Ironically centre back is the one position we might not sign anyone in. With De Gevigney, Pines, Earl, McCarthy, Lopata & Shepherd on the books next season & lot of other players needed in other positions I can’t see it been a priority.
https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=66012 Another almost ever present Pompey promotion hero available on a free transfer after being released.
Well it needs to be. Earl has been shocking for two months, McCarthy hasn’t pulled any trees up at Swindon in L2 and Lopata couldn’t even get a game for Port Vale. Not a fan of MDG either if I’m honest but hopefully with more experience alongside he’ll improve. Need to offload 2 or 3 and get Raggett in for me. If not I’d look at bringing Sollbauer back, he’d still be able to do a job in L1.
First things first, try an get the fans back on side, theres no football club wiart its fans. Get rid of all the deadwood, look at the squad then rebuild, thats it, nice an easy, should be a doddle in this League with a decent Coach, oh yeah and find a decent Coach A,S,A,P.