Quote Originally Posted by Andy_Faber View Post
The failure of Warne's (leading of the) recruitmant is to me demonstrated by the fact that of the 11 that turned out against Barnsley, he inherited 9, and the two that he recruited were marginally better than their predecessors (Nyambe) and no better (Nelson), IMO of course. So his other recruitments, in two transfer windows and 15 months of free agent opportunities, have been either not up to it and in reserve, not up to it and returned to their parent clubs, out injured due possibly to a predisposition to injury or genuine injuries. Not a great record
Without reopening a debate, he recruited defenders in Bradley, Elder, Nelson, Nyambe Wilson plus Ward who is WB/RM plus Vickers as a back up goal keeper, all of which we needed. Injuries have disrupted his team, but I certainly rate Nelson, Nyambe and Wilson have been as good as any player and we had nobody in those positions, so presumably your talking about Smith as a predecessor? Smith is better in midfield.

So of those not up to it Elder has been injured, Fornah hasn't featured much, John-Jules is injured. Ward has the quality but has been injured.

Collins goal record stands comparison with others in league 1, Washington questionable, Waghorn has been good.

If one is shopping in the bargain basement, not all players will be a success, but his record isn't that bad - yes one could query signing a player like Elder who had been injured and the same with the loans from Arsenal and Sunderland, but then in league 1, a quality loan is only going to be available with these caveats, i.e. they need some football to get back to match fitness after an injury layoff, or possibly aren't good enough for the league the parent club plays in - though often these will be sold for a transfer fee to a lower league club.

He has effectively had one transfer window, last January we were restricted to loans, as there are very few free transfers available then, unless one can persuade a club to let a player go early from his contract and the under that business plan the club couldn't pay a fee.

I think he explained it clearly in the summer, he has a tight budget, he wouldn't pay £300-500K for a player unless they were better than what he had, a proven goal scoring striker is rarely available on a free and is generally north of £500k minimum. Yes there was talk of May but ti seemed he wanted to go home to Charlton, not much one can do about that.