Yorkshire Relish. Away to Barnsley Sat Apr 12th 3-0'clock.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

We need a team of 7 out of 10s every week, with 2-3 of them putting in 8/9 out of 10s every week. That sort of consistency will get us up. At the moment we're 5/6 out of 10 with rare 7/8 out of 10. The players that once fit were supposed to be a cut above are only delivering those 8+ out of 10 games once or twice in a season.

We get rid of who we can and build from there. I think Schuey will get close to the best out of what he's got. Whether it is enough remains to be seen.

[Prufrock]

For me, we need a bastard centre half, a bastard central midfielder, wingers and a number 9. Plenty of the others can fit in and be part of it, but we are missing that spine. We've gone very Arsenal (is there anything to be said for signing another Spanish attacking midfielder?).

Below are the ones I'd actively want to keep next year (not necessarily as first choice).

GK: Bax and Southwood

RB: Tutu and JDC
CB: Forino, Toal
LB: Conway

CM: Morley
AM: McAtee

LW Collins

Most of the rest are still good players but happy for any of them to go.

[jmjhb]

Double-digit replacements is, yes, unrealistic. But Schuey does have history of building an excellent squad for next to nowt.

If we were to go up then most of that money would go on player wages anyway. The only difference is that there would be more capex available for other investments (both football and non-football).

[The_Gun]

It’s also worth pointing out that it’s perfectly possible to do well at this level without spending fortunes. Look at some of the sides currently above us:

Stockport - spent under £1m in total across both windows after being promoted from L2.

Charlton - net transfer spend of a few hundred grand after finishing 16th in L1 last season.

Reading - transfer profit of £3m, with zero spent on incomings, after 17th placed finish in L1.

Orient - minimal spend after finishing 11th in L1.

[Worthy4England]

It’s also worth pointing out that it’s perfectly possible to do well at this level without spending fortunes. Look at some of the sides currently above us:

Stockport - spent under £1m in total across both windows after being promoted from L2.

Charlton - net transfer spend of a few hundred grand after finishing 16th in L1 last season.

Reading - transfer profit of £3m, with zero spent on incomings, after 17th placed finish in L1.

Orient - minimal spend after finishing 11th in L1.

I think that's reasonable and one of the reasons we were saying Evatt should be doing better with his signings. Whatever the outlay, you need something that works as a team. I duuno whether anyone can get the right tune out of this bag of jigsaw bits

[BWFC_Insane]

Personally to echo some of the thoughts above I think we need to disavow ourselves of the idea that you need to pay big fees down here to go up. The money needs spending on wages. I mean Stansfield broke records for a fee at this level but has hardly broken any records on the pitch.

We need to be smarter with what we are doing. I think the vast majority of signings have been poor to atrocious. And Cogley on a free maybe one of the best. One of the few who gives a 7 out of ten most weeks. Jones before him was also in that category. The more we’ve spent the worse we’ve got. Bradley, Fossey, Trafford even Dapo initially all loans. No doubt they cost money on wages but still. Quality way beyond the likes of Tutu, Schon, McAtee and Randall who in fees represent something around or in excess of £3M. Going to take a long time for any to repay their fees based on what we’ve seen thus far. None of them close to the level of the players mentioned before.

Then we get to more experienced types who have played at higher levels like Lee or Baptiste. Again never replaced that sort of experience inspire of spending a lot more money to bring players in.

[Worthy4England]

It doesn't break down quite like that for me. Last season, I think we were worth third, might have got second and might also have got promoted via the play-offs, we weren't particularly close to 5th or 6th. In the context of L1, that's neither atrocious nor even poor, although within that, there were a few who you might have wondered about.

I think Jan 24 and Summer windows were - strange. Albeit maybe less so Jan. Collins and three loanees in (Ogbeta, Ramsay and Taylor) none of which were particularly great. Collins grabbed us 9 in 22 but overall our points per game decreased when he started from 2.06 to 1.86.

Summer, seems to have been a complete car crash. Schon, Arfield, Forino, Southwood, Matete, Osei Tutu, McAtee, Lolos. At best looks like 2 starters, and I'm not sure McAtee would be if we had prime Dion. There's plenty to wonder about in that collection.

Schon, I think there's probably still some potential there, but not an "improvement" on Randall who we got shut of.
Arfield - what was that all about?
Forino - I don't think has improved us - he might be "on a par"
Southwood - we needed a back-up
Matete, Osei-Tutu and Lolos all in the "Wow look at that dribble" once per half, but nothing for the next 40 minutes
McAtee - Bit out on a limb here, but we signed him after Barnsley had him. 40 appearances 12 goals for them. For us he's on 40 and 11. Unless anyone was expecting 20 from him. And the main attackers being Collins and McAtee, hasn't added much over last year's Dion/Vic combo.

