saw bournemouth play a few times last year and preferred the other two central midfielders bartley and robinson, so was under-whelmed with the hollands signing. completely wrong... such a class player, while the other two sit on the benches at burnley and huddersfield respectively
Which is why we say, "trust in SCP".
;o)
I might get a t shirt saying 'Leave it to Chris'
Cuts out all the hand ringing and anxiousness that has gone with this club in recent years.
I honestly thought we'd made some really good signings - we were getting players our rivals wanted (Green + Wiggins esp). Morrison hads clearly had a poor season at SW, but obviously SCP knew him and after the previous season signing Van Morrison to play CB would have felt like an improvement. So I tended to view pretty much all the signings as 'useful' or 'could be good' at the very least.
I guess I wasn't convinced by Sullivan, but am still not. The ones who turned out better than expected, for me, were Kermo (obviously) and Hughes. I had no 'expectations' of Pritch but am generally always happy to give a promising non-leaguer a chance - ever since the Paddy Powell signing...
There were very few signings I was underwhelmed with, most of the people we signed seemed to be highly ranked, bearing in mind our status in Div 3, and at this level the players you sign tend not to be household names, so come with less baggage. I wasn't convinced Euell would make much of an impact at the time, and he did indeed play only a small part in our success. I agree with comments above, in that I've been mildly disappointed with Stephens and Green,
Think it's a bit harsh on Stephens & green. They haven't played badly at all and would have shone the season before. Just that the bar has been raised fairly high this season. I personally still have high hopes for them both, esp Stephens................
Stephens started the season very well then got injured and that affected him but I think initially, he was the player most were raving about. Can see how he could become an excelent player for us. I think Green is also a work in progress- Powell has hinted as such - he is used to being a star in a D&R side, and has to learn new elements to his game which is expected by Sir Chris. I think we will see a better Green next season. I'm not disapointed with either as I think they will both prove to be great assets for us.
Yes I was going to post the same, he looked nervous and made a few errors initially, but........ ;o)
Also I am still not convinced by Stephens, mainly based on consistency, I do hope that I will change my mind because I think he will get more time in the Championship.
Clarke massively under-impressed and that has not changed one iota.
I had doubts about Hughes, still have, as I think he is too one dimensional but does an ok job.
The others I had no doubts about as I had either seen them play and they had impressed (Wiggins, Hollands, Taylor, Stephens, Green etc) or CP had played with them and so I was willing to trust his judgement (Morrison & Yann).
Yann............ just thought he was another journeyman. Taylor......Yea he was alright for Exeter when we played them but we was awful at the time. Bradley Pritchard..............Who is this guy? Michael Morrison...............Well if Wednesday don't want him why we going for him. Andy Hughes..............How old is he now, and Scunny have just outed him. Ben Hammer................Signing a third choice keeper?
Goes to show what i know about football, so i will just stick to my day job.
Yann for me based entirely on that infamous youtube clip of his play-off pen, saw we had signed on him and I was deeply underwhelmed, has been nothing short of a revelation and on course to be my favourite player ever.
I think I fall into the category of not knowing them and therefore not having any expectations.
Yann wasn't pre-season of course the idea of signing an out-of-contract player mid-season didn't overwhelm me. What do I know? I still can't believe Leicester let him go.
Yann- poor goal recprd and THAT pen, took very little time to prove his doubters wrong Taylor- thought he'd struggle with pace and his injury record. Again, didn't take long to show his class
Thought Pritchards would be at best a bit part player, as said above the Reading game showed he is no Dorain Smith.
Has to be Yann. I was embarrassed for him when I saw him take THE penalty. I was laughing when I heard the Dave Henson song about THE penalty. I was horrified when we signed him. . .
I voted him my Player of the Year & actually waited around after Saturday to get a photo with him & his medal!!
I'm surprised so many people were underwhelmed by Taylor. I was delighted when we signed him, as I think we only had Doc and maybe Morrison at that point. It was clear we weren't going to get Magnus and I didn't really think about it much beyond the fact we'd got a proven L1 defender in on a free. Still, he performed far beyond the level I thought he would, and for such a consistent period of time as well.
I was pleased with all of our signings. I'm not that I'm pretending I knew the first thing about any of them other than the fact that they all came in early and were obviously the first choices CP & Co. That was good enough for me.
