We'd just have to make do with the sort of average players that get you to 8th in the Premier League.
Thats right. Bruce attracts Premier League players and then gets them to play like Championship players. Monk get players you've never heard of and gets them playing like a team in the top half of the Premier League.
Without knowing the inside info! He maybe looked at wages & league position before deciding which team to play for not so much which manager?
No! A footballer coming from another country usually goes on the advice of his agent! If he says go to Swansea because they're gonna pay you more then Brucey at hull then that's a no brainer! If Dawson gets told he's surplus at Spurs and he can find another club don't you think monk would have had a chat with him? Telling him swansea are a safer bet? We know sunderland nearly had shirts printed but he chose Bruce. As have others
If you could, you'd find there's nothing. A better example would have been Diomande, we know Barcelona nearly had shirts printed for him, but he chose Bruce.
Back on Ipswich: I had a coupla pints with a coupla mates, in my local. It's the day of the Thursday /Thirsty Club; bunch of guys in, including a quadraplegic American (software writer), a retired colonel, a market trader, two other Yorkshiremen (one born in Donny and the other born in the same maternity home as me, in Wetherby). Anyway - the chef comes out at some point and eyeballs me. He's an Ipswich man... So I don't rub it in by not rubbing it in. He asks me who we've got next, and then exclaims "Ah, Birmingham, isn't it?" At which point the Brummie refrigeration engineer looks up, and then at me. I lift my pint of Tydd Steam and toast him. Then I look back at the three other guys at our table. Someone says "Hull City?"
I beg to differ. I think that somebody like Allerdyce or Monk could easily have attracted the likes of Livermore, Huddlestone, Long and Abel H. He might not have gone for those players himself, but it's folly to assume Bruce is some sort of major pull towards our club. It's a benefit as he's well respected, but the obvious factor is the money we can offer players.
I'm not sure what that has to do with us signing players under the noses of clubs that weren't in for them, but it's unlikely we'll go second on Saturday, I expect Reading to beat Fulham, putting second out of our reach.
