Thoughts? On the basis Leon Best isn't going to happen sod it I'm not too upset re Moore - could be a wildcard and will at least put in a shift. Spence WAS a good RB / RWB at one point - not sure why he's unattached perhaps injury troubles? I don't know but that indicates we'll be sticking 3-5-2 the rest of the season. Probably helps Dozzell get game time on the positive - on the negative side we're just miles away from competing with the top 10 and Mick / no Mick we're frankly a club going absolutely nowhere barring a mass class of 92 fluke from the academy. To be fair, Emmanuel/ Bishop / Dozzell and Kenlock are getting more time and the academy is churning them out more so than in recent years but it does feel like a very sad and sorry time at the minute to be a town fan. Field Marshall - in regards to snapping up Lawrence, we'd all love to however sadly with the inflated prem tv deal more or less trippling transfer fees we cannot compete to sign the lad. He'll go somewhere for £3 - £5 mill and we won't stump up that sort of £££. I actually don't mind long term loanees ala Fraser / Lawrence - it's worth taking advantage of a bit of class but obviously it's upsetting that we're sooo unlikely to sign them long term. I bring my thoughts back to when I met Milne at the 2-1 Bristol City loss a year ago and the town strategy was essentially - * Adhere to FFP ( hope many other clubs don't and incur penalties ) was my translation of that. * Mick IS being backed in the transfer market ( equates to he can sign frees / loanees and we'll underbid for many a player ) * 8 youth players in the first team squad and more onus on youth going forward. It's all well and good chaps but short-term we're BUGGERED!
They seem like squad cover players, to me. MK Dons released Spence this season, and they're a League One club. Yes, he was considered a player with a lot of potential and was highly rated at West Ham, at one point. Maybe he can push on and achieve something here? As mentioned elsewhere, he was on trial with us before, but wasn't deemed good enough then. So what's changed? And do we really need a right-back when Emmanuel is performing so well? I guess Spence can provide cover at centre-back, which is where he may play in a 3-5-2 formation. This suggests the likely departures of Berra and Chambers in the near future. Moore seems a like-for-like, cheap replacement for Murphy. The club will hope he is a cost effective replacement, but is scoring record isn't exactly flattering at non-league level. We have unearthed the occasional cheap gem before on a budget, maybe we'll get lucky again? The implication could be that Moore is our new striker and all those expensive, proven strikers we were previously linked with are redundant now. If the club seriously believe Moore is the answer to our striking difficulties, they're playing a very risky game. We need proven Championship quality up front. We need creativity in midfield. Lawrence won't move here permanently. Not unless we're Premier League. I agree that the Blackburn result, although a nervy one, did showcase a more progressive formation, more emphasis on attacking, and more trust in our young players. This is the way we should be going, particularly as the play offs are more or less off, realistically speaking. Ultimately, I still think we're in a bad place. Mick has lost the fans, he's not the future, and I think we'd benefit from bringing in a younger manager sooner rather than later, to help with that inevitable transition process. I think Evans needs to seriously reconsider his position at the club. We cannot get promotion on a budget. We've tried it. When management targets a player who can improve the squad and is a realistic proposition, then we should try sign him. £2m for a striker at this level is not extortionate anymore, it's below the market value. We should stop living in a transfer market with old values.
We have a small squad so we need a few bodies in. We're not going to spend lots of money on all of them so I'm hoping we will see one marquee signing to go along with the cheap players we have acquired to fill out the team.
Westy, with the incoming players costing very little or nothing at all so far and probably 4 or 5 leaving at the end of the season this surely frees up money for a quality signing, and as Nuggets rightly said we have to get in the real world with regards to transfer fees for quality players who can move a Club up the table. We've tried for several seasons now selling our assets and replacing with poorer players if at all with the blindingly obvious consequences that the quality stock is depleted and the equally obvious result that we struggle in the league, sometime soon this has to stop or as you say we are buggered. I thought that having pinched a replay in the Cup we might go for it tonight but the team is even weaker than the PR match side, whilst I wish the boys well I think the team selected shows a complete lack of interest in the competition, it's so bloody infuriating.
Problem is FM we lose £6 - £8 mill per year - if we didn't then of course ££££ could but it seems we're trying to get closer to break even each year. Very sad how wages have completely spiraled out of control in this league.
