Did we? I must have missed that. I read that he had scored 7 goals for Chesterfield from 22 appearances in League Two but, if I remember correctly, he hadn’t played much in the lead up to his transfer to Wycombe. I believe he may have been recovering from injury.
I disagree that Wrexham’s ease. They have a tough March:
Bolton h
Huddersfield a
Rotherham h
Reading a
us a
Stockport h
Exeter a
Plus 9 out of their last 15 are away, and their away form isn’t great.
They are also in the EFL trophy semis, which is potentially 2 extra games for their squad that we don’t have. They play the next 3 Tuesdays when we play 1.
I guess it’s how you interpret his comments but as I took it he meant that the players currently in the starting eleven deserve to be there and the fringe players will have to bide their time. He certainly wasn’t writing them off as not being up to it.
Even if we understand that we're getting signings in before rules change a bit, it seems unlikely there weren't equally as higjh rated/cost signings to come in and make an immediate impact
Unless they were signed with a certain manager in mind, a manager who then didn't want to come.
I don’t think it’s conspiracy stuff at all. Suddenly we sign two random Danes that are not close to the first team and a manager who barely seems to know who they are.
If you look at a Brighton or Brentford who we are probably trying to copy at some level they can sign a load of prospects, loan them out, let them adjust for a year or longer and probably sell them at a profit even if they don't make the first team. That is almost separate to what is going on in the first team but in each window they will have a raft of prospects to promote and usually a hefty profit from others that did work out better and moved on.
Wether we have the desire to do that I'm not sure but the first team does need some help sooner rather than later if we don't want promotion hopes to fade away. Some of the onus has to be on the players as well though, I suspect if any of them were so good in training that they were embarrassing their colleagues they'd be in to the team sharpish.
Yeah, usually if you want to use data or your contacts to get unknown gems from unusual places you not only go younger but also go cheap so the risk isn't there, spending so much on unheard of and unproven players smacks of agents hawking their clients about.
I mention it because the poor state of the pitch at Reading was a topic after their Brum game, with Royals coach Noel Hunt explaining that the club can't afford the £1200-£1400 to leave them on overnight.
I noticed a particular brown-striped area a couple of weeks ago in front of the southern end of the valley terrace, probably slightly larger than the 50 square metres that the rig is said to cover which led me to think that it could only be used for a relatively small proportion of a pitch that looks in need of more or less total TLC. But I wonder if it can be programmed to move periodically and automatically from one area to the next.
i should have really not added the last paragraph - although not the most memorable game Wigan have been, in effect a championship team - they outplayed us in 2022; a ‘ boring’ nil nil shows we have moved on..
The weird thing being that a tricky wide player who knows where the goal is but is only good for the last ten / fifteen is probably exactly what we need. If he had come on in the last 4 or 5 games and scored two or three goals that could have been rewarded with some very useful extra points.
Yeah but Kone has only just come back and the others haven't exactly been on fire in recent games. Add in Sadlier when ready and Berry could be way out of it, he's probably wondering why we bought him as much as we are.
We're in mid Feb and Sadlier has been out 4months. I think anything he can contribute will be a big bonus.
The whole recruitment model is fascinating. In a perfect scenario you have your permanent football guys in the management arranging the deals, but with some sort of nod from the manager/head coach.
To buy an absolute tonne load of new players without a manager surely guarantees the situation where some of these players aren't fancied by the new guy. Unless there's some sort of Abramovich style pressure to play certain players as was rumoured in the Chelsea days.
Berry we probably bought as one for the future, even if we did pay reportedly 600k. The longer he doesn’t play the rustier he gets and a viscous cycle begins. The mystical Danes is a whole different story. Uprooting them from their homeland and then not playing must be so hard and confusing for them. Anders will have to be special to dislodge any of the 3 centre halves we have now and Westergaard similarly with Simons now looking the part.
I said it at the time and I stand by it now. We overdid it in January. Disrupted the balance of the squad too much, arrogantly beginning preparation for life in the Championship with 20 odd games to go.
Yep, not to mention the changing rules, meaning we can spend bigger now, then we'd be able to next season, whatever division we're in.
It seems absolute genius making signings now. The only strange thing is how the bigger signings seem to not be ready / aren't fancied right now. But give it a month and they might all be game changers.
Comments
Did we? I must have missed that. I read that he had scored 7 goals for Chesterfield from 22 appearances in League Two but, if I remember correctly, he hadn’t played much in the lead up to his transfer to Wycombe. I believe he may have been recovering from injury.
I disagree that Wrexham’s ease. They have a tough March:
Bolton h
Huddersfield a
Rotherham h
Reading a
us a
Stockport h
Exeter a
Plus 9 out of their last 15 are away, and their away form isn’t great.
They are also in the EFL trophy semis, which is potentially 2 extra games for their squad that we don’t have. They play the next 3 Tuesdays when we play 1.
I think that’s semantics when I said doesn’t consider them to be up to it compared to existing players. If he did they would be playing.
Has a club ever smashed their transfer record for two adult signings only for them to not be ready for months nor better than existing players?
It still blows my mind that it was done before a new manager / coach was appointed.
