We ought to know better-In defence of Mark McGhee

We ought to know better but we are all hopeful that Rovers form will change for the better, however we are simply hopeless ,we are so inconsistent this season, the thought of considering our inevitable decent to the conference is not very appealing to say the least.

A lot of Gasheads have stated that Mark McGhee View attachment 19366 has brought us to the brink having only won 4 games this season out of 20 and signed most of the current players lets take a look at who he has actually signed and if they are on a permanent contract or Loan contract also current views on there suitability

On the 18 January 2012 Mark McGhee was appointed as the club's new manager on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

30 January 2012 – Matthew Lund a month long loan (Loan)
9 February 2012 – Tom Parkes on a month's loan (Loan)
22 May 2012 – Jim Paterson new one-year deal at Rovers (Perm)
6 June 2012 –Danny Woodards agreed a new contract (Perm)
4 July 2012 – Oliver Norburn rejoins, signing a one-year contract.(Perm)
4th July Wayne Brown signed a new six month contract recently extended (Perm)
5 July 2012 – Seanan Clucas signed on a one-year contract (Perm)
18 July 2012 –Lee Brown signed a contract extension (Perm)
26 July 2012 –Matt Lund rejoined Rovers on a six month (loan)
26th July -David Clarkson agreed a two-year contract (Perm).
30 July 2012 Garry Kenneth signs (Perm)
12 August 2012 - Fabian Broghammer signs (Perm).
14 August 2012 – Goalkeeper Sam Walker joined on until January (Loan).
20 August 2012 – Defender Tom Parkes signs (Perm)
1 August 2012 - Defender Cian Bolger on loan until January (Loan Injured)
20 Sept 2012 –Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge (Loan Left)
27 Sept 2012 - Striker Tom Eaves joins (Loan)
27th Sept Derek Rhiordan joins on a short term deal until Christmas (Loan)
22 November 2012 –Branston joined on a month long loan (Loan)

So MM has signed SIX players on permanent contracts this season that were not at Rovers under Buckle.
MM has signed THREE extensions to existing players contracts previously played under Buckle ONE was badley injured Woodards.
MM has signed SEVEN players on loan one injured Bolger the other has left Etheridge.

It looks to me as if Mark McGhee was not given a whole lot of cash to View attachment 19367 pick up decent permanent players, we received around £300k for Caryol where has this money gone? He has been left with too many of the 17 players that Buckle signed for the previous season, 3 of the new signings were youngsters and not meant to be thrown in at the deep end Clucas,Brog and Norburn however due to players long term injuries too numerous to mention they are playing regulary in the 1st team and other loanees notably Lund out of position.

So who has not View attachment 19368 worked out for MM of his deals so far…..Rhiordan complete waste of money,Sam Walker,was reduced to the bench when Etheridge joined on loan then thrust into the first team when Etheridge left, not good enough.Wayne Brown Hobsons choice given our lack of experienced midfielders found wanting too many times really should have been let go and a new midfielder brought in to shore up this very weak area.Paterson legs have gone conference material.

So who has worked out for MM so far Clarkson played out of position due to Gills injury a grafter,Eaves a revelation needs support up front though,Parkes will come good once the pressure is off defence and he has more time to make the right calls…With no midfield to speak of the ball is either in attack or defence.Etheridge good calming influence good keeper.Lund needs to play in the midfield not defence.Norburn needs a Campbell alongside him good distributer of the ball one for the future.Broghammer again one for the future or playing in a settled side.Kenneth needs a good midfield in front of him to give him confidence,will come good.

I feel that Mark needs a little more time to shape the side however I am seriously underwhelmed at what I have seen so far this season and we deserve to be struggling in the bottom quarter of the football league,my vote would be for the board to give him some money to buy a commanding goalkeeper,midfielder and striker to work alongside Kenneth,Eaves and Clarkson and ship out some of the misfiring players ie Anyinsah Rhoirdan etc.

What are your views Gasheads

COR

 

Yep!

 

signing parkes has taken up a lot of money.

i doubt we be buying anyone in the transfer window. we need to get rid of players 1st. league 2 has rules for all clubs to follow where we can only spend a certain percentage of our income. if rules get broken then we fall under a transfer embargo and fined. were up to our limit already. so unless we get rid of players to free up income then we are stuck with this useless bunch that we currently have.

