TomTom92

1 hour ago, Tyler Durden said:

Hear what you're saying but look at Man Utd for example, a budget which eclipses ours, wages no issue, world and their uncle knew they didn't have a recognised striker at the club at the end of last season yet its nearly August and all they've brought in is a midfielder and a goalie?

It's not just us you know. 

Good point. 
 
But I’d say the pool of players that Man Utd have to improve them is smaller than ours. Plus aren’t they close to signing that youngster from Atalanta? Don’t know much about him but still quite an exciting signing for them IMO. 
 
Waggy for us, not so.

13 minutes ago, Andicis said:

To be fair, neither of us have any idea what Reading offered in wages. Knibbs is a winger not a striker, and I can't believe we wouldn't have tried for Smith if he was a viable option. I would guess that Reading offered more than we were willing/able to pay, but like I said I have no idea what they offered. 

I'm not saying this season is a free hit. We have a good team capable of getting up. The fact is we're still under increased EFL scrutiny and a business plan (albeit a more relaxed one). It's just realism.

If funds are that tight then maybe it would’ve been better practice to have not signed either Vickers or Nelson and allocated their wages to a striker instead?

Just now, Tyler Durden said:

Sam Smith used to play for Reading did he not before he moved to Cambridge.

Everyone seems to be obsessing about Waghorn having previous with our club as a bonus so to be consistent could be the reason why Smith went back to Reading. 

Very true but he’s just one of many strikers who I’d rather us have gone for. I don’t hate Waghorn as a fourth choice in fact I welcome him with open arms. But not as third choice.

14 minutes ago, Andicis said:

It's not about accepting mediocrity, it's about being realistic. Good strikers cost money. Money that we don't really have available to spend at the moment. We've strengthened the squad as much as we can, but we have to make do really. It's impossible to comment on what our best option was at the start of the summer really, but we're still a club in recovery. It is what it is. 

Would’ve preferred Sam Smith or Knibbs over Waghorn and I doubt they was asking the world.

Have to respectfully disagree with your laid back attitude towards this season. Last season was the free hit IMO.

13 minutes ago, Andicis said:

How can it be a no from you without knowing what the other options are? Good strikers are notoriously difficult to get, especially in league one with no real ability to pay a fee. Personally I'm just trusting Warne will choose the best options available to him, if it happens to be Waghorn then so be it. 

Because Waghorn wouldn’t have been our best option at the start of the summer. No excuses for not landing a decent striker in my opinion.
If you’d have said a week after the Wednesday game our front 3 for next season will be Collins, Washington and Waghorn I’d imagine there’d have been a lot of sick fans about. We shouldn’t accept mediocre just because ‘that’s life’.

If we can get Waghorn in for so cheap that he doesn’t eat in to the budget and we can still sign 3 other players then I’m all for it. But if he’s our 3rd and final striker or the final winger/supporting attacker that Warne wants then it’s a no from me. He’s the cherry on top of the cake but certainly not the icing or sponge.

Should’ve signed him before the friendly against Huddersfield. Kept it on the down low and then televised the match. Could’ve had an NWO storyline to announce the signing. 
 
Derby confirm before the match that a new signing will feature. Gets to 80 mins and Huddersfield bring Rhodes on. At some point in the last 10 minutes Rhodes scores an OG and takes off his Huddersfield shirt to reveal a Derby one. 
 
Would’ve got me on board with the signing if this had happened. 

51 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Yes he can.

My comments are based on Paul Warne’s own words shared by @RoyMac5 earlier in this thread. Warne says he wants a left sided wing back as although Thommo can do the job it’s not ideal for him to be the back up option there for a long season. 

Where’s Sibley gonna fit in? 
 
