Recruitment This Season (6 Viewers)

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

After some dialogue on the forum today, I just want to get an overall perspective about what people think of the recruitment this season.

My own view is that it hasn't really been good enough in a season that is critical for the club going forwards. Of course, there has been a really unfortunate amount of injuries which hasn't helped. There doesn't need to be an argument (although I know there will be), just interested to know other supporter viewpoints.

Players In:

Gustavo Hamer
Bakayoko (extended contract)
Julien Da Costa
Callum O'Hare
Ryan Giles
Fabio Tavares
Leo Östigard
Marcel Hilßner
Matty James
Sam McCallum
Josh Reid
Viktor Gyökeres
Tyler Walker
Ben Sheaf
Lee Camp

 

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[Deleted member 11652]

After some dialogue on the forum today, I just want to get an overall perspective about what people think of the recruitment this season.

My own view is that it hasn't really been good enough in a season that is critical for the club going forwards. Of course, there has been a really unfortunate amount of injuries which hasn't helped. There doesn't need to be an argument (although I know there will be), just interested to know other supporter viewpoints.

There’s no point arguing. Some people will tell you the signings he made were absolutely the best available and he couldn’t have signed anyone better. They’ll then say we can’t compete because Barnsley spent £20 million on a striker in January.

 

[stupot07]

I've gone for poor, but I think its more below average than poor. Its not just about who we have signed and some poor fortune with injuries, but also about what we didn't address. For example, we desperately need a left footed centre back, and we desperately needed some pace.

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[Deleted member 11652]

I've gone for poor, but I think its more below average than poor. Its not just about who we have signed and some poor fortune with injuries, but also about what we didn't address. For example, we desperately need a left footed centre back, and we desperately needed some pace.

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Bang on. As good as Ostigard is, would we have been better signing a left footer allowing Hyam / Rose to play on their most comfortable side.

Not signing any wingers has meant we are stuck with 5 at the back which, without Dabo, doesn’t really suit us.

We also only have o’hare in attacking midfield and like you say we are in desperate need of pace.

Problem is, we all knew this in January. Yet he addressed these problems by signing a striker he deemed inferior to Biamou and yet another defensive midfielder.

 

[Deleted member 11652]

Also worth noting that on 6th January we had played 50% of our games and sat 16th, 7 points clear of relegation. January was an absolute disaster for us

 

[fatso]

Average, having pissed our budget up the wall on Hamer, who is a very good player, but burnt himself out by christmas, the rest are about the best we could expect for fuck all.

Ostigard will prove to be a decent centre half at this level, McAllum hasn't progressed and has struggled to make an impact in this league.
Decosta has shown flashes of quality, but has so much to learn,
James is quality but needs to fit in with our style as we haven't seen him be consistent.
Ohare is ..... well frustrating, but has a lot of talent, Walker needs an injury free run, but I'm yet to be convinced by him.
Gyokres and Hisner are a waste of 2 squad places.
So in short, if we do survive, we need to do better.

 

[ccfc1234]

I guess to help the debate we perhaps should list those signed.

1. Sheaf 5/10 not taken us forward.
2. Osti 8.5/10 Best signing for me
3. James 7/10 Done his job as Sheaf hasn't.
4. Walker 6.5/10 Been stop start season should improve.
5. Hamer 7/10 Had some reactionary fans drooling. Over the season has faded. Should kick on next season.
6. Taraves (hard to include)
7. Hilsner 2/10 lacked fitness another whoever identified him as a bottom end, Championship level, squad player made a Kastaneer like mistake.
8. Gorkes 6/10 done okay for his role
9. Giles 5/10 looked decent but not fancied by MR.
10. Decosta 6/10 looks decent and exposed in same game.

Lots signed. Only about 20% have had first team impact. If we go down the squad will be stronger than the one we came up with but am not sure that was the remit of the manager and backroom staff!

 

[PVA]

There’s no point arguing. Some people will tell you the signings he made were absolutely the best available and he couldn’t have signed anyone better. They’ll then say we can’t compete because Barnsley spent £20 million on a striker in January.

