Views on NC's signings as DCFC manager

[ramblur]

I liked Pringle, personally think he was a "OK" signing, I know Im in the minority with that view and most ppl think he was a "BAD SIGNING"

Worth the gamble when we appeared to have little cash.He tried his best and deserves a bit of respect for that.Glad to see he's doing fairly well now.

[Albert]

The latter (by some margin).

'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

You're right, I would need to define it a lot better than that. If you want a full, but ultimately pointless discussion on the matter, I'd be happy to have it.

[Ambitious]

Loan signing just make me appreciate how good our young players actually are.

Jeff Hendrick may not be perfect, but his a damn sight better than Livermore and Carroll when they were here.

[Mary Hindge]

Worth the gamble when we appeared to have little cash.He tried his best and deserves a bit of respect for that.Glad to see he's doing fairly well now.

OK OK me and ramblur are in the minority.....

[Guest]

OK OK me and ramblur are in the minority.....

i think the crisps are ok if that helps :-)

[Albert]

OK OK me and ramblur are in the minority.....

He was worth the gamble, and I honestly don't think he was that terrible, sadly he just wasn't quite up to standard of keeping him. I just find it odd that players like him or more recently Doyle get slated so much. People would want us to find gems in the rough, but how dare the club ever look and not succeed immediate?!

[Mary Hindge]

He was worth the gamble, and I honestly don't think he was that terrible, sadly he just wasn't quite up to standard of keeping him. I just find it odd that players like him or more recently Doyle get slated so much. People would want us to find gems in the rough, but how dare the club ever look and not succeed immediate?!

I agree with that, I also think Nige is good for us after Jewell we really needed a "club man" someone who was going to build this club from bottom to top, someone who was going to bring in honest players and someone who awarded hard work!

I dont agree that he is perfect and every he decides is perfect - Do you? That is how you come across although I have no source for this!

[bcnram]

To me, a bad signing is one that a ridiculous transfer fee has been paid and the player is being paid far more than his worth. If a player is signed for a sensible fee considering their current level at the time and taking potential into account, but for whatever reason it just does not work out, then to me that is not a bad signing, it just didn't have a positive result.

[Mary Hindge]

Ah this is were ppl must be getting crossed wires then!

WHAT IS A BAD SIGNING?

Pringle was neither positive or negative so ladies and gentlemen he was...........a neutral signing!!!

[Albert]

Except not everybody is being negative.

I said Nigel is like every other manager. Makes good signings, bad and in between. Like everybody else.

Then Albert started quoting me and disagreeing.

It's how good the good signings are that define his ability in the transfer market.

If his good signings continue to improve us then we'll be laughing on the way to Wembley.

But why pretend he's never had bad buys?

Albert seems to be acting as if Nigel is being criticised. He's not by most of us. Just that he's not a unique wonder in the transfer market. He's normal.

Good, bad and average.

That's not negative. This thread isn't about what Nigel has had to do. Simply about his signings. The player impact. I dunno what Albert would say about other managers.

Ha, I missed this post.

I don't recall ever saying he didn't have bad signings, just they were few and far between, and I still maintain that there's only been 4 that really justify anything below "average" all things considered, which over 8 transfer windows is a damn fine effort.

I guess I was getting a bit frustrated seeing the same thing, which I had felt I responded to repeatedly by that point, posted over and over again. I don't know, this was the post I'm fairly sure:

Well to save any arguments I'm just gonna have to back out fellas.

I just think he's ordinary in the transfer market. He's done nothing special either way. I think many, many managers could do and now do as much for us and for other clubs.

I think after his initial achievement of getting the wage bill down and bringing in players who are actually playing at the level they're paid for he's just had a large turnover of similar players with maybe slight improvement.

All I want to see is more freedom from the board to see what else he can do. I want them to gamble on/show faith in him. See if his average dealings with slightly below average backing can become good dealings with fairly good backing.

He's had an awful lot of players. There have been bad ones among them imo. Bad ones we brought in.

I just don't think Nigel is some incredible genius in the transfer market. I don't think he has worked miracles. I think he's done his job and now he's a bit stuck.

I think to make us better he'll have to have more to work with. Because he's ordinary. Not poor, just normal. He can't perform miracles. He doesn't uncover gems at every turn. Metgod said "we have a bottom 6 wage budget". So 5 other teams do what we do in this division. I'd love to know who they are.

If I had to place him I would say he's slightly above average. He's spent little to improve slightly. He's self sufficient and has made us a bit better. But not a great deal to suggest he's a transfer wizard. Hit and miss like everybody else. The bigger the budget the better the success like everybody else.

Having said that, he might have had a brilliant summer just gone. It's his credit to give Hughes a chance. Coutts and Jacobs and Keogh look like 3 signings ready to tick the good signings box. Add to that his other good signings and he just might be slowly working that miracle. But for now we are still mid table.

