by royalgull » 22 Jan 2013, 09:53
A good percentage of those are from the youth setup or with the likes of Baker/Artemi previously not realistic options who are I would imagine on next to nothing. Not sure releasing the likes of Halpin, Yeoman and whoever else is going to significantly increase the lee way within the budget to add 2 or 3 better players.
Those 3 you want (and I agree that those are the positions we need to improve) will all cost the most in terms of wages and bonuses to actually sign, more so than any other psoitions on the field if we want half decent ones. Releasing Halpin and Mckenzie isn't going to be able to mean we can sign Zebroski and a midfield player.
Even loans aren't neccesarily free, a lot of loan signings have wage costs between the borrowing club and parent club halved especially again if that player is on a decent salary at his parent club. It's not free.
it's a nightmare trying to do this now to tell the truth, we've got more chance in the summer when contracts expire here and we can chop and change the squad a little bit. Don't get me wrong this is where I think Ling has failed this season, he failed last summer. Not in letting Olejnik and O'Kane go, because we had no choice. But in our attacking signings, they've been dire. Our budget is and was tiny so to chuck pretty much the lot at one player means he has to be a success. If he isn't then you're knackered, that's the problem. We're not a club who can do that. But there you go, even Bodin has cost us £70k and god knows what on wages...he's one of them attackers or wingers with pace. How much is a good one then?!!! It meant we had no room to get anyone else in and were forced to go into the bargain bin and go with the kids. Don't mind playing the kids if they are good enough but if they aren't then it's bad management in my opinion.
Having said that I saw us quite a bit last season and I never thought we were particularly a good side, certainly not as good as the team we had the season before. We had one way of playing, keep it tight at the back, Olejnik have a stormer, O'Kane creat something, Howe/O'Kane/Mansell score win 1-0, repeat. I made the point at the start of the season we wouldn't do that again this year. Mansell and Stevens both got 10 League goals last year (1st time in their careers) so it was ridiculous to expect that to happen again, bonus goals from them two if you get more than 5 especially in Mansell's case. Howe's a good player he'll always get us goals in this league, but O'Kane going meant we lost 10 goals scored roughly plus another 10 or so assists a team likes ours can't lose that from an attacking sense. the biggest loss being Bobby, that's not a go at Poke who is a steady L2 keeper who has got better from a shakey start but he isn't Bobby and that bloke literally won us about 20 points last year easily maybe more. We were a midtable side with a Championship goalkeeper who won us points. this year we're just a midtable side.
PS agree with both comments about the standard of football. Admittedly I don't get to as many games as most but I think we've played well in the games I've seen in about 3 games under Ling in total (Plymouth 2nd half, Oxford away 1st half last year, Accrington at home last year and cheltenham at home in the playoffs) Everything else has been turgid to watch. We dont' pass the ball as nicely, we have fewer attacking threats on the pitch than most teams I've ever seen and we are solely reliant on one bloke to do something to get us a goal. This MUST be addressed.
A good percentage of those are from the youth setup or with the likes of Baker/Artemi previously not realistic options who are I would imagine on next to nothing. Not sure releasing the likes of Halpin, Yeoman and whoever else is going to significantly increase the lee way within the budget to add 2 or 3 better players.
Those 3 you want (and I agree that those are the positions we need to improve) will all cost the most in terms of wages and bonuses to actually sign, more so than any other psoitions on the field if we want half decent ones. Releasing Halpin and Mckenzie isn't going to be able to mean we can sign Zebroski and a midfield player.
Even loans aren't neccesarily free, a lot of loan signings have wage costs between the borrowing club and parent club halved especially again if that player is on a decent salary at his parent club. It's not free.
it's a nightmare trying to do this now to tell the truth, we've got more chance in the summer when contracts expire here and we can chop and change the squad a little bit. Don't get me wrong this is where I think Ling has failed this season, he failed last summer. Not in letting Olejnik and O'Kane go, because we had no choice. But in our attacking signings, they've been dire. Our budget is and was tiny so to chuck pretty much the lot at one player means he has to be a success. If he isn't then you're knackered, that's the problem. We're not a club who can do that. But there you go, even Bodin has cost us £70k and god knows what on wages...he's one of them attackers or wingers with pace. How much is a good one then?!!! It meant we had no room to get anyone else in and were forced to go into the bargain bin and go with the kids. Don't mind playing the kids if they are good enough but if they aren't then it's bad management in my opinion.
Having said that I saw us quite a bit last season and I never thought we were particularly a good side, certainly not as good as the team we had the season before. We had one way of playing, keep it tight at the back, Olejnik have a stormer, O'Kane creat something, Howe/O'Kane/Mansell score win 1-0, repeat. I made the point at the start of the season we wouldn't do that again this year. Mansell and Stevens both got 10 League goals last year (1st time in their careers) so it was ridiculous to expect that to happen again, bonus goals from them two if you get more than 5 especially in Mansell's case. Howe's a good player he'll always get us goals in this league, but O'Kane going meant we lost 10 goals scored roughly plus another 10 or so assists a team likes ours can't lose that from an attacking sense. the biggest loss being Bobby, that's not a go at Poke who is a steady L2 keeper who has got better from a shakey start but he isn't Bobby and that bloke literally won us about 20 points last year easily maybe more. We were a midtable side with a Championship goalkeeper who won us points. this year we're just a midtable side.
PS agree with both comments about the standard of football. Admittedly I don't get to as many games as most but I think we've played well in the games I've seen in about 3 games under Ling in total (Plymouth 2nd half, Oxford away 1st half last year, Accrington at home last year and cheltenham at home in the playoffs) Everything else has been turgid to watch. We dont' pass the ball as nicely, we have fewer attacking threats on the pitch than most teams I've ever seen and we are solely reliant on one bloke to do something to get us a goal. This MUST be addressed.