If we’re going 352 then him and Barkhuizen look surplus to me. I acknowledge Barkhuizen can play up top but 3 strikers plus NML leaves no space for him.

https://twitter.com/darrenowitcoop/status/1682645318268067840?s=46

2 hours ago, nottingram said:

I’m 27 and about the right age but unfortunately I am absolutely s*** at football so I think there is more to it

They’re professional footballers not someone on a forum…

5 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

The fact this topic is on page 21 says it all. We’re desperate for some firepower. Didn’t one of the coaches say he expected a deal to go through this week? 
 
Got 2 days left. Seems to be a reoccurring pattern that a timeframe is set and then missed. Are we haggling to the last minute? 
 
Don’t even want Rhodes but if it goes on much longer I’d take Liam Dickinson and the ghost of Steve Bloomer.

25 minutes ago, Wolfie20 said:

Or we weren't able (under the plan agreed with the EFL) or prepared to pay the wage they were after?

I was under the impression that we could reinvest a percentage of fees from sales, so factor in Bielik's and Knights, before you even get on to their wages, i'm struggling to see how we couldn't afford them.

1 minute ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

May was always rumoured to want a return to the South East/London to be closer to family and stated as much when he joined Charlton.

Smith and Knibbs, perhaps they’ll prove to be astute signings for Reading, but if Warne and the recruitment team decided not to pursue them there’s no point worrying about it, there’ll have been reasons for that and there isn’t much we can do. 
We’ll end up with what we end up with, based on the intentions of the people in charge of the club and perhaps also influenced by circumstance, I’m not worrying about that as me worrying won’t affect anything the club does.
 

Fair enough very philosophical and you're correct we are powerless. But if we're struggling for goals and having to fight for the play offs then i'll feel very underwhelmed by it all.

5 minutes ago, Raich Carter said:

I'm really not sure that's the case anymore. Players careers are definitely much longer these days. I remember a lot of players being done at 32 but there are many playing much, much longer now so I'm not quite so bothered as some about 30+

I'm open to say that every individual is different but Collins and Washington just doesn't excite me. Rhodes doesn't either and he appears to be the front runner for the next signing.

2 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Ok, I take the point about resale value, but as you say their age doesn’t automatically equate to success whether the player is older or younger. Who are the obvious targets we’ve missed in your view? 

Smith, Knibbs, and May are probably the 3 who personally i would've preferred over Washington.

All eyes on the next striker we bring in. Out of the linked targets i'd want Lapado, Godden orSharp in that order as opposed to Rhodes or Martin.

3 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

The right age for what? Surely it’s subjective 

Think the general consensus is that once a player gets past 30 their ability starts to dwindle. Of course there's exceptions i.e McGoldrick. But lets put it this way, if Collins hits 15 goals, how much would get for him? £100k perhaps.

If Smith signed and hit 15 goals and clubs were sniffing we'd be able to slap a way higher price tag on him. 

Being younger doesn't mean better and if we sign a truly high quality striker next then I think Collins and Washington are fine as back ups/work horses. But I think there's been some obvious targets that have either been ignored by us or we haven't convinced to sign and when we're arguably the biggest team in the league and have shifted out 3 top earners thats a little concerning. 

1 hour ago, Kernow said:

A few have made that point now. Conveniently ignored each time.

The last 2 months was embarrassing regarding out goal output, if McGoldrick didn't score we looked clueless. 

Of course there's goals in the squad, but i'd be concerned if our current players didn't have the ability to at least register some contributions against the likes of Cambridge and Cheltenham.

2 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Smith and Kibbs: Promotions from L1 0 . Goals in L1 - 37

Washington and Collins: Promotions from L1 - 3. Goals in L1 - 90.

Which two would you prefer?

Smith and Knibbs to be honest, at least they're at the right age. 

Wing would be ideal. But just can’t see us pulling out the gazumping card. Doesn’t seem our style these days. 
 

19 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

Waggy is better than anyone else linked.

Sad for the majority but true.