And some people are annoyed we didn't sign Lewandowski

 

[larry_david]

Lack of that explosive x factor signing this season has been disastrous. Championship is full of rapid, direct, pacey skillful players. We let our only player with pace go in Jan to our rivals

 

[clint van damme]

Average.

 

[Deleted member 11652]

And some people are annoyed we didn't sign Lewandowski

Anyone who thinks we could have done better in January now wants Lewandowski. Brilliant.

Seems we now have the Cult of Biamou and the Chris Badlan Clan

 

[PVA]

Anyone who thinks we could have done better in January now wants Lewandowski. Brilliant.

Seems we now have the Cult of Biamou and the Chris Badlan Clan

About as realistic as some of the signings suggested.

 

[Deleted member 11652]

About as realistic as some of the signings suggested.

Lewandowski as unrealistic and Ched Evans, Adebayo and Barnsley’s £20 million man. Classic. You can be leader of the clan

 

[clint van damme]

There’s no point arguing. Some people will tell you the signings he made were absolutely the best available and he couldn’t have signed anyone better. They’ll then say we can’t compete because Barnsley spent £20 million on a striker in January.

And then there are those who think we should be able to compete with teams who spend 20 million on a striker when we cant.
The recruitment could have been better though.

Do we need a big churn next season order we try to evolve more gradually?

Still think if Godden and Walker had stayed fit we'd be at least 4 or 5 points better off

 

[hill83]

Voted poor. As it’s been poor. Literally couldn’t give a fuck if anyone in the squad left.

Not getting into luck with results or injuries. Of if we’ll stay up or not.
There’s nobody who is a game changer. And nobody we would miss if they got injured.

 

[shmmeee]

Pretty good. O’Hare was one hell of a signing, Walker has done OK considering, Sheaf perhaps hasn’t stepped us as we’d have wished but has looked promising for the money, and Hamer on first half of the season form is a cracking find. £1.3m may be a lot for us, but it’s peanuts in this league, let alone £900k for a young striker or the rumoured £600k for a classy young midfielder.

The backup has been fairly poor, Hilßner hasn’t worked out, Dacosta has at least played and is competing.

Loans have been hit and miss, Østigård and McCallum have worked out, Giles didn’t but hasn’t elsewhere, both LWB questionable as neither were an upgrade on L1 and seems like an opportunity missed. James has been OK in flashes, possibly in terms of experience as well. Györkeres hasn’t done much yet.

For me it all smells of limited resource. Giles and McCallum, Sheaf a L1 loanee last season, Walker too, Hamer obviously where all the money went, then Dacosta and Hilßner as cheap gambles that haven’t paid off. We’d obviously hoped the likes of Hyam, Rose, Dabo, even Jones and Jobello, hell even Baka!, would step up and for various reasons they haven’t had an impact.

We’ve got a top end L1 side, but are severely lacking in Championship quality. It’s not like we’ve wasted millions on a bunch of journeymen, we’ve got the best you can get for a top end League 1 budget from what I can see.

 

[Marty]

Osti has been excellent,
Hamer looked good in flashes,
Walker looks good from the little we've seen.
James looks good in flashes

All others have been a dud really. Sheaf, Giles are average league one players, all free foreign signings have been a complete waste of time. I think we've taken the wrong route with signings lately and need to get back to finding top players from the division below and integrate them slowly. The worry for me is that we need to move on many of the new signings already, then the likes of Shipley & Allen need to go too.

I think if we can keep Osti (build the defence around him) and build a new spine of the team. It's going to be a building process over a 3-4 seasons.

 

[coop]

I guess to help the debate we perhaps should list those signed.

1. Sheaf 5/10 not taken us forward.
2. Osti 8.5/10 Best signing for me
3. James 7/10 Done his job as Sheaf hasn't.
4. Walker 6.5/10 Been stop start season should improve.
5. Hamer 7/10 Had some reactionary fans drooling. Over the season has faded. Should kick on next season.
6. Taraves (hard to include)
7. Hilsner 2/10 lacked fitness another whoever identified him as a bottom end, Championship level, squad player made a Kastaneer like mistake.
8. Gorkes 6/10 done okay for his role
9. Giles 5/10 looked decent but not fancied by MR.
10. Decosta 6/10 looks decent and exposed in same game.

