The board

Birmingham beat Crawley 1-0, Wycombe won 1-0, Wrexham won 2-1, and Huddersfield drew 2-2

We're the only team it the top five to have played Crawley twice. We won 3-0 on both occasions.

Crawley haven't lost by more than 3 goals in the league. They've lost by a margin of 3 on five occasions: twice against us, plus a 3-0 reverse against both Orient and Northampton, and a 4-1 defeat at Reading.

They haven't been conceding 7 or 8. Shrewsbury got 5, but Crawley got 3 themselves in that game.

 

That’s exactly what I said about Craig.

And I wasn’t really trying to be too critical, just responding to the op saying they’d got everything right and the signings were the best we could have got. That’s palpably untrue.

 

You can't expect every signing to work out. You're dealing with human beings at the end of the day. Stuff happens, people don't settle as expected. Players might not like the environment etc. It's nobodies fault, it just happens.

The board only sanctions the signings as fair as I'm aware. It's Mladen and the management team who propose who they want.

I for one lay no blame at their door for Craig or Slonina. It just hasn't worked out. Every Club from the Premier League to the National League sign players that don't live up to expectations. As posted earlier in the thread, it's the response that counts. And as far as I can see, Slonina has gone back, Craig has or is going too. Best of luck to them. We've signed another player in a position we needed strengthening in...very early too I might add.

The playing side, I've honestly got no complaints at the minute. The other stuff, which I largely find inconsequential in the grand scheme, like TV's working and queuing for coffee at half time...these are things the board can, and already should have addressed.

We're winning again though, and for now, that's more than enough for me.

COYR!

 

With regards to signings it’s easy for people to judge with the benefit of hindsight. When they first signed I thought Slonina (multi million pound signing for Chelsea) and Craig (rave reviews the previous season) were perfect. A blend of talent and some experience. Unfortunately, neither have worked out but I won’t judge the clubs decisions based on what I know now compared to the start.

Same goes for Cosgrove. I thought he was the perfect signing. Proven goal scorer, target man and experience in the league. Exactly what we were missing. What could go wrong?

 

I don't have a problem with the personnel they bring in, it's the inability to assess the squad, identify where we are weak and where we are strong, and bring in players in the appropriate positions that I find both baffling and infuriating.

We've just won 4 games on the bounce. We've been able to play Watters, a striker, in each of those 4 games, which we haven't had the chance to do for much of the season as he's been injured. Because we've had a striker, DKD has been able to play his natural position, with someone up top doing the work for him, running the channels and holding up the ball. And what do you know, DKD has scored in each of the last 4 games.

Everyone knew we needed at least one striker in the summer. Clarke spoke about it continually from the minute he joined the club. Not only didn't we sign one, we claimed that we did! DKD, Humphrys and Phillips excel when there's a striker to play off, but as we didn't get one, they haven't looked anywhere near as good as they should have. And we're still in the precarious position that if Watters is injured, or is having a bad game, we've nobody else that can fill that role and do the donkey work up front.

Prior to this transfer window, we had one left wingback. A 21 year old that had never played in the football league prior to this season. That's what we thought was adequate to cover the left side of the pitch.

Meanwhile, yesterday we started the game with 3 centre halves, brought 2 on as sub and we've 2 out on loan. And none of those have come through the academy. Apparently we have a couple of decent young uns at centre half but they're never going to get a look in with so many pros in front of them. 1 left back, 1 striker (plus big dopey Cosgrove) and 7 centre halves.

And then there's midfield: Connell, Russell, Nwakali, Phillips, Benson; young prospects like Yoganathan, DKD who essentially really is an attacking midfielder. And we decide to bring in a midfielder on loan. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

Of course there'll be players who work out and players who don't. It's overloading some positions and leaving us barren in others that's the problem.

 

Cosgrove doesn't get in my local pub team

 

I think your first line is not only spot on, it’s something the entire league is suffering from. Football clubs tended to be owned by football people, and the boards, as ours was, was made up of ex-players and wealthy fans. John Dennis, for example, had grown up connected to the club, as his dad was chairman. Then we had Michael Spinks, ex-chair of the supporters club, in the Club Secretary role. Ex-players Johnny Steele and Gordon Pallister on the board, along with ex-Donny player Charlie Williams.

Most clubs were the same, but nowadays local businessmen done good just cannot afford to run clubs, mainly because players’ wages are so outrageously high, even at our level. Yes, I know ours are dwarfed by wages Birmingham and Wrexham will be paying, but £150k per year to play in front of about 10,000 home fans is very high really. Which other business would see the board having to pump £4-5m per year in cos the wage bill is so high??

So nowadays clubs really need mega rich foreign companies to bankroll them, and as you say, most of these don’t know how to run football clubs. Last season’s FA Cup debacle shows this. Would that have happened with Spinksy in charge? Not a chance.

 

I wouldn’t have the first clue, but then again it’s not my job to work that out it’s theirs.

 

Spinksy didnt

 

I’d give them 7/10.

Poor loan signings.

Failure to sign a striker, sufficient LWB cover or a first choice keeper. Accumulating about 9 centre halves and not moving any on seems like a big error and eats a lot of budget.

Balanced against giving DC the marquee signing he wanted and some solid experience in the shape of Roberts and Humphrys alongside a lot of promise in Nwakali and Gent.

Cosgrove wouldn’t get in any other L1 team. Yoganathan either. Benson if he could stay fit would be in our team

 

This post is disrespectful to bobbins.

 

The transfer process needs to be good both ends. Running contracts down, releasing players, selling and loaning players etc. If we take that part we haven't been great this last year or so. We have options Im sure to release a few especially if we look at our squad and who we have on loan out. There is always the question do we sign players better than what we have. So lets look at the other part of bringing players in. Jay is spot on that its how we assemble a team and then the squad with cover that seems to be frustrating. Overloading certain positions while threadbare in others.

Not every signing is a success. I think we all know and accept that. The loanees didn't work out. Connor as a player didn't work out. I would also argue our striker dept didn't either. But the next window is when it can be fixed improved …. Like right now.

One thing for sure is that generally most people see the same weaknesses. A striker i think people agree is priority one.

We might not be flush with cash but if we spend anything i would expect it to be more quality upfront. We also have the loan options of course. We have the opportunity to trim the squad, add and then improve here but lets see where we get to.

 

Every bad signing is 20/20 in hindsight.

 

Yonganathan should stay put, one for the future