There's not a one of those, that I'd say "we're sunk if they're not in the team"

Then there's Randall and Etete...

[Mar]

It doesn't break down quite like that for me. Last season, I think we were worth third, might have got second and might also have got promoted via the play-offs, we weren't particularly close to 5th or 6th. In the context of L1, that's neither atrocious nor even poor, although within that, there were a few who you might have wondered about.

I think Jan 24 and Summer windows were - strange. Albeit maybe less so Jan. Collins and three loanees in (Ogbeta, Ramsay and Taylor) none of which were particularly great. Collins grabbed us 9 in 22 but overall our points per game decreased when he started from 2.06 to 1.86.

Summer, seems to have been a complete car crash. Schon, Arfield, Forino, Southwood, Matete, Osei Tutu, McAtee, Lolos. At best looks like 2 starters, and I'm not sure McAtee would be if we had prime Dion. There's plenty to wonder about in that collection.

Schon, I think there's probably still some potential there, but not an "improvement" on Randall who we got shut of.
Arfield - what was that all about?
Forino - I don't think has improved us - he might be "on a par"
Southwood - we needed a back-up
Matete, Osei-Tutu and Lolos all in the "Wow look at that dribble" once per half, but nothing for the next 40 minutes
McAtee - Bit out on a limb here, but we signed him after Barnsley had him. 40 appearances 12 goals for them. For us he's on 40 and 11. Unless anyone was expecting 20 from him. And the main attackers being Collins and McAtee, hasn't added much over last year's Dion/Vic combo.

There's not a one of those, that I'd say "we're sunk if they're not in the team"

Then there's Randall and Etete...

McAtee probably should've scored more. Given how many chances we were creating prior to his arrival, you would suspect that he should be able to improve on that return. That being said, the squads dropped off this season, so he's probably putting up the numbers that would be expected.

Schon - Talented and hard working, few question marks over mentality though.
Arfield - Shocking signing. Knew it at the time, no benefit of the doubt given. Almost as if Evatt was trying to match the Jerome signing.
Forino - Impressed. Can't say he's the real deal given our defensive record. Maybe we're just seeing him as the tallest dwarf.
Southwood - Good backup. No complaints there.
Matete / Tutu / Lolos - I'd agree with you there. There's talent in the lot of them. In terms of stand out performances, Tutu has had the best performance but the biggest drop off, Matete seems solid, Lolos just looks like a player we didnt need but may be good for the future.

Whoever is looking at Randall and Etete as being the solution has to be asked, what the hell was the question. Shocking signings, neither are coming on the pitch putting a shift in and trying to impress from the looks of it. Hopefully that changes and impressions can stand out, but they're just looking on a par with Arfield at the minute.

[BWFC_Insane]

McAtee is a ways off imho. Can’t jump for a header. If he were a 17 year old kid from non league you might offer some leeway given he could develop. But we signed him as a 25 year old ready made deal.

I think it’s a classic problem of a player who hasn’t developed into a role in their career mainly cos he’s barely had one. 25 and he doesn’t know how to use his ability to help a side.

[Worthy4England]

I get he's not the striker you'd want, but the question was around "wasting money." 11 goals/3 assists at a reputed 750k compares decently with Nombe at Rotherham who allegedly cost £1m and has similar stats. You fancied Clarke-Harris who was £1.5m who did 9 in 34 last season and 6 in 18 this. Sure you can get lucky maybe, think I read Kone was a "free," or you can spend three years budget on Stansfield.

In that sense, I don't think McAtee is the biggest problem, nor the most expensive mistake.

[Mar]

I get he's not the striker you'd want, but the question was around "wasting money." 11 goals/3 assists at a reputed 750k compares decently with Nombe at Rotherham who allegedly cost £1m and has similar stats. You fancied Clarke-Harris who was £1.5m who did 9 in 34 last season and 6 in 18 this. Sure you can get lucky maybe, think I read Kone was a "free," or you can spend three years budget on Stansfield.

In that sense, I don't think McAtee is the biggest problem, nor the most expensive mistake.

The McAtee signing just seems like wrapping up the business of the Charles deal. Sign a player, sell them on for money and make a profit. Bring in a newer player and repeat the same model.

Arguably it would seem like from a footballing standpoint it wasn't the player we needed as Charles and McAtee are quite similar. I'd go as far as saying we would've been better served spending significant money on a big unit replacement given Jerome and Bod both went by the wayside, but we didnt replace them and ended up with three very similar players. At least until we brought in Etete.

