Despite myself getting involved in much of the Manager debate a few weeks ago, pretty much I have steered clear of the lessor known player situations with the exception of Gazza. Personally I always felt the obvious areas that needed looking at were on the wings and left back, which has already been debated so many times. However, my most recent thoughts are starting to turn towards our striker situation. Tomlin went elsewhere and I felt that is probably the biggest loss that I have seen from the Gills side from last season, despite his injury. Dennis Oli who was last seasons get out of jail card has gone to Wycombe. Ashley Miller although having ability does not have the physical strength to undo League Two opposition, so who have we got left? Adam Birchall...http://www.kentnews.co.uk/sport/gillingham_s_birchall_glad_to_be_back_after_injury_hell_1_1442843 Well by reading that, I am not confident that the guy is going to be ready for the start of the new season. 'It was just three months ago that he finally kicked a ball again without any pain, and is fully involved in training again although he isnât flying into any tackles just yet.' âIt feels fine Iâve joined in with everyone else with everything so far, Iâm still not quite there in terms of going in for hard tackles. Crikey this is League Two the home of hard tackles and the new season is only about five weeks away. So that leaves us with Super Keds up on his own again - Oh no, rewind to last season. Thoughts...
The hard tackles will be down to confidence as much as anything. It's natural to be hesitant after such a shocking injury. But I have to agree and believe Allen will look to strengthen in that area. I still believe we should look to exploit the loan market, how many times have we seen young loanees come to league 2 and net 20 plus a season. Think what we lacked last season was balance up front, it's difficult for Allen not knowing what state Birchall will be in come day one of the season. Personally I think we will see a winger and a striker come in very soon, I expect around 5 or 6 signings to be made to give us stronger depth. With regard to Miller, this could be his year, he needs to make the step up eventually and despite his size, he isn't going to suddenly grow a foot and bulk right up, he will be 17/18 next year and he already showed glimpses last year that he is ready. Give the lad a go, would also like to see Essam and Dack given a go.
I think we may have one permanent acquisition and one loan for the upfront problem, especially if we can have a true winger/striker like Barcham thrown into the mix. Miller is ready but in order to sustain a promotion push you need four strikers in my opinion, if one isn't firing on full cylinders he has someone biting at his heels to be in the starting lineup. We need that pressure. Has Vine signed for anyone yet? I still think we need more centre backs, when you run out of them as we did last year, the final man being Callum Davies' injury, you'd think we wouldn't be releasing two (three if you count Lawrence). We have a lot of quality in centre midfield and I think the finances would be better spent elsewhere than the players we have been linked with so far, I mean Flynn?! Really? Everyone was celebrating when he went to Blackpool...until we signed Lomas D:
I personally do not want to see miller starting up front for us at anypoint in this season. He is small with no strength. If miller plays i would have him out on the wing in a similar position that Luke rooney played. We need a proven 20 goal a season striker as well as a decent pacey winger. Loan deals to enhance the team yes, but loan deals to make the team no. Need to actually buy a striker and winger. Also need a centre back desperately. We have frampton who was useless last year and there is no competition for him with only Essam there. Davies isnt ready yet and cant play davies and essam as there both young and dont have enough experience to play together.
Without a 18-20 goal a season striker we will not go up, Birchall if fit and if he gets his form back (both big if's at the moment) could do the job but I don't think we can assume he will be able to score the goals required from the off. and I don't think Keds on his own up front will get half the goals required, So yes we need a a striker, and like others have said a fast player on the wing and cover for the centre back's and we need to sort the left and right back positions. I agree we have quality in midfield where we will get goals from but are lacking in defence, wide players and a proven goal scorer. Miller is a talent but not a first 11 pushing for promotion team, bring him on though and give him some game time he will only improve. UTG!!
