It all depends, if you are starting by defining none of our current players as quality then we have no basis for agreement. Despite their off days I do regard the current squad as quality (as long as we remember we are in the Championship, we did come third and could compete with any team in the league). So for me, bringing in players as good as or better gives them a quality stamp. BT cost a lot of money (more than we can handle on a regular basis) and many here still described him as lazy, not worth a place, and us a better team when he left. BT was and is a class player. All the 'new' players in camp could be starting players, all those on our current shopping list could be starting players. To say these are not quality championship players is nonsense. The challenge always is to get them to function as a team, we will not get promorion just because we have the best collection of individuals.
I can agree with you up to a point.
The squad we have no doubt contains quality - Killa, Naughton, Naysmith, Walker, Paddy, Monty, Cotterill, Ward, Morgs have all shown some very good, consistent form and would have made it into the teams in the top 2 last season when in form. They're clearly decent players
The rest of the squad, new buys, accepted bid players and speculated I have serious reservations. None of the rest of the team have performed well enough and consistent enough for us. You could also argue that players like Monty, Cotterill, Morgs under performed far too often, but hopefully now they're the cornerstones of the team.
The players we've got bids in for and bought, only Smith is a player that could be argued is at the the top of his game, the rest are from poor teams or released. I don't know any thing about Taylor to comment, but he's an U20 player so sounds promising.
We needed an overhaul and I think Blackie's doing this, he hasn't messed with the back four (until the Kyle's situation) and we got Bromby as cover, plus he looks to be trying a few youngsters out at full backs. We needed creativity and I think Blackies addressing this, we need a striker that's big and mobile and he seems to be trying this. But a commanding Midfielder? So far I've seen nothing and 2003 was a very long time ago...Brown and Macca (followed by Speed) were never properly replaced, I accept the C. midfield has changed so the Macca/ Speed role has become Monty's stopper role. This situation has never changed and now more than ever we need a commanding ball player, winner in the air and attacking midfielder...Quinny is certainly not this, he can play the left or in a C. midfield 3 (possibly with Howard), but we lack in this area.
The rest of the team needs work, no doubt, we need a C Half back up - Walker?
So whilst we have quality and some potential in the squad its hardly the makings of a team that's geared up and ready to hit the ground running and go for a promotion form start to the season.
All that's gone off in the last 2 weeks should have been dealt with quickly. Were no further forward now than we were then. Plus with our two most promising players having transfers out pending its as close to a crisis that it could be.
Who knows what the rest of the squad think of the situation but its far from ideal planning to a promotion push!
