Sturdy Gill
Vital Squad Member
The negativity surrounding our team at the moment is astounding.
Agree we are not firing on all cylinders but still in contention.
Agree we are not firing on all cylinders but still in contention.
Singing number 2...
- Thread starter The Holy Spirit
- Start date
markinkent
Vital Football Hero
Spot on. People have very short memories of where we were heading 12-18 months ago.
I don't think anyone is overwhelmed by the Walker signing but lets give him a chance. He looks like he has pace to burn so lets hope we can find a way to actually allow him to exploit it.
One of the most underwhelming signings of recent times was Tom Eaves with his record before he came to, well he turned out alright didn't he !!
Defenestrator
Vital Reserves Team
Two signings that totally underwhelmed me were Tom Eaves (as you've said Mark) - 4 goals in 40 for Yeovil, why the f*ck have we signed him?
And Simeon Jackson - much too short to be an effective striker.
madrid_gill
Vital 1st Team Regular
nibbles
Vital Football Hero
Another one that didn't reach a team-mate, then
It was nice to score a goal but ultimately what did that achieve other than gifting possession to FGR on the halfway line?
Solent Knight
Vital Squad Member
Hope your right as time is fastly running out and so far it looks like we still have a Lidl budget instead of Waitrose.
markinkent
Vital Football Hero
Well we had a "rummage through the bins" budget before. We are signing players for real money which has been unheard of for years. Hopefully some of these we will go on to sell for a few quid.
The futures looking good, people just need some patience
SteveTreacle
Vital 1st Team Regular
Two signings that totally underwhelmed me were Tom Eaves (as you've said Mark) - 4 goals in 40 for Yeovil, why the f*ck have we signed him?
And Simeon Jackson - much too short to be an effective striker.
Eaves turned out to be a gem, but to be fair for every one Eaves (an unhidden gem unearthed who did good), we've problem have had dozens of duds who lived up to our underwhelming expectations, but I wish this lad all the luck in the world.
I wouldn't say Simeon was underwhelming. He was young, quick, had smashed it in the non-leagues and I recall we paid somewhere around £150k for him when we had a lot less money than we do now. That's exactly the sort of signing I think we need now, is overdue and should have got in the summer.
Voice of Reason 2
Vital Youth Team
As a club we only really run out of dosh because of Covid and somehow PS managed to keep the club attractive enough to sell - don't know how but who cares.
It seems apparent that Brad is giving the club a realistic budget, but not throwing money to us. I think some may have thought he would give us more money to enable us to shop at a higher level, hence some are underwhelmed by the signings.
As I have stated before we will only gain from a prospect if they are on our books, with a loan the parent branch can make a killing.
Still a few days left in the window, so something else may happen in the market, but i won't hold my breath
LancsGordoRoad
Vital Champions League
Walker is a loan and we don`t know how much GFC paid for Hutton. Let`s see how Josh does, i`m sure we`ll be right behind him. But, I take your point and if we don`t get another one or two higher calibre players in before the window closes, there will surely be confusion around recent comments by ownership and management.
Last Jan we did throw some money at the window and landed a number of players that (at the time at least) were considered top signings. I think some people assumed this was setting the tone for how things were going to be going forward rather than being an emergency throw of the dice to fix our terrible, terrible team and stop us dropping out of the league (and potentially football) entirely.
Since then, sensible and sustainable have constantly been the mantra. We had a go at May because we thought he was definitely worth it, shied away from Akinyemi because he wasn't considered good value/worth the risk. My feeling is that there's money to spend on the right players if available at a realistic price, but no appetite for throwing money around for the sake of it on gambles and poor value deals, and Jan is rarely the best time for getting a good deal.
Jerryattrick
Vital Football Hero
I am overwhelmed :)
NathanH_GFC
Vital 1st Team Regular
He should have been looking to play in his strike partner!
Reminds me of Dion Dublin and Steve Claridge talking about their Cambridge days under John Beck, they weren’t allowed to shoot, even if one-on-one, instead they had to try and play for a corner to get the big centre backs up!
