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Is it worth raiding League One for it's assets?


reddogkev

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First up, apologies, I don't know enough of the individual talent in League One to suggest names, as I haven't read any match reports or seen any highlights of their season - but the talent must be there and on many a teams' radar.

I reckon we should go shopping in the league to snap up the main talent (promoted teams aside, unless of course they are still tempted by City).  Surely it's less of a risk than trying to bring in European players who may flop or disappear down the back of our couch for several months.  If they are given the right direction / coaching they will quickly to adapt to Championship games, I don't feel the step up in class should be too high.

Surely this should be one of the main facets of our recruitment strategy.  How many players could we target?  Unless my memory has failed me, I don't recall us doing this last summer, with the possible exception of De Girolomo from Sheff Utd, and the example of O'Dowda from League Two - I know we brought in Taylor the previous season, but his career with us has been hampered by injuries.

Surely League One is a talent pool we should be mining for as much talent as possible!  Time to ditch our rubbish loans, which has only proven a success with Tammy and Tomlin.

 

 

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Players that are achieving Young Player of the Year titles in their respective clubs in league 1 should be the most obvious warning sign that they are ready or have the potential at least to step up to championship level. 

For example it has been mentioned frequently that Dean Henderson, on loan at Shrewsbury from Man Utd is out of contract in the summer. Being part of a playoff final Shrewsbury team with still the possibility of promotion, also their Young Player of the Year, added to the problems we have at goalkeeper (Fielding great shot stopper but doesn't have enough about him to be a first choice championship keeper) you would have to question the board if such an opportunity was presented and we were not at least offering a contract. 

The thing about Taylor and De Giralomo is that they would have cost relatively little and we could afford for them to be flops (Taylor not being one) and now we can ship them out, and all that is balanced out by O'Dowda proving to be a great success and future talent, even if he did cost circa 1M. However imagine we sign a Vydra for example, 40k of wages on a 3-4 year contract meaning if he flops we cannot get rid of him. 

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This model has worked exceptionally well for the likes of Brentford and Preston. I'd rather sign hungry players with something to prove than mediocre Championship reserve/squad players looking for another payday. The route the club went down previously when we signed the likes of Haynes, Nyatanga and Steven Davies from other similar Championship clubs was distinctly uninspiring and ultimately unsuccessful, as was, it  has to be said, the signing of  SPL players like Foster, Clarkson and Kelly. I'm not enamoured at the prospect of signing e.g. Marley Watkins. I don't see signing a player with his recent form or at his age to be a sign of progression.

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not for me at the moment, we've got plenty of decent up and coming players now, what we need is real championship experience and players who will challenge those already at the club,

We had big numbers in squad size but lacked the required quality once we got stung with a few injuries  which saw us drop like a stone,

Obviously i'm not against signing them in principle 

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If we're looking to raid League One, we want to take a look at Shrewsbury Town's Jon Nolan. He is the player who makes their side tick and could easily play in the Championship.

And dare I say it, Paul Hurst is a very impressive up-and-coming manager...

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30 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

It's a good philosophy in theory but these clubs aren't stupid. Maynard for £2.5m 10 years ago would be £6-9m in today's market.

The best players from L1 will cost us 7 figures now if they're under contract.

Yep, agree they'll cost 7 figures, but I can't see the most talented League One players costing much more than £1.8 / £2million - unless there's recent data that shows otherwise.

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1 minute ago, reddogkev said:

Yep, agree they'll cost 7 figures, but I can't see the most talented League One players costing much more than £1.8 / £2million - unless there's recent data that shows otherwise.

Peterborough wanted £4/5m for Marriott

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Just now, reddogkev said:

Cheers, I did wonder if I had the right transfer window for O'Dowda!

Was blooded in the same season with Brownhill, I don't mind the idea behind taking the best of the leagues below us if they can improve to the championship standard, but it's a case of who can be ready to perform within day 18 months of purchase.

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1 minute ago, hodge said:

Peterborough wanted £4/5m for Marriott

Christ, now I know I'm out of the loop, never even heard of Marriott!  To think there was time when I knew almost every player in the top leagues around Europe!

The time before I had kids!

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1 minute ago, reddogkev said:

Christ, now I know I'm out of the loop, never even heard of Marriott!  To think there was time when I knew almost every player in the top leagues around Europe!

