Be interested to hear what the management team consider the quality of the current squad to be, measured by the 8-8-8 benchmark they devised.
888 was just a load of crap. As it stands tonight we are still woefully short imo.Even Jones said he'd like to get the majority of the signings done by Thursday. I'm sure even the more optimistic of yous out there thought we'd be further forward than we are currently. Thursday will be fun - Jones having to have loads of players around him that he doesn't want. I wonder how that will go. Do we have enough table tennis tables ?
Most fans probably thought Jones was living in a dream world if he seriously thought he'd have all his signings done by the end of June because certain things required to achieve that wouldn't always be in his control.
For example we might want to sign a player but his club won't accept an offer until they've signed a replacement. We might be after 1-2 loans but some clubs generally wait to make a decision after they've returned to training and played a few pre-season games.
It's all well and good him saying what he did, and i don't doubt he would've liked to have more in the door by now, but it's not necessarily down to us that we haven't.
I think the outs are going to prove more difficult and we might be here on deadline day with a few still to be shifted on.
Wonder if it's Crawley in for Lucas Ness , they are light at CB despite signing Charlie Barker.
It will be interesting to see what sales we actually manage to make. Hector is still without a club, Thomas dropped to L2 and I think the other released players are still mostly waiting for moves. It's very early days yes but on the face of it it doesn't look like anyone is beating at the door trying to sign our players (except May).
We don't want to end up in the position of having a decent team but weak squad as that leaves us vulnerable to injuries and suspensions.
To be fair to Hector he is off playing in a major international tournament, the prospect of L1 (or below) is probably quite far down his mind for now
I’d love for you to show me where he promised he’d have his squad complete by Sunday?
Classic CL quote. Read something, make sweeping assumptions about what it means, change the wording to fit a narrative that isn’t true.
Not a promise but pretty categorical about the aim...
"We'd like to get our squad together by our return date of 27th June, that's what we think. We have worked tirelessly for the last 3-4 weeks.... I am sure that by the time we return on 27th June we will have the majority, if not all of our squad together as pre season is a really important time" said Nathan Jones on 10 June.
To be fair, he never actually said which 27th June!, I'm going for 27/6/26.
The fact is we are a League One club and that some of the players we are hopefully in the market for might be hanging on to see if something better comes along. I do recall Powell doing the bulk of his business early but he was the sort of bloke players wanted to play for which was a big factor. I'm sure Jones is a positive in that respect for us but maybe he hasn't quite got that aura Powell had. Not saying Powell is a better manager, just making a point about recruitment.
Weird thought of the day, well last 5 minutes as it is me, good way to announce a signing.....have players saying which fixture they are looking forward to and why, sneak in a new player and wait for the attentive to notice. Would help publicise the fixtures as well.
If we keep hold of May then having him and Ahadme with Leaburn and Kanu as the back ups and Chuks the wildcard bench option should be a very decent 5 at this level. I wouldn't even be adverse to Alfie playing in the 10 behind both Leaburn and Ahadme if NJ want's two big guys up top.
If we keep hold of May then having him and Ahadme with Leaburn and Kanu as the back ups and Chuks the wildcard bench option should be a very decent 5 at this level. I wouldn't even be adverse to Alfie playing in the 10 behind both Leaburn and Ahadme if NJ want's two big guys up top.
Why would you assume Ahadme is better than Leaburn?
Weird thought of the day, well last 5 minutes as it is me, good way to announce a signing.....have players saying which fixture they are looking forward to and why, sneak in a new player and wait for the attentive to notice. Would help publicise the fixtures as well.
If we keep hold of May then having him and Ahadme with Leaburn and Kanu as the back ups and Chuks the wildcard bench option should be a very decent 5 at this level. I wouldn't even be adverse to Alfie playing in the 10 behind both Leaburn and Ahadme if NJ want's two big guys up top.
I would assume that this is/was the original plan given comments that we were looking at one striker if May stays and two if he goes.
The only question comes in with the injury records of both Leaburn and Chuks as we could go from 5 strikers to 3 very quickly and none of the academy prospects that I am aware of really fit the "big guy" status particularly well.
If we keep hold of May then having him and Ahadme with Leaburn and Kanu as the back ups and Chuks the wildcard bench option should be a very decent 5 at this level. I wouldn't even be adverse to Alfie playing in the 10 behind both Leaburn and Ahadme if NJ want's two big guys up top.
Why would you assume Ahadme is better than Leaburn?
Not assuming that, just likely that Leaburn won't be fit for the start of the season and will likely need a while to build up his minutes. Then it will come down to form and fitness each week.
Comments
For example we might want to sign a player but his club won't accept an offer until they've signed a replacement. We might be after 1-2 loans but some clubs generally wait to make a decision after they've returned to training and played a few pre-season games.
It's all well and good him saying what he did, and i don't doubt he would've liked to have more in the door by now, but it's not necessarily down to us that we haven't.
cafc boss Nathan Jones on the mic at moment.
The only question comes in with the injury records of both Leaburn and Chuks as we could go from 5 strikers to 3 very quickly and none of the academy prospects that I am aware of really fit the "big guy" status particularly well.
One as has been hinted is a keeper. No idea on other two.
Exciting times indeed.