Assume contracts to one side I wondered who we should let go – to make this quicker I would suggest who is worth keeping?
For me
OMalley
Onaraise
McGahey
Beestin (but is really starting to worry me)
KVV
Gillead (becoming a worry and should not be captain)
Green ( a punt)
Rowe
That is 7 players who would potentially make the club a better team (some are punts).
Take out KVV this club has no decent strikers with a chance in hell of scoring.
This energetic exciting youth bullshit we have from the chairman means we have close to 20 players who aren’t worth a wage, in my opinion. That scares the hell out of me because many of those 20 won’t cut it at NL level.
It would be good to know who wants to be here, Eisa and McAtee clearly aren’t bothered.
Harsh on Spence I think and possibly Hallam who hasn’t been given much opportunity since his injury and has potential IMO.
I’d certainly be happy to shift 10 – but how?????
I thought long about Spence it is a difficult one as he has been reliable and probably just needs a rest. I think it was based on a more forward thinking alternative, looking at a bishop or dawson type which is wishful thinking. If we added Spence into it it leaves 8 ones to keep which is still pretty bad. Looked at positively we’re only 4/5 players away from a strong team!
Had to write the squad down to get my head round this. And after “sending home” the loans we have: –
Rory Watson
Adam Kelsey
Mark Howard
Tom Collins
Jordan Clarke
Harrison McGahey
Manny Onariase
Lewis Butroid
Jai Rowe
Charlie Barks
Mason O’Malley
Jacob Bedeau
Alex Gilliead
Kevin Van Veen
Abobaker Eisa
Ryan Loft
Aaron Jarvis
Lewis Spence
Kenan Dunnwald-Turan
George Hornshaw
Tom Pugh
Finley Shrimpton
Raynner Silva
Junior Brown
Devarn Green
Myles Hippolyte
Andy Dales
Jordan Hallam
Alfie Beestin
Olufela Olomola
Harry Jessop
John McAtee
The first thing that you notice is the four keepers, none of whom are that great (some would say a liability). However the defence doesn’t look too bad, although the addition of another CB would help.
A real mixed bag of midfielders who blow hot and cold (more cold than hot), but with the noticeable absence of any real leadership.
And the forwards? Tell me if you find two!
Can’t disagree with the OP but take those 7/8 out and you’ve still got two dozen hanging around. Okay so some of these are untested youngsters, but there’s still a whole starting XI that leave you thinking “why are they here?”
Last January we were told that the club would have to cut its wage bill. Out with the old and expensive, in with the new and inexpensive. The trouble with cheap produce is that you tend to buy more because it isn’t as good as the decent stuff. And that’s what seems to have happened to our recruitment.
Our bin is overflowing, but will the refuse collectors arrive in the New Year?
if we take out the Scunny youth who are making their way in the game that still leaves a lot of really poor quality players, unforgivably selected by the Chairman for professional contracts.
If we say the 20 players are paid on average £50k per year then we are spending £1m p.a. on playing staff who we would struggle to move on. We’d have to try and sell O’Malley for £1m to cover the cost of Swann’s folly!
I haven’t seen the youngsters as you obviously have Sanfran so I’m basing the following purely on our record of producing league players from their ranks. Butroid surely has had his chance and O’Malley certainly looks the part. However with our recent history it would be something of a surprise if more than one of the other seven made the grade.
……unforgivably selected by the Chairman for professional contracts.
If we say the 20 players are paid on average £50k per year then we are spending £1m p.a. on playing staff who we would struggle to move on. We’d have to try and sell O’Malley for £1m to cover the cost of Swann’s folly!
So now we’ve gone from Swann influencing signings, to making a signing, to making 20 signings. Should there not be proof of this?
Fairly certain the Chairman signed all of these players, as most Chairpersons do.