Anyway, I'm done debating. I'm not into getting in Internet arguments etc lol. We all have our opinions. We all support Derby.

Night fellas.

There was just something about this post that really ticked me off, and not to be a cock about it, but still does. I guess the key point was that you mixed him needing to get rid of overpaid players with him "having a large turnover", which clearly (and demonstrably) isn't the case. You also seemed to contradict yourself a few times, but I think that was just me, already a annoyed at another poster, just looking for something in your post.

To be honest, I don't think he's some transfer wizard, rather he's done a remarkable job in a tight situation and whilst some managers have had some truly special players from nothing, Nigel has done well consistently, without having that star from the rough. As I have said a few times, of his signings, only Maguire, Croft, Martin and Hendrie have been truly poor, others that are usually called "poor" are ones who have had their times ruined by injuries that they got at the club (and generally without a history of it) or young players who came in for low wages and the were given a go. I don't think Nigel is some wizard, rather he knows a good footballer when he sees one, and rarely wastes money, without really picking that true diamond out of the pile of soot. He might have that in him, maybe, but as things stand his best signings are at best top Championship, maybe lower Premier League level, it's not like he's brought someone in for peanuts who Premier League teams are ripping the door off the hinges for.

I also don't see him as a great tactician or man manager either, I don't see him as a bad one, but I don't see him as a great one. There are better out there, but ultimately he seems loyal to the club, happy to build, and build from the ground up, patience that is rare in the sport these days. This is why I like Nigel, not being I see him as some saviour coming in to drag us out of the division kicking and screaming, but because I see him as that stable head that will over the course of years rebuild that base that has been well and truly destroyed without risking it in the process. It's starting to happen slowly, but it is a slow process. This all fits in with the idea that he has few poor signings, but a lot of decent to good ones, with no truly remarkable ones (at least yet). That's the point, it's not about him being some magician on the market, it's about him not blowing the budget like those who came before him, and in truth, when he's had the chance, he's done well. That is, when he's had the chance to spend bigger money on players, it's hit the target, at least so far.

I think this is where the main breakdown in communication happens between me and most posters, the fact that I'm sometimes a bit too content with being patient, when most want success, and they want it now. I can understand that, but ultimately I'd rather see us go up as a side that has been there or there abouts for a while, rather than getting back up and coming down in financial ruin with £5 and 'iClaude Davis 2.0' in the squad. Due to this I tend to be a bit lenient on players who others would slam for being "mediocre" for not being the sort of player that would star in the top teams in this division, but that's just me.

Hope that clears some things up.

I agree with that, I also think Nige is good for us after Jewell we really needed a "club man" someone who was going to build this club from bottom to top, someone who was going to bring in honest players and someone who awarded hard work!

I dont agree that he is perfect and every he decides is perfect - Do you? That is how you come across although I have no source for this!

See above.

[Albert]

To me, a bad signing is one that a ridiculous transfer fee has been paid and the player is being paid far more than his worth. If a player is signed for a sensible fee considering their current level at the time and taking potential into account, but for whatever reason it just does not work out, then to me that is not a bad signing, it just didn't have a positive result.

By a similar definition I count:

Nigel: 4 - Lee Hendrie, Lee Croft, Dave Martin, Chris Maguire (regardless of how much of his fee we got back) [8 transfer windows]

Jewell: Laurent Robert, Robbie Savage*, Roy Carroll, Mile Sterjovski, Paul Connolly, Jordan Stewart, Liam Dickinson, Nathan Ellington†, Przemyslaw Kazmierczak†, Luke Varney [2 transfer windows]

*Despite becoming quite a decent player again under Clough, he never showed that kind of form for Jewell, and his overall cost to the club still remained hard to justify considering how long he was out of the side

† Denotes fee loans (for example, Ellington or Bueno)

[Bris Vegas]

Barker a good signing? That's funny..

You can't judge whether a signing will be good until after a period of time.. We could sign Pirlo for a bag of potatoes and some curly fries but if he barely plays for us and puts in lacklusture performances he's going to be deemed as a poor signing..

Barker barely plays.. He was signed for around $1mill and put in average performances and then got injured and has been injured for the best part of two years.. His total league appearances is only 98 and he signed in the summer of 2009.. So he's been here for 3 and a half years, or let's say 175 weeks.. He's played 98 league games.. What wages is he on? Around $5.5k? Yet we're paying him the equivalent of $9.8k a match just to be an average NPC defender..

Poor business

[DCFCfranco]

Glad to see everyone agrees.

[ramsbottom]

Barker a good signing? That's funny..

You can't judge whether a signing will be good until after a period of time.. We could sign Pirlo for a bag of potatoes and some curly fries but if he barely plays for us and puts in lacklusture performances he's going to be deemed as a poor signing..