[Worthy4England]

I get he's not the striker you'd want, but the question was around "wasting money." 11 goals/3 assists at a reputed 750k compares decently with Nombe at Rotherham who allegedly cost £1m and has similar stats. You fancied Clarke-Harris who was £1.5m who did 9 in 34 last season and 6 in 18 this. Sure you can get lucky maybe, think I read Kone was a "free," or you can spend three years budget on Stansfield.

In that sense, I don't think McAtee is the biggest problem, nor the most expensive mistake.

The McAtee signing just seems like wrapping up the business of the Charles deal. Sign a player, sell them on for money and make a profit. Bring in a newer player and repeat the same model.

Arguably it would seem like from a footballing standpoint it wasn't the player we needed as Charles and McAtee are quite similar. I'd go as far as saying we would've been better served spending significant money on a big unit replacement given Jerome and Bod both went by the wayside, but we didnt replace them and ended up with three very similar players. At least until we brought in Etete.

Yeah, mate. I think the second para is where my head's at. If you look across our attackers and factor in Randall, CMG, Dan and Vic, there's none that I think can shift us to anything other than a slightly different spin on the same theme. It's not quite working so bring a fresher pair of legs on to continue doing what wasn't working...

[BorsdaneWhite]

I get he's not the striker you'd want, but the question was around "wasting money." 11 goals/3 assists at a reputed 750k compares decently with Nombe at Rotherham who allegedly cost £1m and has similar stats. You fancied Clarke-Harris who was £1.5m who did 9 in 34 last season and 6 in 18 this. Sure you can get lucky maybe, think I read Kone was a "free," or you can spend three years budget on Stansfield.

In that sense, I don't think McAtee is the biggest problem, nor the most expensive mistake.

The McAtee signing just seems like wrapping up the business of the Charles deal. Sign a player, sell them on for money and make a profit. Bring in a newer player and repeat the same model.

Arguably it would seem like from a footballing standpoint it wasn't the player we needed as Charles and McAtee are quite similar. I'd go as far as saying we would've been better served spending significant money on a big unit replacement given Jerome and Bod both went by the wayside, but we didnt replace them and ended up with three very similar players. At least until we brought in Etete.

Yeah, mate. I think the second para is where my head's at. If you look across our attackers and factor in Randall, CMG, Dan and Vic, there's none that I think can shift us to anything other than a slightly different spin on the same theme. It's not quite working so bring a fresher pair of legs on to continue doing what wasn't working...

Wonder what Paul Mullin is up to after Wrexham go up. Bet he’s on a wedge, like.

[BWFC_Insane]

I get he's not the striker you'd want, but the question was around "wasting money." 11 goals/3 assists at a reputed 750k compares decently with Nombe at Rotherham who allegedly cost £1m and has similar stats. You fancied Clarke-Harris who was £1.5m who did 9 in 34 last season and 6 in 18 this. Sure you can get lucky maybe, think I read Kone was a "free," or you can spend three years budget on Stansfield.

In that sense, I don't think McAtee is the biggest problem, nor the most expensive mistake.

The McAtee signing just seems like wrapping up the business of the Charles deal. Sign a player, sell them on for money and make a profit. Bring in a newer player and repeat the same model.

Arguably it would seem like from a footballing standpoint it wasn't the player we needed as Charles and McAtee are quite similar. I'd go as far as saying we would've been better served spending significant money on a big unit replacement given Jerome and Bod both went by the wayside, but we didnt replace them and ended up with three very similar players. At least until we brought in Etete.

Yeah, mate. I think the second para is where my head's at. If you look across our attackers and factor in Randall, CMG, Dan and Vic, there's none that I think can shift us to anything other than a slightly different spin on the same theme. It's not quite working so bring a fresher pair of legs on to continue doing what wasn't working...

Wonder what Paul Mullin is up to after Wrexham go up. Bet he’s on a wedge, like.

He’s 30 barely been fit this season and Parkinson won’t pick him when he is. Massive pass for me. I suspect age and level both caught up with him.

[Worthy4England]

We reach this point every summer. "I don't like small technical players" v "I don't like big tanks." Over a number of iterations, we seemed to change what it was we were doing. In D2, we had a couple of main attackers and a few on the periphery, but they added important goals. Shaun Miller was only here 5 minutes and ended joint 4th highest scorer. The year later we added Baka and JDB who often didn't start but delivered 20 goals, offering something different to Dion/Dapo.

However many you or I think we need in to "sort it," I think most would agree it's a fcuking mess against a target of "improving every year". We're going to beat 22/23 goals for tally of 62, but we did that only conceding 36, you'd have to say clearly better defensively. Unless there's a couple of big 8-0's somewhere, we're not getting near last year's GF of 83, we might not beat 21/22's 74.

At the other end, we've already beaten out previous Goals Against tally of 57, the year we went up. A defence that had shit Declan John in it most of the time, and Joel Dixon in nets for 23 games. We did have a marginal advantage in that our main defensive MF was a defensive MF, in MJ Williams.