Although you have conveniently cut and paste the quote part way through the first point to combine it with the second the point made was that we have a lot of players not good enough and a lot of these are Swann signings
The 20 players referred to were used as an example of how much money is being wasted and what is needed to recover. Most agree that Eisa and McAtee on their day and when they can be bothered are good players however their mind is elsewhere and so we should free up space – as far as I know Eisa and maybe McAtee were Hurst proposed signings but are included in my list as are Hippolyte and Turan who may be Cox proposals but the majority of the useless ones were brought in by the Chairman, including one whose father just plays golf with Swann; the others brought in when no manager or chief scout in place so who would be selecting these other players?
if we take out the Scunny youth who are making their way in the game that still leaves a lot of really poor quality players, unforgivably selected by the Chairman for professional contracts.
If we say the 20 players are paid on average £50k per year then we are spending £1m p.a. on playing staff who we would struggle to move on. We’d have to try and sell O’Malley for £1m to cover the cost of Swann’s folly!
Your complete quote:
“if we take out the Scunny youth who are making their way in the game that still leaves a lot of really poor quality players, unforgivably selected by the Chairman for professional contracts.
If we say the 20 players are paid on average £50k per year then we are spending £1m p.a. on playing staff who we would struggle to move on. We’d have to try and sell O’Malley for £1m to cover the cost of Swann’s folly!”
My removal of the first part of the quote made no difference at all. You clearly insinuate that they were all signed by Swann.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that the man is an egotistical buffoon, however, there is no proof that he chose them all. The trouble is that someone on here will say it and it gets repeated ad inifinitum, and then people treat it as fact.
There is plenty of ammunition with which to attack Swann, but it is unfair to make up something and then attack him with it.
I really am not sure that the overall squad is quite as terrible as some are saying. I feel it is more the kind of players who weren’t brought in at the season’s start who are the issue than those who were. We were always going to be vulnerable to disasters if key players were crocked
Let’s not forget, we had that spell putting a few wins together and, for a brief period, we were actually entertained.
After much thought – I remain to be convinced that the legions of players touted as ‘not caring’ are really so negative. A few maybe.
We need to broker in the effects of:
Playing two matches a week for a longish period.
Key injuries.
Downward spirals create a vicious circle. (Sorry.)
Players who are good enough to play and succeed in a sound or decent team may well not be good enough to lift either their own game – or that of others – in a failing team.
As one controversial example – how do we know that in a properly functioning team – Jarvis might not show a lot more? With 50 games behind him, might he not become a fully rounded player. I do not know but total pessimism does not help.
Be concerned, be worried but seeing only doom and gloom is one more negative for the players to contend with.
Four experienced performers at this level should transform what we have. It’s only two months ago that we were talking about ‘the spine’ of the team needing to be solid. That hasn’t really changed, has it?
We can only comment on what we’ve seen les, not what might be. For example, as I’ve said previously, Loft has scored a couple of goals that not many L2 players would have so he clearly has some ability. On the contrary – Jarvis?????
In my opinion one of the biggest problems thta’s not mentioned yet is too many players are not able to read the game, so very often they will be surprised in a situation and make a wrong decision.
I know, at this level you can’t expect all players to be all so smart, and also young players won’t be so but I think it is a key ability for getting results.
On the keeper thing: Age does not make a goalkeeper experienced, and a keeper doesn’t need expeirnce to be commanding his defense.
Interesting how well Taylor played.
Gilliead put in a good shift. Overall pretty impressed.
Hippolyte within a whisker of getting a hat trick – certainly would have deserved a brace.
Hippolyte took his chance well but positionally still all over the place and defensively very poor. An OK game but its the one in five that most of these players play well in. Need to be better more consistently.
Stevenage game is massive because its two wins on the bounce which breeds confidence going into Bradford and Grimsby and Barrow games, so I’ll stick with my comment
Two wins on the bounce there’s confidence for you, always welcome, I would take a draw just to keep the points gap the same, just to keep that perceived relegation battle at bay which is hard to get out of our thoughts, but in reality were not yet in a relegation battle with all them games to go, indeed if we had got 5 points from our last 5games in div 1 we would have stayed up,or even if we won the last 2, so like you I will stick by my comment ” massive game my arse”, though I believe we’re almost on the same page Ironawe.
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