Dispelling the myth of last summers transfers

[Young_Nudger]

Main player transfers - Out and Replacements

OUT - Replacement

Mads - Mael
Kitching - McCart
Bobby Thomas - Lopata
Tedic - Cosgrove
Luke Thomas - no similar replacement
Norwood - McAtee

Mads - had an agreement with the club to move on. His choice to move but as his video shows he was very sad to leave.
Mael - not the tallest of defenders but is an excellent defender.

Kitching - couldn’t wait to get out of the door. Neerav said before he left that there would be no more players leaving. IMO he’s learnt a lesson there because an offer of £4.5 M came in soon after that couldn’t be refused.
McCart - very difficult to get a replacement for Kitching but McCart has been adequate.

Bobby Thomas - loan - not our player. But I’d say this position especially in relation to the height of the player has not been filled.
Lopata - permanent signing - good defender but hasn’t the height and presence to deal with crosses like Bobby Thomas has.

Tedic - loan - not our player. Tall young player still growing into his body. IMO in time will become a good Premier/Championship striker.
Cosgrove - permanent. Played great for Plymouth - but we’ve hardly seen anything from him here.

Luke Thomas - as a winger he didn’t fit the mould. But used as an attacking midfielder - which we haven’t replaced.
IMO - a big loss to the club.

Norwood - good solid striker - but wanted to leave.
McAtee - loan - IMO better than Norwood.

Tedic, Luke Thomas and Norwood were often left out of the starting lineup - or were brought off during the game.

Styles - Hungarian international brought back into the squad.

In summary - there definitely wasn’t a fire sale last summer - but the transfer window left us with a lack of height at the back - and we haven’t the option of an attacking midfielder.

But other than that a large portion of the squad remains the same and options open to the head coach more or less remains the same.

So why are we seeing performances that are lacking in organisation and formation and miles away from where we were last season???

[SBRed48]

I bet your answer begins with C and ends in S.

Don't forget it was your much praised "new leadership" that appointed him.

[Young_Nudger]

I bet your answer begins with C and ends in S.

Don't forget it was your much praised "new leadership" that appointed him.

If they get things wrong then I’ll be one of the first to say it.
As far as Collins is concerned I’m willing him to do well - and there were signs against Vale and Peterborough that things were improving.
But then we slip back into the same old routine against Wigan.

IMO the jury is still out regarding Collins.

[Acido]

Another drivellous new thread by Nudger, sticking up for these owners. And we're only 2 days into the new year. 😵

[Young_Nudger]

I bet your answer begins with C and ends in S.

Don't forget it was your much praised "new leadership" that appointed him.

My point is SB - unless we get an outstanding centre back - and a midfielder of the likes of Hignett - are a couple of additions in January going to alter things massively ???

I hope they will - but I very much doubt it.
I can’t see the performances improving to a point where I would be confident playing any of the top 6 teams.

[pass_and_move]

Our style depends on the opponent imo as demonstrated with Peterborough and others.

We seem to struggle a bit against defensively compact teams who keep their defensive shape and defend the box like Wigan did. At the same time we are vulnerable to the counter attack with our wing backs pushed on and our iffy back 3.

The simple reason why we're not as good as last season is because the replacement signings in defence are nowhere near the standard as the ones that we let go.

The defence last season was championship quality. Mads, B Thomas, Kitching. They are all comfortable at that level. Our current defence, as I said in another thread, would ship 100 goals in the championship. Of that I'm convinced and let's be fair, it dunt take a great deal of football knowledge to work that one out.


It can possibly be amended and our play off/promotion bid made more realistic by signing an experienced defender or 2 this January- something most of us pointed out this summer in the wake of the defensive departures.

The board just refuse to use any common sense. They clearly haven't looked at the history behind us having a fire sale and not replacing departing players adequately or adding any experience to help the 'potential' on their way forward. This happened to Hecky in 2017 and Stendel in 2019. How stupid can you be to repeat something that historically proves our undoing regarding progression on the pitch? Definition of madness anyone? Me neither

[animallittle3]

Main player transfers - Out and Replacements

OUT - Replacement

Mads - Mael
Kitching - McCart
Bobby Thomas - Lopata
Tedic - Cosgrove
Luke Thomas - no similar replacement
Norwood - McAtee

Mads - had an agreement with the club to move on. His choice to move but as his video shows he was very sad to leave.
Mael - not the tallest of defenders but is an excellent defender.

Kitching - couldn’t wait to get out of the door. Neerav said before he left that there would be no more players leaving. IMO he’s learnt a lesson there because an offer of £4.5 M came in soon after that couldn’t be refused.
McCart - very difficult to get a replacement for Kitching but McCart has been adequate.