50 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

We essentially had a first team squad of 15 players last season due to having too many players who weren't able/ready/trusted to play a regular role in the squad. Total players used in all competitions was 28. We've replaced the injury prone players with those who're more robust and more likely to be available for 65+% of the games this season. Our younger fringe players (Rooney, Tommo) will have greater opportunities, whilst other academy players (DBrown, DRobinson) will be given game time.

This means the minutes given to our top 15 last season will be spread out between 20-22, thus reducing the likelihood of burnout. Her's a graph comparing the actual minutes played by each player last season (all competitions) vs a rough estimate of what to expect this season:

Fair point but depends whether you think Thommo and Robinson can provide us with the performances required. I have my reservations. 

2 minutes ago, duncanjwitham said:

The way I see it, you're never going to get a player that's very good at everything.  You get some players that are bang average at everything (jack of all trades, master of none types), you get players that have some strengths and some glaring weaknesses, plus all the variations between those.  And the further you go down the leagues you go, the more extreme those things get. At prem level, your bang average players are still pretty good at everything (Jordan Henderson is a good example, I think - he's a decent all-rounder, but not really spectacular at anything).  And likewise, players at the other extreme are going to have a lot of strengths and only a few weaknesses.  

However at League One level, if you want a player that's really good at one or 2 things, you are going to have to accept that he's bad a lot of other stuff.  If you want a quick winger that can cross, you have to accept that he'll probably be injury-prone, or inconsistent, or lazy, or old, or can't finish, or can't pass or whatever.  A player that's good at all that stuff simply won't be available to League One clubs, he'll be playing at a higher level.

How that relates to us is if you make "works extremely hard" an absolute requirement for all signings, you are reducing the pool of potential players significantly.  You are instantly disregarding the likes of Chris Martin (I know, I know, he's just an easy example to use). If you want a striker that works extremely hard, you are going to have to accept that maybe he doesn't score goals or maybe he can't hold the ball up or whatever.  And that's why we're ending up with players like Conor Washington - he meets the one, fundamental requirement, and the rest will have to do.  And it's possibly why we're finding it harder to sign other players - there just aren't that many players available who are good at crossing/finishing/passing/whatever and also run themselves into the ground every week, and they're in high demand.

Excellent point.

Warne certainly knows more about football and getting out of league 1 than me. But sometimes you need to maybe look past the one main requirement in order to get that magic player that can score and assist. 

There's no point us finishing 6 losing the play offs with the best defence in the league but a poor attacking output and going thats just the way the cookie falls we stuck to our principles. Last season was the 'Grateful to be here' season, from now onwards we should be challenging or at least looking to challenge the top 2, no excuses. 

1 minute ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Agreed. Someone on the forum wanted us to spend £2-3 million on Jonson Clarke-Harris.

Whilst I would love him here. Spending that money on a 29 year old striker on a 3 year deal is an absolute no go.

At the end of that 3 years he'll go for nothing. Doing that is what got us in this mess.

Waghorn, Johnson, Butterfield, Blackman. Circa £18 million there that went for nothing.

Agree them fans banging on about JCH are in cloud cuckoo land. But i don't think its beyond the wildest expectations for us to spend a bit of money to bring in an attacker or two?

I would love to see who our targets have been for the forward positions just to see who we've lost out on. 

Look at the 3 promoted teams last season, they all had quality options going forward. Yes Ipswich rolled out the war chest so we can discount them, but no reason why we shouldn't have the same standard of options as Plymouth and Wednesday. 

Warne also noted the burnout affect of having a small squad and thats exactly what we're going for again this season.

We've lost an international midfielder in Knight and a 20 goal a season striker in McGoldrick. We lost Dobbin and Springett who arguably weren't that great however, so far we've brought in Washington as a workhorse. I really can't see why we're recruiting in this manner.

As i've previously stated defensively the recruitment team have knocked it out the park, but in offence they've been found wanting so far. 

Maybe we're unlucky that the financial money pit has fallen on its bum just as we need to spend a bit. But this is where a manager with good connections could sign a couple of smart signings out of nowhere.