I wouldn’t mind getting one of Millar or Maatsen back, getting both would be a bit underwhelming.
Why sign Liam Millar when there’s the likes of Harry Chapman available on a free? He did really well on a 6 month loan at Shrewsbury and is around the same age. It makes more sense to sign someone on a permanent than have your whole left side of the pitch loan players.
Adkins knows what he’s doing, I just hope we don’t have a team reliant on loans and then another rebuild in the summer.
Doesn't seem much like we're building anything new at this stage.
No one moaned about Cullen or DeSilva returning in loan few times ..
1. It's a perspective not a moan.
2. We have been told we're rebuilding, it's not a reach to expect that to mean a number of new signings, not the same ones that were part of a failed squad last season.
I don't mind either or both of them rejoining as don't think we'll get much better at this level.
So far the only players openly mentioned as targets were all here last season on loan and only one has actually signed a permanent deal.
Fwiw I think Millar and Maatsen will join championship sides.
But if Adkins would have been here 1 month earlier, they would probably have been part of a squad that at the very least made the playoffs.
Probably not, we won under Jackson and Bowyer won 2 and drew 2 of his last 4, and that came after that terrible performance against Blackpool.
I wouldn't over analyse what I said 😅, just making a point of how close we were to not being a 'failed' squad.
Being loved or loathed is a fine line. If we had lost to Donny on pens that team would have still been much more loved than the team that lost to Swindon in similar circumstances.
Despite missing out on goal difference this is a better squad (when the season ended) than the one that got beaten by Shrewsbury. It didn't take a revolution to transform that. 2 or 3 shrewd signings and 2 or 3 quality loans.
Do we need a total rebuild though? I'd say the nucleus of the squad is already there and it's just a question of bringing in sufficient quality to enhance the team.
Because there has been a scarcity of rumours or anything leaked by the ITK, some people seem to get the impression nothing is happening. I'm sure Steve Gallen & co won't agree though!
Myself, I'm perfectly happy to leave the squad building to the professionals. And if nothing gets leaked before signings are made - that's good, in means we are going about our business in a professional way.
Is it? At the moment we only have one GK who is very inexperienced, one decent CB and not much in either CM or out wide. Agree with the rest of the post though, no reason to be panicked in the middle of June.
Maybe, right now. But by 2 weeks time, the situation may well be different?
Of course, but that's not what you said? Of course we need to quality, but we also need quantity. As it stands, we will only have 10 players on 1st July.
Doesn't seem much like we're building anything new at this stage.
No one moaned about Cullen or DeSilva returning in loan few times ..
1. It's a perspective not a moan.
2. We have been told we're rebuilding, it's not a reach to expect that to mean a number of new signings, not the same ones that were part of a failed squad last season.
I don't mind either or both of them rejoining as don't think we'll get much better at this level.
So far the only players openly mentioned as targets were all here last season on loan and only one has actually signed a permanent deal.
Fwiw I think Millar and Maatsen will join championship sides.
But if Adkins would have been here 1 month earlier, they would probably have been part of a squad that at the very least made the playoffs.
Probably not, we won under Jackson and Bowyer won 2 and drew 2 of his last 4, and that came after that terrible performance against Blackpool.
I wouldn't over analyse what I said 😅, just making a point of how close we were to not being a 'failed' squad.
Being loved or loathed is a fine line. If we had lost to Donny on pens that team would have still been much more loved than the team that lost to Swindon in similar circumstances.
Despite missing out on goal difference this is a better squad (when the season ended) than the one that got beaten by Shrewsbury. It didn't take a revolution to transform that. 2 or 3 shrewd signings and 2 or 3 quality loans.
Agree. Some people seem to forget that we've already got some very decent footballers.
Okay, we need some numbers in to increase the squad ....... but squad building is about the right blend of players to compliment what we already have. Competition for places will give players the edge they need to perform at their best.
And Prem loanees are young, and bring pace and energy to the squad - even if they can only be signed late in the window.
It’s been said before we had a squad of squad players. We need 4/5 “star” players to give us the extra quality to turn this into a promotion side.
If we’re really after Scott Fraser and players of similar quality then that explains why we’ve only signed Stockley so far. Those type of players will have a lot of interest and can take their time to get the best possible deal.
Just have to hope most of our signings are those towards the top of our list. I think we’ve got a good chance of that. If we can get a few more in soon will make others easier to convince.
What both Gallen and Adkins are saying is that our new squad won't be fully formed until the end of the transfer window on August 31. We will play the first half dozen games in August with a makeshift team, probably including fringe youth players. Then it will take time to gell the last signings into the team, we will not be hitting the ground running. Things have changed since the Powell promotion year when we could tell from the first game we had a very good side.