Recruitment need to give their collective heads a shake.

[BWFC_Insane]

We reach this point every summer. "I don't like small technical players" v "I don't like big tanks." Over a number of iterations, we seemed to change what it was we were doing. In D2, we had a couple of main attackers and a few on the periphery, but they added important goals. Shaun Miller was only here 5 minutes and ended joint 4th highest scorer. The year later we added Baka and JDB who often didn't start but delivered 20 goals, offering something different to Dion/Dapo.

However many you or I think we need in to "sort it," I think most would agree it's a fcuking mess against a target of "improving every year". We're going to beat 22/23 goals for tally of 62, but we did that only conceding 36, you'd have to say clearly better defensively. Unless there's a couple of big 8-0's somewhere, we're not getting near last year's GF of 83, we might not beat 21/22's 74.

At the other end, we've already beaten out previous Goals Against tally of 57, the year we went up. A defence that had shit Declan John in it most of the time, and Joel Dixon in nets for 23 games. We did have a marginal advantage in that our main defensive MF was a defensive MF, in MJ Williams.

Recruitment need to give their collective heads a shake.

Recruitment have gone. So I guess that’s something. As for the rest I agree. I mean I think Evatt by luck or judgement stumbled across a reasonable side that season we just lacked a bit of threat going forwards. I do think a better manager would have taken that side up. I mean we lost our way completely when we signed Nlundulu - imagine even just an extra goal threat off the bench that season might have been enough.

[Worthy4England]

We reach this point every summer. "I don't like small technical players" v "I don't like big tanks." Over a number of iterations, we seemed to change what it was we were doing. In D2, we had a couple of main attackers and a few on the periphery, but they added important goals. Shaun Miller was only here 5 minutes and ended joint 4th highest scorer. The year later we added Baka and JDB who often didn't start but delivered 20 goals, offering something different to Dion/Dapo.

However many you or I think we need in to "sort it," I think most would agree it's a fcuking mess against a target of "improving every year". We're going to beat 22/23 goals for tally of 62, but we did that only conceding 36, you'd have to say clearly better defensively. Unless there's a couple of big 8-0's somewhere, we're not getting near last year's GF of 83, we might not beat 21/22's 74.

At the other end, we've already beaten out previous Goals Against tally of 57, the year we went up. A defence that had shit Declan John in it most of the time, and Joel Dixon in nets for 23 games. We did have a marginal advantage in that our main defensive MF was a defensive MF, in MJ Williams.

Recruitment need to give their collective heads a shake.

Recruitment have gone. So I guess that’s something. As for the rest I agree. I mean I think Evatt by luck or judgement stumbled across a reasonable side that season we just lacked a bit of threat going forwards. I do think a better manager would have taken that side up. I mean we lost our way completely when we signed Nlundulu - imagine even just an extra goal threat off the bench that season might have been enough.

Markham has gone - not sure that included everyone else involved in the "Recruitment Department." I disagree that we lost our way signing N'lundulu, in the sense that not everyone we sign for the squad is going to be "nailed on first teamer," on the date they sign and I doubt our budget extends to 2 11's of shoe-in first teamers, just waiting to come off Bolton's bench for 10 minutes every week.

But I do think this notion that we won't pay for a "solid 27/28 year old" vs "a very risky 23 year old" has some limitations.

[The_Gun]

I've said this before, but I think we've done a bad job at putting together a squad with the right mix of ages. We've got no young players and no old players. We don't have anyone under the age of 23, or anyone over the age of 29 in our first team squad.

If we want to adpot a successful 'player trading' model, which we absolutely haven't done of late, then you need players in the 17-22 age range. Clubs higher up the food chain will very rarely splash out big bucks on players much older than this.

Conversely, if you have no experienced heads in the team, you're likely going to struggle with game management, on and off field discipline and all the other less tangible stuff that fosters a winning culture.

[Worthy4England]

I've said this before, but I think we've done a bad job at putting together a squad with the right mix of ages. We've got no young players and no old players. We don't have anyone under the age of 23, or anyone over the age of 29 in our first team squad.

If we want to adpot a successful 'player trading' model, which we absolutely haven't done of late, then you need players in the 17-22 age range. Clubs higher up the food chain will very rarely splash out big bucks on players much older than this.

Conversely, if you have no experienced heads in the team, you're likely going to struggle with game management, on and off field discipline and all the other less tangible stuff that fosters a winning culture.

I suspect we've made a few quid on a few (rather than moneyball £15m signings)

Dapo, Dion, Will Aimson? Maybe a couple of others?

[dave the minion]

Sadly, and in the least surprising news, Morley has confirmed he is out for the season