Antwoine Hackford

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

I honestly don't get 1 month loans by the time you start getting used to new surroundings your off back to parent club.

Some of these work experience short term youth loans are to teams which don't train full time. Some of the players will continue to train at Shirecliffe for the vast majority of their loan & just rock over one day in the week. There aren't really that many new surroundings to get used to. The other players turn up after the tiling & shelf stacking.

 

[mancunianblade]

I honestly don't get 1 month loans by the time you start getting used to new surroundings your off back to parent club.

no surroundings to get used to is there? These are part time clubs with part time semi pro players, they likely train a few times a week at most in the evening. Wouldn’t surprise me if he only trains with them once and then the rest of the week he’s at Shirecliffe.

**See Phil beat me to it

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

Wilder was team manager, wasn't he?

He will have had a portfolio from his scouts and advisors and his likely areas to prepare for the future as a PL club. Quite what the flying fuck he was doing buying Moussett to fulfil the striker's role when even at Bournemouth he was shy on goals and unable to finish a game is anyone's guess. I can't see HRH and his board being particularly influential on twisting his arm for that one, even at £10-11m, depending on who you speak to.

But elsewhere ... it's not just this cash acquisitions which confound the sensibilities of even the most mild-mannered football follower. Berge (unproven in the English leagues), Brewster (great at Swansea, unproven anywhere else), Burke (laughably shit), McBurnie (see Brewster), Bogle and Lowe (between them we've had about 40% of the return expected and only through Bogle) Robinson (jesus-tittyfucking-christ) ... but what the fuck was going on with Rodwell, Freeman and Robinson C and even the stupidity of spending all that on cack and not breaking the bank for a keeper tons better than Ramsdale in goal for us. I mean, given the logic surrounding the four areas of our team:

Goalkeeping: Was it wise to simply let Henderson go back without a robust bid to buy him back to a team he was comfortable in and pulling off some simply brilliant saves?

Defence: We let Stearman go on promotion. Is he not any worse than the shower of pretty Chad Valley LCBs we have had trying to cover for Jack? Stears was nails. He'd have broken his dick trying to keep a clean sheet. What's with all those signings anyway? Bryan (inconsistent and flakey) Robinson (fucking rubbish) and playing Stevens in an unfamiliar role even when he's on his way down in form?

Midfield: Letting Besic go? To me he was a player who could only get better with more games and more of an imposing, game-making midfielder who could attack, tackle and defend in equal measures. Yet we blew the bank on a nesh sicknote who occasionally turns on the flashes of capability, mainly these days to bid for a transfer we suspect. And why not get that engine room optimised? Norwood and Fleck, one would wish to understand, would be the anchor points in any progressive United side but they have been serially woeful across two seasons now, with no sign of replacing them. One would imagine they'd be first for the chop yet during Wilder's period we signed no one to threaten their positions instead caused Lundstram to chuck his dummy out by signing sicknote. The only midfielder we have had any return out of is - in limited terms - Osborn and even he is technically playing out of position and finds himself outmuscled.

Strikers: 'Just buy strikers'. He did, lots of them. I don't think between them they've topped twenty goals in three seasons, have they? To remain viable in any league that has to be a total for one striker in one season with two or three others on ten or above.

Wilder had his ambitions and was obviously persuasive on HRH to chuck the dice on future revenue (because I doubt he had the cash in his pockets at the time) to gamble on his gut feelings rather than bring in tried and tested PL out of favours and benchwarmers - preferably ones who can complete 90 minutes and have goals and playing ability in them at the top flight of English football.

So, in short, I disagree. It's his gig. He owns this until we actually start turning a corner then it becomes Heckingbottom's.

pommpey

You had me at 'Wilder'. By god, you give me the horn.

 

[Old Programme seller]

Imo I thought Duffy was poor in his final season very inconsistent