Harry

All of the “old uns” mentioned in this thread who have done well for us have all been whilst we were in League 1. I can’t recall many (if any) successes whilst in the championship. That’s not to say you can’t do it successfully, but when it comes to doing it at Champ level, you have to get it very very right. We all know that L1 to Champ is a big step and it’s a very different game. “Old uns” have to be “very good old uns” at this level.

I’m confused. You started the thread. The first 2 replies slagged you off. I then backed you up. And now you’re trying to argue with me. Most unusual behaviour to an ally.

Pring came from my group. We watched him dozens of times for Cheltenham youth. Cundy was first tracked when on loan at Gloucester.

? Nah. I’m not hankering after a job or any involvement. I just want them to employ some competence in the recruitment team!!

All I’ll say on Mings is that Russell Osman had the early heads-up on him as his son was playing in the same team. So I don’t think City was ever an option once Ipswich were involved (via Osman), as they were a bigger team back then.

My involvement isn’t really relevant for me to have the opinion I hold but since you ask, I was involved under Sod & Burt and then Cotterill & Burt to the extent that I’d have dialogue with sod or Burt on a pretty much weekly basis. Our conversations and recommendations led to the signings of Flint, Pack, Ayling, Freeman. I’m no longer involved due to a young family and no longer having the time to travel the country watching games. I still get about when I can but I no longer consult. I do however still have many contacts from the network of scouts, agents, players, managers I built up back then, so am still well-informed as to some of the ongoings in our recruitment team.

Fair question. I’m not gonna waste 2 hours going through the whole league but let’s take Sheff Utd yesterday. They started 6 players who they’d signed in the last 3 windows. I’m also watching Qpr right now. They’ve started 7 players who they’d signed in the last 3 windows. Ours yesterday was 1.

The list of 12 was, in chronological order: Tanner, Atkinson, King, James, Simpson, Brunt, Martin, J Williams, Wells, Rodri, A Williams, Nagy. Dave kindly added Mariappa & Lansbury. Only 1 of those last 14 permanent signings started yesterday. That’s not a good look.

As I mentioned to you in another thread the other day. I’m not expecting much in Jan. we don’t have much money to play with and so unless we get some relatively cheap loans in we’ll have to wait til summer to hunt for freebies.

Just looked at Pearson’s 5 signings. Simpson, James, King, Atkinson, Tanner. 20 games gone. 100 possible starting places. They’ve started 50. That’s a 50% strike rate from the latest crop. I’m gonna stop now - it’s gets ever more depressing!!

Jeez!! I missed those 2. Make that 1 out of 14!! It gets worse.

I can’t stress this enough. ONE OF OUR LAST TWELVE!! We’ve signed 12 players and only 1 was able/capable/required to play. I’m absolutely shocked. And quite frankly, ******* livid with that!!

I was having a little bit of a wonder about our starting line up yesterday and how it was put together. I found it quite interesting that to get to the 8 non-academy players we started, you have to go back 50 transfers. So that’s 50 signings we’ve made, that resulted in the 8 players being fielded yesterday. That’s over 10 transfer windows - the earliest being O’Dowda in July 16. We can shorten this period down by stating that only 1 of our last 12 signings started. Read that again. ONE OF OUR LAST TWELVE SIGNINGS!! So, whilst we all knew there was a stockpiling of players under MA & LJ, since LJ left, things haven’t got any better. I keep banging on about it, I know some will be bored of me saying it, but our recruitment over the last 4 years has been absolutely shocking. And it hasn’t improved over the last 18 months either. We need to sort out the recruitment ASAP. We still don’t have a Head of Recruitment. We still don’t have a Chief Scout. We still rely upon an in house database that doesn’t send a scout to watch Cheltenham v Exeter under 18’s last Saturday morning, a database that won’t have a damn clue about Felix Miles or Will Armitage or Alex Hartridge, just like it didn’t have a clue in the past about the likes of Grimes, Watkins, Jay, Key or the likes of Twine, hell let’s even go back further and say Bowen when at Hereford. We seem to have once again abandoned the idea that there are potentially good youngsters on our doorstep, and we aren’t thinking about these for the future. Unless we’ve got 15 absolute diamonds in our youth set up, I sincerely worry about the next few years with the lack of knowledge of local/south west youngsters.

The point was simply that the poster thought Hegeler was a good player, but the evidence of all of his games here, plus his subsequent early retirement, suggests not.

Perhaps his salary should be revised downwards to the levels expected of a general gee-upper & fluffer then?

Yep, I know. He retired. At the age of 30. Not exactly someone who had the hunger to continue to forge himself a career - which is exactly my point, why would Phil “remain convinced” he was a good footballer, when Hegeler himself wasn’t convinced enough to continue. I just thought it was a poor example from Phil.

I assume you refer to Jens Hegeler. He left us in December 2018 and hasn’t played a single minute of football since.

I wouldn’t say Teflon. I’ve been quite clear that the recruitment dept are shyte and Pearson was likely in a tough position where he had to rely upon his own contacts - ala Mcinnes. I’ve levelled plenty of criticism at Nige, so he is far from Teflon in my eyes. But the 3 Ex-Leics signings are clearly a result of a poor recruitment team providing viable alternatives.

Yep. O’Dowda’s decision to stay outside was the final error in a catalogue. Every single player made an error on that goal. Each one just compounded the next. It’s the only goal we’ve conceded this year where I couldn’t pin the fault on a single player - it was a collective mess.

I think it’s a temporary tactic, based purely off the fact that we have a bunch of players who aren’t suited to possession football. We have a total mismatch of a squad and I guess he’s just thinking that our best opportunity is to let the other team have the ball, play long, play for set pieces. It’s horrible. But we haven’t got players who can pass and move.

I agree that he’s the only one of that type. But he’s in there to win aerial duels, not for his on the floor hold up play - we don’t play that way.

I refer you to my immediate analysis on the match day thread, straight after the goal. See below. It was one of the worst goals I’ve seen us concede. There was pretty much an error from every single player. Just before the goal, Kalas & Baker got switched and had plenty of time to re-set but didn’t. Hence Baker was central and Kalas on the left. Weimann then passes the ball way too late, causing a completely unnecessary offside. They then get forward and Scott only narrowly cuts out a pass that would’ve seen his man in behind him for the 3rd time this half. Vyner had, for some reason, come flying out to the midfield. Bakinson kinda just watches. Massengo makes no effort to cover in behind Bakinson. Kalas naturally comes across because he’s more familiar with being the central CB (see earlier comment where the whole shape first began to break down!). And finally, why the hell was Cod on the OUTSIDE of the man at the far post. He should be inside, goal side, and if he is, the gap between him and Kalas is narrower and he might have a chance of getting a block on the shot. Dreadful goal from the moment Weimann was breaking forward.

As per another thread. I wonder if Simpson is actually one of these players who is not ‘on the bus’??

This is something I’ve been wondering too. Whilst Simpson is clearly one of Pearson’s signings, has something happened whereby Simpson is actually now one of the ones who Nige is calling out?? Seems odd to me that he doesn’t play and we end up playing a teenager out of position. I can only assume that Simpson is one of those players that Nige keeps calling out as not ‘on the bus’.

I haven’t picked holes in your post - you’ll find I’ve actually backed you up on this one. Yes, the fault for our poor recruitment lies with the poor recruitment team. If they haven’t go a clue (which they haven’t), then I don’t blame Pearson for having to go with someone he already knows. He shouldn’t have signed him. I 100% disagree with the signing. But when the recruitment team is shyte, the manager has to rely on his own personal contacts - see McInnes.