I guess it’s how you interpret his comments but as I took it he meant that the players currently in the starting eleven deserve to be there and the fringe players will have to bide their time. He certainly wasn’t writing them off as not being up to it.
It certainly seems an unusual approach.
Even if we understand that we're getting signings in before rules change a bit, it seems unlikely there weren't equally as higjh rated/cost signings to come in and make an immediate impact
Unless they were signed with a certain manager in mind, a manager who then didn't want to come.
But that'd be getting into conspiracy type stuff.
Conspiracy stuff maybe but makes more sense than any other rationale I could come up with!
I don’t think it’s conspiracy stuff at all. Suddenly we sign two random Danes that are not close to the first team and a manager who barely seems to know who they are.
If you look at a Brighton or Brentford who we are probably trying to copy at some level they can sign a load of prospects, loan them out, let them adjust for a year or longer and probably sell them at a profit even if they don't make the first team. That is almost separate to what is going on in the first team but in each window they will have a raft of prospects to promote and usually a hefty profit from others that did work out better and moved on.
Wether we have the desire to do that I'm not sure but the first team does need some help sooner rather than later if we don't want promotion hopes to fade away. Some of the onus has to be on the players as well though, I suspect if any of them were so good in training that they were embarrassing their colleagues they'd be in to the team sharpish.
Anders is 28, Magnus 26. We haven’t signed prospects.
And Berry has now not signed since Christmas so the next barrier will be ‘needing minutes’.
There are brighter people than me involved in spending £2million as i simply don’t get it.
Yeah, usually if you want to use data or your contacts to get unknown gems from unusual places you not only go younger but also go cheap so the risk isn't there, spending so much on unheard of and unproven players smacks of agents hawking their clients about.
After the game yesterday, I saw one of the lighting rigs being pushed round to the valley end, model SGL LED50 to be precise! More details here if, like me, you find their technology interesting: https://sglsystem.com/products/led-grow-lighting/led50-grow-lighting/
I mention it because the poor state of the pitch at Reading was a topic after their Brum game, with Royals coach Noel Hunt explaining that the club can't afford the £1200-£1400 to leave them on overnight.
Fascinating.
I noticed a particular brown-striped area a couple of weeks ago in front of the southern end of the valley terrace, probably slightly larger than the 50 square metres that the rig is said to cover which led me to think that it could only be used for a relatively small proportion of a pitch that looks in need of more or less total TLC. But I wonder if it can be programmed to move periodically and automatically from one area to the next.
Fascinating.
i should have really not added the last paragraph - although not the most memorable game Wigan have been, in effect a championship team - they outplayed us in 2022; a ‘ boring’ nil nil shows we have moved on..
The Berry signing is as if someone has done a filter on goals in league 2 from wingers and picked him out.
But not noticed he averaged about 43mins a game over the season and was barely a starter for the last xx months
The weird thing being that a tricky wide player who knows where the goal is but is only good for the last ten / fifteen is probably exactly what we need. If he had come on in the last 4 or 5 games and scored two or three goals that could have been rewarded with some very useful extra points.
I suppose the problem is the first 3 picks are probably 3 from McCleary, Kone, Fred, Lubala, then you have Udoh and Kodua.
So it's hard to get in over any of those 6 right now and can you have 4 attackers on a bench of 7 without over stacking it?
Yeah but Kone has only just come back and the others haven't exactly been on fire in recent games. Add in Sadlier when ready and Berry could be way out of it, he's probably wondering why we bought him as much as we are.
We're in mid Feb and Sadlier has been out 4months. I think anything he can contribute will be a big bonus.
The whole recruitment model is fascinating. In a perfect scenario you have your permanent football guys in the management arranging the deals, but with some sort of nod from the manager/head coach.
To buy an absolute tonne load of new players without a manager surely guarantees the situation where some of these players aren't fancied by the new guy. Unless there's some sort of Abramovich style pressure to play certain players as was rumoured in the Chelsea days.
Berry we probably bought as one for the future, even if we did pay reportedly 600k. The longer he doesn’t play the rustier he gets and a viscous cycle begins. The mystical Danes is a whole different story. Uprooting them from their homeland and then not playing must be so hard and confusing for them. Anders will have to be special to dislodge any of the 3 centre halves we have now and Westergaard similarly with Simons now looking the part.
I said it at the time and I stand by it now. We overdid it in January. Disrupted the balance of the squad too much, arrogantly beginning preparation for life in the Championship with 20 odd games to go.
We’re second in the table, unbeaten in 8 games and just one defeat in the last 11.
Just wondering where you heard / saw mention of a £600,000 fee?
Remember that next season we likely lose the majority of our best performers.
I'd say Taylor, Low, Harvey, Scowen, Humphreys, Morley and Kone have been our strongest players. I expect only two will be with us next year.
In that context, recruiting with an eye on next season makes sense.
Yep, not to mention the changing rules, meaning we can spend bigger now, then we'd be able to next season, whatever division we're in.
It seems absolute genius making signings now. The only strange thing is how the bigger signings seem to not be ready / aren't fancied right now. But give it a month and they might all be game changers.
I would welcome a @bluntphil interview with Turf Tonics, covering all things turf care at AP and Marlow Road, lighting rig close-ups essential!
Next year is a helluva long way off. Do you mean in August?