Lots signed. Only about 20% have had first team impact. If we go down the squad will be stronger than the one we came up with but am not sure that was the remit of the manager and backroom staff!

You watch Giles score the winner tomorrow.

 

[hill83]

Walker will come good eventually but we haven’t got time for that. Had enough of Hamer, Osti is off anyway. O’Hare is good technically but I don’t expect him to actually do anything. I’m boring myself trying to think of the rest of them.

 

[Liquid Gold]

I guess to help the debate we perhaps should list those signed.

1. Sheaf 5/10 not taken us forward.
2. Osti 8.5/10 Best signing for me
3. James 7/10 Done his job as Sheaf hasn't.
4. Walker 6.5/10 Been stop start season should improve.
5. Hamer 7/10 Had some reactionary fans drooling. Over the season has faded. Should kick on next season.
6. Taraves (hard to include)
7. Hilsner 2/10 lacked fitness another whoever identified him as a bottom end, Championship level, squad player made a Kastaneer like mistake.
8. Gorkes 6/10 done okay for his role
9. Giles 5/10 looked decent but not fancied by MR.
10. Decosta 6/10 looks decent and exposed in same game.

Lots signed. Only about 20% have had first team impact. If we go down the squad will be stronger than the one we came up with but am not sure that was the remit of the manager and backroom staff!

Without turning this into yet another Sheaf debate. At the start of the season we were playing him and were doing reasonably well bit undoing ourselves with individual errors. At least we were developing someone slated to be our own player and we’re involved in games.

Since James has come in and taken that spot we’ve often looked extremely poor and taken a few absolute tonkings. He’s supposed to be an experienced head but we’ve so often looked wafer thin with him in the middle.

It looks like another case of players being judged before they kick a ball, Sheaf slated because a couple of Donny fans say he’s lazy but because Barnsley said James is incredible he can do no wrong.

If it wasn’t for injuries then I think we’d have been better off with Sheaf, Hamer and Kelly as a three and spending our January bringing in a striker that could play instead of Biamou in January.

Summer window OK. January window terrible.

 

[hill83]

There’s no point arguing. Some people will tell you the signings he made were absolutely the best available and he couldn’t have signed anyone better. They’ll then say we can’t compete because Barnsley spent £20 million on a striker in January.

Hate posts like this, let it happen before trying to call stuff. Pointless and encourages exactly what you are saying will happen by getting peoples backs up.

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

You watch Giles score the winner tomorrow.

I have had this horrible thought also.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Without turning this into yet another Sheaf debate. At the start of the season we were playing him and were doing reasonably well bit undoing ourselves with individual errors. At least we were developing someone slated to be our own player and we’re involved in games.

Since James has come in and taken that spot we’ve often looked extremely poor and taken a few absolute tonkings. He’s supposed to be an experienced head but we’ve so often looked wafer thin with him in the middle.

It looks like another case of players being judged before they kick a ball, Sheaf slated because a couple of Donny fans say he’s lazy but because Barnsley said James is incredible he can do no wrong.

If it wasn’t for injuries then I think we’d have been better off with Sheaf, Hamer and Kelly as a three and spending our January bringing in a striker that could play instead of Biamou in January.

Summer window OK. January window terrible.

If we were going to put major investment somewhere it could basically have been anywhere except central midfield.

 

[stupot07]

I guess to help the debate we perhaps should list those signed.

1. Sheaf 5/10 not taken us forward.
2. Osti 8.5/10 Best signing for me
3. James 7/10 Done his job as Sheaf hasn't.
4. Walker 6.5/10 Been stop start season should improve.
5. Hamer 7/10 Had some reactionary fans drooling. Over the season has faded. Should kick on next season.
6. Taraves (hard to include)
7. Hilsner 2/10 lacked fitness another whoever identified him as a bottom end, Championship level, squad player made a Kastaneer like mistake.
8. Gorkes 6/10 done okay for his role
9. Giles 5/10 looked decent but not fancied by MR.
10. Decosta 6/10 looks decent and exposed in same game.

