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I can think of another non league player we signed apart from freddy who was just as big a hit as freddy , maybe even bigger, hes now plying his trade and very successfully i may add with one of the Dundee clubs. BM.:blush::happy:
What non league club was he signed from .
 
Priority for me is a decent shot stopper, in consideration that the Ox is likely to leave,

The spine of the team IMHO is Turner, Yearwood and Cox, partners for all 3 please.

Hoping we will see more youngsters coming through next season, I see lots of talk of signing a big strong striker, but we have Acquah who’s big, strong and quick. Reckon he’ll be the next big hit as Dru has been this season.

So, Turner + Curtis Nelson, Dru + Mantom and Cox + ???

Can’t see us spending any cash, unless we keep Mantom, but one player who did stand out was Duane Holmes, who I think is out of contract, he’d be near top of my list.

Goalkeepers, now that’s going to be an interesting one.

Yes I have seen him play. He did look the part but needed to be a bit more ruthless in front of goal.

Unfortunately the ref decided to play the game under non contact rules. So for example that tussle Dru had for the first goal on Saturday would have been an instant foul. Upper body strength and shielding the ball is all part of the game, so overprotection does the young lads no real favours.

Think how well Turner pressured Tom Eaves v Gillingham in the first 20 minutes but without conceding a foul. As we have seen with PL loanees, they always struggle with that part of the game. I say more games of 3 and in or Wembley. One goal no one to pass to so you had to shield the ball, shrug of a defender to turn and score.
 
Priority for me is a decent shot stopper, in consideration that the Ox is likely to leave,

The spine of the team IMHO is Turner, Yearwood and Cox, partners for all 3 please.

Hoping we will see more youngsters coming through next season, I see lots of talk of signing a big strong striker, but we have Acquah who’s big, strong and quick. Reckon he’ll be the next big hit as Dru has been this season.

So, Turner + Curtis Nelson, Dru + Mantom and Cox + ???

Can’t see us spending any cash, unless we keep Mantom, but one player who did stand out was Duane Holmes, who I think is out of contract, he’d be near top of my list.

Goalkeepers, now that’s going to be an interesting one.

I haven't seen Acquah but it's pretty tough for young forwards whose game is about being big and strong to immediately translate that to professional football. They won't be fully developed but will be up against more experienced players who are. The professional big bloke types tend not to be young prodigies and take longer to develop and come into their own. Look at how old players like Corr and Harrold were by the time they fully established themselves. I think it is the position/role that develops latest.

In any case, we will need at least two of them, so there will be opportunities for Acquah.
 
I haven't seen Acquah but it's pretty tough for young forwards whose game is about being big and strong to immediately translate that to professional football. They won't be fully developed but will be up against more experienced players who are. The professional big bloke types tend not to be young prodigies and take longer to develop and come into their own. Look at how old players like Corr and Harrold were by the time they fully established themselves. I think it is the position/role that develops latest.

In any case, we will need at least two of them, so there will be opportunities for Acquah.

I really can't see us relying on a youth player as a target man. Pace and strength are helpful but they're not everything. Ladapo has all the physical attributes to be a target man but he just doesn't look up to it. I like a target man to have a few years on him, a bit of nous to know how to be a real handful for an experienced defender.

Think it's vital we keep Cox as he is such an intelligent player and makes a lot of goals. Disappointing goal return this year but it's still in double figures, and he's shown he can get more.
 
I really can't see us relying on a youth player as a target man. Pace and strength are helpful but they're not everything. Ladapo has all the physical attributes to be a target man but he just doesn't look up to it. I like a target man to have a few years on him, a bit of nous to know how to be a real handful for an experienced defender.

Think it's vital we keep Cox as he is such an intelligent player and makes a lot of goals. Disappointing goal return this year but it's still in double figures, and he's shown he can get more.

I think he'll get more under Powell next season than he was ever going to under Brown's tactics.
 
I note from Rigsby who has often repeated it, that it is not club policy to reach out any more to the lower leagues. I must take his word for it but wonder what the heck must have happened for the club to sustain what to my mind is a very narrow and unfortunate position.
I have illustrated numerous times the benefits of such a policy and affirmed that it is not out of our reach , given a significant proportion of signings from the lower leagues are also freebies, neither do they all cost a bomb.The success rate is also higher than most folks give credit too.
Secondly a goodly proportion of this leagues highest scorers are journeymen from the lower divisions , this happens year after year after year,!! as this year demonstrates.
Having seen the successes of our youth strategy, the gradual improvement in loaning players out, the complete restructuring of our recruitment team, all things ive been wanting ton see for years I rather hoped the latter might be allowed to do a bit of cherry picking from the lower tree levels.
However the blind adherence to a never go there policy is going to stifle our opportunities , impact on our future, and presumably tie the hands, of our new recruitment team, which is nuts and lacking flexibility as surely all options should be available , as some clubs recognise plucking talent from the lower reaches is the best strategy and business plan in town.
 
