As the title says. Lots of transfers in & out over the summer and so now transfer dealings have been done for the next 4 months (bar out of contract players) how do you rate our squad. I'll go first...........
7.5 out of 10.
Some decent signings in Berry, Doc, Godden, Mitchell & Edwards, but cant comment yet on Campbell (A). Ahadme has been disappointing but let's see after 10 or 12 games.
Certainly the defence looks a lot better & again cant really comment on Mannion as he's not been tested much. An experienced keeper would be good but dont want an aging ex-Prem merchant.
Still need a playmaker in midfield. A Ricky Holmes/Claus Jensen type who can not only put players through but can also take a free kick.
Conclusion. Losing May without a likewise replacement looks careless to me. Could be the difference between top 6 and top 10. Top 2 is out of the question imo. Defence will stop us being anywhere near bottom 4 & we should finish safely in the top half.
Over to you.....
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Comments
Overall I give it a 7, add 2 more decent free agents and it goes up to an 8
Reckon that all you can rate at this point is intent from the owners, which I'd give a solid 8.
Can't see how anyone can give a realistic rating on the individual player ins / outs decisions until at least 10 games in, upto Christmas and maybe even once we know where we finish.
Actual so far...3/10
As Gribbo said, come back after a couple of months for any realistic ideas...
I think Mannion has done okay but failure to bring in a proper top number one is a worry. It was the position we needed most in my opinion, it could be the difference between where we want to be and where we could end up. As said, he’s done okay but he’s not the level I think a promotion team would have.
I don’t think Ahadme is good enough and we’ll be hoping and praying Leaburn is back in the team soon and stays fit and healthy.
We can’t judge Allan Campbell or Dixon yet. Both come with promise and potential for different reasons. Both could turn out to be great signings, we just don’t know yet.
Losing May is a huge blow to us and I am absolutely certain he’s going to score 20-30 goals for Birmingham this season, even with Stansfield and Dykes signing, he’s scoring and they’re not taking him out the team all the while he does.
Failure to bring in another left sided defender is a worry and I really hope we sign Potts soon and he is able to stay fit. We conceded so many goals last season and let go of 3 central defenders, all of whom were not good enough, but we’ve only got in Mitchell. We need one more. An injury to any of the 3 centre backs would have me worried moving forward.
The squad is quite large but I feel we are still carrying too many players who won’t feature much. You then have some younger ones who need football but won’t get that here and haven’t gone on loan. Players who fall into these categories are Asiimwe, Z.Mitchell, Edun, Taylor, potentially even Kanu once Leaburn and Dixon are in the mix.
Overall, a 7 is as good as it can be right now. Bring in Potts and have Campbell and Dixon look good and that goes to an 8. Sign a proper keeper in January and it’ll help us win far more games. If Godden can score regularly we won’t miss May so bad.
There are a lot of things that need to happen and fall into place. I just really hope it all comes together and the performances follow soon.
On the flip side, I think there was a lot of excitement last summer around the signings of Camara, May etc. which would’ve meant lots of 7s and 8s, we finished the season in 16th.
Jones certainly recognised the keeper problem but for various reasons we have failed to recruit an experienced number 1. To date we have only bought 1 centre half (albeit a good one).
When evaluating a transfer window you also have to consider the outs. With the exception of Alfie, we did good business, but we should have got rid of a few more. Hopefully some NL loans will be sorted out for our youth this month.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the parlous decision to let May go. I'm sorry but if we wanted to keep him, we would have, in spite of his personal circumstances.
I have always maintained it was a ridiculous decision. Should we miss out on the play offs, it will ostensibly be down to a lack of goals. That, I'm afraid, will be down to that terrible decision by Jones. To me it smacks of a no man is bigger than me statement, when it needed an arm around the shoulder approach to resolve the issues between then for the better good.
6/10.
I have doubts over Ahadme and expect Godden to be a regular over him alongside Leaburn once fit.
GK does slightly concern me - Mannion is decent but I'm concerned we failed to land an outright No1. I don't see the free agent market being able to help with this.
Just feels like we might be a couple of pieces light , I just hope we can get to January in a strong position with what we've got.
However reports of Gilly seem to point to decent performances and not the lack of pace that concerned me last year.
Exceptions are Ahadme who's not worth his place atm, Gillesphey always has a dismal blunder in him but has no direct competition for his role, Berry is a stupid hothead 3 yellow cards already two for dissent one of which got Sean Clare off the hook of the deserved red for his assault on Edwards
TC is getting used to his new role and that job would be much easier of his striking partner wasn't hopeless
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