The Official Harrogate Town Match Thread (Sponsored by For the Love of God, Win the Game Gills "for all your desperation needs") | Page 14 | Vital Football

The Official Harrogate Town Match Thread (Sponsored by For the Love of God, Win the Game Gills "for all your desperation needs")

GillsBluenose said:
Kyle Dempsey has been on the Bolton bench for the last few games. If they are promoted to the Championship, they will be signing some upgrades and he may be on offer or released. Still only 28, so worth a punt?
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Kyle worth a punt??

I think we’d all welcome him back here, but I think that’s as likely as Alfie May or JCH signing. He’s way too good for L2 and has probably 4 or 5 years in him at least.
 
Brad, Shannon and Kenny need to have a brutally honest gathering.

Without knowing the contract situation (which frankly, is moot), the only players I see as being good enough, or have the potential to be good enough, to be part of a L2 promotion side and of use to us in L1 (which should guide our contract planning) are:

Starters:

Jake Turner
Hutton (only a wing back)
Malone (same)
Masterson
Ogie
J.Williams
Coleman
Andrews

Squad players who can step in for injury cover and form dips if needed:
Max Clark
Dieng
McKenzie
Hawkins
Lapslie (if we can convert him to a deeper midfield role. He just doesn't impact the game enough up top)

By my count, that means we have 8 potential starters.
To maximise Hutton and Malone who can still be key players for us, I think we need to use a 5-2-3 / 5-3-2 base.
Missing pieces? One starting impact forward who can run at players and draw attention, power and pace. Potentially two, if you see Williams in a freer role behind him rather than wide.
A starting CM alongside Coleman
A senior centre back who can help Ogie and Masterson develop.

Do I think we'll keep many of these? No I suspect Masterson and Malone will leave, sadly. But that's how I see it now. Name not on the list, really no great loss.
 
I agree with most of your starters, but would be much more ruthless with the rest. Assuming we can sort contractually, I'd get rid of:

Malone - too expensive to warm the bench.
Mackenzie - never looks like making the starting XI
Lapslie - a big disappointment. Had too many chances, lightweight

If there are offers, sell Jeffries and Masterson.

On balance I'd keep Dieng and Jonny Williams (without him our midfield is so flat), but am undecided on Turner. I know Mahoney's a loanee but I don't want him back. A luxury player who does something worthwhile 1 game in 6 or 7. We should be signing wingers who can actually run past an opponent!

We need: two strikers (both quick), two wingers (both quick), a central midfielder, a big ugly centre back and first choice keeper - plus a left-sided utility player as back-up.

A final thought. If Hurtado is fit again, I'd push hard to get him on a full season loan as one of the strikers. He offers exactly what we've been missing.

Do I think we'll achieve all this? Almost certainly not, but I really want to see changes which start to address the weaknesses we've had for far too long - ie, lack of pace, power and grit. Oh, and play two up front FFS.
 
I can’t see Hurtado coming back, surely having had the sht kicked out of him at league 2 level against Swindon and given his obvious ability surely Watford would look to at least find him a league 1 club for next season.

I don’t see why we need a new keeper, Morris barely puts a foot wrong. It was complete crp he was dropped this season when POTY last season. I don’t care if he’s 40 he’s still good enough so I’d have him as number one and spend money elsewhere.

I’d really like to see the back of Dieng, he’s at best anonymous in most matches. I can hardly think of a game I’ve seen him play in 15 months where I’ve come away from it thinking he did well.
 
Hessy8 said:
I’d really like to see the back of Dieng, he’s at best anonymous in most matches. I can hardly think of a game I’ve seen him play in 15 months where I’ve come away from it thinking he did well.
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I only see away games, so I may have a different view. At Salford and Notts County Dieng was excellent - and he was key to our good first half yesterday. But it may be a different story at home.

Fair point about Hurtado, but no harm in trying!And I agree Morris is a decent shot stopper, but he does struggle with crosses because of his lack of height.
 
GillsBluenose said:
At the very least, Mahoney and Walker will be going back and Hurtado will probably be loaned to a League One club so that's 3 places vacated. S Williams will surely be at the end of his contract and either go non league or retire, bringing it up to 4.

On the assumption that Bonne will not be coming back and it was not too much trouble to find new clubs for him and Nichols in January, there may be more interest in our players than you might imagine.

If the rumours are correct that Jefferies wants out, that is another vacated squad spot.

Jayden Clarke will not be on a high salary as he was clearly a B Team signing so if he has not impressed, he may move on as well.

From the point of view of a midfield general, I find it interesting that Kyle Dempsey has been on the Bolton bench for the last few games. If they are promoted to the Championship, they will be signing some upgrades and he may be on offer or released. Still only 28, so worth a punt?

If only he was a southerner, I would think it might even appeal to him particularly as a change of scenery may get him away from this:
www.bbc.co.uk

Footballer Kyle Dempsey and father spared jail after 'merciless' attack

Bolton's Kyle Dempsey and his father rained blows on a social club doorman.
www.bbc.co.uk
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Maryport sounds like a khazi
 
While I can understand all the speculation that is going on here, I think it might be wise just to step back, take a deep breath and pull ourselves together. Like all of you, I am hurting badly by what we witnessed yesterday however it is not the first time we have had a shocker (remember the 7-0 at Shrewsbury) which left all on here in tatters.... but what happened later, we still got promoted.

Now I am fairly certain that is not going happen this time however, we need to get our emotions back under control and see what the club/management do in the coming days/weeks. Yesterday, I would have put all of the players up against a wall and.... well, you can guess. Now, after a good nights sleep, I think we should just accept it as a bad day at the office and see what sort of reaction we get from the team at Bradford on Saturday.

