Recruitment!

[Borbokisfreekick]

Now I know its only the first game of the season, but this game highlights the utter poor recruitment in preseason.

Clough was heavily criticized for his recruitment, however, this summer has been very poor.

Every man and his dog knew we needed to strengthen the following areas: Center Half, Goalkeeper, some steel and strength in the center of the park. So why haven't we???

Instead, we sign two strikers and a journey man winger who I'll tell you now will be nothing other than a bit part player and won't play for us past this season.

I like Adkins - he's positive, has a good track record - but if he doesn't recruit better between now and the end of the transfer window then its nothing short of suicidal and we will be going nowhere this season and he'll find himself out of the job come May.

Baffling recruitment over the past 2 and a half months - 3 weeks to fix it.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Does make you wonder, because of the size of the squad, if it's now a 1 out 1 in situation as I agree we defo need fresh blood.

UTB

 

[Borbokisfreekick]

Does make you wonder, because of the size of the squad, if it's now a 1 out 1 in situation as I agree we defo need fresh blood.

UTB

It really is baffling, absolutely crazy.

Football Management 101 - The first thing you do when you take over a football team, whether its a U13 team, College Team, Semi Professional, Sheff United or Real Madrid....you sort out your central defense and get it solid. It's the most important area and heartbeat of the team. If a team doesn't have solidity in the center of defense, you're fucked.

So how can't our Chairman, MD, Head Scout and Manager see that, especially after the shambles last year.

Sod spending $500K on Billy Sharp!! That could have bought us 2 decent center halves for this level!

 

[him behind you]

Now I know its only the first game of the season, but this game highlights the utter poor recruitment in preseason.

Clough was heavily criticized for his recruitment, however, this summer has been very poor.

Every man and his dog knew we needed to strengthen the following areas: Center Half, Goalkeeper, some steel and strength in the center of the park. So why haven't we???

Instead, we sign two strikers and a journey man winger who I'll tell you now will be nothing other than a bit part player and won't play for us past this season.

I like Adkins - he's positive, has a good track record - but if he doesn't recruit better between now and the end of the transfer window then its nothing short of suicidal and we will be going nowhere this season and he'll find himself out of the job come May.

Baffling recruitment over the past 2 and a half months - 3 weeks to fix it.

One thing that baffles me...What has Morgan told NA about the CB situation and what the issues were? It's either nothing OR NA has taken no notice. Whichever it is, it begs the question, what is Morgan actually being paid for (whatever the rights or wrongs)?

 

[Borbokisfreekick]

One thing that baffles me...What has Morgan told NA about the CB situation and what the issues were? It's either nothing OR NA has taken no notice. Whichever it is, it begs the question, what is Morgan actually being paid for (whatever the rights or wrongs)?

Nothing to do with Morgan. He's being paid to be a youth coach, and he does a very good job at it. If a manager chooses not to listen to blatant obvious advice then the manager is stupid, and its his fault.

And he shouldn't need to listen to advice with a problem this obvious - if he's good at his job, he would have watched several hours of video footage from last season, saw we conceded loads of goals, saw that Collins is the slowest player on the pitch and that McEverley is a 5'11" left back playing at center half. If that doesn't tell you we need new, commanding center halves then you shouldn't be a manager or a coach at the professional level. And its not like we don't have the money to buy new ones - we've just spunked half a million on a striker.

It sounds dramatic, but we've got 3 weeks to save our season and bring in at least 3 more players. I'd even take selling Murphy to raise the funds, because its pointless having Murphy if you can't keep a clean sheet.

 

[Barney]

Me, Robbie, Pompey, Revolution and others that I can't think of have been saying this all pre-season.

The recruitment had to be better but unfortunately I don't think we have the time to rectify our mistakes now.

 

[robbiez666]

Serious question because my memory is awful.

Since Morgan has been involved behind the scenes how successful have we been in this league? He's the one constant. He may be a great youth coach, I have no idea and this isn't necessarily a criticism of him, but he's been there through several managers now.

 

[zablade]

Serious question because my memory is awful.

Since Morgan has been involved behind the scenes how successful have we been in this league? He's the one constant. He may be a great youth coach, I have no idea and this isn't necessarily a criticism of him, but he's been there through several managers now.

You know I have an uncomfortable feeling Morgan may be managing us before this season is out..

 

[Borbokisfreekick]

Serious question because my memory is awful.

Since Morgan has been involved behind the scenes how successful have we been in this league? He's the one constant. He may be a great youth coach, I have no idea and this isn't necessarily a criticism of him, but he's been there through several managers now.

Its nothing to do with Morgan. The book stops with the managers and the board. To try and use Morgan as a scapegoat is as stupid as not buying center halves!

The reason we are where we are is...

1. Evans got sent down and Wilson shat his pants
2. We sold Blackman when we were in the top 2
3. We hired David Weir
4. Clough messed up with the center half situation last year and was thus sacked for doing so
5. we are now currently not learning from reason number 4.

 

[Harry's Game]

You know I have an uncomfortable feeling Morgan may be managing us before this season is out..

If so then we will be getting out of this League this season.. The wrong way.

Adkins will turn it around.

 

[him behind you]

Every person paid to do a job has their place in a "team". Morgan may well be paid to be the youth team coach BUT he is part of the management team and should ensure that his voice is heard. He may well be doing this and the manager may well be ignoring it and, if so, then the Manager is at fault unless he doesn't value Morgan's point of view, in which case he shouldn't employ him.

This is in no way an attempt to blame Morgan for the current defensive frailties but he was also involved in last year's management team too and having been up to the training ground on a couple of occasions it was noticeable that Morgan was either blocked out by NC and hit team or was happy to stand back. Not sure which it was but I hope the same isn't happening now.

 

[him behind you]

If so then we will be getting out of this League this season.. The wrong way.

Adkins will turn it around.

The uncomfortable feeling I had seeing how he stood back last season was that maybe he was distancing himself from the rest of the management team in case they got the sack and he could keep his job. If so, he's a very astute man.

 

[JohnDenver]

There must be some reserve centre halves in the Championship who would step down to play for us.

Freeman shows there is talent being held back at the bigger Championship clubs. We just need to find it.

 

[Crackfish]

I think NA has 1 or 2 players lined up for the CB (be it loan or permanent) but has to wait on their clubs sorting out their business. I hoped that we could make do in the meantime but obviously after today that is a huge risk. Nervous on the whole and abysmal at set pieces. Although these issues were previously evident, I hoped that NA and his staff would have been able to fill them with some confidence. I thought it was a big mistake to play Long unless Howard was not fit enough. I'm not having a go at Long but he really doesn't look ready and it remains to be seen if he ever will be. I don't want us to rush in to something though just to fill a slot. Many people state that this is something that should have been dealt with, but if there are quality players lined up that are worth waiting for, I hope that they can be added very soon. If the quality is good enough and can be achieved soon then we can get past today. If we have to wait too long we will suffer and fall miserably short yet again.

 

[brownie4583]

I reckon Mr.Turnbull needs to get some serious overtime in