Feels like unfinished business....

[1danewhitehouse]

I thought our signings would total no more than 7. However, Wilder wants more and the fact he is still pursuing signings is good.

I would sooner he scours the market for what he and Knill believe are the right signings, rather than settle for any signing just to appease the supporters. Wilder knows the time of day, so best to leave him to it

The quality of the signings on the whole looks good, although it remains to be seen how they will perform and gel together

The problem for me are not the signings, quantity or quality, but how long it will take Wilder to achieve winning results. It will be very difficult to expect them to hit the ground running and could cost us dearly with lost ground and points

I agree with your idea that 7 signings would be enough. I think it have been if one of Wright or Wilson was of a standard that you would feel comfortable with them starting week in week out. I’d still like a left winger but would be OK with Adams playing there if it weren’t for the uncertainty over his future. I think most agreed that if Adams was sold, we could increase that 7 to 8. As it stands, I think we’ll need at least 9, maybe 10 or 11 as we could still do with a better centre half and left winger and ideally, an experienced GK and a central midfielder.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

I'd echo this. Lots of blind faith being but into George Long. He has the stature to be a decent keeper but he's not an untried kid anymore - he's a keeper known to flap, not communicate and make silly errors. He will cost us points so the decision not to bring in a decent, experienced keeper will probably cost us automatic IMO.

I thought Long did well over the 2nd half of last season and showed signs of maturing. Still not great when it comes to distribution. His command of his area still isn’t brilliant but is significantly better than it was 12-18 months ago. Hopefully, if we can get a more settled defence in front of him, he will continue to improve. Although I agree that ideally, we would have an experienced GK to provide some competition and to mentor him and the other young ‘keepers.

 

[1danewhitehouse]

CW's recruits are all better than what we had , both technically and in terms of winning mentality.

We could still improve our options at CB , CM & LW but we know that CW still has these in mind.

However , CW has a significant blind-spot where GK is concerned.
Long has clearly been made No 1 and this can't be undone without destroying his fragile confidence.
This is our Achilles heel.
Long can have a bad few games and is not yet mature enough to recover quickly.
So what on earth do we do then ?
Stick in a kid who's never been in the first team ?
As a Blade , you just know this is waiting to trip us up , what with our record for bad luck.

We so need an older GK who's been there and got the T-shirt.

This is it for me. I don’t really want Long stripped of the #1 shirt. I would just feel more comfortable if we had someone experienced who we could call on in the event of him hitting a shitty run.

 

[coolhandluke]

This is it for me. I don’t really want Long stripped of the #1 shirt. I would just feel more comfortable if we had someone experienced who we could call on in the event of him hitting a shitty run.

I agree .

I've said for sometime now that we need an experienced cover for Long for all the reasons you've already mentioned . But it's a strange situation to be in and demonstrates that the position of GK is almost unique .

In virtually any other position on the pitch I'd be more than happy in the knowledge that we had young , talented , highly rated products of the academy busting a gut for a start . But even though we have Ramsdale who fulfils all of the criteria above , it just doesn't feel right .

Time will tell I guess .

 

[Revolution]

The only unfinished business is sales of our better players, again.

 

[coolhandluke]

The only unfinished business is sales of our better players, again.

Now now good sir . That's a tad mischievous isn't it ?

Just out of interest , who are the better players you are referring to ? And dont you think we are stIill in the market place too ?

 

[1danewhitehouse]

I agree .

I've said for sometime now that we need an experienced cover for Long for all the reasons you've already mentioned . But it's a strange situation to be in and demonstrates that the position of GK is almost unique .

In virtually any other position on the pitch I'd be more than happy in the knowledge that we had young , talented , highly rated products of the academy busting a gut for a start . But even though we have Ramsdale who fulfils all of the criteria above , it just doesn't feel right .

Time will tell I guess .

Agreed. And in no other position would I be happy to have an experienced journeyman dropping from higher leagues coming to sit on the bench. But at GK I would.

 

[ThroughThinAndThinner]

The squad will always be unfinished business, there will always be areas we can improve on. We've strengthened significantly this transfer window, I'd argue in terms of recruitment it's been our best since we've been in league one. I don't see any other teams in league one who have strengthened as well as us, so hopefully we have enough to overtake them and certainly enough for the play-offs.

I would like a new GK, CB, CM and winger. However, so long as Che is replaced I'd like to think we have enough about is to still challenge.

