Squad problems

[magpie_mania]

I will go back to the start of this thread and discuss the squad. We let Ellis, a tough, no nonsense centre back and free scoring to boot go! We let Miller, a tricky, fast paced , hungry winger go! Our first signing is Vincent - an injured midfielder who obviously is not rated by Burchnall. We miss out on several first choice targets, we don't sign a decent striker and worse miss out to near rivals Chesterfield. We sign more unheard of, cast off young midfielders. We do make 2 decent signings one in midfield, one in defence. That's about it. No muscle or hustle in midfield, not enough back up at the back, no cutting edge up front. We are out bought, out thought and out gunned by most of our nearest rivals. Yet we have probably the largest and certainly most loyal fan base. This has to be better this season or we will forever be mired in this awful division. However , with the current squad, lack of depth and strength in the team, I have real concerns it won't end any better than last 2 campaigns. Please , please Mr Burchnall, Doyle et Al prove me wrong.

We didn't let Ellis or Miller go though. They were on loan and chose not to stay (did we offer a contract?). I

I would like them to have stayed, but not at any cost.

[keldsyke]

Don't matter if its 3,4,5 at the back if I.B continues with having more possession In our own half

I think this season as others have said is a pivotal one in terms of the club and the on going support. If we tail off into mid table just out the top six positions I can see support and interest dwindling off and the club being a National League club for a fair while to come.

If I’m totally honest apart from two players I think our recruitment has been poor. The glaring holes are an experienced player to replace Doyle and that elusive established second striker. Whether that is down to us being priced out of signings or a lack of ambition we will never know. I do think that a lot of the big teams have an advantage in the fact that they have managers who know the league and have targets from experience of this league.

I thought it was really interesting with the Chesterfield v Torquay match yesterday in the fact that after the exodus in players from Torquay over the summer and with Injuries to Neman-Evans they still digged out a result like they did last season at the death, and that all stems from the manager and the recruitment of getting the right players to fit into Gary Johnson’s system which he has working after 8 games like us.

Some won’t like this but I can’t see how we have moved any further forward with IB than NA, squad wise if anything personally I think we have gone backwards.

[laddo]

We didn't let Ellis or Miller go though. They were on loan and chose not to stay (did we offer a contract?). I

I would like them to have stayed, but not at any cost.

It's an important distinction m_m.

If ever a group of supporters should avoid the phrase 'at any cost' it's us. How quickly some forget.

[KCNotts]

I think this season as others have said is a pivotal one in terms of the club and the on going support. If we tail off into mid table just out the top six positions I can see support and interest dwindling off and the club being a National League club for a fair while to come.

If I’m totally honest apart from two players I think our recruitment has been poor. The glaring holes are an experienced player to replace Doyle and that elusive established second striker. Whether that is down to us being priced out of signings or a lack of ambition we will never know. I do think that a lot of the big teams have an advantage in the fact that they have managers who know the league and have targets from experience of this league.

I thought it was really interesting with the Chesterfield v Torquay match yesterday in the fact that after the exodus in players from Torquay over the summer and with Injuries to Neman-Evans they still digged out a result like they did last season at the death, and that all stems from the manager and the recruitment of getting the right players to fit into Gary Johnson’s system which he has working after 8 games like us.

Some won’t like this but I can’t see how we have moved any further forward with IB than NA, squad wise if anything personally I think we have gone backwards.

I would agree that our recruitment has been disappointing. Palmer appears to be a direct replacement for Reeves and possibly a little better. Cameron is a decent player but is Cal's mate. I'm not sure where Nemane or Vincent fit in or how they get match fit without playing games. Ward looks a very average signing and Marshall was not the striker we needed.

I was hoping for more imaginative signings under the Radar...maybe from Scotland, Wales or Ireland. But it seems we only sign players from Torquay, Harrogate or Chesterfield

[jackal2]

Ward looks a very average signing and Marshall was not the striker we needed.

These two must be really bad, because I haven't even noticed them!

I quite like Kairo Mitchell though. Brings a bit of height and pace.

[durhampie]

I think this season as others have said is a pivotal one in terms of the club and the on going support. If we tail off into mid table just out the top six positions I can see support and interest dwindling off and the club being a National League club for a fair while to come.

If I’m totally honest apart from two players I think our recruitment has been poor. The glaring holes are an experienced player to replace Doyle and that elusive established second striker. Whether that is down to us being priced out of signings or a lack of ambition we will never know. I do think that a lot of the big teams have an advantage in the fact that they have managers who know the league and have targets from experience of this league.

I thought it was really interesting with the Chesterfield v Torquay match yesterday in the fact that after the exodus in players from Torquay over the summer and with Injuries to Neman-Evans they still digged out a result like they did last season at the death, and that all stems from the manager and the recruitment of getting the right players to fit into Gary Johnson’s system which he has working after 8 games like us.

Some won’t like this but I can’t see how we have moved any further forward with IB than NA, squad wise if anything personally I think we have gone backwards.

I totally agree with you keldsyke. Apart from Palmer, all of the other signings have been nothing but other teams cast offs.. Nemane is a waste of a shirt, Francis is just rubbish, Mitchell is never likely to score, Sam is not even a Sunday morning grade footballer and the only 2 that are half decent are Cameron and Lewis...

[laddo]

Well at least you weren't surprised Durham so there's a positive (you won't like).

[SwalePie]

It really illustrates the fickleness of footie when you have a thread like this slagging off virtually everyone connected with the club one way or another after a single defeat in the first 8 games. Of course the flip-side of this is that it can all quickly be refuted by a couple of handsome wins.

Here's hoping.

[keldsyke]

It really illustrates the fickleness of footie when you have a thread like this slagging off virtually everyone connected with the club one way or another after a single defeat in the first 8 games. Of course the flip-side of this is that it can all quickly be refuted by a couple of handsome wins.

Here's hoping.

It’s not the defeat, the people who attend know we have been riding our luck for a fair few games now and ultimately we aren’t as good as the non attendees think we are. There are glaring problems that haven’t been addressed over pre-season.

[SwalePie]

It’s not the defeat, the people who attend know we have been riding our luck for a fair few games now and ultimately we aren’t as good as the non attendees think we are. There are glaring problems that haven’t been addressed over pre-season.

As one of the non-attendees of late unfortunately, I think we can all agree that this squad needs a lot of development to fulfil it's obvious potential. Whether the problems are glaring and unfixable or glaring and fixable is yet to be seen. Fingers crossed it is the latter. After all we, haven't even reached the much-vaunted '10 games' mark yet.