Let's Talk... Wilder's Weird Signings

[Chabuddy G]

I don't get how Jagielka makes this list, at all. He's been out second choice centre back since he signed. Last year if Egan wasn't available, he played. This season we can add Ampadu to the mix, but he's still needed as cover. Guatenteed if we hadn't extended him and Egan got injured, we'd all be criticising not keeping an experienced centre back, as a cheap option.

Rodwell I suppose is a cheap utility man, doesn't add much though. We've struggled defensively and in midfield and he can't even make the squad, think that says it all.

The goal keeper situation is an odd one, but I'd guess we were worried we wouldn't get one out main targets. I'm assuming the plan was to then move Moore on, but he picked up an injury. Can't imagine it's too easy to move an injured keeper on, if you need a keeper they need to be available. I'm sure he'll move on in January.

Jags was clearly past it in that Man U game. Giving him another contract.
Rodwell a ‘cheap utility man’ ffs he’s about 9th choice centre half. What is the point? And if he’s cheap by PL standards that’s still a lot, and we’d be much better served letting a young en take that mantra.

 

[GymClassHero]

Jags was clearly past it in that Man U game. Giving him another contract.
Rodwell a ‘cheap utility man’ ffs he’s about 9th choice centre half. What is the point? And if he’s cheap by PL standards that’s still a lot, and we’d be much better served letting a young en take that mantra.

Then everyone complain that the young ones are inexperienced. Wilder will.be criticised whatever decision he makes, there will always be pros and cons depending on how you look at it so he just uses his best judgement.

 

[Chabuddy G]

Then everyone complain that the young ones are inexperienced. Wilder will.be criticised whatever decision he makes, there will always be pros and cons depending on how you look at it so he just uses his best judgement.

They’d never play. Just like Rodwell. Which is the point

 

[essexblade73]

What happened to that Nathan fella (forgot his surname!) who scored a screamer v Ipswich in the fa cup and was never to be seen in a blades shirt again?!

 

[essexblade73]

Also isnt Norrington Davies a left sided defender? Surely a better option to blood our own lads than bringing in an equally green Lowe? See also Reagan Slater, looks good everytime I see him play, never gets a sniff. I find it baffling.

 

[Balham]

What happened to that Nathan fella (forgot his surname!) who scored a screamer v Ipswich in the fa cup and was never to be seen in a blades shirt again?!

Nathan Thomas. Contract expired in the summer and he joined Hamilton as a free agent in November.

Also isnt Norrington Davies a left sided defender? Surely a better option to blood our own lads than bringing in an equally green Lowe? See also Reagan Slater, looks good everytime I see him play, never gets a sniff. I find it baffling.

Norrington-Davies is clearly a talent but until the start of August he'd never played above the third tier. Lowe had made over 40 appearances for Derby in the Championship along with 33 for Aberdeen in the SPL.

Slater's the same. He'd never played above League Two until he moved to Hull on loan. He's hardly first choice there having started once in the league so the Premier League is going to be well beyond him on current evidence.

 

[essexblade73]

Nathan Thomas. Contract expired in the summer and he joined Hamilton as a free agent in November.


Norrington-Davies is clearly a talent but until the start of August he'd never played above the third tier. Lowe had made over 40 appearances for Derby in the Championship along with 33 for Aberdeen in the SPL.

Slater's the same. He'd never played above League Two until he moved to Hull on loan. He's hardly first choice there having started once in the league so the Premier League is going to be well beyond him on current evidence.

Cheers fella. SPL is like league 1 in standard outside of the auld firm which explains why Lowe looks out of hia depth, plus Derby fans were not too bothered when Lowe went. I think wilder should have blooded ND and Slater earlier maybe? I dunno bud.

 

[Yogi]

We are a side in transition the group that took us up the leagues will be completely disbanded in the next 18 months baring one or two players. We can’t sign a whole 25 man squad that are at prem quality in that time period due to finances as players that are even seem as lower prem players cost 10 mill upwards depending on position. Therefore we are going to pad out the 25 with “weird” signings until such a time as the 11 is up to standard and we can start to spend heavily on depth or we develop our own young players to the required level but doing that consistently is hard.

 

[Chabuddy G]

Nathan Thomas. Contract expired in the summer and he joined Hamilton as a free agent in November.


Norrington-Davies is clearly a talent but until the start of August he'd never played above the third tier. Lowe had made over 40 appearances for Derby in the Championship along with 33 for Aberdeen in the SPL.

Slater's the same. He'd never played above League Two until he moved to Hull on loan. He's hardly first choice there having started once in the league so the Premier League is going to be well beyond him on current evidence.

