THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

The club clearly read the forum from time to time, so why not.

We're likely heading to L2, and possibly have our most important summer transfer window in years. This summer needs to be the foundation for a squad capable of getting back out of L2 at the first attempt (or I fear we'll become a Leyton Orient) and then capable of challenging in L1 the following season.

The last few years (since summer 2015) have been atrocious overall in terms of recruitment and the type of players we have brought in. We seem to try and pick up leftfield bargains - players carrying injuries, foreign players with no experience of the EFL who look out of their depth, and has-been strikers with no real pedigree.

2015/16:
Benavente - No EFL experience, struggled, money wasted and offloaded within months
Aguza - As above
Gallagher - Inexperienced, was poor for us
Jennings - Overweight and carrying an injury, played a couple of games and then gone
Matt Upson - Carrying an injury, barely played then retired
Cropper - Never played a first team game in his life
Maynard - Well past his best, had only scored one or two goals in his previous 5 seasons
Church - Awful, hadn't had a good season for 6 years, surely any idiot could see that
JET - Contributed nothing
Long - Experienced but barely played!

2016/17:
Aneke - Carrying a long term injury when we signed him
Downing - Poor most of his time here
Wootton - Poor most of his time here
Muirhead - No EFL experience, struggled most of his time here and inconsistent
N'gombo - Literally contributed nothing, no EFL experience. Awful.
Nicholls - Personally think he's been very error prone but I know some rate him


2017/18:
Sow - Carrying an injury, no EFL experience and has struggled
Cissé - No EFL experience
Nesbitt - No EFL experience, inconsistent
McGrandles - No EFL experience, had been out for a season with a long term injury
Pawlett - No EFL experience, out of favour at Aberdeen
Sietsma - No EFL experience
Tshibola - Awful, inexperienced
Seager - Poor, inexperienced
Reo-Coker - Finally someone with experience, but hasn't bloody played!



In fact, it's easier to say which signings had a positive impact over the last three years: Aneke, Upson, Agard, JFC, Williams, Poyet, Barnes, O'Keefe, Revell, Murphy, Ward, Golbourne.

And what do they all have in common? Lots of EFL experience - apart from Barnes but he was some freak god-like player.

If ever there was proof of how important experience playing in the EFL is, we only need to look back at our own squads the last few years.

Look at all the top performing sides in League 1 - chock full of EFL experience, less reliance on loanees, not signing players with long term injuries.


So, whoever is dealing with recruitment this summer - please don't fuck about with random risky foreign gambles with no experience here, or inexperience in general, or players carrying long term injuries.

Bring in experienced L1/L2/non-league players, and include a couple of young loanees as icing on the cake.

All of our most successful squads (promotion and playoffs with KR and the L2/JPT year) were primarily full of experienced pros in key positions and I don't recall us signing anyone with long term injuries during those seasons.

Agree with most of that. Funny though I wouldn't say Agard is in the same catergoy as the likes of Aneke, Upson, JFC, Williams, Poyet, Barnes, O'Keefe, Revell, Murphy, Ward, Golbourne.

He has had impact at times but I'd say he's as inconsistent as Muirhead these days.

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Boycotting every other Club in the country...unless we play them and I can get there.

Try and make a sentence from these words :

Has
Policy
Woeful
Our
Recruitment
Been

Wigan bought the 3 amigo's in L2!

Agreed though, I can't see us going down the Europe route for this league.

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Decided to come back.

[quote="Galverion"]Try and make a sentence from these words :

Has
Policy
Woeful
Our
Recruitment
Been[/quote

You left out the word F..k

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Life is like a hot bath. It feels good while you’re in it, but the longer you stay in, the more wrinkled you get.

Good post.

What happened last time we were relegated to League 2?

After our first relegation to League 2 in 2006, our 2006/7 recruitment under new manager Martin Allen included:
Keith Andrews - Hull City - Free transfer
Lloyd Dyer - Unattached - Free transfer
Sean O'Hanlon - Swindon Town - Undisclosed
Drissa Diallo - Sheffield Wednesday - Free transfer
Jon-Paul McGovern - Sheffield Wednesday - Free transfer

We finished 4th.

