Pardew's job was a rebuilding one, Adkins' job so far has been to get us promoted. They both did their job successfully in that respect. Bit unfair to judge Adkins on transfers before he's had the summertime to shop around and make informed decisions.
Puncheon was good, if inconsistent, under Pardew. Antonio was handy as his goal at Wembley showed, and Waigo was always in the right place at the right time. Wouldn't have made Wembley or beat Yeovil 1-0 in the last seconds if it weren't for him. And Harding is a good player, as proven by being voted best LB in the league.
Well in my opinion, Puncheon had ability but his decision making was shocking! I lost count how many times he would run into the opposition player instead of playing the ball or he would play the wrong pass. Antonio's first touch was awful and his crossing was awful too - sound familiar? Yep. Dany N'Guessan. Waigo was a half decent footballer but inconsistent. Popped up with a couple of vital goals and had a great attitude. Also sound familiar? Yep, you guessed it. Jonathan Forte. I don't see the point in having a defender that can't defend. Dickson is SOOO much better IMO.
I think it is time to draw the line on the past and just concentrate on the future, there is nothing we can do about the past, but I am sure our opinions on what we want for the future will be taken into account, keep the speculation going, and keep suggesting positive transfer candidates.
The idea of the OP to question how Adkins spending will shape up is a good one because assuming he get's a decent budget, it will be a new experience for him. But some of the comments afterwards are quite bizarre. Adkins has had very little in the way of a budget since he arrived and has got us promoted with mainly Pardew's aquisitions. He should only be judged by how he does in the next transfer window, yet some doubt him already. I would be surprised if he and his team didn't have a good idea of what a good player is at this level . It seems there are some who look to doubt Adkins for no good reason, I mean what has he done for us since promotion? Absolutey nothing.
Not if Cork turns out to be useless... Plus I wasn't really having a go at Adkins, I'm just saying we don't know how good he is in the transfer market, which I think is fair enough. And in my opinion the only player he has signed who has been half decent was Chaplow, and even then he's not had the same impact as Lambert, Fonte, Barnard, Harding, Jaidi etc. Some managers, despite being good coaches/tacticians just cannot spot a player (Rafa Benitez anybody?)
He also has to overcome the fact that players are always impressed by the manager being a previous star, like Keegan, Souness etc. He hasn't that charisma so has to work harder to convince them to join us. We'll just have to see what happens in the closed season.
I can't get my head around this post. Antonio worse than N'Guessan and Forte? Could you see either of them scoring the goals that Antonio did for us last season? Waigo was a bit of an unknown quality but I wouldn't really compare him to the above two. He seemed to be a Cortese signing (as with Guly this season). Harding's been probably the best free signing we've had in years. As someone said, didn't he get best LB in the league this year?
Andy Carroll is a fine example. Forte brings something a little different to the game with his pace, because we don't have many pace merchants.
A lot of really good players don't make great managers. A lot of great creative and goalscoring players are right arrogant w*nkers! Playing and managing are very different skills and while experience in the game certainly helps, it's not everything.
are you saying that benitez can't spot good players, cos that is absolute madness. i suppose alonso, mascherano and agger aren't good players. and he brought in torres who was immense until recently
I'm at university so I don't get a chance to see saints play as much as I like but surely there can be no disputing the ability of Dan Harding? League 1 team of the year I mean come on...
He makes a few slips at the back and sometimes gets caught ballwatching, but I really don't get why some people so dislike him. At our level, its an inevitable consequence of being a forward-thinnking fullback. Dickson and Richardson are much the same.
