Lot of discussion previously on clubs desire to have a foreign coach, this has to be part of it. Not all coaches are good at managing overseas players. Peter Reid stands out for me as a great coach of British players but overseas signings typically sank without a trace.
Do you not get what you pay for though. Look at our squad etc. The players who are going to go for big money are all UK based. The championship is incredibly robust and most of our foreign based singing have shown they are not up to it.
Yes you do but you also pay a premium for English. Always been the case. As I keep saying though, we have to look for value signings until we bring money in. Right at this moment in time we can't go and splash £5m on a forward, nobody in the championship is doing that without selling someone first, so unfortunately we are having to look lower which increases the risk of the signing failing.
He didn't do his first team chances any harm at all, he chased everything and was a nightmare for Bradfords defence.
No coincidence that our most linked away players are British/ ex British based The Foreign market has been a massive let down for us. Maybe we’ve learned this and have targeted British based players like we did in pre season 22/23, either way we have big 4 weeks coming up. Sink or swim for Speakman.
Hope so. It's very early days but I think it's clear that the majority of the second string are below the standard. We need to move most on and replace with greater quality to improve and or offer, real support to the first team.
Season starts in less than 2 weeks, 1, new manager comes into a new job in a foreign country with no experience of the championship and he still has no assistant manager or coaches and making do with Dodds and Proctor. 2, Still no striker who you would say will score us the goals to even compete in the top half of the table never mind for playoffs or promotion. 3, no CDM to replace Evans, to me this is a massively important position in our team for the way we set up and play not asking Neil or Browne to play their cos they can, sign a f***ing player who thrives there man, 4, the list could go on but I’ve got no confidence in Speakman or KLD at the minute to change it anytime soon! Call me a flapper twitchy arse etc but the Striker, Midfielder situation have gone on too long and us as fans can see it so why can’t they? Too stubborn to admit it? Money? Incompetent? I know the window is open still and it might change but I’ve got no faith in them whatsoever, complete soundbytes and jargon come out of Speakman when it seems a bit of positivity is happening but goes into hibernation when the going gets tough! Rant over
How do yiu know hes making do with them? Maybe hes been impressed by them, remember neil n mowbray were both impressed by them - Neil wanted to take them to stoke with him Yes we need a striker Neil is being turned into a CDM, he prefectly suits what they want a CDM to do but it was important to sign another quality CM - they did that in browne. We could probably do with a back up CDM but unlikely we will sign one who is better in the role than Neil. Speakman and KLD have chamged things, folk kept moaning that we havent signed experienced or ready to start championship player, theyve signed 3 of them this yr. The only thing they havent really done is sign a striker yet. Lets wait n see how the season starts before moaning about things
We need cover for Neil but deep midfield is by far Neils best position. Improvements to the squad will be made when players leave, we need to generate funds like everyone else is doing.
Fair do's, that is a decent rant! The striker one has been done to death. Someone like Conway would be great so it seems odd that we are not after him. One theory that makes sense to me is the wages we would need to pay Conway are higher than what our structure is set up for yet. If Conway is worth £5 million with a year left on his contract then he's someone we would need to pay £10 million for in normal circumstances - with the wages that go with that kind of fee. Again, a big sale or some medium sales will change how we can operate and one of the reasons why a team like Boro are a step or two ahead of us.
I posted this in the match thread last night but will put it here as well. In 18 (75%) of the last 24 championship seasons, a team priced 20/1 or higher have finished in the top 3. We're currently 25s. I think it's obvious the club are trying to tweak the signings to add more experience. When we sign a striker and change the squad with outgoings/incomings. There's no reason why we can't finish top 3. I think some underestimate how good this starting 11 can be, especially with a decent head coach and style of play (hopefully)
First I’ve heard of the fee tbf, everywhere I looked said undisclosed and Speakman said ‘significant’. Didn’t even see a journalist mention any fee. No reason to doubt you like, but I’d be surprised if we got that much. Basically a championship reserve player.
