Oh goodie, another striker!

Anything yellow and blue
YF Dan
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by YF Dan »

39 players this year, which is of course, ludicrous and scandalous for a club in our financial peril.

But lest we forget, Mr Wilder loved a foray too, and used 37 just three seasons ago.

I'm basing this next statement on no factual evidence whatsoever, but I'd sure a tight-knit, small and settled squad would perform better than the wild, scattergun signings employed by our two recent, 'long-term' managers.
Old Abingdonian
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by Old Abingdonian »

I don't see this as a particularly poor reflection on Appleton - not good practice, but I can see how much of it came about. I'm not sure we have the evidence for how financially wasteful it was, either.

There were clearly players that Appleton wanted to keep, and who left - most obviously Barnett, Riley and THD.

There were also players signed, on loan, at the beginning of the season, who proved not to be good enough - Morris, Jakubiak, G Long and then Howard.

Some of the recent acquisitions seem clearly here on the basis of an extended trial - and at this stage of the season, if they are ooc at the parent club, I would imagine that everyone knows where they stand - Roofe, Gnanduillet, Rasulo.

Take these out, and the picture is really one of replacing Newey, Hunt, Raynes and Potter with players who Appleton thinks are better - and with the possible exception of Raynes (we've not seen much of Dunkley) he's got it right.

This would then leave a small number of players who represented poor judgement: Brown, Burns, Brindley and Campbell. In a couple of cases, the player seems to have been signed because the player Appleton was really looking for was not yet available - a kind of stop-gap.

And compared with Wilder, the surplus players do not seem to have affected the first team selection - Appleton has more or less had a settled team, certainly since Christmas, which most fans have accepted. And generally, when a player has not been up to scratch, Appleton has got rid pretty quickly - Burns, Morris, Jakubiak, Gnandillet, probably Brown.

I'm not saying that there haven't been major errors - especially the failure to invest a significant sum of money in that midfielder - but I don't really see the 38, in the context, as a huge issue.
GodalmingYellow
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by GodalmingYellow »

Wilder's 37 was a lot, but that was the season of so many injuries wasn't it? Tippy doesn't have that excuse as injuries has not been an issue this season.

The number signed and released by Tippy is scandalous and is clear evidence of his lack of knowledge of players at this level, and also of playing requirements at this level. It will have cost Eales several truck loads of cash.
ty cobb
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by ty cobb »

Your post did make me chuckle OA.

So to summarise, some players were signed who were good, but most decided they didn't want to play for Tippy.
Lots of players were signed on loan who were not good enough.
Lots of players were signed as a stop gap who were not good enough and were got rid of/bombed out the side very quickly.

As The Enforcer points out only Collins has been a regular this season who was a Tippy signing. He is lucky that the previous two managers have a better eye for a player than he does.

If our current loan players, some of whom look quite decent, don't bother staying with us at the end of the seaon I will struggle to see the point of this season - I can take a season of rebuilding but I get a horrible feeling that's exactly what next season is going to be as well.
Ancient Colin
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by Ancient Colin »

Meanwhile, up the road, Ty's hero has used a mere 34 players ...
SWA
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by SWA »

Gnanduillet and Rasulo have already departed the building Old Abingdonian. Do keep up! ;)
Old Abingdonian
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by Old Abingdonian »

Dear Mr Swa

Should you read my post sufficiently carefully, you will note that Mr Gnanduillet is in my list of those whom Appleton has deemed not fit for purpose.

I am aware that my post offers a variety of excuses, but I do feel this has not been the greatest problem this season. I agree it is surprising that the lauded scouting network has not yet delivered anything like reliability.
Werthers Original
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by Werthers Original »

I'm with OA. Appleton's made loads of mistakes and may not work out as a decent manager, but we started the season with about 9 players, only one of whom was a forward. It's never going to be easy to get hold of good attackers mid-season, and he's had to use who he can. I think we'd be a lot higher if we'd kept Barnett and Hoskins had been fully fit all season.
SWA
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by SWA »

So it does, please accept my apologies OA :P
ty cobb
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by ty cobb »

Ancient Colin wrote:Meanwhile, up the road, Ty's hero has used a mere 34 players ...
Actually my OUFC heros are Joey, Beano and Matt Elliott but thanks for assuming otherwise. Haven't actually commented on our 3rd ever most successful manager in this thread but as you bring it up I see Northampton (a team rooted to the bottom of the division when my "hero" took over) is now 4 points off the play offs and 10 points ahead of us.

If you spend most the season in the relegation places I would expect a turnaround of players. If you spend most the season in the top three/play off places I would expect a good manager to be able to work with what they've got bringing in a few players to improve the team.

That hasn't happened because we have a poor manager.
Brahma Bull
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by Brahma Bull »

YF Dan wrote:39 players this year, which is of course, ludicrous and scandalous for a club in our financial peril.

But lest we forget, Mr Wilder loved a foray too, and used 37 just three seasons ago.

I'm basing this next statement on no factual evidence whatsoever, but I'd sure a tight-knit, small and settled squad would perform better than the wild, scattergun signings employed by our two recent, 'long-term' managers.
But not quite the whole picture. 39 players used is of course correct. But let's not forget about Jamie Ashdown, Jerome Balmy and others who have made the bench during the season, J Stevens, E Cavanagh & Sam Humphries. For some reason I thought even Shama had made the bench on one game but I'll need to double-check that one. So 44 players min used in and around the matchday squad. Forget re-building and the players haven't been good enough, it's generally been shocking signing after another with a number of exceptions.

As for finances let's not forget we allegedly paid off Raynes, Hunt and Newey decent money. We had Howard in and sent him packing early. We paid big fee's for Dunkley (rumours of £50k-£75k) and MacDonald (£50k-£70k). We paid decent wages for Skarz. I assume we paid off Brown but no doubt he was so desperate to go he might have gone for nothing for all I know. Big T wouldn't have been cheap either.

The first team management have shown no respect for Eales' generosity and financial support.

Then look at our successes this season, players we already had on the books prior to Michael joining.
GodalmingYellow
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Re: Oh goodie, another striker!

Post by GodalmingYellow »

Brahma Bull wrote:
YF Dan wrote:39 players this year, which is of course, ludicrous and scandalous for a club in our financial peril.

But lest we forget, Mr Wilder loved a foray too, and used 37 just three seasons ago.

I'm basing this next statement on no factual evidence whatsoever, but I'd sure a tight-knit, small and settled squad would perform better than the wild, scattergun signings employed by our two recent, 'long-term' managers.
But not quite the whole picture. 39 players used is of course correct. But let's not forget about Jamie Ashdown, Jerome Balmy and others who have made the bench during the season, J Stevens, E Cavanagh & Sam Humphries. For some reason I thought even Shama had made the bench on one game but I'll need to double-check that one. So 44 players min used in and around the matchday squad. Forget re-building and the players haven't been good enough, it's generally been shocking signing after another with a number of exceptions.

As for finances let's not forget we allegedly paid off Raynes, Hunt and Newey decent money. We had Howard in and sent him packing early. We paid big fee's for Dunkley (rumours of £50k-£75k) and MacDonald (£50k-£70k). We paid decent wages for Skarz. I assume we paid off Brown but no doubt he was so desperate to go he might have gone for nothing for all I know. Big T wouldn't have been cheap either.

The first team management have shown no respect for Eales' generosity and financial support.

Then look at our successes this season, players we already had on the books prior to Michael joining.
I couldn't agree more.
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