Been going on since he took over now hasn't it. Scrimping on a striker. Frigan was supposedly close last week, what's happened to that?
It is crazy that for one reason or another we keep letting summers pass us by without getting anywhere near assembling a decent squad, and playing most or all of pre-season with a team reliant on academy kids to make up the numbers. Obviously the reasons for it this year are different to last but the situation is the same. It should be a source of real embarrassment for Acun and his people to have a squad this unprepared for the new season again. In both cases, the problem is two-pronged in that we struggle so much to recruit and also are so poor at getting use out of and retaining existing players. Going into the start of every summer needing 10-15 players is a big part of the problem. It must also be a big reason why our finances are so poor because we just piss money away on these players time and time again. It's all been said before but it can't really be said enough. There are still so many questions about last summer for me. How did we spend so much money whilst getting such little value? Why did so many players turn us down earlier in the summer? Why did Acun being in Turkey cause such a problem? The only explanation I can think of is that Tim Walter was just that unimpressive and/or unlikeable that we couldn't get anyone to come until we started getting desperate and paying silly money. In which case, what an abject failure it was to gamble everything on him on the flimsy, populist belief that he would improve us by 'getting it forward faster'.
Because they’re acutely aware how woeful our options are and they probably don’t want to go to the emergency options unless they absolutely need to? Frigan is clearly the one they want and he’s keen to be here. The signings we’ve made in other positions are not players likely to start. The striker we sign will almost definitely be someone to start.
If we can get Giles firing a back 4 of Giles, Egan, Hughes and Drameh is probably quite decent. Semi and Coyle decent back up players. Just worry about left back and who the 4th CB recruit that is being speculated could be. As a club with mid table as the likely best case this year that is a decent back 4 though I am sure most would agree.
I think that’s utter rubbish about Walter We didn’t sign anyone as the money wasn’t there to sign anyone That’s why we signed them in the last week in desperation To say no one wanted to come cos of Walter is ridiculous And doesn’t stand up at all Or how do you explain puerta Alzate etc
Well it seems we did spend loads of money, hence the position we're in. £2m for Burstow supposedly. A few million each for Kamara and Belloumi. Plenty of other fees and apparently big wages too. And crucially, we were trying to spend more but couldn't find anyone to take it. We wanted to sign Cannon on a permanent for something like £7m towards the end of the window but he didn't want a permanent move and we ended up not getting another striker. The accounts for last season will be interesting when they come out. My explanation for how we signed the players we did is what I already said: that we got desperate after missing out on so many players and started offering silly money. Not saying it's definitely right about Walter, just it's all I can think of that explains it. I don't think a lack of money explains it for the reasons explained above.
Most disastrous ever loan signing? Barely played. Had no impact when he did. Cost a fortune. Caused the embargo and transfer ban. Touted to return. ****ed off to The Blunts instead.
There's a reasonable chance that our Owner is perfectly capable of putting people off the Club. He's not averse to nudging certain individuals under the wheels of public transport vehicles for egotistical effect...
For me, he was the player that typified how much damage Walter did. I recall him often dribbling out, getting caught in possession and out of position or struggling to get back and clearly out of breath. I’m not sure he (and others knew what he was supposed to do. He never recovered his form last season
There's no chance it's still all Walter's fault even now? I said back at the time he'd struggle due to the amount of squad churn and how late we did it. His football largely worked after previously taking over a more settled side in a different league. It was a gamble here but the club's actions that summer shot Walter in both feet. I think it's partly the reason Selles didn't exactly flourish either. It takes ages for players to gel to the level we need them to. With the injuries we had as well, it was going to take a miracle to have a good season. We might end up in the same boat again but for slightly different reasons this time.
Oxford made an approach for Kasey Palmer at some point over the last few weeks. Don’t know if anything did or will come of it.
