Now i know i've said this before and i know i'll probably get stick for it but i can't remember us bringing in too many real 'finds' in the last few years. I know it's the manager's call but surely the scouts have some accountability. If you were asked to assemble a collection of forwards, admittedly for not a lot of money, do you think you could find better than we currently have?
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Next question please.
I doubt that we could've got much better within our budget
Does he stand there bitching about it?
Or does he get on with his job?
Dailly, Doherty, Kyel Reid, Johnnie Jackson, Lee Martin.....
Just look at the players we have got together in ridiculously tough economic times. We are two points off the top of the table yet all I am seeing is negativity on here and frankly I am finding it more than a little bit tedious.
The idea of being a supporter is that we support the team. YES we haven't fired properly yet but look how many new faces we have. Saturday was a prime example of Benson and Abbott not knowing each others games well enough as they made similar runs and weren't linking up well - once they have more games together I am sure they will score goals together. They are proven goalscorers.
How many other clubs in this division have the playing options we have? I can assure you it is not many.
Not sure about that personally but everybody knows about him - i'm talking about unearthing players - that is a scouts job isn't it? Can't think who we've unearthed in the last 4 years. We get Chris Dickson, Millwall unearth Morrison - could be luck - just raising it as a discussion point.
not even really sure anyone questioned those signings when they were made, Mcleod was banging goals in for fun (maybe his feee was too high but that wasn't his fault) and Fleetwood was a gamble (cheap one) that didn't pay off - if you look at Morrison then yes sometimes they clearly do pay off.
Dickson had the raw materials to be a great striker, not Chapple's fault that either down to the player's attitude or Charlton's coaching methods he didn't develop after we signed him.
but it's not about looking at what we already know is out there, it's finding that gem that non-one else has yet spotted. In that reagrd he hasn't unearthed anything.
Point taken - was referring to Swisdom's - next question and tedious comments.
A year ago no one on here would have come up with Kyel Reid as a potential left winger for us. He'd have been watched either for Sheff Utd and/or West Ham in friendlies, first team or reserve games at some point by someone at the club. That's scouting isn't it?
I wouldn't go as far as saying Millwall unearthed Morison, anyone with any kind of knowledge of non league football had heard of him as he was amongst the top conference scorers for 2-3 years at Stevenage. Millwall were just prepared to take a gamble.
I would think Parky has a "type" of player and Chapple looks at people who fit in
Since we'll never know what his advice may have been, what other players he may have recommended that weren't pursued and who that did sign was originally recommended by someone else, I don't know how we can have a valid opinion on his performance.
Don't think it is fair to evaluate based on "unearthing players" over the last couple of seasons. Because I lack an active and full social life, we spend a ridiculous amount of wasted time trying to find players on lower division sides that seem like they will be moving onwards and upwards in their careers and then sponsor the player. We sponsored Andrew Halliday at Livingston last season based on his consistently promising play the season prior. When Halliday was invited to Charlton, we were excited about having a genuine prospect in the squad -- but, of course, Charlton cannot afford such luxuries now and the possibilities with Halliday were outstripped by the need to have players that can contribute immediately.
I can't say that I agree with any assessment that Halliday had nothing substantive to offer immediately -- he's already started a game for Middlesborough in Championship and come on as a sub twice so far this season (once for Nicky Bailey) -- but I can at least understand that the club is not in the business of unearthing unpolished gems at the moment, but is instead recruiting players with proven track records (number 2 goalkeepers excluded).
Never stopped us having one previously.
That's a hell of a job then. No way of measuring performance.
Is it like that throughout the Club?
I don't want to be unkind, but there is the example of Chris Smalling. That may be an isolated instance and an extreme one at that, but Chapple dithered on that decision and we were gazumped by Fulham.
The real measure of performance should be aimed at the collective scouting/management team, not just at Phil Chapple. McLeod was an obvious mistake (to many of us with coaching qualifications, and we said so at the time of signing). Conversely we have done well recently with Reid and Martin.
Overall, the scouting team will get some right and some wrong, but I find it disappointing that we haven't picked up too many really promising younger players or harvested the lower European leagues (Scandinavia especially) for low cost potential gems. What about our tie-in with various clubs worldwide? Finally, TelinOz will point out the promise of several players from his neck of the woods.
Against all that, it's hard to claim that we have done particularly well.
Jani Tanska, Martin Christensen, Mads Nielsen, Mikkel Rygaard Jensen, Rurik Gislason, think it was 5 Ivory Coast players, Szabolcs Kemenes, maybe some more I've forgotten.
Some were signed when Curbs were here, some since.
Does it show how hard it is to find players with real potential and help them reach it, or is it a failure of our scouting and then coaching/management? Would be interesting to compare to other clubs who have signed similar numbers. The top clubs sign plenty of foreign youngsters but plenty don't make it even at a smaller Prem club.
The key phrase in Airman's statement is "I don't know how WE (my emphasis) can have a valid opinion.."
Airman has not said that there is no way to measure performance or that his performance isn't indeed measured only that as WE FANS (my emphasis again) don't have all the facts and figures, as listed in his post, we don't have the data to make an informed judgement.
We made have made an offer but the player preferred Fulham to us. We just don't know.
We can't, but one thing we can say for sure is that he hasn't been an outstanding success. It's like people who used to moan about Mervin Day. Unless you are on the training ground etc how would you know but i'm just offering up the opinion that he has been a constant over a period where, regardless of the manager, we haven't made many good signings and we haven't picked up any Morrison's or Charlie Austins so it's a reasonable discussion point in my opinion. What surprises me more is thgat with Kinsella there how do we manage to reach a point where we don't have a single proper midfield general and /or playmaker in the club but we have 5 centre halves and at least 3 others who could also play there.