I don't think thats what they are saying......but if true you can forget about top 2 & even the play offs would be a struggle.
I said I'd give it until the players come back for pre-season (10 days ?) before panicking but as yet I dont see any real "rebuilding" going on. As pp said, the only player so far that has signed was here last year & it seems even that was a struggle to get him to sign. Millar & Maartsen aren't the answer either.
There aren't many players on the move, we're in the middle of a major tournament, so very little movement at the top, which has a knock on down the chain. there are still a number of Premier League clubs without managers.
Do we need a total rebuild though? I'd say the nucleus of the squad is already there and it's just a question of bringing in sufficient quality to enhance the team.
Because there has been a scarcity of rumours or anything leaked by the ITK, some people seem to get the impression nothing is happening. I'm sure Steve Gallen & co won't agree though!
Myself, I'm perfectly happy to leave the squad building to the professionals. And if nothing gets leaked before signings are made - that's good, in means we are going about our business in a professional way.
Is it? At the moment we only have one GK who is very inexperienced, one decent CB and not much in either CM or out wide. Agree with the rest of the post though, no reason to be panicked in the middle of June.
Maybe, right now. But by 2 weeks time, the situation may well be different?
Of course, but that's not what you said? Of course we need to quality, but we also need quantity. As it stands, we will only have 10 players on 1st July.
But that's still two weeks away so "as it stands" is an absolutely pointless measure. The time to worry about the 1st July will be 1st July and not now.
Do we need a total rebuild though? I'd say the nucleus of the squad is already there and it's just a question of bringing in sufficient quality to enhance the team.
Because there has been a scarcity of rumours or anything leaked by the ITK, some people seem to get the impression nothing is happening. I'm sure Steve Gallen & co won't agree though!
Myself, I'm perfectly happy to leave the squad building to the professionals. And if nothing gets leaked before signings are made - that's good, in means we are going about our business in a professional way.
Is it? At the moment we only have one GK who is very inexperienced, one decent CB and not much in either CM or out wide. Agree with the rest of the post though, no reason to be panicked in the middle of June.
Maybe, right now. But by 2 weeks time, the situation may well be different?
Of course, but that's not what you said? Of course we need to quality, but we also need quantity. As it stands, we will only have 10 players on 1st July.
I just tried to convey what both Nigel Adkins and Steve Gallen have said though.
But you saying, "as it stands" is only relevant to today in practical terms. Both Adkins and Gallen have said they expect to bring in more players before pre-season training starts or thereabouts.
You have to give them the chance to do what they say, rather than getting anxious that you may believe nothing is happening 2 weeks beforehand?
What both Gallen and Adkins are saying is that our new squad won't be fully formed until the end of the transfer window on August 31. We will play the first half dozen games in August with a makeshift team, probably including fringe youth players. Then it will take time to gell the last signings into the team, we will not be hitting the ground running. Things have changed since the Powell promotion year when we could tell from the first game we had a very good side.
I don't think thats what they are saying......but if true you can forget about top 2 & even the play offs would be a struggle.
I said I'd give it until the players come back for pre-season (10 days ?) before panicking but as yet I dont see any real "rebuilding" going on. As pp said, the only player so far that has signed was here last year & it seems even that was a struggle to get him to sign. Millar & Maartsen aren't the answer either.
I know your a natural pessimist but that is bollocks. In 18/19 we would have gone up automatically if the season was a month longer, or we had had the squad to cope with the winter injury crisis.
We brought in Cullen, Beilek, Parker, Williams, Purrington, Ward after the season started. All played key roles in the promotion. Pratley signed about 48 hours before the season started and Phillips and Dijksteel weren't "first choices" when the season started. That's 9 players! That doesn't include the 2 loan keepers we had.
Take the 2 that were already here out and say Ward and Williams count as one. I honestly don't expect us to be 48 hours away from the start of the season and being 6 or so players short, do you? Honestly?
I also don't expect our owner to sell our star striker and replace him with a freeby from Gillingham reserves but thats another story.
Do we need a total rebuild though? I'd say the nucleus of the squad is already there and it's just a question of bringing in sufficient quality to enhance the team.
Because there has been a scarcity of rumours or anything leaked by the ITK, some people seem to get the impression nothing is happening. I'm sure Steve Gallen & co won't agree though!
Myself, I'm perfectly happy to leave the squad building to the professionals. And if nothing gets leaked before signings are made - that's good, in means we are going about our business in a professional way.
