January Transfer Window

.....and they’ve seen what can happen when we stop knowing our place.

For me, the single worst signing of the McInnes era is Main.

Not the worst player he's signed. Not because Main doesn't try - he does, I get the impression he works hard.

It's just that any signing from outwith your own league carries risk - you rely on scouting reports, you might watch a game or two, but there's always an element of taking a punt.

That's not true for someone from within your own league. McInnes must have seen hours and hours of Main playing. He must have known his limitations and yet he still signed him to be our 2nd striker. I completely misjudged the Watkins signings because I judged him on his goalscoring and it turned out he's just not really a traditional striker. But he brought a huge amount to the team. Main on the other hand can't score and doesn't bring anything much to the team other than effort and a bit of muscle.

For me, the Main signing just says it all about a complete lack of ambition. We could have kept Anderson at Pittodrie rather than send him out on loan and he could have been our 2nd striker. I'd bet my life he'd have scored more goals.

Every signing sends a signal. That signing just screamed a manager who'd run out of ideas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by donsdaft

I’m no fan of Cosgrove but he’s far from being the worst McIness signing.

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There is no doubt that the list of atrocious signings by DM for our club is a long fkn list, the reason I pick Cosgrove to be the worst is he is the only sh1te signing that we have ended up being pretty much fully reliant on, the other names rightly mentioned by posters on here have been utter sh1te but we did not and do not rely on them as the same way in which we have been forced to rely on the donkey.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Julio

For me, the single worst signing of the McInnes era is Main.

Not the worst player he's signed. Not because Main doesn't try - he does, I get the impression he works hard.

It's just that any signing from outwith your own league carries risk - you rely on scouting reports, you might watch a game or two, but there's always an element of taking a punt.

That's not true for someone from within your own league. McInnes must have seen hours and hours of Main playing. He must have known his limitations and yet he still signed him to be our 2nd striker. I completely misjudged the Watkins signings because I judged him on his goalscoring and it turned out he's just not really a traditional striker. But he brought a huge amount to the team. Main on the other hand can't score and doesn't bring anything much to the team other than effort and a bit of muscle.

For me, the Main signing just says it all about a complete lack of ambition. We could have kept Anderson at Pittodrie rather than send him out on loan and he could have been our 2nd striker. I'd bet my life he'd have scored more goals.

Every signing sends a signal. That signing just screamed a manager who'd run out of ideas.

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I agree with all of that - including the Watkins thing... I didn't think he was what we needed at all, but he was actually very good and brought out the best in others and contributed to a much better style of football.

We did play some decent stuff yesterday, but it was despite Cosgrove rather than because of him. He contributed absolutely nothing to it. If we had played like that, with the creativity of Kennedy, Hayes, Wright and Hedges, and also had a main striker who was adding to that, we would likely have created and scored even more.

McInnes likes his squad to have 1 giant target man striker and 1 hard working "defensive" striker who'll just run around a lot and be a nuisance. Curtis Main is the latter - he's basically Stevie May version 2, but probably not as good a football player. Watkins was an exception, but I always got the feeling he was going to be punted into a wide position or played in behind Cosgrove when Cosgrove came back anyway. Whenever McInnes has had other types of forward he doesn't really know what to do with them and usually ends up playing them on the wing - ie James Wilson or Greg Stewart. Even Rooney ended up on the wing because he was neither a giant target man or hard working headless chicken.

For what it's worth I think someone like James Wilson would have done quite well with Wright and Hedges behind him. I actually thought Tony Watt looked like a better option than Cosgrove or Main based on yesterdays game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Julio

For me, the single worst signing of the McInnes era is Main.

Not the worst player he's signed. Not because Main doesn't try - he does, I get the impression he works hard.

It's just that any signing from outwith your own league carries risk - you rely on scouting reports, you might watch a game or two, but there's always an element of taking a punt.

That's not true for someone from within your own league. McInnes must have seen hours and hours of Main playing. He must have known his limitations and yet he still signed him to be our 2nd striker. I completely misjudged the Watkins signings because I judged him on his goalscoring and it turned out he's just not really a traditional striker. But he brought a huge amount to the team. Main on the other hand can't score and doesn't bring anything much to the team other than effort and a bit of muscle.

For me, the Main signing just says it all about a complete lack of ambition. We could have kept Anderson at Pittodrie rather than send him out on loan and he could have been our 2nd striker. I'd bet my life he'd have scored more goals.

Every signing sends a signal. That signing just screamed a manager who'd run out of ideas.

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In the years 2020 and 2021 Cosgrove has scored 1 from open play.
Main has scored 6 in that time. 7 if you give him the goal against county last week.
It's sad sad times that Main is, correctly, viewed as a disaster

Wright deal to go through over next 48hrs, revealed Richard Gordon yesterday, and he’s usually correct

I could see them offering him back to us on loan as part of the deal.. and could see us accepting it! Gaaadz!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Feck_the_Huns

Wright deal to go through over next 48hrs, revealed Richard Gordon yesterday, and he’s usually correct

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To the huns or heading down south?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rico94

Personally if we sell him next week I would use the money to buy Watkins even though he is injured but he will probably buy the boy Stewart from Ross County and I get the feeling he isn’t much better than Cosgrove.

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Aye pal, its not very often you and me agree on here but I agree 100% with that statement, the problem is I honestly do not see us selling Cosgrove any time soon for any money at all, we missed a huge opportunity with that French club bid in the summer.
I hope I'm wrong and I hope we sell him for anything, I would see £21k as a bonus in my book >;)

Huns lining up Nisbitt according to my hun sources