As for outgoings, all so far have been great. Sadly it looks like Che will go but if (big if maybe) he is replaced I'm not against it. Oh, and our best player is Billy Sharp, he won't be sold so let's end that "we always sell our best player" comment that was so popular...Unless Che/Brayford are now our best players so we can keep it up?

 

[The Crab]

Like many others, it's the goalkeeping situation that concerns me.

Think George is a "confidence" keeper.. he's confident if the defence is, if not...

Maybe it's the chicken and the egg scenario?

Anyway, let's see where we're all at on Saturday at 1700ish.

Speaking as a (retired) member of the Goalies Union, I'd say it's a confidence position whoever you are. You could be the best keeper in the world, but if you have a poor defence in front of you, you are going to concede a lot. I'd say there has to be a complete mutual understanding between Goalie and back four, your defenders need to know your style and you need to know theirs. When that understanding works, it's almost like a sixth sense or something.

For me, there are areas George can improve, but I also feel that if he has a decent and settled defence in front of him, it will be a big help to his confidence and in turn, will help make him a better keeper.

 

[Darthblade]

There's still 3 weeks. The majority of our business is done.

There are two days to go before we begin with a very tricky away game and I sincerely hope that the majority of our business is not done .........

There are still a few bits of dead-wood to get rid of and hopefully a GK, CH, CM and winger to come in ........ before the weekend !!!

UTB & FTP

 

[coaxingstar71]

I don't think anyone really knows how it will pan out. I think we'll be more competitive than last season, although I'm not sure we're promotion material yet. I'm surprised we haven't signed anyone on loan yet and this may yet hold the key to how successful we are. Like many others, I think we're still light in midfield and lack a natural left sided midfield player given that I don't think either Done or Adams are the answer. I can't see us getting Morsy and as it looks as though he'll be a regular at Wigan, why would he sign for us? I'm surprised we haven't sold Adams yet, maybe the board are holding out for more, I don't know, but obviously I hope that if we do sell, the money will be made available to strengthen in the areas we need. Although I'm happy enough with Long, I'm surprised we haven't signed a more experienced keeper even as back up.

 

[Revolution]

Now now good sir . That's a tad mischievous isn't it ?

Just out of interest , who are the better players you are referring to ? And dont you think we are stIill in the market place too ?

Expect Brayford to go before the window shuts, along with Adams.

We are in the market place but we will not fill the holes we have before Bolton beat us on Saturday, and probably not afterwards.

 

[chipsncake]

The squad will always be unfinished business, there will always be areas we can improve on. We've strengthened significantly this transfer window, I'd argue in terms of recruitment it's been our best since we've been in league one. I don't see any other teams in league one who have strengthened as well as us, so hopefully we have enough to overtake them and certainly enough for the play-offs.

I would like a new GK, CB, CM and winger. However, so long as Che is replaced I'd like to think we have enough about is to still challenge.

As for outgoings, all so far have been great. Sadly it looks like Che will go but if (big if maybe) he is replaced I'm not against it. Oh, and our best player is Billy Sharp, he won't be sold so let's end that "we always sell our best player" comment that was so popular...Unless Che/Brayford are now our best players so we can keep it up?

Billy Sharp our best player. Are you sure?

 

[coolhandluke]

Expect Brayford to go before the window shuts, along with Adams.

We are in the market place but we will not fill the holes we have before Bolton beat us on Saturday, and probably not afterwards.

So our business isn't finished then and our unfinished business is clearly not solely related to players leaving . So why say that it is ?

For what it's worth , Che isn't one of our better players and I'd have happily taken 1 million for him and thanked my lucky stars wed got that . Looks like it'll be more though so happy days !

Bayford won't be leaving in my opinion .

Oh P.S I don't think we'll be beaten on saturday either.

Football ...... its a funny old game int it !

 

[s35blade]

Think it's rare for most teams at this level to arrive at the first game knowing that they've complete their business. For what it's worth i'm very happy with the business we've done so many of us have been bleating on about how the club needs to sign prove League 1 players who've done it at this level. Instead of ageing Premier League players who think they can end their career in a blaze of glory after getting us promoted or as they're commonly know 'Hammonds'.