Is it? At the moment we only have one GK who is very inexperienced, one decent CB and not much in either CM or out wide. Agree with the rest of the post though, no reason to be panicked in the middle of June.
Maybe, right now. But by 2 weeks time, the situation may well be different?
Of course, but that's not what you said? Of course we need to quality, but we also need quantity. As it stands, we will only have 10 players on 1st July.
I just tried to convey what both Nigel Adkins and Steve Gallen have said though.
But you saying, "as it stands" is only relevant to today in practical terms. Both Adkins and Gallen have said they expect to bring in more players before pre-season training starts or thereabouts.
You have to give them the chance to do what they say, rather than getting anxious that you may believe nothing is happening 2 weeks beforehand?
I'm not anxious at all. I agreed with you, no need for panicking in the middle of June and I'm backing Gallen & Co. I expect a few new signings aswell as 3/4 of our current players to sign new deals.
But you said we don't need a rebuild because the nucleus of the squad is already there, which is simply untrue. Even if we count Amos, Matthews etc because they are still currently our players, we don't have a midfield and have two CB's, neither of whom you would expect to be play 30+ games next season.
Doesn't seem much like we're building anything new at this stage.
No one moaned about Cullen or DeSilva returning in loan few times ..
1. It's a perspective not a moan.
2. We have been told we're rebuilding, it's not a reach to expect that to mean a number of new signings, not the same ones that were part of a failed squad last season.
I don't mind either or both of them rejoining as don't think we'll get much better at this level.
So far the only players openly mentioned as targets were all here last season on loan and only one has actually signed a permanent deal.
Fwiw I think Millar and Maatsen will join championship sides.
But if Adkins would have been here 1 month earlier, they would probably have been part of a squad that at the very least made the playoffs.
Probably not, we won under Jackson and Bowyer won 2 and drew 2 of his last 4, and that came after that terrible performance against Blackpool.
I wouldn't over analyse what I said 😅, just making a point of how close we were to not being a 'failed' squad.
Being loved or loathed is a fine line. If we had lost to Donny on pens that team would have still been much more loved than the team that lost to Swindon in similar circumstances.
Despite missing out on goal difference this is a better squad (when the season ended) than the one that got beaten by Shrewsbury. It didn't take a revolution to transform that. 2 or 3 shrewd signings and 2 or 3 quality loans.
Agree. Some people seem to forget that we've already got some very decent footballers.
Okay, we need some numbers in to increase the squad ....... but squad building is about the right blend of players to compliment what we already have. Competition for places will give players the edge they need to perform at their best.
And Prem loanees are young, and bring pace and energy to the squad - even if they can only be signed late in the window.
PS: Note the Oxford comma.
Its a comma separating two clauses, not a list, and if omitted does not confuse the meaning, so not an Oxford comma
Doesn't seem much like we're building anything new at this stage.
No one moaned about Cullen or DeSilva returning in loan few times ..
1. It's a perspective not a moan.
2. We have been told we're rebuilding, it's not a reach to expect that to mean a number of new signings, not the same ones that were part of a failed squad last season.
I don't mind either or both of them rejoining as don't think we'll get much better at this level.
So far the only players openly mentioned as targets were all here last season on loan and only one has actually signed a permanent deal.
Fwiw I think Millar and Maatsen will join championship sides.
But if Adkins would have been here 1 month earlier, they would probably have been part of a squad that at the very least made the playoffs.
Doesn't seem much like we're building anything new at this stage.
No one moaned about Cullen or DeSilva returning in loan few times ..
1. It's a perspective not a moan.
2. We have been told we're rebuilding, it's not a reach to expect that to mean a number of new signings, not the same ones that were part of a failed squad last season.
I don't mind either or both of them rejoining as don't think we'll get much better at this level.
So far the only players openly mentioned as targets were all here last season on loan and only one has actually signed a permanent deal.
Fwiw I think Millar and Maatsen will join championship sides.
But if Adkins would have been here 1 month earlier, they would probably have been part of a squad that at the very least made the playoffs.
Probably not, we won under Jackson and Bowyer won 2 and drew 2 of his last 4, and that came after that terrible performance against Blackpool.
I wouldn't over analyse what I said 😅, just making a point of how close we were to not being a 'failed' squad.
Being loved or loathed is a fine line. If we had lost to Donny on pens that team would have still been much more loved than the team that lost to Swindon in similar circumstances.
Despite missing out on goal difference this is a better squad (when the season ended) than the one that got beaten by Shrewsbury. It didn't take a revolution to transform that. 2 or 3 shrewd signings and 2 or 3 quality loans.
