New Signings | Vital Football

New Signings

alphabet_king

Vital 1st Team Regular
Got my season ticket for next year sorted the other day and it got me thinking as to what standard of football we are going to be expecting next year...will we be challenging for the playoffs again, or will we struggle a little more (as our 2nd half of the season form suggested we might). Clearly we will lose Dack, and we've lost Egan (has he agreed a deal with anybody yet?), and we've let a few go as well (Loft the most important in terms of quality and wages as well). I do think we need to sign some quality this summer to maintain our momentum at the top half of the table and replace these two quality players.

I know it's early days yet and of course JED will no doubt be holding his cards close to his chest at this point, but I have to say I am completely under whelmed by the players we're being linked to. That's not to say they might not have the potential and I won't give them my full support, but they are not exactly the kind of signings that will get fans excited.

I saw that JED had not ruled signing Marquis out and we'd also been linked with the left back from Cheltenham.

Marquis did well for us, although since then he has not been great. I think he's had another purple patch on one of his loan in League 2, and in general looks to be around League 2/low league 1 level maybe. Certainly not top of league 1 level, which is whast i'd hope we're aiming for.

Regarding the guy from Cheltenham... from what I saw, I don't think Cheltenham fans are too worried he's moving on. They rate him as good, but not really as highly as i'd expect considering he's been playing in the vanarama conference. I'd be expecting to pick the stars of non-league teams rather than their good-average performers if we are wanting to get promotion to the championship. We need to be signing good league 1 players, championship quality players who are taking a step down, or young players from non league or prem/championship teams who are highly rated, have potential and are simply using us as a stepping stone.

I don't know the truth of any of the reports of either of these two, but failing any other news it's all a little underwhelming - i'm not usually one to be negative / bed-wet either. It's just as well the Euros is on as I can take my mind off it.

Hopefully JED will pull a few cracking signings / loans out of the bag that will get us all excited about the upcoming season.
 
I'd agree that the gossip and statements so far have been underwhelming but I'm not worried yet. I judge from the last couple of seasons that our general policy is to try and sign/develop younger players, which brings several benefits. They are usually motivated, they are cheap to buy and command lower wages, they can potentially earn transfer fees for the club. The main downsides are inexperience and a tendency to fade when selected to play numbers of games in a row. That was one of the factors that did for us last season.

So far we have signed Osadebe, Oldacre and Hadler and resigned List. Those signings are bang in line with current philosophy and I wouldn't be surprised at more of the same. Have we the cash to attract a couple of good, senior pros and would they be attracted by the project? Time will tell but tying budget up in injury prone older players, who demand longer contracts is risky for us. It's not only risky but I don't think it always produces football that is good to watch. I'm quite looking forward to see how the youngsters come on and I'm sure the loan market will be key again.

If and when Bradley goes we might get a clearer picture. There is nothing wrong with taking a gamble on non league players but there needs to be thorough scouting and research. There are some good ones out there but most play at that level for a reason, or a number of reasons.
 
I think you have a bit of an ageist outlook there JoGills.

Older players can be just as good and as hungry as younger players. Not all older players are journeymen after their last pay packet, just as not all younger players are up and coming and destined for better things. Many younger players will go on to achieve nothing and will fall out of the game, just as many players will be able to play comfortably at League 1/Championship level and do well in teams well in to their later years.

I know we signed a bunch of duds when in the championship/league 1 about 10 years ago. The likes of Rod Wallace / Johnson (both good players on their day but injury prone and a complete waste of money for us). Slomas, and a number of others aswell as the goalie I can't remember the name of who was probably the worst signing we've ever made. But you can't continually expect that every older player will therefore be an injured journeyman/expensive mistake.

Deon Burton was a brilliant signing at such an old age. Barrett was a great league 2 player (and actually has proven to be a pretty handy league 1 player away from gillingham). Bentley was a fine servant to us. The point is that regardless of their age, we should be signing players who are capable at the top of league 1.

I think you're looking at it a bit monochrome really. You don't have either
a) Young, hungry potential stars
b) old has beens who are injured and not good enough for league 1.

There's plenty of hungry good league 1/championship players who are over the age of 25, we just need to find them and sign them!
 
Signing Paddy up again was a good move, that goal last season underlined what a handful he can be and I can see him becoming a real prospect. I'd expect Byrne to sign from Newport to replace Loft. Reckon Marquis may join also. We need a replacement for Egan also. Jed has his work cut out with summer recruitment.

Momentum is dire going into this season, Scally needs to allow Jed to get in one or two really decent players.
 
Not ageism on my part AK, I'm an old kef myself! I was just offering the opinion that the club's whole philosophy appears to be based on taking a punt on younger players. In addition we do not have a big playing budget whatever the chairman says. Older players of any quality command significantly higher wages so we have to choose carefully in that area. We certainly need a couple of experienced signings but they need to be up for playing in a generally less experienced team.
 
Having the right balance of ages throughout a team is something that has always interested me. When I was young it was a disappointment when we signed anyone over 30; in reality you realise it is all about fitness and attitude rather than age. At the highest level Vardy and Payet are good examples of coming good later in a career. I read something about a study into the ages of World Cup winning teams, trying to find the perfect balance, the ages were remarkably similar in terms of the mix. People often talk about the Manchester United 'kids', Beckham, Nevilles, etc, in reality there was plenty of experience in that team as well. Division One is not about star performers for me, I think if you have a good manager with a good system age is not such an important issue. I remember when we were promoted to the Championship, I thought our defence was too old and too slow, I was wrong!
 
'He had been dismissed from the Chelsea Academy and forced to sign a confidentiality agreement after a "smoke grenade incident" ', according to his wiki.