The time before I had kids!

27 goals and 5 assists in league 1, would be a good player to have but at that cost? Expensive if he can't make the step up. 

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43 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

It's a good philosophy in theory but these clubs aren't stupid. Maynard for £2.5m 10 years ago would be £6-9m in today's market.

The best players from L1 will cost us 7 figures now if they're under contract.

That's fine. I doubt Brentford regret signing the likes of Gray (L2), Woods, Hogan, Watkins (L2), Henry etc on fees that look a bargain now.

Signing players from L1/L2 would seem to be in-keeping with our recruitment strategy of being willing to pay good transfer fees but limited wages.

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1 minute ago, hodge said:

27 goals and 5 assists in league 1, would be a good player to have but at that cost? Expensive if he can't make the step up. 

Those stats sound very impressive, I'm going to spend a few minutes checking him out now - love reading about talent that I've never heard of before!

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30 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

not for me at the moment, we've got plenty of decent up and coming players now, what we need is real championship experience and players who will challenge those already at the club,

We had big numbers in squad size but lacked the required quality once we got stung with a few injuries  which saw us drop like a stone,

Obviously i'm not against signing them in principle 

You make good points, and I appreciate in the real world this would be quite difficult to arrange, but I'd gladly swap Hegeler, Elliason, Djuric, Engval for a similar vein of Quality League One players, with the onus on these incoming players to push hard for the first team.

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6 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

That's fine. I doubt Brentford regret signing the likes of Gray (L2), Woods, Hogan, Watkins (L2), Henry etc on fees that look a bargain now.

Signing players from L1/L2 would seem to be in-keeping with our recruitment strategy of being willing to pay good transfer fees but limited wages.

I think O'Dowda is a perfect example £1.6m, probably not huge wages and if he can get back to how he was playing pre injury we'd probably end up selling for big profit. 

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37 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

not for me at the moment, we've got plenty of decent up and coming players now, what we need is real championship experience and players who will challenge those already at the club,

We had big numbers in squad size but lacked the required quality once we got stung with a few injuries  which saw us drop like a stone,

Obviously i'm not against signing them in principle 

I don't buy the championship experience angle personally, we just need to be better with our recruitment and find those with championship quality for the now rather than future. Plenty of names listed in the thread of players who step up straight away even given the chance.

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Every EFL across the leagues are very aware of their 'assets'. Goalscorers are particularly attractive to bigger clubs as are impressive midfielders.

The knack is to spot and recruit those types of players before they become noticed. Not easy to do although City did manage to get CoD from Oxford.

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1 hour ago, hodge said:

Peterborough wanted £4/5m for Marriott

Peterborough are known to put larger numbers above their star players heads, but let's not forget it's a sellers market and someone will pay it. They also have a knack for buying cheap and selling at decent profits as well.

Not saying every player they have is the next big thing, but it's a sound strategy to be fair, and one I think we're trying to put in place ourselves. Just that the coaching and off field aspect at our club is only just "catching up".

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Whether we look at L1/L2 will be interesting but I have a sneaky suspicion that we won’t see many more punts from foreign fields. 

Its almost like the Styvar situation, when the club came out and said they wouldn’t be looking abroad again. I’ve got a feeling that in their end of season recruitment review, they’ll surely look at the past 2 years and come to the conclusion that we need to stop the foreign failings. If the club isn’t set up to receive and integrate these players, nor be able to suitably scout and understand who they are and what they are capable of (7-a-side ffs!), then I think we might take a re-boot on the foreign recruitment. 

I’d stick my neck out and say that we’re more likely to see some lower league youngsters this summer than we are some foreign unknowns. 

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2 hours ago, reddogkev said:

First up, apologies, I don't know enough of the individual talent in League One to suggest names, as I haven't read any match reports or seen any highlights of their season - but the talent must be there and on many a teams' radar.

I reckon we should go shopping in the league to snap up the main talent (promoted teams aside, unless of course they are still tempted by City).  Surely it's less of a risk than trying to bring in European players who may flop or disappear down the back of our couch for several months.  If they are given the right direction / coaching they will quickly to adapt to Championship games, I don't feel the step up in class should be too high.