Am I the only one who feels that are midfield needs strengthening too? The only player who really excelled last season was Jackman. Payne was as good as he was the previous season but showed no real signs of improvement. The marquee signings of Lee and Whelpdale struggled to live up to the hype. Whelps was unlucky with injuries but it raises question over his ability to play a full a season amd Lee was frankly a liability. It is no good having all the talent in the world if you don't have the discipline not to get booked ever game and miss a large amount of the season through suspension. It is obvious to me why Allen is looking at other CMs But fearing the wrath of brb I should bring it back on subject. Yes I feel that we need to strenghten the forward lines too
Don't forget that last season we were top scorers without a 20 goal striker, it was letting too many in that cost us.
this is a good point but we have lost where some of these goals came from with kuffour (ok the loan siginging kuffour not the other one) and tomlin who both scored and set up a few goals each, plus some of the other loanies we had. these players need to be replaced and we need to find a/another strike partner for kedwell given the brichall situation. winger is another problem as well as the whole back 4 although a the rb and lb can be sorted with regards to placement of jackman and fuller coming back as good as he was. center back however is a must, need a couple of players who have been around the league for a bit but not in the frampton, lawrence category
I think some people have been a bit harsh on Lee and Whelpdale. OK when we signed we were expecting lots from them and didnt start performing until about february, but when they did we probably had the best midfield within the league at the time with them two, Jackman and Payne. On the striking front we do need at least one more striker, but I don't see a mjor problem in giving Miller more of a chance. You can say he is small and has no strength but neither did Jackson and he managed to net 21 goals for us at this level and is now playing in the premier league. One more striker and sign a left winger that has goalscoring ability to help support the attack should get us the goals we need. For me another centre back, left back and left midfield/winger are the most important areas which we need to improve upon.
Just been looking through the PFA list of free agents, there are some players which stood out for me. Patrick Agyemang and Freddy Eastwood would be stand out players for this level, obviously Agyemang knows about us and we know about him. Eastwood would be tougher to try and secure due to his links with Southend and him joinging them on loan for the end of last season. Another player that interested me was a striker called Lyle Taylor. He's 22 & has recently been released by Bournemouth after they signed where he scored 34 goals in one season for Concord Rangers in the Ryman Premier? (maybe Ryman division one). He got loaned out to Hereford for a month in February and scored 2 goals in 8 appearances and Hereford were very disappointed that they couldn't keep him. Born in greenwich so obviously a local lad aswell which could help. Might be worth a shout for Mad Dog to give him a trial and have at look at him perhaps?
That Taylor sound like the perfect back up for us, should not be too pricey wage wise and may have a few goals in him, that is the sort of back up we need.
Well thats what I was thinking, mean really we did have the ideal replacement in Stefan Payne last season but because Hess was too stubborn to give him enough of a chance we missed out. He's now smashing them in again in non-league after Dean Holdsworth released after just one month at Aldershot. But I do like the sound of that Lyle Taylor geezer
We can't afford to have these two players absent for the majority of the season, especially on the wages they will be on
wont be eastwood!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18816822 as for payne, looked ok but we couldnt afford to give him opertunities,unlessthey were on loan and i dont think he was looking for that
BSG - No I know but I don't think they coped too well with the pressures that either us the fans or Hess put on them. I remember him slating them in interviews a couple of times, but I was more talking about how they performed so well in the latter stages of the season because that pressure was eased or they were able to settle more.
Whelpdale was brilliant last season and Lee was quite good aswell, I don't know what a lot of people expect Whelpdale to do, he can't do much more than he did other than play a few more games, Lee just needs to sort out his discipline.
Sorry but for a player to have a good season they need to play more than half the season... we simply can't have too many sicknote players or thugs in the side and expect to go up. Those two have ridden the hype of the their loan period for too long and this season they both need up their game or they will be out of the door
You are being too harsh on Whelpdale, I am sure he played nearly 40 games in cup and League, about 38 or 39 so he is no problem, I think he got 13 goals which is brilliant for a midfielder so you should give him credit. On the other hand Lee is a great player and is key when he plays but he does need to play more and I agree with you partly about him, not that he is bad, he just needs to sort out the discipline and improve his fitness to prevent picking up as many injuries, something many of the players need to do. Whelpdale is not the problem, yeah he didn't start the season great but you can't fault him in the last 20 games, he was on top form.
Just checked and you are right he played 34 games (league) which is a surprise to me... still the I think he under performed for large parts of the season