and im not sure i trust MM to spend more money of ours. he wanted to spend £200k on constable remember and what has constable actually done? his record is poor for a striker. MM had all of the 2nd half of last season to assess the team and establish what areas needed strengthening. MM had all summer to bring in these players to improve us and make us a team who can be challenging at the top end. MM has failed BIG time. thinking about it, MM only saved us last season due to us having carayol saving us at times. we got rid of carayol and MM failed to replace him. the hammer is not a good enough replacement. MM doesnt feel hunter is good enough either as he hasnt had a chance at all yet although he keeps banging them in at youth level. MM has failed to bring in enough experience to improve us while players like edgar davids joins barnet, james beattie joins accrington, barry ferguson joins fleetwood and boa morte joins chesterfield. im not saying i want any of these but come on, barry ferguson would have been great and he is scottish as well so MM missed a trick there. instead of bringing in experience and leaders, MM brought in too many youth players combined with a lack of experience. we have also become a very slow team as well and just look at our midfield, we are so weak its unreal. how many goals have we conceded where players just stroll through our midfield and walk past the slow defence and score past a crap keeper walker?

it was obvious what we needed during pre season. i had concerns during pre season that MM wasnt getting what we needed and if you look back on here around that time you can see for yourself it was obvious. we needed pace. we needed leaders. we needed experience. we got none of it. and the injured players who have come back havent made a slight bit of difference.

 

A couple of good posts above, not looking forward to Saturday, after our last encounter with D & R which I rank as one of our worse performances and results for some years, and what came of it, nothing but silly excuses about end of season games, the result and performance quietly and convieniently forgotten, I knew from that game that we were far from being competetive in this league.

 

"....conceded where players just stroll through our midfield and walk past the slow defence and score past a crap keeper walker?"

And that, CJS and fellow Gasheads, is exactly our problem. Crap midfield,slow defence, crap 'keeper - not exactly simple to remedy. I'm beginning to think that if we do survive this season, it will simply be because two teams are ****ter than us, not because we'll play our way out of trouble.

 

Don't worry there's no way you will get relegated as there are some poor teams in this division like Barnet and Aldershot.When you get all your players back from injury i'm sure your form will improve and that's exactly whats happened with Wycombe.Good luck for the rest of the season (except on Feb 16th when we visit)

 

We've got some good players - technically much better than Cheltenham, for example, who hoofed, huffed and puffed and beat us pretty easily. But when you look at teams like Southend, they played at a much higher tempo, never let any of our players - particularly the back four - settle and I thought they blew us away.

It's looked like men against boys in far too many games this season. I'm all for bringing the kids on and a lot of the younger players are great in patches. But I think you need a decent core of experienced old heads. Clarkson and Kenneth are outstanding. Woodards will be great again once he gets back to match fitness. But too many of the others - Virgo, Patterson, Gill and Riordan look physically shot and unable to make a difference.I think it's the experienced heads that McGhee really needs to take a long hard look at and then replace them with better experienced players.The younger players will do fine with some decent support around them.

I guess Riordan ,may burst into life and get 10 goals in 12 games, but I haven't seen much sign of improvement scoring or creating, and I think anyinsah's better.

 

Both Riordan and Anyinsah are not performing and should be shipped out and off the wage bill sooner rather than later. They've both had plenty of chances to prove themselves and have not done so. Also, Virgo looks to have played his last game for us, and probably as a professional football player, as he can't seem to shake off his serious knee injury. I'd keep Gill in the squad, but Paterson should be thanked and asked to leave too - his legs are gone and I can't see any benefit to keeping him.

 

would love to see a break down on how much each player gets as wages and bonus's. apparenlty 2 players currently earn £5k a week. thats £260k a year each. crazy of true.

 

Assume that Clarkson earns a good slug as he dropped down from the championship possibly one of the remaining Chuckle players maybe Gill who knows it seems toooooo much for this level though.

If he is to make signings in Jan what positions will they be in (assume Goal and midfield poss attack)?

These players will be out of contract by Jan 2013

1 August 2012 - Defender Cian Bolger on loan until January (Loan Injured)
27 Sept 2012 - Striker Tom Eaves joins (Loan)
27th Sept Derek Rhiordan joins on a short term deal until Christmas (Loan)
22 November 2012 –Branston joined on a month long loan (Loan)

Agree with BB I Assume he also wishes to release Virgo,Anyinsah,Richards and possibly Gill this would free up some cash to attract some decent players through the door.I dont think that Scott Bevan will play for the club again perhaps they will pay his contract up and release him.

MM has already stated that he wishes to re sign Bolger on a perm deal,we also need a decent perm goalkeeper,perhaps he will let Rhiordan go off into the wilderness however as Rhiordan is one of his own he may perservere,Eaves hopefully will re sign for the rest of the season that leaves a striker and at least one midfielder required again if no one will join us on a perm deal then he will probably go into the loan market.


COR

 

COR, add wayne brown to that list. he was on a 6 month contract at the start of the season. apparently MM was offering another short term contract to the end of the season. not sure if done yet or not. he may me off as well as not really done much to deserve a new deal in peoples eyes

 

Thanks CJ

Agree appears to be our only option given MM answers to fans questions

COR