RD signings ordered by debut (therefore doesn't include Anil Koc or others who didn't get any minutes):
1 Yohann Thuram-Ulien - no 2 Astrit Ajdarevic - yes 3 Reza - no 4 Loic Nego - no 5 Piotr Parzyszek - no 6 Marcus Tudgay - no 7 Davide Petrucci - no 8 Stephen Henderson - yes 9 Tal Ben-Haim - yes 10 Andre Bikey-Amougu - no 11 Johann Berg Gudmundson - yes 12 Yoni Buyens - yes 13 Igor Vetokele - no 14 George Tucudean - no 15 Franck Moussa - no 16 Frederic Bulot - yes 17 Francis Coquelin - yes 18 Oguchi Onyewu - no 19 Neil Etheridge - yes 20 Tony Watt - no 21 Marko Dmitrovic - no 22 Milos Veljokic - no 23 Christophe Lepoint - no 24 Roger Johnson - no 25 Chris Eagles - no 26 Alou Diarra - yes 27 Patrick Bauer - yes 28 Ahmed Kashi - no 29 El-Hadji Ba - no 30 Simon Makienok - no 31 Zakarya Bergdich - no 32 Cristian Ceballos - no 33 Naby Sarr - no 34 Conor McAleny - no 35 Ricardo Vaz Te - no 36 Rhys Williams - no 37 Jorge Teixeira - yes 38 Yaya Sanogo - no 39 Marco Motta - yes 40 Rod Fanni - yes 41 Yun Suk-Young - yes 42 Declan Rudd - yes 43 Kevin Foley - no 44 Andrew Crofts - yes 45 Nicky Ajose - no 46 Ricky Holmes - yes 47 Jason Pearce - yes 48 Lee Novak - no 49 Josh Magennis - yes 50 Jordan Botaka - no 51 Adam Chicksen - yes 52 Fredrick Ulvestad - no 53 Lewis Page 54 Nathan Byrne 55 Jay Desilva 56 Jake Forster-Caskey
I've basically gone through it and highlighted who I think had/has been good, taking into account length of time they've been here/played. I left out the last 4 as they are new arrivals.
With players like Vetokele being a no, it doesn't mean I don't think they're a good player, it's more have we had good value over the life of that player's contract. One half a season is nowhere enough. I know he got injured, but if it had been handled the right way then he would be an option for us this season. These are simply my metrics, but in total that's 32 no's and 20 yes'
Perhaps some might disagree with one or two but that's not the point. What becomes strikingly obvious from the list in this format, is the all the "no"s from 28-36 inclusive.
And then all of the "yes"s from 37 on.
What changed?
Quite simply Riga returned and his initial comments featured this understatement "we need to make less mistakes when signing players"
Between Riga and Slade they stabilised things and we now have Robinson making a few changes.
The last six games are unbeaten and we are on two points a game with Magennis back soon. Let's not kid ourselves about how this season might end but it does appear that we have followed Riga's advice. And that's before we assess the final four on the list, three of whom have great promise.
Let's see what the squad looks like in August.
What are you hoping/expecting to be different? Under RD it has always been the same - some good individuals, 1 or 2 players short and a feeling that there are too many young and inexperienced players.
It's always about hope rather than expectation that it'll all come together.
RD signings ordered by debut (therefore doesn't include Anil Koc or others who didn't get any minutes):
1 Yohann Thuram-Ulien - no 2 Astrit Ajdarevic - yes 3 Reza - no 4 Loic Nego - no 5 Piotr Parzyszek - no 6 Marcus Tudgay - no 7 Davide Petrucci - no 8 Stephen Henderson - yes 9 Tal Ben-Haim - yes 10 Andre Bikey-Amougu - no 11 Johann Berg Gudmundson - yes 12 Yoni Buyens - yes 13 Igor Vetokele - no 14 George Tucudean - no 15 Franck Moussa - no 16 Frederic Bulot - yes 17 Francis Coquelin - yes 18 Oguchi Onyewu - no 19 Neil Etheridge - yes 20 Tony Watt - no 21 Marko Dmitrovic - no 22 Milos Veljokic - no 23 Christophe Lepoint - no 24 Roger Johnson - no 25 Chris Eagles - no 26 Alou Diarra - yes 27 Patrick Bauer - yes 28 Ahmed Kashi - no 29 El-Hadji Ba - no 30 Simon Makienok - no 31 Zakarya Bergdich - no 32 Cristian Ceballos - no 33 Naby Sarr - no 34 Conor McAleny - no 35 Ricardo Vaz Te - no 36 Rhys Williams - no 37 Jorge Teixeira - yes 38 Yaya Sanogo - no 39 Marco Motta - yes 40 Rod Fanni - yes 41 Yun Suk-Young - yes 42 Declan Rudd - yes 43 Kevin Foley - no 44 Andrew Crofts - yes 45 Nicky Ajose - no 46 Ricky Holmes - yes 47 Jason Pearce - yes 48 Lee Novak - no 49 Josh Magennis - yes 50 Jordan Botaka - no 51 Adam Chicksen - yes 52 Fredrick Ulvestad - no 53 Lewis Page 54 Nathan Byrne 55 Jay Desilva 56 Jake Forster-Caskey
I've basically gone through it and highlighted who I think had/has been good, taking into account length of time they've been here/played. I left out the last 4 as they are new arrivals.
With players like Vetokele being a no, it doesn't mean I don't think they're a good player, it's more have we had good value over the life of that player's contract. One half a season is nowhere enough. I know he got injured, but if it had been handled the right way then he would be an option for us this season. These are simply my metrics, but in total that's 32 no's and 20 yes'
Perhaps some might disagree with one or two but that's not the point. What becomes strikingly obvious from the list in this format, is the all the "no"s from 28-36 inclusive.
And then all of the "yes"s from 37 on.
What changed?
Quite simply Riga returned and his initial comments featured this understatement "we need to make less mistakes when signing players"
Between Riga and Slade they stabilised things and we now have Robinson making a few changes.
The last six games are unbeaten and we are on two points a game with Magennis back soon. Let's not kid ourselves about how this season might end but it does appear that we have followed Riga's advice. And that's before we assess the final four on the list, three of whom have great promise.
Let's see what the squad looks like in August.
What are you hoping/expecting to be different? Under RD it has always been the same - some good individuals, 1 or 2 players short and a feeling that there are too many young and inexperienced players.
It's always about hope rather than expectation that it'll all come together.
He didn't say August of which year tbf.
Hasn't he said it every year...
Yes, except when he was flip flopping as an anti-regimer for a few months
I've gone with a team that I think could actually have won football matches, so there's a couple (it really is a couple) of players who miss out because of the shape
Watt, Buyens, Holmes and Kashi all honourable mentions
What I learned from this is that we haven't really signed too many decent full backs, probably mostly because Solly was highly rated, Fox was never injured and Roland doesn't believe in signing decent back ups. As Karel would say, you only need 11 players, which is a rule that has never ever backfired on us at all during Roland's ownership.
Also I'm shocked at how few people picked Henderson for keeper. He was fantastic when he was fit
Comments
Henderson
Fanni Bauer Teixeira
Gudmundsson Diarra Ajdarevic Coquelin Bulot
Vetokele Magennis
Watt, Buyens, Holmes and Kashi all honourable mentions
What I learned from this is that we haven't really signed too many decent full backs, probably mostly because Solly was highly rated, Fox was never injured and Roland doesn't believe in signing decent back ups. As Karel would say, you only need 11 players, which is a rule that has never ever backfired on us at all during Roland's ownership.
Also I'm shocked at how few people picked Henderson for keeper. He was fantastic when he was fit