It'll be alreet... whilst playing champ man in my head. I'm hoping to see Dean Lewington Paul Huntingdon Laurie Wilson Paul Anderson Martyn Woolford Josh McQuoid Craig Davies Gary Madine Or similar.
Looking at how many players we need and the fact we've only signed two and him not panicking, we've got to be close to a couple.
I don't think he says it "isn't going to plan" at all. He just says that he had hoped we'd be further forward, but that we are sticking to our recruitment policy. That isn't "not going to plan" in my book. Added to that, the Chronic reports there are "advanced negotiations" with at least four players, and that there may well be a flurry of activity next week. The plan is surely about how you approach the recruitment task - the actual timing is bound to be somewhat fluid given that the players involved will be weighing up several options.
Why are you so bothered. You said yourself that we should hold no expectation over the players we'll bring in so that we're not disappointed if they're **** or too good. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
I really didn't expect much to happen until next week anyway so I'd say this is pretty accurate. If we're still in this position at the end of July then I'll be worried.
I did. Last season we had a valid excuse. Not even an excuse. The wage budget was taken up by those still on Championship contracts. We couldn't bring anyone in until we got O'Grady out. At present we have 7 experienced players with more than a couple of dozen games under their belt in English professional football - Turnbull, Nyatanga, Hourihane, Scowen, Winnall, Bailey and Lalkovic. Two of those are on the transfer list - Bailey and Lalkovic - and a further three have only one season or less at this level - Winnall, Hourihane and Scowen. The rest of the squad is kids or players brought in from non-league/Scotland. I'm not moaning or having a go, but I did expect us to have more experienced players in by this time, what with pre-season beginning next week. When we sacked Wilson, Mansford spoke at great length about how the size of our budget is superior to many other clubs in the division, how our attendances are significantly higher than most, and how we have a benefactor willing to add to the funds available with his own money. That information was used to show that Wilson was failing and the board expected better. I think they were wrong, but it's their call. I'm now struggling to understand why, with all that financial clout compared to our rivals, we have by far the most inexperienced squad in the division. It's not a case of needing just 3 or 4 players. Because we've put a couple of players on the transfer list who played a part last season, because we didn't renew the contracts of some players who played a significant role last season, because we've since released players and sold players, and because the squad wasn't that big in the first place once the loan players had returned to their parent clubs, we're now in a position where we need to sign a dozen players, just to have enough to make an 18 man squad over a season, when injuries and suspensions take hold. I can't see how we're going to do that in just over a month without simply signing anyone. The only two signings we've made are a player who has only played non-league football, and another who couldn't get in to Cheltenham's league 2 side just a couple of years ago. Both might turn out to be excellent signings, but to expect them to be right on it from day one, will be, I believe, asking too much. Expect a season like Berry had, and we got rid of him.
We definitely need at least ten players by my reckoning. I'm a little surprised we haven't made a couple more signings at this stage. However, I know footballers leave their decisions as late as possible, and if you're trying to recruit players who have many admirers that too will affect things. If we see a handful of new lads drop for us next week, things will look more as I anticipated. However, it was never likely to be the ideal this, was it? But 'this' is what you get when you change the plan/manager every year.
I still think that a lot players don't sign early now days. Just cos they cant hack the pre-season training... and of course they aint skint.
Got to say - there has not been one brick laid on top of another since Pat Cryne took over at the club. There is nothing being built at the club in more ways than one. There are no solid foundations to the team building - we seem to be on a permanent Magic Roundabout or spinning door of players coming and going. I find it ridiculous that we are 10 or 12 players short at this time of the season. Even if we bring all these players in then they will have to gel as a team. If this takes a while then expect a slow start to the season. Which we cannot afford to do. And even if they do gel straight away then expect to be in this same position next season because under current management trends the vast majority of players coming in will have gone by this time next season. A successful team that is building year on year brings 4 to 5 players in at the most at the beginning of a season.
That was the plan for this summer, for Danny to build on consolidation by adding just a handful of new players. But folk got monk on when we weren't playing like Barca or winning lots of games with a rebuilt squad, the owner saw fish eyes again and both he and the ones with the monk on decided we had to get shut of the manager. And so we're back where we started. It's ******* thrilling, isn't it?