He was twice POTY at Exeter - you can't fool the watching public. I never doubted he would be a useful addition.
at the end of last season my Dad said that if there was one player from League One we needed to sign it was Matt Taylor from Exeter. He was made up when I rung him during the summer to say we had signed him. The rest is history.
I knew very little about any of them, but was happy we were rebuilding from scratch after the miseries of the second half of 2010/11. I was worried that so many players might take so long to gel.
Also... is it possible to add Alex Dyer? Not a player but when appointed CP's assistant I was unsure to say the least. Seems to be a winning formula though!
Think Stephens and green have done well this season , both had injury problems and illness, green is top of the assists this season , scored some vital goals as has Stephens , think both are better playing a high tempo passing game , ball to feet . The stick these players take is terrible give them a chance both could end up being prem players .
Also... is it possible to add Alex Dyer? Not a player but when appointed CP's assistant I was unsure to say the least. Seems to be a winning formula though!
That's a great shout! I was completely underwhelmed, Powell bringing in one of his mates, who wasn't that good for us us a player, when he should have brought in someone experienced (like Palace brought in Lennie to assist Freedman). He probably did ok though :-)
Think Stephens and green have done well this season , both had injury problems and illness, green is top of the assists this season , scored some vital goals as has Stephens , think both are better playing a high tempo passing game , ball to feet . The stick these players take is terrible give them a chance both could end up being prem players .
Heartfelt - are you speaking from experience there, @Charltonoldboy? Agree with the sentiment, though - if Green and Stephens are bing singled out for not reaching the heights, we are in a pretty good position!!
In recent seasons Deon Burton, who arrived as the makeweight in the deal to sell Varney IIRC. he turned out to be a much better goalscorer and player.
This season - no one under-impressed me, Pritchard I thought would be a squad player who'd make a few starts here and there and sit on the bench/in the stands.
Green and Stephens have under-achieved, but both are good players and have the luxury of playing in a good team. I've no doubt if we were losing every other week that they would have been Charltonised.
Comments
Cuts out all the hand ringing and anxiousness that has gone with this club in recent years.
I guess I wasn't convinced by Sullivan, but am still not. The ones who turned out better than expected, for me, were Kermo (obviously) and Hughes. I had no 'expectations' of Pritch but am generally always happy to give a promising non-leaguer a chance - ever since the Paddy Powell signing...
I wasn't convinced Euell would make much of an impact at the time, and he did indeed play only a small part in our success.
I agree with comments above, in that I've been mildly disappointed with Stephens and Green,
Think it's a bit harsh on Stephens & green. They haven't played badly at all and would have shone the season before. Just that the bar has been raised fairly high this season. I personally still have high hopes for them both, esp Stephens................
Also I am still not convinced by Stephens, mainly based on consistency, I do hope that I will change my mind because I think he will get more time in the Championship.
I had doubts about Hughes, still have, as I think he is too one dimensional but does an ok job.
The others I had no doubts about as I had either seen them play and they had impressed (Wiggins, Hollands, Taylor, Stephens, Green etc) or CP had played with them and so I was willing to trust his judgement (Morrison & Yann).
Ironically the signing I was most excited about was Alonso .
Taylor......Yea he was alright for Exeter when we played them but we was awful at the time.
Bradley Pritchard..............Who is this guy?
Michael Morrison...............Well if Wednesday don't want him why we going for him.
Andy Hughes..............How old is he now, and Scunny have just outed him.
Ben Hammer................Signing a third choice keeper?
Goes to show what i know about football, so i will just stick to my day job.
Yann wasn't pre-season of course the idea of signing an out-of-contract player mid-season didn't overwhelm me. What do I know? I still can't believe Leicester let him go.
Taylor- thought he'd struggle with pace and his injury record. Again, didn't take long to show his class
Thought Pritchards would be at best a bit part player, as said above the Reading game showed he is no Dorain Smith.
I voted him my Player of the Year & actually waited around after Saturday to get a photo with him & his medal!!
I never doubted he would be a useful addition.
This season - no one under-impressed me, Pritchard I thought would be a squad player who'd make a few starts here and there and sit on the bench/in the stands.
Green and Stephens have under-achieved, but both are good players and have the luxury of playing in a good team. I've no doubt if we were losing every other week that they would have been Charltonised.