We have made a lot of signings this window!

How many of Strachan's wholesale changes improved the squad and turned us from promotion contenders to relegation fodder ... MacDonald and Robson maybe?

The rest were guff. Let's hope history doesnt repeat itself. Where are the leaders/experience when it all goes pete tong on the field with the exception of Howson and Lenihan?
 
BoroMart said:
if it clicks, could it reach the play offs? Yes, it's feasible. Is it probable? Who knows until we see how they gel. The xG for and against says we are not to far away from being a top 6 side. Lets make it a three game unbeaten run against QPR and work on the training ground for a couple of weeks and see where we are at.
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If we somehow pull of cannon I think we have a chance at the top 6. But as it stands it would take a big effort
 
People should have a look at the number of signings Brentford made each season in the lead up to promotion to the Premier League and since they've been there. Easily in double figures each season since 2017/18.

They've had far more misses than hits, but those early hits financed more signings and ultimately more hits until they got promoted. They've continued in the same vein ever since, with another 10 players signed so far this summer.

It's similar at Brighton. For example, in 2020/21 they signed 20 players, including 3 youngsters from Ireland. Most of those players where unknowns and remain unknowns, with the very notable exceptions of Evan Ferguson and Moises Caicedo.
 
WilliamMunny said:
People should have a look at the number of signings Brentford made each season in the lead up to promotion to the Premier League and since they've been there. Easily in double figures each season since 2017/18.

They've had far more misses than hits, but those early hits financed more signings and ultimately more hits until they got promoted. They've continued in the same vein ever since, with another 10 players signed so far this summer.

It's similar at Brighton. For example, in 2020/21 they signed 20 players, including 3 youngsters from Ireland. Most of those players where unknowns and remain unknowns, with the very notable exceptions of Evan Ferguson and Moises Caicedo.
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Yeah, and people should look at Chelsea and all the players they signed last year, that ended up a right mess.
 
13 players signed and we still need a striker, someone with experience playing in the Championship.
Tom Cannon would be a good fit, but i'm not hopeful of getting him. just over 32 hrs left lets see what happens.
 
WilliamMunny said:
I really don't see the correlation between what Chelsea are trying to do and what Brentford/Brighton have done which we are trying to copy.
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I'd also add that it is yet to be proven that Chelsea's approach has failed. Just to be clear, I'm not a fan of spending £1bn on a whole new first team squad over 3 transfer windows, but if they end up winning the Champions League next season then the strategy would be deemed a success.
 
Sergio said:
I am not completely writing the season off but 12 new signings, most of them with zero championship experience are expected to come in and win the league? Sorry I dont look through rose tinted glasses like a lot on here but promotion this season aint happening with that squad and ill accept and wager...
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You don't have to win the league to get promotion, you know. And we still have the bulk of the squad we had last season, with the main starting players being Dieng, Engel, O'Brien, Greenwood, Silvera, Rogers and Latte Lath. Dieng, O'Brien and Rogers have Championship experience. Greenwood has Premier League experience. And chances are Rogers/Silvera/Greenwood will be rotating with each other and other players who played last season.

Bear in mind we still have Smith, Dijksteel, Fry, Lenihan, McNair, Howson, Hackney, Barlaser, Forss, Jones, Crooks and McGree from last seasons squad. All, bar Hackney, have a lot of experience at this level.

I remember people saying to me the exact same thing last season, along with "Chuba won't score more than 5 goals". And saying they were "just being realistic". It's way too early to tell how we're going to do.

JM14 said:
Don’t really see it as much of a positive having to sign this many players, definitely paying the price for our poor recruitment over the last few years
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I think you're being negative for the sake of being negative here. 3 of those players are for the under 21s, 2 of them are backup goalkeepers. Only 7 players are for the first team squad, and at least 2 of those are young players for the future who will be rotation at best this season. Did you think Luton's 14 signings last summer was a negative? What about Forest's 14 in 21/22? And Brentford's 8 in 20/21? It's the way things work in the Championship. There's always a high turnover of players for many different reasons.

Our recruitment policy over the last 5 years has brought us:
Lenihan
Smith
Forss
Barlaser
Crooks
McGree
Akpom
Watmore
Bola
Dijksteel
Jones
McNair
Spence

These are the ones who have worked out. But most of those were free or very cheap. And two of those players cost us around £2 million between them and have earned us over £20 million in transfer fees when we sold them. Any Championship team who can have that many wins, without spending much at all (highest price on that list was McNair at 5 million) are doing a good job.
 
Its obvious the club is no longer prepared to waste money on journeymen and is putting its faith in developing young talent. If even one improves to the point the club has a £10m talent on its hands in a couple of seasons time, it'll been worth it. I think we've seen other clubs follow this model and are doing it ourselves now.

I don't expect a promotion push with these lads this year, I think this is a mid to long term project. We'll get better as time goes on, I just hope the club and Carrick have the patience to see it through and don't bend to outside pressure when we're not pulling up trees and steamrollering teams like we did when MC first took over.

