I traveled up to watch the game this weekend and have only just got back, and the similarities compared to last season where we just about tread water in the league was staggering. Over the summer from the looks of things, nothing has changed, despite the clearout. I don't know whether that will change, and I don't want be a boo boy, but it's evident what we are missing, and what a lot of the teams in this league are missing. It isn't just a coincidence that the reason why the Premier League is the best league in the world by a long distance is because it's full of players from abroad. The majority of teams name an 18 man team on the day with usually at least 8-10 important foreign players. We simply just have this at Bristol City, and I don't know why. We will not achieve anything higher than a lower half of the table finish with scottish players who have done the rounds, and its as simple as that. What we lacked on the weekend is ANY creativity. Our most creative player was Albert Adomah, and he was just nowhere in that game. Signing a proven championship goalscorer won't make a blind bit of difference, we could sign Suarez, Van Persie, Rooney, any one of them, and we would not get anymore goals, because we have no creative ability to get the ball to them in dangerous areas. Things need to change, and we need to pick up some European bargains, players with great flair and we won't find them unless we strenuously improve our scouting network. Under GJ (great manager for us for a few years) we had his brother leading the scouting program, and that was a dismal period of player signings, and showed no imagination. Maynard was the most imaginative and he was almost an obvious signing to most clubs in our division.
Buying top foreigners when you are in the premier league with loads of money is easy (go and buy the best player from X league for 10 million or whatever), buying foreign bargains for next to nothing and who don't want to sign for an average to poor championship team is a different story
I agree 100%. There are bargains and we have been linked with numerous players from abroad. We've been linked with the odd dutch player, we signed an Egyptian international (who then went AWOL) and we've been linked with both Kenny Cooper and Brek Shea in the past, two great American players. I do agree entirely that we need to stop signing anyone with "Mc" in their name and to find some creative talent. It is why I was so apprehensive about our pre-season tour to Scotland as we have a manager with one place on his managerial CV and no experience of anything else. I hoped that time in the Championship would warm him up to trying new things, but if McInnes will only look locally we're going to struggle. There ARE some great deals out there, and there are many players that are willing to come down to the Championship if the possibility of Premier League football is close. We're far from that at the moment but I bet we could sign some foreign internationals or some academy players.
Where are ALL of these Scottish players exactly then...? DM will look at what is in our price range and this is the SOLE criteria in this respect. As for dissing the 1 new one we bought in this summer before he has played a league game for us, take a little time to check out his list of honours. Whether he can still do it for us remains to be seen but Jody Morris is hardly what most people would describe as a "journeyman" footballer. I will make a judgement after 10 games or so to see if we have gelled and developed our game from last year but give it a minute to settle down...
Our last creative midfield player?? "Hartley" wasn't everyone devastated when he left? and where did he come from? Scotland! so there are good players up there no matter how crap their leagues are. Trust in Dereck!!
I wouldnt class Hartley as a creative midfielder. He was just the engine that got the team moving. Lee Johnson was meant to be our playmaker. What I really want, if Palace really want Yannick but cant afford the £500k asking price is to do a part ex and they can have Yannick and we can have Owen Garvan. I have been a great fan of Garvan since his days at Ipswich Town and believe he is one of the better midfielders in the league. He is a player who creates goals and has a not too bad goal return from his left peg. Has struggled last season with first team football but due to injuries got to play on the weekend and scored twice and I am sure he will show his ability tonight.
