Signings - This season

[jackal2]

Seems to me we're being a bit harsh on Whitaker who was not in the game at all yesterday but has shown he can affect games through goals or assists.

We're never going to give good marks to transfer policy when we've got loads of players out injured and just got completely outplayed. In general though I can't remember a time when our players were in such demand from other clubs since the Munto era, which was paid for with fake money, or before that the Warnock era, so it's not like we need to rip everything up and start again.

Totally agree. No club is going to hit a strike with every signing, but we sign many more genuinely good players now than we did under any other regime going back at least as far as the Allardyce and Warnock eras in the 1990s. I also think that some of the players that have been marked down in the OP are actually decent or could come good, in the case of the new signings, but the team needs to play at a much higher tempo and show far more positivity to bring their talents out.

Several posters seems to be identifying the January transfer window as the moment things went wrong, and I agree that our form has dropped off a cliff from late January onwards, but I don't think it's because all our players have suddenly turned crap overnight, or that Crowley's departure was the be-all-and-end-all, indeed imagine the amount of pratting about and posing he would do in a team in a team that plays as slowly and takes as many touches as it does now. I'm concerned about whoever is (or isn't) training these players in recent weeks. needs

[Bohinen]

Totally agree. No club is going to hit a strike with every signing, but we sign many more genuinely good players now than we did under any other regime going back at least as far as the Allardyce and Warnock eras in the 1990s.

I would question that. If you look at that list of signings, there would be quite a big wage bill associated with it, and the club does run at a loss. Better run clubs are achieving far more with fewer resources. There have been times in the past when we have had a very low budget and couldn't afford the quality of players required.

When we had money, or fake money, it was spent well, even under Munto. Schmeichel was way too expensive for a League 2 club and Sol Campbell was a ridiculous publicity stunt, but Bishop and Ravenhill were normal and good signings, and Ben Davies was exceptional yet still affordable. Even Hughes was good business, it makes sense to recruit the best forward you can afford, even if you skimp on back-up strikers rather than recruit four, all of whom are not good enough.

We seem to have recruited three or four wingers in the hope they might be convertible to the wing-back position without really considering their defensive attributes, and then, of course, they have to play on their wrong side, but that's down to the manager. And lastly, there's the sick bay, the policy of buying injury-prone players is not working. Yes, I know the Jones argument, but even he's not contributing right-now and we haven't had value from him this season.

[jackal2]

I would question that. If you look at that list of signings, there would be quite a big wage bill associated with it, and the club does run at a loss. Better run clubs are achieving far more with fewer resources. There have been times in the past when we have had a very low budget and couldn't afford the quality of players required.

When we had money, or fake money, it was spent well, even under Munto. Schmeichel was way too expensive for a League 2 club and Sol Campbell was a ridiculous publicity stunt, but Bishop and Ravenhill were normal and good signings, and Ben Davies was exceptional yet still affordable. Even Hughes was good business, it makes sense to recruit the best forward you can afford, even if you skimp on back-up strikers rather than recruit four, all of whom are not good enough.

We seem to have recruited three or four wingers in the hope they might be convertible to the wing-back position without really considering their defensive attributes, and then, of course, they have to play on their wrong side, but that's down to the manager. And lastly, there's the sick bay, the policy of buying injury-prone players is not working. Yes, I know the Jones argument, but even he's not contributing right-now and we haven't had value from him this season.

I was agreeing with what drillerpie said about the Munto era, which is probably the most recent time before now that we signed some really good players, albeit with fake money. Hughes, Ravenhill, Bishop and Davies were all normal signings for the level and I believe were identified as targets before Munto arrived, although most if not all of them wouldn't have come if it were not for Munto giving us that extra bit of financial pop.

Leaving aside the Munto era, our recruitment for pretty much all of the rest of the past 20 years was fairly abysmal, with only the occasional highlight, whereas in the past three years we've had multiple players arrive and star for us, such that several have either been poached or signed for decent money by other clubs.

I would agree with you however that our apparent policy of taking risks on players with significant injury history has had mixed results. Jodi Jones aside from a bit of bad luck this season has been mostly available, otherwise he wouldn't have won league Two Player of the Year last season, but a few others have appeared to be made of sugar and we've had more long-term absences than one would expect in a season, certainly this time around. If we were going to change anything about the recruitment strategy I'd say stick with players that haven't got a history as 'sick notes'.