Let's face it, We cannot change anything and I am not sure it serves any purpose have a dig and calling players out by name and packdrill on here.
 
alex_farrells_left_peg said:
While I can understand all the speculation that is going on here, I think it might be wise just to step back, take a deep breath and pull ourselves together. Like all of you, I am hurting badly by what we witnessed yesterday however it is not the first time we have had a shocker (remember the 7-0 at Shrewsbury) which left all on here in tatters.... but what happened later, we still got promoted.

Now I am fairly certain that is not going happen this time however, we need to get our emotions back under control and see what the club/management do in the coming days/weeks. Yesterday, I would have put all of the players up against a wall and.... well, you can guess. Now, after a good nights sleep, I think we should just accept it as a bad day at the office and see what sort of reaction we get from the team at Bradford on Saturday.

Let's face it, We cannot change anything and I am not sure it serves any purpose have a dig and calling players out by name and packdrill on here.
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Accepting it as a bad day at the office is why it keeps happening. How many times have we heard that phrase this season?

Not sure BG will accept to many bad days at the office from anyone, players or manager.
 
Captainreblue said:
Accepting it as a bad day at the office is why it keeps happening. How many times have we heard that phrase this season?

Not sure BG will accept to many bad days at the office from anyone, players or manager.
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You could very well be right but I cannot see it serving a purpose at the moment and, added to that, BG has just about given him a free pass past the summer holidays. If he goes back on his word then it will just ruin his own reputation, not SCs'.
 
alex_farrells_left_peg said:
You could very well be right but I cannot see it serving a purpose at the moment and, added to that, BG has just about given him a free pass past the summer holidays. If he goes back on his word then it will just ruin his own reputation, not SCs'.
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Don't like the rhetoric that has come from certain quarters this season. The "bad day at the office " and "this League is inconsistent" lines are not reason to have bad days at the office and being inconsistent ourselves. If you truely have any bollocks about you as a professional in football, you turn that into a driver to be better, not just churning out the excuse again and again.

When I played (albeit at a lower level) I fucking hated losing, the big proof of character and if you've got bollocks is HOW you lose.

This lot are spineless, gutless and lack fight.
 
Captainreblue said:
Don't like the rhetoric that has come from certain quarters this season. The "bad day at the office " and "this League is inconsistent" lines are not reason to have bad days at the office and being inconsistent ourselves. If you truely have any bollocks about you as a professional in football, you turn that into a driver to be better, not just churning out the excuse again and again.

When I played (albeit at a lower level) I fucking hated losing, the big proof of character and if you've got bollocks is HOW you lose.

This lot are spineless, gutless and lack fight.
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I only ever played rugby but certainly had the same mentality. If we lost, I was unconsolable for the rest of the day, or until my wife told me to grow a pair.

Inconsistent was the word I used yesterday to describe the team on a different thread - we never knew which team was going to turn up - or, as with yesterday - not turn up!

Time will tell what BG decides I guess.
 
alex_farrells_left_peg said:
Inconsistent was the word I used yesterday to describe the team on a different thread - we never knew which team was going to turn up - or, as with yesterday - not turn up!

Time will tell what BG decides I guess.
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For that very reason I think Clemence deserves a crack at next season with a different group. This group have proved over the course of this season you may as well pull XI names out of a hat as to how they're going to perform. We've had no-one who's offered a guaranteed 7 out of 10 every week. As a manager that must do your swede, especially when you haven't chosen them, but to then be judged on it.

I get the whole 'coach' idea, but you can't make players run, have pace, energy and have desire, let alone putting the ball in the net. This squad, put together by others (in the main) have repeatedly shown their colours.

Hopefully BG and SC finally saw quite a few for what they are on Saturday.
 
madrid_gill said:
He has now spoken on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1775149511205130399
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Wow. "I waited a day before posting. Needed to cool down first".

Again, Brad shows his emotion and that he often feels the same way as us.

Between games, he always seems like he has everything under control and in line with expectations. Then you find out that is not always the case.

If American owners really are as ruthless as some think, maybe something is brewing in the near future, based upon what he is seeing?
 
I'm glad he wrote "not going to sugar coat it".

It was an unacceptable capitulation and it should be called out. We have no more right to promotion than any of the other 23 but I suspect they've give then manager(s) a better than 10th place budget to spend.

Let's hope some contracts are up.
 
markinkent said:
I'm glad he wrote "not going to sugar coat it".

It was an unacceptable capitulation and it should be called out. We have no more right to promotion than any of the other 23 but I suspect they've give then manager(s) a better than 10th place budget to spend.

Let's hope some contracts are up.
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I’m hoping that Clem is going to look at himself as well Mark.
I can’t figure out why the subs were like for like when we needed goals. He put Walker on and played him in midfield.
Surely he should have left Hawks on and added Andrews to play two big guys up front and go long, with Laps and Clarke coming in late in pick up the clearance balls.
Personally I think he should go 4-4-2 next match with Mackenzie at the right back and Hutton wide right whipping the ball across to the huge forward players.
It’s literally a must win not a not lose.
 
shotshy said:
Personally I think he should go 4-4-2 next match with Mackenzie at the right back and Hutton wide right whipping the ball across to the huge forward players.
It’s literally a must win not a not lose.
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I'd be happy to start seeing some of the fringe players play now. He will know who is out of contract and not wanted for next season. Drop them from now on in and work out who from the fringes could be part of next years plans.

Time to start planning for next seasons. This season has gone and we've fulfilled his prophecy of being a "nearly team".
 
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