Bobby Thomas - loan - not our player. But I’d say this position especially in relation to the height of the player has not been filled.
Lopata - permanent signing - good defender but hasn’t the height and presence to deal with crosses like Bobby Thomas has.

Tedic - loan - not our player. Tall young player still growing into his body. IMO in time will become a good Premier/Championship striker.
Cosgrove - permanent. Played great for Plymouth - but we’ve hardly seen anything from him here.

Luke Thomas - as a winger he didn’t fit the mould. But used as an attacking midfielder - which we haven’t replaced.
IMO - a big loss to the club.

Norwood - good solid striker - but wanted to leave.
McAtee - loan - IMO better than Norwood.

Tedic, Luke Thomas and Norwood were often left out of the starting lineup - or were brought off during the game.

Styles - Hungarian international brought back into the squad.

In summary - there definitely wasn’t a fire sale last summer - but the transfer window left us with a lack of height at the back - and we haven’t the option of an attacking midfielder.

But other than that a large portion of the squad remains the same and options open to the head coach more or less remains the same.

So why are we seeing performances that are lacking in organisation and formation and miles away from where we were last season???

Nobody on here expects the club to keep it's better players , we accept that they move on and so I don't know why you felt the need to defend a position that didn't need defending .

As ever it's the replacements that are always the issue and it always goes the same way , we go backwards .

If you want to put the blame on the HC then ask yourself this , he gets a tune of MaCatee , Cole has scored more goals this season so far than he ever has , Kane is playing well , Connell too and Cadden is his usual 7/10 most games .

Half the team are either performing well or above expectations .

Here's where it goes down the pan a little .

O'Keefe , Russell , Cosgrove , Lopata , McCart , Watters , Cotter .

He clearly doesn't rate Cundy , McCarthy , Shepherd , Dallas and Shaw .

That's 12 players who aren't either performing consistently or even performing at all .

I think the evidence suggests with such a dog shyte hand dealt to him by the recruitment team to have us 6th isn't a bad effort at all from the HC .

[Young_Nudger]

Fire sale ???

During the summer which of these 3 central defenders could the owners have prevented from leaving
Bobby Thomas ?
Mads ?
Kitching?

Which of these centre backs could have been stopped from moving on
Mawson ?
Lindsey ?
Helik ?
Pinnock ?

The answer of course is none of them.

My interpretation of a fire sale BTW is when the owners sell off the better players and those players don’t want to leave.
Theres no evidence whatsoever to suggest this is currently happening.

What we have now is a progression of players that sign - and if they make the grade then naturally they want to move on to bigger money.

Good players will only stay long term if they get decent money - we arn’t in a position yet to offer that.
IMO the only time in the last few seasons that we have been in that position was the summer after the Ismael season.
It’s at that point that Conway should have opened the purse strings.
But as we know he did the reverse of that.

All of the above players mentioned were raw recruits when we signed them.
Some of the players that we signed last summer will also come good.

The general consensus is that we need an additional player in central defence - I agree with that.
Also according to the Chronicle the club realises this.

But my theory is - that the head coach has shown nothing so far with the players he’s already got to suggest that a couple more signings will enable us to become a powerhouse in this division.

Fingers crossed I’m wrong.

[Young_Nudger]

Nobody on here expects the club to keep it's better players , we accept that they move on and so I don't know why you felt the need to defend a position that didn't need defending .

As ever it's the replacements that are always the issue and it always goes the same way , we go backwards .

If you want to put the blame on the HC then ask yourself this , he gets a tune of MaCatee , Cole has scored more goals this season so far than he ever has , Kane is playing well , Connell too and Cadden is his usual 7/10 most games .

Half the team are either performing well or above expectations .

Here's where it goes down the pan a little .

O'Keefe , Russell , Cosgrove , Lopata , McCart , Watters , Cotter .

He clearly doesn't rate Cundy , McCarthy , Shepherd , Dallas and Shaw .

That's 12 players who aren't either performing consistently or even performing at all .

I think the evidence suggests with such a dog shyte hand dealt to him by the recruitment team to have us 6th isn't a bad effort at all from the HC .

Well that’s where our opinions differ.
I think all performances from players from last season has dipped this season - excluding Connell.

As for the new players - who knows - we have no previous seasons to gauge them by.
Clearly McAtee and Mael are good - but how good?

I wouldn’t like to commit to putting a score out of 10 against any of the new players - because if the previous players are not performing as they were (eg Kane, Phillips, Williams, Styles) then how do we judge the new players?
We can’t.
And that is the simple reason why ive not berated any of the new players.

[Jules88]

Some people would defend these owner's, …indeed ANY owners of this club and the way they do business, no matter how bad they treat fans, or how low we sink.
Just what do you get from them Nudge, to be so blind a follower of their doctrine?