We used to be, right up to the point where Ehab sacked Mike Phelan. Stan Ternent was already knobbed off that Bruce had gone, apparently that pushed him over the edge. The recruitment since then has been pretty ****, if I'm totally honest.
Lee Darnbrough brought in Stuart White as the Chief Scout, who up until that point was the chief scout at Wigan (who had just gone down to League One). I mean, look at the players we've brought in since Stan left:
17-18 (18th)
Fraizer Campbell
Kevin Stewart
Ondrej Mazuch
Stephen Kingsley
Seb Larsson
Jon Toral
Nouha Dicko
Jackson Irvine
Angus McDonald
Eric Lichaj
Ola Aina
Michael Hector
Fikayo Tomori
Harry Wilson
18-19 (13th)
David Milinkovic
Reece Burke
Jordy De WIjs
George Long
Liam Ridgewell
Todd Kane
Tommy Elphick
Chris Martin
Marc Pugh
19-20 (24th - R)
Matt Ingram
Tom Eaves
Danny Lupano
Ryan Tafazolli
Sean McLoughlin
George Honeyman
Callum Elder
Leo Lopes
Josh Magennis
Callum Jones
Norbert Balogh
Elliot Bonds
Martin Samuelsen
James Scott
Mallik Wilks
Festus Arthur
Josh Bowler
Matthew Pennington
Herbie Kane
Marcus Maddison
20-21 (1st in League 1 (P))
Lewie Coyle
Josh Emmanuel
Richie Smallwood
Greg Docherty
Alfie Jones
Thomas Mayer
Jordan Flores
Max Clark
Hakeeb Adelakun
Regan Slater
Gavin Whyte
Dan Crowley
21-22 (19th)
Andy Cannon
George Moncur
Randell Williams
Tom Huddlestone
Tyler Smith
Regan Slater (permanent)
Ryan Longman
Nathan Baxter
Di'Shon Bernard
Matt Smith
Allahyar Sayyadmanesh
Marcus Forss
Liam Walsh
This season isn't over so I won't put up the lads from this season, but picking through that lot, how many would you say (out of however many that is) you saw and thought "wow, what a player we've got here). Wilson? Irvine? Honeyman? Doc? Slater maybe? Allahyar? There's a hell of a lot of dross there and most of them are bang average at best. I liked Lichaj and Larsson, but they were hardly stand outs for us. The players signed in League One were much better given our division, but it's quite easy to see why we've been so mediocre the past few seasons and why we haven't kicked on, our recruitment has been nothing short of ****.
Christ there’s some ****e on that list.
Liam Walsh was personally one of the worst signings for me. It’s as if he just forgot to get on the Swansea team coach back to Swansea and we said **** it, we’ll sign him.