THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Reading on the Robbo vs Tis thread about frustration that we did not utilise the loan market this summer. I am inclined to agree, and think we have handicapped ourselves slightly - and that has been exacerbated by Healey's injury.

At risk of exposing myself as someone who spent too much time playing Football Manager, the free agent market remains available to us:

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spieler ... e&yt0=Show

Its not the greatest list in the world but there are a few players there who would surely improve our current options? Assuming they are all sat on their hands doing nothing right now, surely we could offer a short-term or pay-as-you-play or something - surely they'd rather be playing football (and putting themselves in the shop window) than not? Hooper? Anichebe? Others?

Just an idea. Probably not a good one.

Given that we're unlikely to go up or down this season, I would stick with what we have. Mainly because Sam Nombe will continue to develop. Also, none of those free agents would be cheap and we are better off saving that money for a promotion push next year.

I heard about this guy called Mason. Not a lot is known about him, although he has a good pedigree. Often seen around physio rooms.

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Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.

Agree on the whole, especially about the development season for the youngsters, but one thing I will say, is that this current team hasn’t been assembled cheaply, and certainly should be doing a bit better than bumbling around mid-table if you use money spent on wages as a barometer.

We’ve always ran a comfortably top six budget at this level and I really don’t believe too much has changed. Name six clubs clubs spending more than us on wages? There’s only one club that that dwarfs our current spending (Sunderland) when there always used to be two or three in most of our time in League One. Last season, our wage budget in League 2 was enough to put us in the top six spenders in League 1! (And about a million more a year than Pompey, if you assumed they were one of the five currently spending more than us).Since then the league has lost three clubs who were spending more, in Luton, Barnsley & Charlton, and we’ve added a higher calibre of player on longer, better contracts.

Yes, there should be a period of readjustment, but make no mistake, the financial backing is in place to be doing a lot better.

Tis will get time, of course, and part of the criteria he’ll be judged on will be player development (& subsequent sales) as well as results on the pitch, but we’ll need to challenging at the right end of the table along the way.

As was the case most seasons under KRobbo, Lone strikers rarely score lots of goals, especially when the supply is guff. Genuinely believe we have enough up front to put us comfortably in the top half this season, but when you have 2 midfielders who appear to be performing as consistently bad as Boateng (this years Harley?) and Houghton, creating chances is going to be tough. I've not mentioned this before but when we were firmly put back in our boxes by Posh, I'm almost certain I heard Williams shout 'F@@king run you lazy c**t' at Houghton in the 1st half, or at least he was looking at Houghton and at the time there wasn't anyone else close by. Don't normally see or hear the kind of nonsense that Accrington got up to from our players, hopefully it was just frustration and passion and not something eating at the spirit in the dressing room.

It doesn't matter how high our budget is when some of our best attacking players are injured.

Didn't somebody say he did the same a few games ago? (Not necessarily to Houghton)

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment