I knew I was missing Fonkeu after I posted it but had forgotten about Phillips, comprehensive my arse! As for Watkins I say a waste of a shirt because he has been so poor with 1 maybe 2 exceptions, he is plainly no striker, although for this city side it's not easy to impress in that role and I just think that we have enough average or better players already who could fulfil wide roles. I know this will get the but he's not ready treatment, but I'd rather be trying Middleton than persisting with him. Watkins ain't gonna get better and has mainly been found wanting, Middleton sounds very nearly ready, so for backup to Murphy and Wildshutt I think he's better than Marley. I understand the signing as he was free, but I bet as a result his wages are better than his performances thus far warrent.
As for Shrewd, the restructuring and wage bill trimming was a necessity and getting rid of all the players we did, including the £12m for Murphy was good but obvious business. We barely got market value for Rudd, Howson and Dorrans and the rest left at the end of contracts. Maybe I'm being harsh on Webber, most of his recruitment and some good recruitment has been on the defence, obvious to us fans but seemingly not his predecessors. We have as you say a squad that should be competitive at this level even after the cost cutting (I will always wonder what we could have done this season with a more ready manager). However you say this cost cutting fits our budget for the future, but does it? Not yet, some high earners who are either not troubling the first XI or not performing that well are still here. Get rid of these before their contracts run down and he might look more than shrewd, he'd be a miracle worker.
I do believe it is a little harsh on previous managers to lay the credit for our future plans and development at colney purely on Webber, time will tell if we get more out, but a lot of the bright young talent was already here, if Neil has done anything right (asside propmotion obviously), the signing of Maddison, Pritchard, Godfrey are all great building blocks for the clubs future. With Neil who knows, one rumour doing the rounds was it was a cull he wanted and the fact Hoolihan was to be part of it was part of his demise. He gave the Murphy's a chance, I think given the budget constraints he would have done so with Maddison maybe Lewis too out of necessity.
We don't know who anyone else would have signed, released or sold but it would have been under the same financial constraints so they would have cut the wage bill and recruited in the vbargain bin and maybe done better, maybe worse. we'll never know, but our position and the football generally served up so far has not led me to believe it was definitely shrewd or definitely well done. It has been an OK job, not exceptional not horrendous either.
Just remember our first XI on it's better days is generally made up of players who were already here:
Gunn, Trybull, Hanley/Zimmerman
vs
Pinto, Klose, Lewis(is this justified after only 2 games, I think so, I challenge anyone to say they want Husband or Steiperman back in instead), Tettey, Josh, Maddison, Pritchard, Oliviera
Bah!