Agree. Some people seem to forget that we've already got some very decent footballers.
Okay, we need some numbers in to increase the squad ....... but squad building is about the right blend of players to compliment what we already have. Competition for places will give players the edge they need to perform at their best.
And Prem loanees are young, and bring pace and energy to the squad - even if they can only be signed late in the window.
PS: Note the Oxford comma.
Its a comma separating two clauses, not a list, and if omitted does not confuse the meaning, so not an Oxford comma
Very good, Dipps. You're right, of course. I was just about to tidy up what I had written, before remembering last nights discussion on this thread and left it as it was for a bit of fun. It seems to have passed over everybody else's head!
Let's put it all into context, this is the midfield, defence, and bench from the 1st game of the 18/19 season. We didn't even fill the bench. The positions are a bit out but does anyone think we will start next season in the same position? Remember we got promoted that season!
Let's put it all into context, this is the midfield, defence, and bench from the 1st game of the 18/19 season. We didn't even fill the bench. The positions are a bit out but does anyone think we will start next season in the same position? Remember we got promoted that season!
Difference that season was the ownership issues - I would be massively disappointed if we don't have the full squad basically sorted for the start of the season.
In the last few years we were signing players that were available to us. Hopefully this year we are trying to sign players that are also sought after by a lot of other clubs which makes it a totally different set of circumstances.
Let's put it all into context, this is the midfield, defence, and bench from the 1st game of the 18/19 season. We didn't even fill the bench. The positions are a bit out but does anyone think we will start next season in the same position? Remember we got promoted that season!
Difference that season was the ownership issues - I would be massively disappointed if we don't have the full squad basically sorted for the start of the season.
Yes I get that, what I am saying is that what we had at the start of the season. Pratley hadn't been here 48 hours either and we still went up.
To say "if we don't have all 20-25 players in place at the start of the season we will throw promotion away" is wrong. I am presenting the evidence.
Comments
Why sign Liam Millar when there’s the likes of Harry Chapman available on a free? He did really well on a 6 month loan at Shrewsbury and is around the same age. It makes more sense to sign someone on a permanent than have your whole left side of the pitch loan players.
Despite missing out on goal difference this is a better squad (when the season ended) than the one that got beaten by Shrewsbury. It didn't take a revolution to transform that. 2 or 3 shrewd signings and 2 or 3 quality loans.
Okay, we need some numbers in to increase the squad ....... but squad building is about the right blend of players to compliment what we already have.
Competition for places will give players the edge they need to perform at their best.
And Prem loanees are young, and bring pace and energy to the squad - even if they can only be signed late in the window.
PS: Note the Oxford comma.
If we’re really after Scott Fraser and players of similar quality then that explains why we’ve only signed Stockley so far. Those type of players will have a lot of interest and can take their time to get the best possible deal.
Just have to hope most of our signings are those towards the top of our list. I think we’ve got a good chance of that. If we can get a few more in soon will make others easier to convince.
I said I'd give it until the players come back for pre-season (10 days ?) before panicking but as yet I dont see any real "rebuilding" going on. As pp said, the only player so far that has signed was here last year & it seems even that was a struggle to get him to sign. Millar & Maartsen aren't the answer either.
But you saying, "as it stands" is only relevant to today in practical terms.
Both Adkins and Gallen have said they expect to bring in more players before pre-season training starts or thereabouts.
You have to give them the chance to do what they say, rather than getting anxious that you may believe nothing is happening 2 weeks beforehand?
We brought in Cullen, Beilek, Parker, Williams, Purrington, Ward after the season started. All played key roles in the promotion. Pratley signed about 48 hours before the season started and Phillips and Dijksteel weren't "first choices" when the season started. That's 9 players! That doesn't include the 2 loan keepers we had.
Take the 2 that were already here out and say Ward and Williams count as one. I honestly don't expect us to be 48 hours away from the start of the season and being 6 or so players short, do you? Honestly?
I also don't expect our owner to sell our star striker and replace him with a freeby from Gillingham reserves but thats another story.
But you said we don't need a rebuild because the nucleus of the squad is already there, which is simply untrue. Even if we count Amos, Matthews etc because they are still currently our players, we don't have a midfield and have two CB's, neither of whom you would expect to be play 30+ games next season.
That's because he's going to sign for Charlton. Premiership in 5 years, here we come!
Amos
DJ. Fraser? J Grant? J Randall?
Stockley Aneke
Then add our other squad players and 4 loanees. Not sure why we would need more tbh.
To say "if we don't have all 20-25 players in place at the start of the season we will throw promotion away" is wrong. I am presenting the evidence.