Max Lowe had barely impressed at Derby, did well at Aberdeen granted but the SPL is a poor standard. Signing him was naive at best

 

[Lawrence]

They aren't that weird. They are just experienced back up players on presumably low wages. All clubs make signings like this. Man City signed Scott Carson, for example.

Sorry for disagreeing but I don’t think they are experienced? especially in the Premier League and most of the new recruits are Kids and unexperienced. at the start of the season CW said we need 2? Premier goal scorers, midfielder and cover for wingbacks, we didn’t get the premier Strikers! also with JOC injury CW said that we needed cover, but the covers never came? It seems that CW doesn’t trust Robinson (because he gave away a penalty and apparently the fans don’t like him?) CW has tried others except Jags and Robinson who are the natural replacement. finally we all know what CW is trying to do, he’s got to keep the wage bill down and all his original targets went elsewhere for big money and wages so to be fair if we can’t compete with other clubs then that’s how it is. We have a championship set-up, they used to call us a yo-yo club and unfortunately that’s what we are and will be until someone with some real money comes in! ‘you don’t win anything in the Premier league with kids’

 

[Deadly_D'Jaffo]

As mentioned on the other thread, some of the signings are inexplicable and have been proven wasteful.

Jayden Bogle

A good player at Derby, but handsome money for someone who is challenging a player in George Baldock who has almost been an ever present. With no game time, his development is being stifled while he can't even make it to the bench.

Max Lowe

As with Bogle, a bizarre signing given that we have Enda Stevens and Ben Osborn in this position. One good cross vs. Burnley aside has been poor.

Wes Foderingham

Seemed a straight swap for Simon Moore, but has proven to be no improvement on what Simon Moore is. So why?

Sander Berge

Great signing at a glance. Young, international, coveted by Europe's top clubs. So we snapped at an opportunity to bring in a quality footballer. Problem is did anyone analyse his style of play? When he was signed we had Norwood, Fleck, Lunny, Besic and Freeman playing out of their skin. A big chunk of budget to sign someone superfluous when we needed defensive reinforcements. This signing felt like someone blowing what's left of their home refurbishment budget on quality curtains and then Poly-filling the cracks in the rotten window frames.

Callum Robinson

Signed from PNE where he was predominantly in a free role behind the striker(s). We signed him knowing full well that we'd revert to a flat midfield 3 which meant his effectiveness as a striker, wide player or midfielder was always going to be limited. He was all but sold within 6 months.

Luke Freeman.

As above with CR, showed his true class as a midfielder behind strikers who can create chances and score goals. He was thrown into the first team and never put a foot wrong, even getting an assist vs. Palace. All but sold in < 12 months.

Mo Besic.

This for me, is possibly the unluckiest player of our questionable recruitment strategy. Signed as backup, came into the side and looked very much a player suited to our style of play; energetic, fierce and can knock the ball around (better then Lundstram did/can imo). He was just getting game time in January, scored a peach vs. Millwall and his reward was to be dropped vs. Palace away to make way for big signing Berge.

I could go further back into Evans, Leonard, Holmes, Heneghan etc.

Wilders recruitment policy will never reach Adkins or Clough levels of "WTF" but he can't be above criticism neither.

 

[Yogi]

As mentioned on the other thread, some of the signings are inexplicable and have been proven wasteful.

Jayden Bogle

A good player at Derby, but handsome money for someone who is challenging a player in George Baldock who has almost been an ever present. With no game time, his development is being stifled while he can't even make it to the bench.

Max Lowe

As with Bogle, a bizarre signing given that we have Enda Stevens and Ben Osborn in this position. One good cross vs. Burnley aside has been poor.

Wes Foderingham

Seemed a straight swap for Simon Moore, but has proven to be no improvement on what Simon Moore is. So why?

Sander Berge

Great signing at a glance. Young, international, coveted by Europe's top clubs. So we snapped at an opportunity to bring in a quality footballer. Problem is did anyone analyse his style of play? When he was signed we had Norwood, Fleck, Lunny, Besic and Freeman playing out of their skin. A big chunk of budget to sign someone superfluous when we needed defensive reinforcements. This signing felt like someone blowing what's left of their home refurbishment budget on quality curtains and then Poly-filling the cracks in the rotten window frames.

Callum Robinson

Signed from PNE where he was predominantly in a free role behind the striker(s). We signed him knowing full well that we'd revert to a flat midfield 3 which meant his effectiveness as a striker, wide player or midfielder was always going to be limited. He was all but sold within 6 months.

Luke Freeman.

As above with CR, showed his true class as a midfielder behind strikers who can create chances and score goals. He was thrown into the first team and never put a foot wrong, even getting an assist vs. Palace. All but sold in < 12 months.

