Nathan Baker

[PHILINFRANCE]

1 minute ago, JonDolman said:

I didn't want us to re-sign Baker so I'm not using hindsight

For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t have been too disappointed had NB left, subject to finding a comparable/better replacement.

Therein, however, lies the conundrum for, despite his (alleged) propensity to injury and accompanying absences - check the data - Nathan Baker is a pretty accomplished centre back, especially at our level.

I am not sure who might have been available for the price.

[GrahamC]

20 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I didn't want us to re-sign Baker so I'm not using hindsight

Not quite my recollection of how it went:

Pretty sure that you posted if Pearson wanted to re-sign him you were ok with it.

[Harry]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Who?

I think Nige will now know whether recruitment is up to scratch or not.  We will find out in January.

This worries me. Nige hasn’t made any changes to the recruitment team. I’m convinced he wanted to - hence the links in the summer to Walsh & McKenzie. 
Besides, I can’t see us doing much business in January. We don’t have much cash to play with and there are no free transfers available. 
Unless we play the loan market(which we haven’t seemed keen on), I don’t really expect too much. We’re more likely to wait til summer and try the free agency market instead. 
 

As for the ‘who’. As you know, we’ve mentioned the likes of Ostigard, Ballard, McGuiness, Knight, Sanderson before. Add in Bernard, Pearson, Burke, Connolly. Those are just some of the ones who arrived at champ clubs in the summer, who appear to be doing decent enough jobs (and would most likely all be on a lower wage than Baker). 
Do you know what. I’d even rather have kept Taylor Moore and used the money wasted on Baker to strengthen another position (ie, Twine, Jay, Kee, Sheaf, Giles, Crooks etc). 
 

There was me thinking, which they promised, that we were gonna have to be “clever” in the summer market. 
Useless recruitment continues………….

 

Edit - I’ll even add in Matty Pollock. Watford managed to pick him up for £250k in the summer and he’s been excellent at the back for Cheltenham this season. Did our recruitment team even have a clue who he was?? Highly doubtful. 
Cheltenham 18’s v Exeter 18’s yesterday morning. Did we have a City scout present? Did we f….k! 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Harry

[Davefevs]

28 minutes ago, Harry said:

This worries me. Nige hasn’t made any changes to the recruitment team. I’m convinced he wanted to - hence the links in the summer to Walsh & McKenzie. 
Besides, I can’t see us doing much business in January. We don’t have much cash to play with and there are no free transfers available. 
Unless we play the loan market(which we haven’t seemed keen on), I don’t really expect too much. We’re more likely to wait til summer and try the free agency market instead. 
 

As for the ‘who’. As you know, we’ve mentioned the likes of Ostigard, Ballard, McGuiness, Knight, Sanderson before. Add in Bernard, Pearson, Burke, Connolly. Those are just some of the ones who arrived at champ clubs in the summer, who appear to be doing decent enough jobs (and would most likely all be on a lower wage than Baker). 
Do you know what. I’d even rather have kept Taylor Moore and used the money wasted on Baker to strengthen another position (ie, Twine, Jay, Kee, Sheaf, Giles, Crooks etc). 
 

There was me thinking, which they promised, that we were gonna have to be “clever” in the summer market. 
Useless recruitment continues………….

If as Gould / Pearson says we need to pull forward summer recruitment we will get a good look in January to see if it is performing or not.

There might be some frees / nominal fees floating around if your finger is on the pulse.

Edited November 28, 2021 by Davefevs

[Harry]

21 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

If as Gould / Pearson says we need to pull forward summer recruitment we will get a good look in January to see if it is performing or not.

There might be some frees / nominal fees floating around if your finger is on the pulse.

I’m not sure our recruitment team have a finger, let alone a pulse. 

[wendyredredrobin]

2 hours ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

Hindsight is a wonderful ability.

Not so many years ago, we had an absolutely fantastic (in my opinion) centre back playing for us on loan.

He was a young man, far away from home, lonely, bored and, apparently, with no helpful, comforting hand given to him by the club, was led astray.

I wonder whether, if we had made just a little more effort at the time, we might have a top class player in our team, a player in his peak playing years, one Stephen Caulker.

Caulker was class, I admit but he had his demons long before they were ever exposed or admitted to.

When he played for us, I was convinced that he had the potential to captain England one day.  Whether a comforting hand would have been enough, I'm not sure, but his parent club had seen his potential and and would probably not have been willing to let him go.

[City_USA]

29 minutes ago, Tafkarmlf said:

Regarding Bakes, this his 2nd/3rd concussion in short succession? Im sure someone has the stats

With people becoming more aware of CTE etc regarding multiple head injuries over a short span of time, could we be looking a 'shock' retirement on the cards? 

I wouldn't be surprised TBH. And if this is his 3rd in short succession (which it appears to be) then as much as it would hurt us as a team , I hope that he would seriously consider it for his own selfishness. Brain damage is a terrible condition to live with. Quality of life is way more important than football or money. I wish more fans would think of this before they give  any player a hard time for being a "sick note"