Surely this approach is better than p!ssing money up the wall on the Rudy Gested's of the world.
 
rbmfc1985 said:
You don't have to win the league to get promotion, you know. And we still have the bulk of the squad we had last season, with the main starting players being Dieng, Engel, O'Brien, Greenwood, Silvera, Rogers and Latte Lath. Dieng, O'Brien and Rogers have Championship experience. Greenwood has Premier League experience. And chances are Rogers/Silvera/Greenwood will be rotating with each other and other players who played last season.

Bear in mind we still have Smith, Dijksteel, Fry, Lenihan, McNair, Howson, Hackney, Barlaser, Forss, Jones, Crooks and McGree from last seasons squad. All, bar Hackney, have a lot of experience at this level.

I remember people saying to me the exact same thing last season, along with "Chuba won't score more than 5 goals". And saying they were "just being realistic". It's way too early to tell how we're going to do.


I think you're being negative for the sake of being negative here. 3 of those players are for the under 21s, 2 of them are backup goalkeepers. Only 7 players are for the first team squad, and at least 2 of those are young players for the future who will be rotation at best this season. Did you think Luton's 14 signings last summer was a negative? What about Forest's 14 in 21/22? And Brentford's 8 in 20/21? It's the way things work in the Championship. There's always a high turnover of players for many different reasons.

Our recruitment policy over the last 5 years has brought us:
Lenihan
Smith
Forss
Barlaser
Crooks
McGree
Akpom
Watmore
Bola
Dijksteel
Jones
McNair
Spence

These are the ones who have worked out. But most of those were free or very cheap. And two of those players cost us around £2 million between them and have earned us over £20 million in transfer fees when we sold them. Any Championship team who can have that many wins, without spending much at all (highest price on that list was McNair at 5 million) are doing a good job.
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The two players we actually got good money for in Spence and Akpom weren’t because of some fantastic recruitment strategy by the club, we couldn’t even give them away for free the season before.

Spence was developed by another club and Akpom only got back in the squad because we had failed to bring another striker in. We got so lucky with those two, if it wasn’t for the funds they brought in the club would be in huge trouble now
 
Scrug said:
I think the club have seen how we’ve started the season and panicked. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted we’ve got some bodies in and hopefully can sneak a playoff place, but really we’re just developing a player for Leeds 🤢
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or bringing in a player we think can benefit us.
 
GazBoro said:
Its obvious the club is no longer prepared to waste money on journeymen and is putting its faith in developing young talent. If even one improves to the point the club has a £10m talent on its hands in a couple of seasons time, it'll been worth it. I think we've seen other clubs follow this model and are doing it ourselves now.

I don't expect a promotion push with these lads this year, I think this is a mid to long term project. We'll get better as time goes on, I just hope the club and Carrick have the patience to see it through and don't bend to outside pressure when we're not pulling up trees and steamrollering teams like we did when MC first took over.

Surely this approach is better than p!ssing money up the wall on the Rudy Gested's of the world.
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same most seasons isn’t it. The club finished 4th last season. A transition season and finishing tenth would be poor. A massive step backwards. We haven’t tapped into the loan market like we should. We have got a lot of young talent but not backed it up with any real marque signings
 
WilliamMunny said:
I really don't see the correlation between what Chelsea are trying to do and what Brentford/Brighton have done which we are trying to copy.
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Yes they are stockpiling like 50 pros, always going to be problematic. We currently have 27 senior pros, but Clarke is knackered, Payero has one foot out the door, and Coburn is waiting to go on loan, which puts us at a healthy 24, space for maybe 2 more max
 
JM14 said:
The two players we actually got good money for in Spence and Akpom weren’t because of some fantastic recruitment strategy by the club, we couldn’t even give them away for free the season before.
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Is that true? Both were discarded by their last english club, Spence booted out at 18 as a failure, Akpom sold to the footballing backwaters of Greece after failing to make the grade at Arsenal.

Both came here with masses to prove to get their careers back on track, and both did, although spence went and threw it all away again
 
BoroMart said:
Yes they are stockpiling like 50 pros, always going to be problematic. We currently have 27 senior pros, but Clarke is knackered, Payero has one foot out the door, and Coburn is waiting to go on loan, which puts us at a healthy 24, space for maybe 2 more max
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All true except Josh is staying. 👍
 
we will have some benching issues if everyone (big if) stays fit

Assuming we sign Bangura and no-one else that is a 20 man squad of:

Dieng
Glover

Smith
Fry
Lenihan
Engel
Bangura
v d Berg
McNair

Howson
Hackney
O'Brien
Barlaser

Silvera
McGree
Rogers
Greenwood
Forss
Jones
Lath

That's Clarke, Dijksteel, Coulson, Crooks, Gilbert, Coburn not even making the bench.
Reduced opportunities for our u21s as well.
 
WilliamMunny said:
I really don't see the correlation between what Chelsea are trying to do and what Brentford/Brighton have done which we are trying to copy.
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Your missing my point about quality over quantity.

21-22 season players added in the summer 21.......

James Léa Siliki, Toyosi Olusanya, Martin Payero, Sammy Ameobi, Andraž Šporar,
Uche Ikpeazu, Luke Daniels, Joe Lumley, Dejan Stojanovic, Onel Hernández, Lee Peltier, Matt Crooks, Lewis Wing. Dejan Stojanovic.

14 new players added to the squad, how many were a success? far too many mediocre players.. then you're stuck with a large squad, with only a few making the 1st team.
 
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