Jack Rodwell

[Champagneblade]

What I find annoying is that we were crying out for midfield reinforcements last season (having to play Lundstram every game remember) and at the back. Instead after every thing that had gone before, we then spunked £23m on another forward who was like a little kid who was learning a man's game. Absolute fucking insanity. Was Wilder trying to take the piss at thus point?

We could have brought in 2 or 3 top solid championship players so that we were ready for this season if the worst happened (I wanted us to get Ben Whiteman back before PNE nipped in) but we pissed away our final chance to salvage anything from that season and be set for the next / promotion push. Any extra money saved could have gone on the training facilities. Wilder was culpable for totally wasting an huge amount of money and was a liability for the last half a season of his tenure.

Fundamentally there are 4 positions in football - Goalkeeper, Defence, Midfield, Attack.

I find it so hard to grasp that the collective minds of Wilder, Knill and Mitchell, who'd built the team up so well, concluded that we needed to spend on a keeper and a striker when essentially quite the opposite was true.

As consistent as he's been so far, Wes might have lacked some of the highs of Ramsdale's custodianship but he'd probably have not reached the lows either after a consistent period at Rangers.

Frequently not discounting the guy who had proved the talisman to take us up could have saved 23m instead of obtaining a player who was nowhere as accomplished for that season. Never understand why Billy got given such limited chances when the promotion owed so much to his goals.

Replacing O'Connell was a glaring requirement since lockdown showed the impact his absence had. Why they didn't heed the warning of the form post his absence only they can advise. The further misdiagnosis is also on some of the staff too.

The fact that we jettisoned Freeman so easily that summer, despite him apparently bought as a further continuation of Plan A in lieu of Duffy yet then persisted with Lundstram who wanted out. God knows what we were asking, but a more modest figure of anywhere between 2m to 5m instead of 7m-10m I seem to think we wanted would have added to a kitty to replace him with a player who wanted to be there.

I believe if we'd have sat down with Millwall, still in the pandemic, and told them we wanted to offer Jake Cooper and Jed Wallace a chance to play top flight football, we'd have been able to spend half the money we did on Ramsdale and Brewster and had a far more effective team.

 

[AWetFlannel]

Fixed it for you



We didnt need squad players we needed a replacement for the injured JOC and a creative midfield player
Wilder did sign squad players that was the problem Callum Robinson (then Burke) Jack Robinson, Rodwell,
Morrison, Freeman (not really given a chance) McBurnie deemed not good enough for the Championship
Bogle and Lowe there are probably a couple of others that Ive forgotten about

Our formation didn't contin a creative midfielder, we bought Luke Freeman in case we did and never used him.

A real replacement for JOC would've cost loads and might have been redundant if Jack was ready to play a few months later (as was first thought).

I don't think most the players you've listed were signed as squad players. Rodwell and Morrison were both free transfers on low wages, so squad players.

The rest were signed to push our first team players, most for transfer fees, most with the potential to improve.

 

[AWetFlannel]

Fundamentally there are 4 positions in football - Goalkeeper, Defence, Midfield, Attack.

I find it so hard to grasp that the collective minds of Wilder, Knill and Mitchell, who'd built the team up so well, concluded that we needed to spend on a keeper and a striker when essentially quite the opposite was true.

As consistent as he's been so far, Wes might have lacked some of the highs of Ramsdale's custodianship but he'd probably have not reached the lows either after a consistent period at Rangers.

Frequently not discounting the guy who had proved the talisman to take us up could have saved 23m instead of obtaining a player who was nowhere as accomplished for that season. Never understand why Billy got given such limited chances when the promotion owed so much to his goals.

Replacing O'Connell was a glaring requirement since lockdown showed the impact his absence had. Why they didn't heed the warning of the form post his absence only they can advise. The further misdiagnosis is also on some of the staff too.

The fact that we jettisoned Freeman so easily that summer, despite him apparently bought as a further continuation of Plan A in lieu of Duffy yet then persisted with Lundstram who wanted out. God knows what we were asking, but a more modest figure of anywhere between 2m to 5m instead of 7m-10m I seem to think we wanted would have added to a kitty to replace him with a player who wanted to be there.

I believe if we'd have sat down with Millwall, still in the pandemic, and told them we wanted to offer Jake Cooper and Jed Wallace a chance to play top flight football, we'd have been able to spend half the money we did on Ramsdale and Brewster and had a far more effective team.

If we went into the season with Wes and Moore, people would've gone ape shit. We needed a proper Prem replacement and we signed a successful one (after a very dodgy start).

Agree that loaning out Freeman while we were light on midfielders was a mistake, but can understand that they didn't feel they needed a CAM anymore after 5-3-2 had proven itself.

