Wanting players that "know this league inside out"

People get on at managers and chief exec's for spouting BS and clichés, but this is the most BS sentence.

What does it even mean? over 30% of games are against teams either just promoted or just relegated, so even a knowledge of playing the teams from previous seasons only gets you so far. Even then all teams buy and sell over the summer.

Much rather have young and hungry footballers.

 

What does it mean?

I think it's self explanatory really. You won't get anywhere with a squad of academy players - regardless of how hungry they are.

 

It means players who've played most of their career in this division, so average players.

 

Definrely not what I want. Wilson's strategy of signing the best players in the league below -Hourihane, Winnall, Scowen and augmenting them with a few older heads was the right one. Unfortunately the older heads were either injured (Turnbull) ***** (Lita) or uninterested (Treacy). I could see where we were going. Now I have no idea.

 

A smattering of players who 'know the league' and more importantly know what it takes to get out of the league can be very beneficial. Most sides that gain promotion from any league are driven both by quality players and others who do their job and know exactly how to get the job done at that level. Look at us last year, we had players that on paper should have walked this league, others that were young and couldn't cut it (Kiyomya, Brown and I'd argue Dudgeon). If we'd had a Tom Pope or a Carl Baker, maybe a Jon Stead or James Hanson, perhaps that know-how and experience may have helped.

It's great experimenting with young and hungry players and I support that vision at BFC. But sometimes there's nothing like a bit of experience of the league you're in to get you over the line.