Surely this should be one of the main facets of our recruitment strategy.  How many players could we target?  Unless my memory has failed me, I don't recall us doing this last summer, with the possible exception of De Girolomo from Sheff Utd, and the example of O'Dowda from League Two - I know we brought in Taylor the previous season, but his career with us has been hampered by injuries.

Surely League One is a talent pool we should be mining for as much talent as possible!  Time to ditch our rubbish loans, which has only proven a success with Tammy and Tomlin.

 

 

:laugh: - didn't John Ward try that after promotion? He brought in Akinibiyi, Hutchings and Dyche who we're all their respective player of the years (I think). Unfortunately we also bought Tony Thorpe which left us with no more money to strengthen the parts of the team.

Conversely - we brought in Luke Freeman and Jet, and was told by most fans that we pretty much bought the league (which we didn't when you looked at net expenditure)

The above two are examples where it can and can't work by hoovering up the best talent from lower leagues.

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5 minutes ago, Harry said:

Whether we look at L1/L2 will be interesting but I have a sneaky suspicion that we won’t see many more punts from foreign fields. 

Its almost like the Styvar situation, when the club came out and said they wouldn’t be looking abroad again. I’ve got a feeling that in their end of season recruitment review, they’ll surely look at the past 2 years and come to the conclusion that we need to stop the foreign failings. If the club isn’t set up to receive and integrate these players, nor be able to suitably scout and understand who they are and what they are capable of (7-a-side ffs!), then I think we might take a re-boot on the foreign recruitment. 

I’d stick my neck out and say that we’re more likely to see some lower league youngsters this summer than we are some foreign unknowns. 

Some years after the Styver debacle, I got that the sense that Steve Cotterill didn't have any faith in our overseas scouting/recruitment.  Hence players like Freeman and Ayling arriving from clubs like Stevenage and Yeovil.  The one obvious exception was Jonathan Kodjia but from interviews at the time, it seemed that Cotterill had very little say in his transfer.  Maybe a consequence of the club not signing his striker targets (Andre Gray and Dwight Gayle).

There isn't a problem with overseas players per se but we have clearly underestimated the ability of players to adapt to the Championship and look anything more than ordinary.  France seems to be providing us with better potential than Sweden at present.

One word of caution about League 1 young players of the year.  We did sign one of the Championship's young players of the year (2016/17):
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/academy/261961-ryan-kent-named-barnsley-s-young-player-of-the-year

In the end, it doesn't matter where the player comes from.  If the scouting and selection isn't done properly, they could be teammates with Lionel Messi and still not work out.

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2 hours ago, reddogkev said:

First up, apologies, I don't know enough of the individual talent in League One to suggest names, as I haven't read any match reports or seen any highlights of their season - but the talent must be there and on many a teams' radar.

I reckon we should go shopping in the league to snap up the main talent (promoted teams aside, unless of course they are still tempted by City).  Surely it's less of a risk than trying to bring in European players who may flop or disappear down the back of our couch for several months.  If they are given the right direction / coaching they will quickly to adapt to Championship games, I don't feel the step up in class should be too high.

Surely this should be one of the main facets of our recruitment strategy.  How many players could we target?  Unless my memory has failed me, I don't recall us doing this last summer, with the possible exception of De Girolomo from Sheff Utd, and the example of O'Dowda from League Two - I know we brought in Taylor the previous season, but his career with us has been hampered by injuries.

Surely League One is a talent pool we should be mining for as much talent as possible!  Time to ditch our rubbish loans, which has only proven a success with Tammy and Tomlin.

 

 

Nah.  Keep signing overpriced Swedes and don't play them.  

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I don't think the club will stop buying from the continent. Even the lower leagues in England are expensive. What needs to be done is organising our European scouting network.

There is no doubt some of our transfer dealing have been less successful than other, but that isn't to say Eliasson and Engvall are flops. Gus needs to go on loan to a League 1 side not back to Sweden and if we're not going to play Eliasson then he to should go out to get some experience of the English game. Both these lads have the ability to play at championship level, but they've both come from a less aggressive lower tempo league into one of the toughest in the world.

We need an experienced scouting network abroad with someone who knows both the English  game and what's needed from a foreign import to be successful over here. That said I think from a financial point of view we're in profit from our imports, Kodja was a healthy profit and Fammys value must have almost doubled. Perhaps we can get Jackie to scout Poland and eastern Europe for us.

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