OneSirKeefy
Vital Football Hero
I think over the years we’ve also had just as many “big name” or “big reputation” players sign for us that have then proved to be underwhelming on the pitch. It’s not a very exact science getting players in that you KNOW will do the business. Plenty of class strikers out there who have scored heavily for one or 2 clubs and failed at multiple other clubs.
The 2 signings we’ve got in so far appear to be aimed solely at improving problem areas in the squad regardless of name or cost. Need for a RWB. Need for Pace (both players have that). And a forward who seems direct, takes players on and can shoot (with both feet too).
I don’t mind us taking that approach rather than simply getting in a big name for the sake of it.
Edit - but I will be very happy if we do sign a “big name” player
Vambogills
Vital Football Hero
Yes, we are $hit but just outside the play offs. Surely if we can just become poor then the automatics are still a hope.
Mediocre and WGUAFC!!
chris who
Vital Champions League
I have wondered if Harris was very much responsible for the bigger names currently in the squad.The recruitment team appear to have been more likely responsable for the leaser known names.Goalscorers of course are likely to very quickly build a name for themselves.This of course leads to them costing silly money.I think over the years we’ve also had just as many “big name” or “big reputation” players sign for us that have then proved to be underwhelming on the pitch. It’s not a very exact science getting players in that you KNOW will do the business. Plenty of class strikers out there who have scored heavily for one or 2 clubs and failed at multiple other clubs.
The 2 signings we’ve got in so far appear to be aimed solely at improving problem areas in the squad regardless of name or cost. Need for a RWB. Need for Pace (both players have that). And a forward who seems direct, takes players on and can shoot (with both feet too).
I don’t mind us taking that approach rather than simply getting in a big name for the sake of it.
Edit - but I will be very happy if we do sign a “big name” player
GillsBluenose
Vital Football Hero
I am not quite sure who are the bigger names. Those that cost money, perhaps? or the older signings?
I had heard of Oli Hawkins from his Portsmouth days and I remembered Dieng as he had once cheated to get Conor Wilkinson sent off. I was not familiar with Lapslie or Nichols but in any case those 4 achieved a very specific urgent goal (staying in the league), changing us from no hopers to the third best form in the division.
So that leaves this summer's signings of Jonny Williams, Conor Masterson, Scott Malone and Macauley Bonne.
I would have said that Nadesan is definitely one of lesser known names as we took an interest in Crawley last year, signing Nichols and considering Telford in attack but I was totally unaware of Nadesan. A recruitment team signing then, perhaps? Who knows.
Don't know about Max Clark either but we could be totting up a vast number of signings that were not recruited by the recruitment team.
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OneSirKeefy
Vital Football Hero
If you are trying to specifically pick out “bigger names” I’d suggest maybe thinking of “better reputations”. None of our players are “big names”.
I know hardly any players in the Championship (except the very best) but I’d have thought in this context, then Malone and Mahoney would be “bigger” plus Sean Williams.
Of the others even in Australia I had heard of Oli Hawkins (probably from his Ipswich and Pompey days) and JW because he was great against us for Swindon and a Welsh international. I got to know of Nichols, Lapslie and Dieng pretty quickly because it was obvious they were among the better players at their clubs and we paid for them.
The “lesser” lights I’d label as Ogie, Coleman, Clark, Clarke, Nadesan, Jeffries. Luckily, 4 of those are/were young and worth a shot.
Not sure how to label Masterson. We knew he was very good from his 2x loans here. Otherwise I don’t know how to label a Champ reserve/U23 player. Big name or reputation but only to us.
Whoops. Forgot Macauley Bonne. In my eyes, possibly the biggest “name” because he’s regularly been mentioned whenever we’ve needed a striker over the past 8 years or so. And talked about a lot by other clubs fans with the same wishes. For the first 7 years he was waaaay out of our league as a signing. This year he was in reach but not lived up to it. Yet.
