Yes, I'm showing my age again sorry..
In those very olden days LOL BC was before Coaching BTW..
You know when we had 5 forwards, 3 midfield, 2 full backs etc then clubs signed players who were already instinctively able to fit into the existing team. I mean Jimmy Greaves or George Best would never play anywhere but where they did and dear Frank Lord was signed as a CF but was useless as a defender. Its still amazing how many hat tricks he scored just with his head here but I suppose the academy system changed all that and the youngsters are ermm coached if that is the right word to play in a certain way that may not be where they fit in or indeed want to play. ie square pegs in round holes etc.
Of course we will never go back to those days and the lone striker is more the norm than using 5 forwards. The purists will say when we have 3 strikers and two attacking midfield players its much the same thing. Telling a GK to stay or coached to stay on his line to me tells me that we would be better signing an experienced older keeper than trying to get young kids to play in that role. We have seen some great keepers here over the years and its debatable whether the later ones would have ever made the grade.
I asked Dario one day why we have ten players back for corners when its obvious that if you left say three players near the half way line, then the opposing team would have to leave three back and that would make for a more exciting game, give the GK more room and he replied well everyone does it....
He never did ask me to be his assistant erm coach!...
He did OK before we had an academy you know and he signed some great players...David Platt for instance and he tried to make it as a manager/coach and didn't...
I can't remember who was manager when we signed Stan Bowles? Was that Dario?