The following season in League 2, our 2007/8 recruitment under new manager Paul Ince included:
Willy Guéret - Swansea City - Free
Danny Swailes - Macclesfield Town - Undisclosed
Jude Stirling - Peatboghorror - Free
Alan Navarro - Macclesfield Town - Free
Jemal Johnson - Wolves - Undisclosed
Mark Wright - Walsall - Free
Kevin Gallen - QPR - Free
Colin Cameron - Coventry City - Free

We finished as the double-winning League 2 Champions & Football League Trophy winners.
From August 2007, no-one apart from Lewington & Wilbraham from the squad relegated to league 2 a year or so earlier, played regularly.

Whether relegation to League 2 happens again (98%) or not (2%), I hope that our new manager will make similarly effective recruitment, team selection & tactical decisions for the 2018/19 season.
COYD!

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P46_ _W _D _L PTS
07/08 29 10 _7 97 PI 1st
14/15 27 10 _9 91 KR 2nd
21/22 26 11 _9 89 LM 3rd
05/06 12 14 20 50 DW 22nd R
22/23 11 12 23 45 lm/MJ 21st R
17/18 11 12 23 45 rn/DM 23rd R
15/16 _9 12 25 39 KR 23rd R
LS: A rocky start, that's all it is.

The big difference is that the squad of 2005/6 & 2006/7 was primarily full of journeymen pro's who had no tangible transfer value and many were on just single year contracts at the time.

Whatever fans may think of the likes of Sow, Agard, McGrandles, Nesbitt, Nicholls, Cisse, Pawlett, Aneke etc. all of them are under contract and have a transfer value and most have been involved in substantial transfer dealings previously in their careers (in fact the first three I listed all went for the best part of £1M each at some point!).

The squad is primarily quite young and there is plenty of development in them. Couple that with the fact that most are under contract for next season and beyond then I really can't see any major upheavals.

Yep unfortunately we are stuck with some of them until 2019. I just hope in terms of players we do bring in to supplement the squad, they aren't of the same ilk.

At this level, experience really is important. You can get away with signing young talented players in the Premier League as they are usually the cream of the crop, whereas young players and foreign players coming to play in England for the first time tend to be a much bigger gamble - or they would already be playing at a higher level. Occasionally we might get a Harvey Barnes but they are few and far between.

Being in the last tier of the football league next season, we can't afford to take risks and mess about. Vast majority of any signings need to be competent EFL pros, and/or players from non-league that have proven themselves there.

Who said anything about Sow, Agard, McGrandles, Nesbitt, Nicholls, Cisse, Pawlett, Aneke etc. - take that up with Filthy, Goaldon, Scumarmy, etc. etc.

Summer recruitment - more experience, less gambles please is the title of this thread.

My point was that following some decent summer recruitment of more experienced players mostly on free transfers, we had (together with Lewie & Alby from the relegation season) the starting XI + subs that were/are the best that League 2 had/has ever seen.

It can be done - we've done it before - it just hasn't been done to similar effect at this club for some years now, as Filthy's review of the past three summer's recruitment, and my recap of the previous League 2 summer recruitments by way of contrast, have observed.

Whether relegation to League 2 happens again (98%) or not (2%), I hope that our new manager will make similarly effective recruitment, team selection & tactical decisions for the 2018/19 season.
COYD!

_________________
P46_ _W _D _L PTS
07/08 29 10 _7 97 PI 1st
14/15 27 10 _9 91 KR 2nd
21/22 26 11 _9 89 LM 3rd
05/06 12 14 20 50 DW 22nd R
22/23 11 12 23 45 lm/MJ 21st R
17/18 11 12 23 45 rn/DM 23rd R
15/16 _9 12 25 39 KR 23rd R
LS: A rocky start, that's all it is.

As above, "the club clearly read this forum". Therefore my willy has been on the lips of Pete, DM and the others. I don't know how that makes me feel. Will think about it.

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He's cock royalty!