Clearly in hindsight, a proper LCB like Cooper would've been the way to go. I do remember me and my dad at the time debating on whether we should spend big to replace an unreplaceable player, rather than coping with JR and waiting for him to return in a few months.

 

[Weasel]

No, we needed better than we already had in the first team, with the lads who would have been replaced becoming the back up squad. It's how teams get better over time. Not replacing any of the front 11 adequately meant that the front 11 got older and ran out of steam, and we ended up where we are now. To spend over £60m for forward players and still end up with two 30 something, mostly championship level players still leading the line tells me something has gone badly wrong. You spend to improve the team not the squad. Liverpool of the 70s and 80s being past masters of this philosophy.

 

[Hagansbootlaces]

Our formation didn't contin a creative midfielder, we bought Luke Freeman in case we did and never used him.

A real replacement for JOC would've cost loads and might have been redundant if Jack was ready to play a few months later (as was first thought).

I don't think most the players you've listed were signed as squad players. Rodwell and Morrison were both free transfers on low wages, so squad players.

The rest were signed to push our first team players, most for transfer fees, most with the potential to improve.

I think its just human nature, in that you have some success with X you focus on that and end up not seeing the wood for the trees, CW and AK had success in finding some players and them playing way beyond anyones expectation, Jake Wright to name one, thats great if you also admit and balance it out with say,, Marvin Johnson.
I agree we needed squad players and hindsight is great but can't help thinking signing Morrison and Rodwell, might have been a cheap option, but it was perhaps also down with the idea of getting the glory, and yes the money, if they suddenly reverted to the form they had shown years previously

 

[Guesty]

Our 1st team was performing well, we needed squad players. Not that hard to understand without hindsight.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a popular signing at the time either. I was certainly non-plussed.

 

[Weasel]

I thought the signing of Jack Rodwell was an awful signing at the time, and was told all about his injury record by a Mackem (one who goes home and away with them and knows his football). He couldn't understand for the life of him why Utd would touch him with a barge pole (and he thought CW was great and had a soft spot for Utd). In fact he was almost gutted that we signed him and was asking why we hadn't don't our due diligence on him (apparently the feeling is that in his head he wants to play by there is a psychological barrier there which means that he struggles to get himself fit enough to play week in week out). He said it was more mental than physical with Rodwell and that he was damaged goods. Turns out if my colleague had been on our scouting team, we would have saved a fortune on a dead rubber.

I was also apprehensive when we signed him and we didn't have the budget to waste money on speculative signings. More of a vanity project I feel for CWAK and more money poured down the drain.

 

[Withington Blade]

Our 1st team was performing well, we needed squad players. Not that hard to understand without hindsight.

I understand why he was signed originally, what I can’t understand is why he was given a new contract. The whole point of adding depth to the squad is to cover injuries, suspensions, loss of form, etc. However, Rodwell was never trusted in these situations.

 

[Weasel]

Giving him a contract renewal was absolute negligence. In fact I said at the time thagt it was bordering on something being a bit 'strange'. Who knows what went off.

 

[AWetFlannel]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a popular signing at the time either. I was certainly non-plussed.

True, but I think that's because he had a reputation for being a bellend (rightly) from the Sunderland documentary.

 

[Rudders]

Widler really had the clubs pants down for the original deal and the extension didn't he?

 

[AWetFlannel]

No, we needed better than we already had in the first team, with the lads who would have been replaced becoming the back up squad. It's how teams get better over time. Not replacing any of the front 11 adequately meant that the front 11 got older and ran out of steam, and we ended up where we are now. To spend over £60m for forward players and still end up with two 30 something, mostly championship level players still leading the line tells me something has gone badly wrong. You spend to improve the team not the squad. Liverpool of the 70s and 80s being past masters of this philosophy.

We simply couldn't afford to sign better than what we had though. Our players were performing to top 10 standards, we couldn't go out and sign Calvert-Lewin, Ward-Prowse and Ben White.

We attempted the next best thing imo - spend our PL riches on youngsters who have the potential to develop into better than what we have.

Nobody can possibly dispute that something has gone badly wrong. Sharp and Didsy are still out best strikers, while Brewster and McBurnie have underwhelmed. Which strikers do you think could've been signed instead?

 

[BerksBlade]

Complete waste of money. Never fit when we needed him. Somehow managed to keep picking up injuries despite never playing.

 

[Weasel]

Which strikers do you think could've been signed instead?

I can't really answer that one about 3 years after we got promoted as I don't recall squads and who was available at that time. I also don't have the benefit of a scouting team. What I do know though is that I don't think I'd have signed Brewster (too inexperienced and not what we needed at the time as we needed to strengthen other positions) or McBurnie (overpriced I felt at the time but that could have gone either way so I can forgive the club on that one).

