That's not exclusive to them so I think that's a bit unfair. Rudy Gestede just yesterday signed with a club in Aus and had been without a club just as long as those two. It's a common theme for players who had no club over this past off-season.
Gestede. Arse end of career, big name striker, big contract at 'boro yet less than 50 apps and 5 goals in 3 years at an average championship club. No wonder he's had to go to Aus. He's another reason boro have spaffed Gibsons millions for **** all return. Plus Gestede has been twice the player irvine and Stewart combined ever have been.
I'm not blaming the players, just my point was we overpaid for average players under Darnborough following relegation from the PL. Irvine was one of the better ones if you read my posts back, and I repeat I don't blame the players for agreeing the contracts. We didn't get value for most of them though. Hopefully things have changed. I think Irvine will do well to get another championship club, let alone be a key player at one. Stewart might get a squad number at a championship club but both would be signed by now if they were currently deemed to be good value for any club, not sat on their backsides. That's basic economics.
Well any contract is going to be less than they actually want at this level. There's also other stuff to consider; Irvine is an Australia international and clubs might not want a player who is constantly having to jet half way around the world. We also don't know if Irvine has been offered a contract anywhere else and turned it down, the player is free to choose and they don't have to accept anything if they don't want to. It's not as though he's short of a few quid.
I thought I heard he knocked back mid ranked SPL club to be fair, but considering 10 months ago we were signing a similar stature SPL clubs crown jewell in Scott, they're unlikely to have offered what we would be offering a key player now, in L1. Quite sure Irvine would get a key player contract in L1, but would he be prepared to accept it? Doesn't change my overarching point though, that we overpaid for players who ultimately didn't deliver and as a result can't command the same sort of contract they refused or flatly wouldn't entertain here last season. I take no pleasure in that assessment, but we're playing ****ing Rochdale, Accrington and Oxford as a result.
Depends who it was. He still lives around here, so he'd probably want to stay here unless they offered him a free house or something to that effect. He's got the Copa America (which Australia are invited to) next year, so he'll want to get a club sharpish to be considered.
Kingsley was one of worst signings of recent times. Slow, positionally poor, decision making questionable. I just didn’t rate him at all.
It's too easy to just have a go at LD, but there's been a clear shift in the type of players we brought in under Slutsky, then Adkins and now Grant. It's explicitly clear that they've all had key decisions in recruitment. Slutsky was abysmal and last minute, Adkins wasted a lot of money too although it seems to go forgotten/unnoticed. I dread to think how much we paid to get Martin on loan for the year & paying £400K for Lichaj was a major waste too. I'm not surprised they've all struggled to get clubs. Irvine wouldn't get into our team now, technically he's pretty poor although he did play some decent passes at times. Kingsley came with a big reputation, I remember seeing him for Swansea & being impressed but he was awful for us and no surprise he's in the SPL. Stewart was similar to Kingsley but never really cut it. Grant got the most out of him by a country mile but he just simply wasn't good enough
Slutsky was quite keen to get players in early I'm not sure you can blame him for the recruitment.. Remember every 'manager' since Bruce has been merely the Head Coach - i.e. not involved/head of recruitment. Shake my head a bit at the idea that Lichaj was somehow a waste of money.
The next 4 aren't bad at all though. If we win 3 of those we'll have a nice cushion from 3rd. It's already 4 points, we've just got to keep extending it now. Clearly, the last 4 of those 8 are all tricky but they're all around the Xmas period and I'm hoping that suits us. The games come in quick succession and everyone will have to make changes. Our squad's the strongest in the league, I don't think it's close either, Ipswich looked bang average after losing a few and we already know we can make 4/5 changes without much issue. The boys are flying at the minute so we've just got to continue, the Stevenage game is another brilliant opportunity as we get to use the full squad and keep everyone included and playing minutes. The best thing over the last few games is that we've started to be more clinical, we didn't need to get out of 2nd gear last night to win and they've been flying at home. It's difficult to know which of the top 5/6 are our main threats. Pompey are already 5 behind us and we've a game in hand. P'Boro are heavily reliant on JCH for goals and that's somewhat risky when he's never played more than 30 league games in any season in his pro career so far.
All the managers wanted players in early. Slutsky only bought players that had scored against us, he was only with us a short while but he made a royal mess, the effects of it we endured for 3 years. He did a decent job in Russia but in Europe, he's proven to not being up to the task despite being extremely likeable. Lichaj was just remotely average. He was always likely to be released, so why spend money on him? We could've easily picked up a full back who could've done a similar job on a free and saved £400k. For his first season with us, he shared the RB spot with Kane and played LB a fair bit as our options were garbage. Whilst Todd Kane was far from exceptional, he had a lot more going for him than Lichaj.
I think you are being a bit harsh on Slutsky, I don't think he had the best support from the owner's recruitment wise, he certainly got the team scoring, but needed help on the defensive side. I believe he did a good job at Vitesse in Holland, Max Clark has a lot to thank him for I would say taking him there and getting the best out of him.
I am sorry to say this but I don’t think about players who effectively dropped us like a hot stone, just when we needed them. They could have played and the ones who ****ing sulked whilst taking our coin can just right off. Any manager who rings Grant and says “we are thinking about signing Irvine” will get told the truth. I would love to hear those calls.
400 k for a proven championship defender not good value? And I thought he was a free anyway. Solid player who didn’t let us down until the end
Nothing wrong with both the players ability. Also didn't they both come on deals from clubs we had sold a player too ? But I'd take a wild punt on the reason why both of them are without clubs, along with Jackson Irvine, is that they value themselves too high. Or their agents do.
