Yeah possibly mate, just does not make sense to me. Just get out and up front and give the fans something to chew on, it is very weak in my opinion.
It is weak... We hear CP getting "excited" & talking of "visions", but nobody from the club has found it necessary to elaborate on any of it..? I agree that the proof is in the pudding, but I'm having a job finding the pudding at the moment.
I don't like the early signs. Ideally you'd want the new owners to meet the manager and say something along the lines of "How can we strengthen the squad?". The last thing CP would say is "We need another goalie and a couple more central midfielders". So I assume Roland is already calling the shots on the playing staff. All this stuff from the previous owners about making sure that they passed the baton to a suitable owner, maybe they had their fingers crossed behind their back. Out of the frying pan into the fire? Time will tell.
In all fairness Powell does have a Goalie fetish. David Button allegedly cost 200K - which he spent at a time when we had Hamer, Sullivan and Pope and no money for transfers. Similarly he bought Hamer in when we had a functioning Rob Eliott with John Sullivan at back up (which I'm sure everyone will agree was adequate cover at League 1 level at that time).
I don't understand why we have taken Thuram, the Standard Liege goalkeeper. This is the one position in the squad that we actually have adequate cover in. I was hoping that Pope would gain experience in the Oxford game. The owner is rumoured to enjoy moving his players around like chess pieces. I am all for Powell being held accountable, but it's only fair that that is with his players. I am totally underwhelmed by this new era so far. No statement from the Belgian, just a succession of platitudes from Powell. We need oven ready Championship players to boost our squad and keep us up, with maybe the odd talented foreign SL loan thrown in. What we definitely don't need is a team of Carlos Kickaballs from SL and a revolving loan door policy a la Pardew.
Could be that the Belgian is trying it on with Powell in terms of what he can get away with. Hard to imagine that when Powell discussed his squad strengthening priorities for January, he said "can I have a 4th goalkeeper please Roly?"
Just realised that Chris Powell is the noise I make when I accidentally chow down on an inverted Walkers crisp and impale the roof of my mouth. I doubt this is the same for Ducatelet as he is Flemish; and I should imagine the flem cushions such a risk. What will we do when he sends Yann to Belgium?
I personally think we`re still a bit light under the crossbar. Maybe a decent Swedish keeper and a good apprentice from league two and we can really kick ass.
All I can imagine is Hamer moving on. He will still be worth a couple hundred thousand to someone, despite his contract situation. I think that will then finance the Stewart deal (Hull reportedly wanting 200k). So it could be that CP wanted cover? Or he didn't want another goalkeeper and is just going to have to lump with it. Maybe get Lilian out of retirement as cover for Solly?
Wouldn't it be nice if Hercule Poirot sent out a statement of intent this week by signing us an English Championship striker for say....£1m It would put a few more bums on seats this Saturday for starters, and make us all feel like we supported a serious football club again.
Yes that would be good. The last 7-figure strikers we bought were Andy Gray, Izale McLeod, and before that Marcus Bent. Have I got that right?
On the other hand Kermit was a freebie (or a nominal fee), Andy Hunt was £500,000 Super Clive was £800,000.
Agreed Vol, We need a good striker, Haynes, Obika & fuller all chipped in with valuable goals last season, and we've missed that... Getting more bums on seats should be on the agena, but nothing that's happened so far indicates that'll happen, so come on RD give us something to get excited over.
The greatest guitarist the world has ever seen (Django Rheinhardt) came from Belgium. Co-incidence? I think not.