I wanted us to explore the overseas market more back then much more than we seemingly did as this was pre Brexit also.

 

[AWetFlannel]

I can't really answer that one about 3 years after we got promoted as I don't recall squads and who was available at that time. I also don't have the benefit of a scouting team. What I do know though is that I don't think I'd have signed Brewster (too inexperienced and not what we needed at the time as we needed to strengthen other positions) or McBurnie (overpriced I felt at the time but that could have gone either way so I can forgive the club on that one).

I wanted us to explore the overseas market more back then much more than we seemingly did as this was pre Brexit also.

All fair.

At the time I remember thinking differently. Our team was solid all over the pitch, and we only needed to replace Deano. We spent big doing that, then spread the rest of the budget buying young talent. Many were excited by this and expected survival.

The only holes I saw at the time were in midfield with Lundstram and Besic leaving. We had one more than we needed after signing Berge in Jan, but he got injured and we lost two in the summer.

 

[Hagansbootlaces]

All fair.

At the time I remember thinking differently. Our team was solid all over the pitch, and we only needed to replace Deano. We spent big doing that, then spread the rest of the budget buying young talent. Many were excited by this and expected survival.

The only holes I saw at the time were in midfield with Lundstram and Besic leaving. We had one more than we needed after signing Berge in Jan, but he got injured and we lost two in the summer.

The transfer strategy that year, closely resembled the one under Warnock the last time we were in the PL, Brewster see Shelton, at the time Warnock said he was buying for the future, latterly CW quoted/excused Brewster's form as he was rushed into the set up, quicker than he hoped.
We had a small squad, for a couple of years we were lucky with injuries ( Coutts be the big exception ) That luck was never going to last, great idea buying for the future, but with a complex 3 at the back system and the quality of the PL, we didn't have the luxury of buying top talent, and them not making an instant impact

 

[ashsufc1889]

I can’t believe people are still talking about this waste of space

 

[Yogi]

I had nothing against picking him up at the time clubs should take punts on reclamation projects as the upside of one working out warrants taking multiple shots at it. However, that philosophy of getting as many lottery tickets as you can should be underpinned by a willingness to move on if you’re wrong and it doesn’t work out that means short deals on low money and moving on fast if it isn’t working. Rodwell being here longer than one year is the thing that makes no sense.

 

[BladesOnToast]

From The Guardian last month:

 

[FallowfieldBlade]

Some absoloute bobbins been spoken about wilders signings and Rodwell

Do people genuinely think wilder spunked money on rodwell ? A free signing for squad cover proably on about 10k a week

Also yes we spent big on transfer fees which the Parachute payments will cover but have we really lost that much in transfers ?

Ramsdale bought for £15 Mill sold for £30 +15 Mill
Berge bought for £25 Mill and we would probably get £15/20 right now
Brewster bought for what £20 Mill and we probably get £10 Mill
Mcburnie bought for £13/15 Mill and we would probably get £5 Mill
Bogle bought for what £5/6 Mill who we wpuld probably get£10/15 Mill

There all young players with resale value the rest we had to scrimp and scrape and where not premier league signings freeman/both robinosn / osborn / zivkovic / restos / burke

 

[Stegosaurus]

Brewster bought for what £20 Mill and we probably get £10 Mill
Mcburnie bought for £13/15 Mill and we would probably get £5 Mill

Hi Stegosaurus,

Bargains those. Imagine going on The Apprentice into Lord Sugar's boardroom and telling him you turned 20 million into 10. He'd be well chuffed.

 

[Old Programme seller]

Not too sure that we’ll be get upwards of £45 million for Ramsdale more of £30 million tops if he reaches all of his targets and Arsenal get into the champions league which is the one they like to add to any contract.

id just like to add that every player that signs a contract will get a signing on fee (if they have a decent agent) some players (Dean Hammond) negotiate a trigger in their contract to add another year so maybe Rodwell did that and that may add another signing on fee, sometimes after a full 4 years they get a loyalty bonus lol anyway my point is that signing players for free isn’t free it can be an expensive mistake or a touch of brilliance like Didsy so the money we gross from the Premiership via tv rights etc slips through your fingers even that tv gantry they put up at the beginning of our first season back reportedly cost half a million.

 

[mattbianco1]

What's this guy up to these days?

 

[Bladesman]

What's this guy up to these days?

Still playing footy in Sydney.

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

He scored other day. Plays with Adama Traore as well.

 

[Alan Roberts' Jinking Run]

He scored other day. Plays with Adama Traore as well.

Yep, it's a poundshop Adama not THE Adama

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

What's this guy up to these days?

Gone to Barca.

He scored other day. Plays with Adama Traore as well.

 

[Davalon]

Sign him up Blackie.