Lots signed. Only about 20% have had first team impact. If we go down the squad will be stronger than the one we came up with but am not sure that was the remit of the manager and backroom staff!

1. Sheaf 6/10 .
2. Osti 7/10
3. James 5/10
4. Walker 5/10
5. Hamer 7/10
6. Taraves (hard to include)
7. Hilsner 0/10
8. Gorkes 3/10
9. Giles 5/10
10. Decosta 2/10
11. McCallum 5/10
12. Reid (hard to include)
13. O'Hare 6/10



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[PVA]

Lewandowski as unrealistic and Ched Evans, Adebayo and Barnsley’s £20 million man. Classic. You can be leader of the clan

Ched Evans ffs.

Gyo has a better goals per minute ratio than him, doesn't come with the associated baggage and was probably cheaper.

Yeah we really missed out there

 

[hill83]

If we were going to put major investment somewhere it could basically have been anywhere except central midfield.

Must have been a case of a name came up so we went for it. I usually subscribe to always sign better than you have got if they become available. But in this case midfield wasn’t in need of an upgrade if money was tight.

 

[Deleted member 11652]

Hate posts like this, let it happen before trying to call stuff. Pointless and encourages exactly what you are saying will happen by getting peoples backs up.

I’m sure you’ve said before you stopped really supporting Cov and only went for the laugh with your mates. Glad you got your passion back

 

[Liquid Gold]

Must have been a case of a name came up so we went for it. I usually subscribe to always sign better than you have got if they become available. But in this case midfield wasn’t in need of an upgrade of money was tight.

It sounds like that but it also sounds the same for McCallum.

What happened to always working two windows in advance?

 

[hill83]

I’m sure you’ve said before you stopped really supporting Cov and only went for the laugh with your mates. Glad you got your passion back

Always supported us, but the craic is the piss up yeah. England before Cov as well, problem?

 

[Deleted member 11652]

Always supported us, but the craic is the piss up yeah. England before Cov as well, problem?

Big problemo. Hope I don’t bump into you in city arms.

Joking, I’ll get @SkyBlueDom26 to buy you a pint

 

[hill83]

Big problemo. Hope I don’t bump into you in city arms.

Joking, I’ll get @SkyBlueDom26 to buy you a pint

Great stuff

 

[Grendel]

Must have been a case of a name came up so we went for it. I usually subscribe to always sign better than you have got if they become available. But in this case midfield wasn’t in need of an upgrade of money was tight.

We have seemingly signed players without thinking how they fit in and it ends up knee jerk regarding formation

I think walker is a good player but would he have been a foil anyway for a fully fit Godden? Then why do you re-sign Bakayoko and assume biamou can play at the level

The McCallum Giles Reid and the fact we had Mason is a cluster fuck

James again just seemed a random signing without considering our requirements

It all looks disjointed and a bit lazy. The team has no pace in it at all. Even though John Williams was poor he had extreme pace as did Misfud. There hasn’t been a plan. It’s poor

 

[shmmeee]

1. Sheaf 6/10 .
2. Osti 7/10
3. James 5/10
4. Walker 5/10
5. Hamer 7/10
6. Taraves (hard to include)
7. Hilsner 0/10
8. Gorkes 3/10
9. Giles 5/10
10. Decosta 2/10
11. McCallum 5/10
12. Reid 2/10
13. O'Hare 6/10



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How the hell can you justify 2/10 for Reid??

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Must have been a case of a name came up so we went for it. I usually subscribe to always sign better than you have got if they become available. But in this case midfield wasn’t in need of an upgrade of money was tight.

Sounds right. We needed strengthening at centre back and up front the most, central midfield's the one place we have (relative) depth.

 

[stupot07]

How the hell can you justify 2/10 for Reid??

Just because of his age, and he is one for the future. Had Wolves not recalled Giles, Reid would have stayed up in Scotland on loan.

You are right I've changed it back to match what Taraves was rated.

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