Player Recruitment

[extonsred]

Should we fail to get promoted it is in all likeihood that 3/ 4 key players will be on their way out.

My concerns, based on recent acquisitions, are that our recruitment policy is severely in need of upgrading / shake up. Over the last couple of years our purchases and loans have shown some very expensive signings and loans proudly presented by the club have either not been anywhere good enough or have not fitted into the club for whatever reason. Replacing those that may leave is going to require some very astute business to keep us developing and moving forward. What is needed to change.....??

 

[BCFC_Dan]

I really don't see this.

I think the recruitment has been excellent. We all know we can't compete for the established Championship players that the likes of Villa and Derby go for. We can't match their wages. So we have to look for value elsewhere and that means gambling somewhat.

Someone like Engvall might look like an expensive flop but I wouldn't be surprised if in total he costs less over the duration of his contract than someone like Cameron Jerome (5 starts, 1 goal) at Derby.

Most of our recruitment has been for the future. Most of the players who were new last season had little impact then, but plenty this year (Brownhill, Paterson, O'Dowda).

The known Championship players that we have signed have generally been good (Baker, Wright)

A couple of senior signings haven't had the impact we might have hoped for on the pitch (O'Neill, Hegeler) but we don't know what they're like behind the scenes.

Our January signings were mainly gambles. Promotion wasn't in the plan for this season and we don't have the money to throw at the high profile signings that some think would have guaranteed promotion. Walsh is one for the future whilst Kent and Diony are both top class players with inconsistent form or confidence issues. Neither has succeeded but neither will have cost much and both could have been very effective had they fulfilled their potential.

I also don't think we're at that much risk of players leaving. Everyone is under contract and we're clearly building something.

[LondonBristolian]

I have no idea how one gets a statistical measure of these things but I'm sceptical as to whether we have a worse hit rate than anyone else, and certainly nowhere near as bad as clubs like Sunderland or Birmingham who have spent a small fortune in order to battle relegation.

This season our big investment was Diedhiou, who I think is - whilst not quite as effective as Kodjia or Abraham - a solidly good signing who brings something to this team. Baker has been a great signing, Pisano was a freebie who has contributed, Steele did what he needed to. Eliasson and Walsh I think we need to judge in a year's time.  Kent, Woodrow, Leko and Diony have been poor loan signings for sure - although not necessarily costly ones. 

Every team is going to bring in players that do not work out. I don't really see any reason to think we do that on a much more regular basis than anyone else in the division. We need to improve on our loans next year.

In actual fact, I think the main criticism I have of our transfer policy is not who we signed but who we didn't. We have needed another quality central midfielder for two years and we needed a right back in January. But I don't know who we went for or what was available.