http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/sa...will_add_numbers_sensibly___Les_Reed/?ref=rss An article about Reed's thinking on recruitment (carrying on from his recent interview on the radio). Talks sense as usual does our Les. Mentions demands for a bigger squad from outside and inside the club, but he feels you don't recruit for the sake of it. Sensibly says what do you do with a larger squad if you go out early from the Europa...important to keep players happy. Looks like there will be other youngsters going out on loan to Championship clubs this season...a real change to our policy from a couple of seasons back...when Les himself spoke out against such loans.
Heh, if we go out of Europe early we merely have the ability to rotate the squad a bit (which would have come in handy last season) and the ability to go for it in the cups. We're a long way in roster size from being so deep that quality players are getting frozen out.
The strange thing coming out of this interview is the apparent change in our young player loan system. I remember a series of interviews with LR saying he didn't believe in loaning youngsters to lower league teams...what's happened to change his mind?
But I think most teams play virtually the same side all the time...with the odd tactical change. We only really got caught out when Forster got injured...though we were lucky Pelle stayed fit. Ron could have written our team sheet in his sleep and I don't think that was down to lack of options....why change a winning side? And thank goodness, he is also a manager who treats the cups with respect. You lose games when you start getting too clever.
I think it is down to fewer chances to blood them in our team as we can't take so many risks. Nothing wrong with changing your mind with experience. Anyone else beginning to think that losing Les Reed could be worse for us even than losing Koeman?
I really disagree with the "why change a winning side" approach. Each game is different with different opposition, the manager picks the team to suit. You can win a game and a player it two may not have performed as the manager wanted. We hardly changed our team or could pick the team easily as there weren't many options. I still turned up at games wondering what the line up would be. You need the opposition to wonder that too. Let's not forget the window closes after the Europa qualification ends, so we'll know if we are through. I wouldn't be surprised to see a loan or two on top of the two new signings we are expecting.
Beginning to think? It's been fairly apparent to me that he is the brains behind what we are doing, for a while now.
I agree about Les. The black box and Les are our two advantages over others. They found RK. I don't know how old Les is but I hope he has no retirement plans at all.
I agree with you. However, for an alternative view just go to the comments on this article on the Echo. You say "king pin" they say "Beelzebub's really evil twin brother". Vin
I think the idea of not loaning players was based on the need to learn to play like the first team (formation and strategy). If they can see the loan club has a similar philosophy then there's not too much risk. And as we saw with Stephens and Turnbull, they get to play a long season which is good physical prep for any youngster.
