Lewis Knight

[Elite_Pie]

Depends what you’re basing it on.
If we go up via the play offs, has it worked?
If we sell 3 players in 2 years time for £500k plus, has it worked?
If we’ve managed to assemble a squad within a sustainable budget, has it worked?

I'll have a go at your quiz:

Depends what you’re basing it on.
If we go up via the play offs, has it worked?

Yes.

If we sell 3 players in 2 years time for £500k plus, has it worked?

It's only worked if we get promoted in those two years.

If we’ve managed to assemble a squad within a sustainable budget, has it worked?

Again, it will only have worked if that squad gets us promoted.

3 questions, 3 answers. How did I do?

[nw6pie]

The ultimate aim has to be promotion. If we fail to get promoted with the resources that we have then that is a failure.. And i would guess that would be the opinion of most Notts fans, unless of course you are more than happy to watch none league football every week..

Given our resources, it seems clear we’re underperforming against the likes of Boreham Wood and Halifax. But Stockport, Wrexham and even Chesterfield have far greater resources than us this season (based on their signings), so we were always going to be slightly up against it. The biggest disappointment for me is that we’ve rarely looked like breaking into the top three and are going to need a great run to even secure fourth or fifth as things stand.

[kill_the_drum]

The ultimate aim has to be promotion. If we fail to get promoted with the resources that we have then that is a failure.. And i would guess that would be the opinion of most Notts fans, unless of course you are more than happy to watch none league football every week..

I don’t disagree promotion is the aim, but it’s also the aim of Wrexham, Stockport and Chesterfield who seem to either be rich or wreckless. So would you have been happier with a s**t or bust strategy to our recruitment if it meant we could have cherry picked players from leagues 1&2?
That’s what got us here in the first place!
I’m not happy to be in this league, I hate it. But we’re talking about recruitment and whether it’s working and in my opinion it is.
If you say promotion is the only measure then you can’t say it’s not working until the season is over, surely?

[jacobncfc]

I don’t disagree promotion is the aim, but it’s also the aim of Wrexham, Stockport and Chesterfield who seem to either be rich or wreckless. So would you have been happier with a s**t or bust strategy to our recruitment if it meant we could have cherry picked players from leagues 1&2?
That’s what got us here in the first place!
I’m not happy to be in this league, I hate it. But we’re talking about recruitment and whether it’s working and in my opinion it is.
If you say promotion is the only measure then you can’t say it’s not working until the season is over, surely?

Our recruitment has broadly been good. The odd miss, but even those (like Mitchell) aren’t total write-offs as they’re young with some potential, and Sam has shown us what can happen. I’d argue we’ve maybe not recruited the right kind of central midfielder, but I think that might be a management choice as opposed to anything else

The obvious tension between ‘club ethos’ and ‘we need to get promoted’ isn’t in recruitment, it’s with IB, and to what extent his obvious coaching talent and ability to improve and develop individuals covers his really poor game management.

Interestingly it’s kind of the opposite tension to what we had under NA. I can’t think of a single player he developed significantly in the way that IB has, and the football is obviously better, but he had more of a knack of picking up and grinding out results. I suspect the current problem is one that the owners are happier with, but it’s still a problem.

[kill_the_drum]

I'll have a go at your quiz:



Yes.



It's only worked if we get promoted in those two years.



Again, it will only have worked if that squad gets us promoted.

3 questions, 3 answers. How did I do?

Yeah, good.
I agree but mainly because I’m desperate to get out of this league. After what we’ve been through for the last god knows how many years, questions 2&3 really shouldn’t be understated. It would be a great achievement, promotion or not, to be a self sufficient club.

[kill_the_drum]

Our recruitment has broadly been good. The odd miss, but even those (like Mitchell) aren’t total write-offs as they’re young with some potential, and Sam has shown us what can happen. I’d argue we’ve maybe not recruited the right kind of central midfielder, but I think that might be a management choice as opposed to anything else

The obvious tension between ‘club ethos’ and ‘we need to get promoted’ isn’t in recruitment, it’s with IB, and to what extent his obvious coaching talent and ability to improve and develop individuals covers his really poor game management.

Interestingly it’s kind of the opposite tension to what we had under NA. I can’t think of a single player he developed significantly in the way that IB has, and the football is obviously better, but he had more of a knack of picking up and grinding out results. I suspect the current problem is one that the owners are happier with, but it’s still a problem.

So much of the club is pointing in the right direction but we seem to have shown a defensive frailty this season that I think is more down to a managers naivety, at times, than it is to a failure in recruitment.
However, I do agree that someone in the middle with a bit more ability to break down the opposition would be like the final piece of the jigsaw. A Neal Bishop type player.

