Transfer Expectations! Reality check required by some

I really don't get some people's expectations. Let's assume (which I reckon its not far off the truth) that we have a 'top 6' budget in L1. I can't see any CC or Prem team with a lower one (that's deffo the truth!). So there we have it. We're probably not going to attract anyone from a club in L1 with a higher/similar budget to ours. We're probably not going to attract a CC / Prem player, unless it's a youngster making their way in the game or a squad player who's willing to take a drop in wages for regular footy(it's well documented that a lot don't wanna even do that on loan on the same wages?!?)

So that leaves players from the lower end of L1, L2 or Non League prospect or Scotland/Irish leagues and maybe a random foreigner who are always a gamble. The other option is to take a gamble on a Lita, Treacy, Jennings, Vaz Te, McCourt a gamble that's usually costly and vary rarely comes off.

So there we have it! So a reality check is required IMO for the 'not impressed with our targets', 'are those the types we should be looking at' & 'we've a top 4 budget' mongers out there.

 

I'm quite happy to go with players who have won 'Player of the Year' awards for League 2 clubs, or players that LJ has worked with directly already and believes that they can add something to the squad. We'll see how it goes come August.

 

What about all the free agents who have since signed for clubs with smaller budgets then ours?

 

Been released for a reason.

 

Very naive

 

Cracking post, Gaz.

 

Who are you referring to? Which clubs/players?

 

Bury, Colchester, Scunny and Donny

 

Bury don't have a budget. They didn't last year either. They've got massive loans out and are spending a fortune for a club with 3,000 fans on attempting to get back to the Championship. I wouldn't have had any of their new signings here.

Colchester? Who they signed?

Scunny have an owner with a £350m fortune. That's compared to our owners for example, which is about £30m if you believe the articles like the Sunday Times 'rich list' etc. And who they signed? Scott Laird (decent), Scott Wiseman and Stephen Dawson. So one good footballer.

And Donny have signed Andy Williams, not Andy Cole.

 

I keep on getting reminded we're in League 1 everytime I criticise something. Doncaster are in the same league and they've signed one of the best strikers currently in the league.

Scunny have also signed Jack King who was fantastic for Preston the season before last when they got the the play offs and also played a fair amount of games last season.

Colchester have signed Matthew Briggs who is better than George Smith.

My point being we need experience. I'm not slagging off our transfer policy or Johnson or anything else but what I want is us to be out of this league as soon as possible and that isn't going to happen with a bunch of talented lads with no experience.

 

I just trust LJ to sign the players he thinks are good enough and based on some of the high profile ***** we've had in recent years I'd prefer lesser known players from lower league clubs. I'm sick of waste of space ***** like Jennings, Lita and Treacy signing and doing nothing to earn their wages.

 

Williams was one of the top scorers last season, I wouldn't say that necessarily makes him one of the best strikers. It's a decent signing for Donny, based on that one season. He wasn't someone I wanted here, but I can see the obvious appeal - he's scored over 20 goals very recently. But then, so did Leroy Lita once.


Never heard of Jack King. But google tells me he's a 29 year old midfielder who played all but two of his seasons at conference level or lower. Can't say I'm moved by that.

And Matt Briggs is piss poor. I remember him coming through at Fulham a few years back, he looked nippy. But every time I've seen him since he's looked God-awful defensively, no surprise he was released by Millwall really. I think a relegation battling L1 club might be his appropriate level. And, I think 18 year old Barnsley lad, George Smith is already an adequate L1 full back on what I've seen so far, so all being well he can only improve over the next few years.



I've already said I'd like to see some experience added to the squad, especially in midfield. I'm assuming Liam Kelly will be that man, albeit he's only mid 20's himself. But you're bairning over bang average clubs signing bang average players. Chill art mate.

 

We can both come out with facts / opinions that will defend our points all night mate haha

 

It's not the name of the player, or the age of the player, or even the clubs the player as come from, its the type of player that worries me a 6'3" striker, one or two "TARGET" men in the squad I can cope with, but playing them in the same role as the big lads last season, as defenders up front, would kill off any hopes I have of Lee Johnson being any good for this football club.

 

Players like Mawson Im completely behind, the likes of Ibehre (althought he did OK for a short time) and Wilkinson who have not done an awful lot, I am not. Especially when we seem to have just sat back as Donny, who will have a similar if not smaller budget than us sign Williams and Laird, who is ten times the player Smith currently is, goes to Scunny.

I dont mind one or two former LJ players being signed, Liam Kellys a good player, but constantly going after players from a team that are very mediocre at this level doesnt bode well.


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Lee Johnson is a mid table League 1 manager at the moment but with him being only young, he won't be set in his ways like an older manager would be, meaning he will carry on learning and potentially develop into good Football League manager. I think we need to stick by him as long as we are improving because I believe he could potentially be fantastic for this football club.........potentially being the key word

 

Probably. I'm off to bed anyway, so have a good un. We'll reconvene another time.

 

Been watching us long enough to learn that it doesn't matter from where we sign our players or whether I've heard of them or not. Most are OK, some are ***** and some very good. That's true if they're well known and from the Premier League or the Championship, or they're from League 1 or 2 and I've never heard of them. The better managers get more of the very good than the utter *****, but they don't bring in a larger percentage from the higher divisions. They find good players from all over the place.

 

I feel the same way a bit with the Wilkinson thing but last season look where all our better players came from, did anyone hear of Scowen,Hourihane, winnall before we signed them? I didn't. It isn't the most exciting signing but we dont know until we've seen him for 2 months..

 

Im all for signing the better players from lower leagues, I used to say we should be doing 5/6 years ago but the reason nobody had heard of Scowen/Hourihane is because we were 2 leagues above them a year ago, the likes of Wilkinson and Ibehre were playing in our league last year, against us and you tend to get to know the better players but I cant say Wilkinson springs to mind as being someone I thought we should sign.


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