Fleck and O'Connell are two great signings
Duffy and Clarke I think can turn out to be a good player for us
Wright is obviously back-up
Wilson could surprise one way or the other

So i'm a content little soul at the minute but we'll see, Wilder is still on his honeymoon as boss, we've a good summer of players we don't like don't moving out and our opinion of the team is tainted by the fact they've for the most part been rolling over non-league sides.

 

[RedandWhite]

I'm pleased with everything so far, but I'm not saying we are even going to get top 6 yet.

How long will this squad of players take to gel? A good percentage of the first team squad have met within the last month, it will take time.

But we are going the right way, I hope.

 

[Sheffsteel]

To be fair it's always going to feel like unfinished business because I would expect any forward thinking business to ring fence a budget for future upgrades, loans and January transfers window.

It's an exciting time because we have no idea what's going to happen.
However instead of bringing in rejects from a higher division we've chosen to bring in the better players from league 1.

My early concerns are
1: Goalkeeper.
I'm convinced that Long is a half decent average league 1 keeper. However I would prefer better.
The only saving grace is that I also believe he's a confident goalie that struggles to organise and communicate with his defence. So if the defence is greatly improved and doesn't need his input then that part of his game is no longer a negative.

2: Central defence
Think we might need 1 more but as I've already said it's the triangle of 2 centre halves + goalkeeper that is the biggest worry.

3: Battling midfielder
We lacked steel, speed and physicality last season and usually lost the midfield battle.
We'll see what effect Fleck has but we might need a Montgomery type battler, leader and character with ability.

However taking everything into account I'm reasonably pleased
However much of my positivity revolves around the no nonsense style of Chris Wilder.
I was getting totally fed up of Adkins constant headless chicken positivity so listening to CW's obvious passion is like a breathe of fresh air.

 

[BushBlade]

If Adkins was still here, who would be praising the signings he'd made? Duffy and Clarke maybe, possibly O'Connell and Hussey at a stretch. There'd be far more emphasis on the failure to bring in two targets for key positions and plenty of 'Jake Wright, has he lost the plot?' comments.

Poor old CW is expected to wave his magic wand and turn us into champions.

Two seasons, unless we do more business. Don't start getting on his back if we lose a few.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Bush,

My worry about our team last year was the lack of motivation or urgency.
We played teams who parked the bus and got us on the counter attack looking dangerous.
We never had any tactics to counter this, often substitutions are made in the last 5 or 10 minutes.
We seemed to lack tactics too with morale being low and a couldn't care less attitude.
Brayford hasn't shown any sign of his loan form.
Che was great in the 1st few weeks then became quite ineffective as he was double marked.
Done was really poor last season. Long has confidence/ mental attitude issues.

Many of our problems last season have to be down to the shortcomings of the manager.
To say Adkins was "Mr Positivity" and supposedly big on psychology and mental approach he was like an imposter.

Even if we had exactly the same squad I expect us to perform much better with Wilder.
I expect Brayford, Done, Long and Adams to show improvements.
We've also got rid of our worse performers, that Adkins brought in, Hammond, Sammon, Woolford and co.
And replaced them with proven performers in league 1.

So for me we should be definitely much better than last season
And last season we were on the edge of the playoffs all season.
I expect at least top 4 based on what we have.
However of course I suspect it will be the loanees and JTW thst will push us over the line.

 

[sheffielder]

Bush,

My worry about our team last year was the lack of motivation or urgency.
We played teams who parked the bus and got us on the counter attack looking dangerous.
We never had any tactics to counter this, often substitutions are made in the last 5 or 10 minutes.
We seemed to lack tactics too with morale being low and a couldn't care less attitude.
Brayford hasn't shown any sign of his loan form.
Che was great in the 1st few weeks then became quite ineffective as he was double marked.
Done was really poor last season. Long has confidence/ mental attitude issues.

Many of our problems last season have to be down to the shortcomings of the manager.
To say Adkins was "Mr Positivity" and supposedly big on psychology and mental approach he was like an imposter.

Even if we had exactly the same squad I expect us to perform much better with Wilder.
I expect Brayford, Done, Long and Adams to show improvements.
We've also got rid of our worse performers, that Adkins brought in, Hammond, Sammon, Woolford and co.
And replaced them with proven performers in league 1.

So for me we should be definitely much better than last season
And last season we were on the edge of the playoffs all season.
I expect at least top 4 based on what we have.
However of course I suspect it will be the loanees and JTW thst will push us over the line.

Long has mental attitude problems; are you ok to elaborate or do you mean he loses concentration?