The_Green_Man it was touched on the other day that recruitment, whilst mediocre in quality, quantity was something that was a conscious decision by the Club to avoid the tired legs at the end of last season. It's baffling that it was allowed to happen because all the permanent signings were brought in on 2-3 year contracts. He'll have seen the staff list when he arrived
The injury situation though, was a little unique, but with the exception of James Wallace and Coutts, I think the rest of the signings picked up injuries once they arrived, even then it'd be surprising if alarm bells weren't rung with medical staff when Wallace and coutts arrived. Adkins has inherited a lot of injuries but again they were known when he arrived
I don't think either are really excuses, others have mentioned, we desperately needed a centre half or two, but he brought in two strikers and a winger initially.
All of the above aside, Adkins hasn't yet shown progress in 16 league games. If anything things should be improving as players come back to fitness. The only players I can say that I've been truly impressed with are Billy and Kieran Wallace, perhaps throw Baxter in there as well.
Phipps and Adkins have both claimed mitigating circumstances for the bad start, Phipps blaming Clough for much of it. It makes me wonder what Adkins did before he took the job and more so since he's arrived.
It's great that Adkins covers bases in interviews and he talks positively, but he's got to start taking some responsibility for things that haven't worked. He's talked up players and what he wants from them for 5 months now and it's not worked.
On the same token, I'd be interested to know what has worked for him. He said when Hammond came in that he was a leader and an athlete. Not on present showings he's not. Will he reassess in January and perhaps state he's not the player he was 5 years ago? Or will we sign him on a two year deal?