Barker barely plays.. He was signed for around $1mill and put in average performances and then got injured and has been injured for the best part of two years.. His total league appearances is only 98 and he signed in the summer of 2009.. So he's been here for 3 and a half years, or let's say 175 weeks.. He's played 98 league games.. What wages is he on? Around $5.5k? Yet we're paying him the equivalent of $9.8k a match just to be an average NPC defender..

Poor business

Average performances? I guess rest of the squad must've been atroctious the season he won player of the year then...

Yes, he hasn't played as much as we, Nigel and he would've liked but to say a majority of his performances were average is simply not true. You really are in majority if you think Barker is a poor signing...

[Albert]

Barker a good signing? That's funny..

You can't judge whether a signing will be good until after a period of time.. We could sign Pirlo for a bag of potatoes and some curly fries but if he barely plays for us and puts in lacklusture performances he's going to be deemed as a poor signing..

Barker barely plays.. He was signed for around $1mill and put in average performances and then got injured and has been injured for the best part of two years.. His total league appearances is only 98 and he signed in the summer of 2009.. So he's been here for 3 and a half years, or let's say 175 weeks.. He's played 98 league games.. What wages is he on? Around $5.5k? Yet we're paying him the equivalent of $9.8k a match just to be an average NPC defender..

Poor business

You can't blame the club for his injuries, and 98 appearances in 3 seasons is hardly "barely plays". Yes, he got injured, but he's been one of our best at the back in a long time. The best you can come up with for saying he's a bad signing is by basically lying to make his injury problems sound longer than they are (and potentially blame the club), then pretend he's a poor player, which he most certainly isn't. He is hardly an "average nPC" defender by any stretch.

Also, can you please stop using $s instead of £s, they aren't the same thing.

[EastKentRam]

I kind of agree with Bris that Barker isnt as good as everyone likes to make out. He went through a spell a couple of seasons ago where he was atrocious, one of the games was away at Leicester where we lost 2-0 and he tried skinning about 3 players before getting robbed and them breaking away to score. Around that time he had a run of games where he regularly cost us goals.

But overall, he's good for where we are, a mid table side, although with the extent of his injury and his increasing years, i'll be surprsied if he's ever as good as he was.

[Bris Vegas]

You can't blame the club for his injuries, and 98 appearances in 3 seasons is hardly "barely plays". Yes, he got injured, but he's been one of our best at the back in a long time. The best you can come up with for saying he's a bad signing is by basically lying to make his injury problems sound longer than they are (and potentially blame the club), then pretend he's a poor player, which he most certainly isn't. He is hardly an "average nPC" defender by any stretch.

Also, can you please stop using $s instead of £s, they aren't the same thing.

The best CB in a long time? He never reached the heights of Leacock or Moore.. And he won POTY in a poor team for being an awesome guy.. He is an awesome guy, just an average footballer..

He is average.. He's never finished in the top 10, he's never been wanted by a top 10 NPC side, and he's been involved with teams which has had average/poor goals conceded tallies..

There is no proof to suggest he's anything but an average NPC defender other than the biased opinions of DCFC fans..

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

The best CB in a long time? He never reached the heights of Leacock or Moore.. And he won POTY in a poor team for being an awesome guy.. He is an awesome guy, just an average footballer..

He is average.. He's never finished in the top 10, he's never been wanted by a top 10 NPC side, and he's been involved with teams which has had average/poor goals conceded tallies..

There is no proof to suggest he's anything but an average NPC defender other than the biased opinions of DCFC fans..

What drew you to Derby County mate? You seem to have a love hate relationship without too much of the love.

[Bris Vegas]

What drew you to Derby County mate? You seem to have a love hate relationship without too much of the love.

My Dad when he moved up from the south..

It was around the 1993-94 seasons when Derby were in Division 1 and Forest were in the PL.. Basically he had the choice of the two living slap bang in the middle but working in Derby swung it for him..

I used to be a fanatic but now I've been away for a long time I still support them but I take a different outlook to them.. My feelings for Derby have taken a massive dent over the last 4 years or so, basically since NC took charge, as I started to view football from a different angle I realised what I want to look for.. I loved that GB season but it's not until I have my views now that I appreciate how good it was.. Going away to fellow NPC clubs like Rotherham, Wigan and Gillingham and trying to outscore the opposition with good football rather than settling for a 0-0 from the very first whistle..

I think it's sad how the whole club seems to have accepted being mediocre whilst I get Wigan, Swansea and Norwich plasterd over the telly playing good football and giving it ago against the top boys.. Swansea and their style is my ultimate dream for Derby but we're lightyears away from that now..

Back to the original thread.. Barker, average..

[gcdcfc28]

Barker was a good signing mate

He may be injured but even still; his advice to the likes of O'Brien when he had a serious injury and the other younger players coming through is crucial.

Barker still plays a big part behind the scenes and I'm sure He is one of the first in the dressing room at half time to help with team talks ETC.

I can't help but like him as a leader.