Why did we not sign a striker in January???

[B.W.]

If only we had a couple of strikers on the books who could handle themselves against Prem League defenders and have both scored against, lets say, a team like Arsenal this season. If only. If only.

You're not seriously backing the 'performance' of ALL of our strikers this season are you!!??

 

[TSB]

With relegation a realistic possibility, why oh why have we left ourselves bereft up front?

Even players like Stead at Bradford or the ancient Cureton know how to put the ball in the net, there must have been someone we could have signed permanently or on loan - after all we do have 25K+ at every home game?

I think it's disgraceful!

Oh dear. As Aspinall said on Saturday "Pele...or Van Persie wouldn't have scored today. What can the striker do if he gets no service?"

 

[chaileyjem]

You're not seriously backing the 'performance' of ALL of our strikers this season are you!!??

I think i was making a less than amusing joke here.

 

[B.W.]

I think i was making a less than amusing joke here.

Sorry CJ, misunderstood...

 

[chaileyjem]

Maybe, but I say Gus was the spotter... once Gus left, our recruitment has been pretty much consistently ****ing awful...

EP's point was the sensible one that the recruitment team signed some duffers as he put it and some good players. I agree.
Since Gus left reasonable to suggest, in my view, that Stephens, Bennett, Ward, Lingard, Ince, Walton & Stockdale were all decent additions. None of whom "spotted" by Gus. And tough for me at least to think that all 8 of those recruited players were worse than Dobbie, Harley, Mattock, Hammond, Paynter, Agdenstein, and Bergkamp all of whom you're arguing were down to Gus. So actually post Gus there has been some sensible recruitment, a lot of duffers for which Burke paid the price but ridiculous to say its "consistently awful".

 

[durrington gull]

If you want results you got to pay up...Signing the players we are currently signing will never get us out if this division, unless you count relegation. Our current squad isn't as good as the last squad at Withdean.

Agree - this squad without doubt is the weakest since Withdean - far too large and bloated with Lge1 standard players

 

[Thunder Bolt]

EP's point was the sensible one that the recruitment team signed some duffers as he put it and some good players. I agree.
Since Gus left reasonable to suggest, in my view, that Stephens, Bennett, Ward, Lingard, Ince, Walton & Stockdale were all decent additions. None of whom "spotted" by Gus. And tough for me at least to think that all 8 of those recruited players were worse than Dobbie, Harley, Mattock, Hammond, Paynter, Agdenstein, and Bergkamp all of whom you're arguing were down to Gus. So actually post Gus there has been some sensible recruitment, a lot of duffers for which Burke paid the price but ridiculous to say its "consistently awful".

Bergkamp was definitely brought in by John Stephenson, & was the reason he left the club, being 'unable to settle on the south coast'.

 

[B.W.]

EP's point was the sensible one that the recruitment team signed some duffers as he put it and some good players. I agree.
Since Gus left reasonable to suggest, in my view, that Stephens, Bennett, Ward, Lingard, Ince, Walton & Stockdale were all decent additions. None of whom "spotted" by Gus. And tough for me at least to think that all 8 of those recruited players were worse than Dobbie, Harley, Mattock, Hammond, Paynter, Agdenstein, and Bergkamp all of whom you're arguing were down to Gus. So actually post Gus there has been some sensible recruitment, a lot of duffers for which Burke paid the price but ridiculous to say its "consistently awful".

I stand by consistently awful. All teams make recruitment mistakes, all teams get some player acquisitions right, it's just that our mistakes are so very frequent, and our 'gems' are oh too rare. Do you honestly think we've spent our transfer £'s wisely in the last 3 windows? Honestly?

 

[chaileyjem]

I stand by consistently awful. All teams make recruitment mistakes, all teams get some player acquisitions right, it's just that our mistakes are so very frequent, and our 'gems' are oh too rare. Do you honestly think we've spent our transfer £'s wisely in the last 3 windows? Honestly?

No. we've made a lot of unfortunate signings/sales in the last few windows . Its self evident given Burke's sacking, our position in the league, etc . But we've still continued to make several smart additions as i illustrated in the earlier posts, and its not true to say that all good recruitment ground to a halt in June 2013 when Gus left or that we didn't sign some real duffers when Gus was here as well. Its a more mixed picture than the one you're insisting on although you do seem to now be acknowledging there have been some recent "Gems" but they are "too rare". If thats what you mean then... Agreed.

 

[B.W.]

No. we've made a lot of unfortunate signings/sales in the last few windows . Its self evident given Burke's sacking, our position in the league, etc . But we've still continued to make several smart additions as i illustrated in the earlier posts, and its not true to say that all good recruitment ground to a halt in June 2013 when Gus left or that we didn't sign some real duffers when Gus was here as well. Its a more mixed picture than the one you're insisting on although you do seem to now be acknowledging there have been some recent "Gems" but they are "too rare". If thats what you mean then... Agreed.

I think we are in danger of agreeing! ;-)

My point is that, since Gus left (and you know I'm not his biggest fan), our recruitment has taken a nose dive. I see very little evidence that things improved in the last window either, although not a lot to go on (and that's partly my point).

IMHO, the club needed to 'make a statement' in Jan by signing the players we needed to (as near as possible) ensure survival. Instead, we replaced Bent with Best (likely downgrade), re-signed Halford (no issue with that BTW), and made what looks a good signing in Kayal. 3 other loans ended, we inexplicably let Colunga go, and waved bye to Toko.

However, we insist on playing with 1 striker and 1 player either side of him, and we have, count them, 2 wingers on our books, one of which is never gonna play every game (Kaz) and the other is coming back from injury (Solly). So we left a mahoosive gap in our squad. Now that IS ridiculous. Still, we won't be rushed (ha, ha). Maybe they'll sign the wingers we need in the summer to avoid relegation from league 1 (joking), but I won't hold my breath!