Appleton, best choice possible? | Page 5 | Vital Football

Appleton, best choice possible?

Right man for the job

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graemetheexile said:
There's a very high chance, I think, that Andrade was on his way all summer until he wasn't, given Cowley signed Grant early doors while stating that we might need to sell to strengthen other areas.
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"All summer" or just one day in the summer or, possibly, one day during the summer?
 
WorcesterImp said:
I think Gijsbert is saying that with hindsight it might have been better to let Shakell go but, of course it’s always easier after the event to make these decisions. It clearly would have freed up some budget as I’m guessing that coming from a Championship side he’s one of the higher paid players. Perhaps with hindsight again we shouldn’t have been so quick to let Wilson go as he was more than adequate cover at right back and is now starting at centre back and starring for Ipswich who are top of the league!
I too was one of those who felt that signing a really good keeper was a priority but, I was told forcefully by one of our other correspondents who is always right, that goalkeeper wasn’t a priority position and if we did need one at some stage decent keepers were always ‘ten a penny’ and available to be signed at short notice in an emergency. We haven’t got an ‘emergency’ as the keepers aren’t injured, but we do have loss of form in one and little experience in the other so until January at least we are left with what we’ve got.
That same correspondent said that our money should be spent on another striker instead but, that didn’t happen either, so we are still light in two critical areas and it’s now becoming a problem.
I know that Danny was restricted in what he’d got to spend on the playing budget, so much so that it appears that ultimately he went for cheaper loan options in positions we were already pretty well catered for, it increased the overall numbers but, with one, possibly two exceptions, has it actually improved the quality?
Certainly, I think you’re right that Danny was hoping/ expecting to sell a couple of players and to use these proceeds to strengthen the squad but, that strategy didn’t work and we have undoubtedly been left with too many midfield players and others who can make up the numbers if necessary but, are never likely to be first choice.
Michael Appleton has a difficult time ahead of him and it will need all his experience to get the best out of a ‘thin’ first team squad to preserve our Division 1 status. Let’s hope the fans recognise the position we are in and support the team in the way they did last Saturday.
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Excellent post.

Am intrigued to know who this mysterious correspondent was though...
 
Depends in that context you're classing it as a priority, though.

I can't recall the exact squad makeup at the time, but we had two 'keepers and probably didn't have enough CM's or wingers so in that respect, we had more pressing areas of the squad to fill first.

Given that some wanted us to have a third striker, they'd have been a few discontented voices had we had three 'keepers in the squad. Of course, we could've released Vickers instead of giving him a new deal or sold Smith but that's all ifs, buts and maybes.

You can always debate the rights and wrongs of management decisions but as it panned we already had enough personnel in that position at the time.

Debating the quality of those areas is a different discussion.
 
German Imp said:
How much money ? I suspect we’ll get very little on any sell on clause.
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Can't remember the figures bandied about, but I think £200k for each might have been about right.

If there's no sell-on likely to come, that actually looks like good business to me as it means we sold at the top of the market for those players.
 
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