[durhampie]

So much of the club is pointing in the right direction but we seem to have shown a defensive frailty this season that I think is more down to a managers naivety, at times, than it is to a failure in recruitment.
However, I do agree that someone in the middle with a bit more ability to break down the opposition would be like the final piece of the jigsaw. A Neal Bishop type player.

Doyle has ben available to play. Whenever we have been down to the bare bones IB has chosen to play a weakened side instead of utilising Doyle. Surely a player of his experience and qualities in that central position would have been better put to use on the pitch.. Just a thought..

[laddo]

The ultimate aim has to be promotion. If we fail to get promoted with the resources that we have then that is a failure.. And i would guess that would be the opinion of most Notts fans, unless of course you are more than happy to watch none league football every week..

That is such a simplistic and sadly common viewpoint on here. Of course the ultimate aim is promotion it is for everyone competing in a league below the Premier League. Who isn't thinking that? Only some Irish fella seems to think that isn't the priority of the owners(?!).

If that's how you want to judge recruitment at a club then recruitment has 'worked' 13 times in our entire history! It hasn't worked until we spent money we couldn't afford to get have one amazing season get promoted from L2 to L1 and start the ball rolling for the mess we are in. Yay!!

You have to view it in a little more detail than that IMO.

That basic (black or white) view on everything, the players, manager, owners, coaches, recruitment is part of what I perceive to be the short termism of NCM and football fans on general. They want overnight fixes, close their eyes click their heels three times and "get me out of non league" at all costs. We get it if we don't get promoted it's a failed season. We all want promotion asap don't we?

I strongly suspect a lot of sides that have got promoted are as a result of recruitment working for more than one summer, one season. It will take a lot of clubs who are ultimately successful 2 or 3 positive recruitment years in a row, plus other factors naturally. They aren't one season wonders, it's built up over time, there are no doubt countless examples.

For me it's about trending upwards, has the recruitment got better under #radar or was it better before this approach was adopted?

If you think it's got worse (I'm talking player ability, squad balance, squad profile, potential squad value, squad cost, overall squad ability) then fair enough we will have to agree to strongly disagree.

IMO if you want long term success, sustainable success then it takes time, you need to get the foundations in place, have a defined approach/plan and then make the right choices at key times. Chuck in a little lady luck and who knows we could make it 14.

[durhampie]

That is such a simplistic and sadly common viewpoint on here. Of course the ultimate aim is promotion it is for everyone competing in a league below the Premier League. Who isn't thinking that? Only some Irish fella seems to think that isn't the priority of the owners(?!).

If that's how you want to judge recruitment at a club then recruitment has 'worked' 13 times in our entire history! It hasn't worked until we spent money we couldn't afford to get have one amazing season get promoted from L2 to L1 and start the ball rolling for the mess we are in. Yay!!

You have to view it in a little more detail than that IMO.

That basic (black or white) view on everything, the players, manager, owners, coaches, recruitment is part of what I perceive to be the short termism of NCM and football fans on general. They want overnight fixes, close their eyes click their heels three times and "get me out of non league" at all costs. We get it if we don't get promoted it's a failed season. We all want promotion asap don't we?

I strongly suspect a lot of sides that have got promoted are as a result of recruitment working for more than one summer, one season. It will take a lot of clubs who are ultimately successful 2 or 3 positive recruitment years in a row, plus other factors naturally. They aren't one season wonders, it's built up over time, there are no doubt countless examples.

For me it's about trending upwards, has the recruitment got better under #radar or was it better before this approach was adopted?

If you think it's got worse (I'm talking player ability, squad balance, squad profile, potential squad value, squad cost, overall squad ability) then fair enough we will have to agree to strongly disagree.

IMO if you want long term success, sustainable success then it takes time, you need to get the foundations in place, have a defined approach/plan and then make the right choices at key times. Chuck in a little lady luck and who knows we could make it 14.

Its a strong possibility that we will still be in this league next season. If after next season we have still not achieved promotion, what would your thoughts on that be ?

[laddo]

Its a strong possibility that we will still be in this league next season. If after next season we have still not achieved promotion, what would your thoughts on that be ?

On recruitment? Or on the head coach? The owners approach? The club's success/failure? We seem to be mixing everything up a bit.

As KTD stated when one or two things aren't working, aren't going well resulting in us not getting promoted it doesn't mean everything isn't working. This clear the decks, rip up the blueprint, "only keep a handful of players" complete rebuild every season after failure hasn't worked. I'm not sure I've seen it work.