We do very occasionally get a good loan signing, ie Greg Halford. I for one was gutted when we didn't sign him permanently he was one of our best players last season.
I agree we do occasionally get a good one in but I just think the balance needs to be right and I just feel we relied too much on loan signings last year to the extent that it hindered players we had at the club who might have done a good job given the chance.
And on Halford I'm probably in the minority but whilst I thought his form towards the end of the season was decent for our level and he offered flexibility I thought he was inexcusibly poor at the start of the season and I'm convinced that if instead of playing Halford every week and hoofing it to his head more than often we would have been far better served giving Cotterill a proper run of games and playing with a right winger getting decent balls into the forward line. Even on his poor games Cotterill always seemed dangerous to me and would put across more decent crosses than Halford did over the period of 3 or 4 games. I also think J Beattie would have suited this style far better than the hoof to him or Halford.
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying he was out of place at this level but I just think more often than not Blackwell found a place for Halford rather than him ever really making the position his own. Whilst I could understand playing Halford away from home to offer some defensive cover to the full back I think at home we certainly should have been more offensive and this is one of the areas I always felt we struggled.
I'm extremely pleased that having not been successful at Wembley we didn't sign Halford, given the way the squad is being re-profiled so brutally atm his wages alone would have meant we'd probably now only have a squad of 8 people left at the Lane with 8 loan signings or kids to make up the numbers. He's a decent enough player but in my opinion it's debatable whether he's premiership quality and at this level paying his wages in full would have been ridiculous.
Halford has already had a couple of chances to impress at Premiership clubs, he was signed for over £2m by Reading and went on to play only 3 games for them before being sold to Sunderland who then took all of 6 months in which he played just 8 times to decide for one reason or another they would listen to offers. Time will tell on whether he makes it a success at the third attempt with Wolves, maybe he just wasn't ready before.
Nice to see Cotterill showing a bit more battle to defend off the ball this season though and I hope he can get back in to the first team soon.
From the top of my head the loan signings we made last year:
Halford
Beattie
O'Toole
Bromby
Lupoli
Dyer
Stokes
Out of those 7 only Halford really settled in and it took him over 3 months IMHO. I know Sharp is disliked by many but I'd have been fuming if I'd have been him, both as a Blade and a Sheffield United player, having to sit on the sidelines watching Stokes, Beattie and Lupoli to a very small degree getting chances ahead of me.
