True, but the same can be said for JoS, Bramble, Kilgallon and Bardsley. Christ, bardsley is our longest serving player and he can't pass! What fullback can't pass a ball? The age of Cuellar and JoS means you have to let their distribution go, they're old school defenders, Old dogs and new tricks spring to mind. Who would you have signed instead of Cuellar? Bare in mind he would have to have been a free agent and a wage of no more than 25 grand?
I'm not sure mate, but the players are out there if you look and scout hard enough (look at PDC now Roberge and Diakite are both mid 20s). Mon went safe with Cuellar as he'd worked with him before, you can probably tell I'm not a fan. The likes of Laing and Egan were both fit at the start of the season and are very highly rated, but we all know Mons attitude towards youth was poor. There must have been other options than Cuellar.
But those players weren't out of contract then were they? It wasn't the same scouting network as we had now. MoN had just come into the club after being out of the game for a while, He only had Pop Robson's scouting archive to work from. He's not going to hire personal scouts to scour the globe looking for talent while he's not working in the hope he gets a job and then make use off his findings. Also we don't know if Roberge and Diakite can cut it yet do we. The two scenarios are incomparable for me like. I'm not defending MoN's of Sunderland AFC's transfer policy at that time but fact is we needed quality going forward and MoN had a budget to strengthen a very weak squad. Cuellar was a shrewd stop gap signing that helped maintain a decent mid table defensive record last season. He's served his purpose, if he stays next season he'll hopefully be no more than 5th-6th choice cb then bye bye.
good or bad signings by him,he couldnt get the team to play anything but crap football.......i blame him
My point was every summer there is the quality available (even on Bosmans if you look hard enough)) not that Diakite and Roberge were available then. I feel Mon played safe with Cuellar and could have done better in hindsight, we'll just have to agree to disagree. PDC has only just come in in even less time than Martin has yet he looks a lot more organised and is very clear what he wants from the market (albeit short has played a big part in the sacking of scouts etc).
sorts the wheat from the chaff, same players over the last seven games , he instilled belief, not negativity.......i blame blinkered fans
I'm not disputing that but the fact reamins he actually signed some pretty decent footballers in his 15 months here. Really? It all seem very much a scatter gun approach to me like? We seem to be linked or be talking to all and every out of contract bosman out there, in the hope we actually get 3 or 4 of them on board. I'm not sure you can call that organised personally but at least its a strategy of some sort. How successful it is we will find out in the next 6 or 7 months I guess but if it isn't, will fans be calling for his head by Christmas, or will he get 3 or 4 transfer windows to carry out his plans? Most fans on here wanted rid of MoN very quickly once we hit a bit of trouble, so I expect the same strictness to be adhered to with PDC and not any excuses that he hasn't been here very long?
correct, time will tell ,,lets gather fresh hope..........................its not my fault....i blame roy walker and oneil
PDC won't get three or four transfer windows if things go tits up Cest just like no other manager does these days. Fans will turn on PDC just like they did with Mon and Bruce. For all I know I may be calling for his head by Easter. As for his transfer policy it is risky yes, but I think it's the right way to go forward. We've not spent a penny yet and brought in around 4-5 players from abroad some of whom have been playing at a very decent level (Cabral, Diakite).