Mo Besic.

This for me, is possibly the unluckiest player of our questionable recruitment strategy. Signed as backup, came into the side and looked very much a player suited to our style of play; energetic, fierce and can knock the ball around (better then Lundstram did/can imo). He was just getting game time in January, scored a peach vs. Millwall and his reward was to be dropped vs. Palace away to make way for big signing Berge.

I could go further back into Evans, Leonard, Holmes, Heneghan etc.

Wilders recruitment policy will never reach Adkins or Clough levels of "WTF" but he can't be above criticism neither.

Bogle isn’t really a head scratcher for me I think if we were doing better he’d get his chance but right now with the left hand side being so unsettled I can understand wilder not wanting to do the same with the right unless he’s forced too. The Berge signing at the time made perfect sense in terms of where we were as a club looking solid all over the pitch so making a luxury signing was appropriate at the time no one foresaw this level of injuries/players form dropping off a cliff. The others are either cheap cover or players signed for a formation that we ultimately didn’t go with. They’re not illogical signings.

 

[VictoryBlade]

Yes I will never get why we didn't try to sign Besic, had a bit of everything for me. Enforcer (which we don't have) simple passer which we don't have and box to box which we don't seem to have. Curious to say the least?

 

[TJ blade]

Bogle isn’t really a head scratcher for me I think if we were doing better he’d get his chance but right now with the left hand side being so unsettled I can understand wilder not wanting to do the same with the right unless he’s forced too. The Berge signing at the time made perfect sense in terms of where we were as a club looking solid all over the pitch so making a luxury signing was appropriate at the time no one foresaw this level of injuries/players form dropping off a cliff. The others are either cheap cover or players signed for a formation that we ultimately didn’t go with. They’re not illogical signings.

Burke's the head scratched for me, West Brom fans were laughing there sides sore when we signed him apart from his pace he looks like he's never played football before. Bottom line is though apart from Brewster which I rate we signed players what nobody else wanted through lack of finances I admit, in this division if you ain't got any money to spend on quality players you end up going down and that's probably were we are going sadly.

 

[Silent Blade]

Jayden Bogle

A good player at Derby, but handsome money for someone who is challenging a player in George Baldock who has almost been an ever present. With no game time, his development is being stifled while he can't even make it to the bench.

Got injured last July, didnt have a full pre-season

 

[Yogi]

Burke's the head scratched for me, West Brom fans were laughing there sides sore when we signed him apart from his pace he looks like he's never played football before. Bottom line is though apart from Brewster which I rate we signed players what nobody else wanted through lack of finances I admit, in this division if you ain't got any money to spend on quality players you end up going down and that's probably were we are going sadly.

Burke I think we brought in with a very specific role in mind that being the one he played at villa as a player who’s job is primarily to harass the keeper against opposition who want to play out from the back. Against villa this worked quite well their keeper was rushed quite a few times and we recovered the ball high up the pitch several times. The issue comes that in the absence of Mousset he’s now our go too physical forward and game stretcher which he probably can’t do consistently at this level to the required standard. I’d agree on the money front but also we’re having to try and replace a fair few players in one go which it’s hard to do on a budget. We’ve risen a long way with ageing players so we can’t rely on this group performing for multiple years at this level whilst we take our time to improve the line up sustainably.

 

[blades14]

Got injured last July, didnt have a full pre-season

No thats not the reason. Wilder in simple terms he's not going to put an inexperienced 20 year old at RB

 

[Revolution]

Burke I think we brought in with a very specific role in mind that being the one he played at villa as a player who’s job is primarily to harass the keeper against opposition who want to play out from the back. Against villa this worked quite well their keeper was rushed quite a few times and we recovered the ball high up the pitch several times. The issue comes that in the absence of Mousset he’s now our go too physical forward and game stretcher which he probably can’t do consistently at this level to the required standard. I’d agree on the money front but also we’re having to try and replace a fair few players in one go which it’s hard to do on a budget. We’ve risen a long way with ageing players so we can’t rely on this group performing for multiple years at this level whilst we take our time to improve the line up sustainably.

Burke was brought in because he was what was offered for Robinson. There was no actual plan beyond that, and it shows.

 

[Yogi]

Burke was brought in because he was what was offered for Robinson. There was no actual plan beyond that, and it shows.

I don’t know like I’ve said I think the plan was to have him as a presser/option off the bench if we were leading and teams were coming at us wilder talked about that pace being important in that scenario a lot at the end of last season in reference to Mousset. I don’t think the plan was ever for him to be a starter in week 10 and that’s what shows.