.P.S. the other thing that must surely end is us being LAST year after year to the transfer market !! We should also be finalising signings of our retainees now, being the first with out release list for a change, and making offers to be in a position to move forward quickly as Sir Chris has requested. Up and down the country a number of players are desperately performing to get a new contract. Some of them unfortunately then tend then to go to sleep afterwards., ( Hurst a good example ) although Wordy went to sleep about 4 months ago.
 
Powell said today, that contracts will not be resolved until after the final Bristol Rovers game in order to not upset the balance of the side.
 
I note from Rigsby who has often repeated it, that it is not club policy to reach out any more to the lower leagues. I must take his word for it but wonder what the heck must have happened for the club to sustain what to my mind is a very narrow and unfortunate position.
I have illustrated numerous times the benefits of such a policy and affirmed that it is not out of our reach , given a significant proportion of signings from the lower leagues are also freebies, neither do they all cost a bomb.The success rate is also higher than most folks give credit too.
Secondly a goodly proportion of this leagues highest scorers are journeymen from the lower divisions , this happens year after year after year,!! as this year demonstrates.
Having seen the successes of our youth strategy, the gradual improvement in loaning players out, the complete restructuring of our recruitment team, all things ive been wanting ton see for years I rather hoped the latter might be allowed to do a bit of cherry picking from the lower tree levels.
However the blind adherence to a never go there policy is going to stifle our opportunities , impact on our future, and presumably tie the hands, of our new recruitment team, which is nuts and lacking flexibility as surely all options should be available , as some clubs recognise plucking talent from the lower reaches is the best strategy and business plan in town.

Its not about my word Barry, Its my own observations. No one from the directors side or management has ever said to me its club policy not to sign non league. If a player like Coker comes for a trial or a Lenny or Kyp who have been released but impress after a training/games with us then of course its good we sign them.

What we haven't done is look to spend money on non league players. In fact we have rarely spent money on strikers through out our history. What's our top 3 fees for strikers ?

No point in getting upset with me or 'shooting the messenger' so to speak. I'm only pointing out that judging by the last 10 years and our previous 100 years before that, then we are highly unlikely to be signing a non league striker for £250,000 plus the same again depending on games. You may like that idea but it ain't going to happen. Sorry if that's to harsh for you and others to deal with but that's where we are and those are the facts.
 
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.P.S. the other thing that must surely end is us being LAST year after year to the transfer market !! We should also be finalising signings of our retainees now, being the first with out release list for a change, and making offers to be in a position to move forward quickly as Sir Chris has requested. Up and down the country a number of players are desperately performing to get a new contract. Some of them unfortunately then tend then to go to sleep afterwards., ( Hurst a good example ) although Wordy went to sleep about 4 months ago.

I'm pretty sure we purposely haven't left it late to make signings, however the reality of it is, we are not going to be a club on many players wish list to play for.

Also, if we want decent players, guess what, we're not going to be the only ones after them.

Factor that into the fact that we have to compete with a lot of northern clubs (where cost of living is way less than down here) suddenly we're not having to just compete wages wise, we need to exceed those other offers bu quite a bit.

Personally I don't care if we sign someone on the 1st July, or 31st August, as long as they are an improvement on what we have.
 
Personally I don't care if we sign someone on the 1st July, or 31st August, as long as they are an improvement on what we have.

Don't forget that there is a new date for the transfer window closure - 5pm on August 9th. However, new loans can be arranged until 31st August and players disposed of to leagues with a 31st August deadline.
 
Don't forget that there is a new date for the transfer window closure - 5pm on August 9th. However, new loans can be arranged until 31st August and players disposed of to leagues with a 31st August deadline.

As most of the players we sign are likely to be out of contract, I'm not sure that actually matters does it?
 
I think part of the reason for the lateness of signing is that we had a wish (or sometimes dream) list of players who were at Championship or even Prem clubs.

Now before dropping to L1 let alone come to us they are going to wait as long as possible to see if an offer to stay at the higher level. If we go for these players again the same will happen again, unless we make an offer their agent advises is to good to risk losing (at Charlton that may have worked too, again unlikely here).

So if we get our business done early it will be L1/L2 players, youngsters released at a higher level, a trialist or two, or a few from SCP or the coaching staffs little black books (some good surprises will come particularly as Damian Matthew was a highly regarded scout in Prem)
 
The man up front we need for next season is James Hanson of bury I think now, the old Bradford forward, completey wasted at bury this season, will cost a fee but he could be our 20 goal a season forward we need, Cox would benefit also from playing up front along side him, I think a few clubs might be interested in him when season finishes.
 
The man up front we need for next season is James Hanson of bury I think now, the old Bradford forward, completey wasted at bury this season, will cost a fee but he could be our 20 goal a season forward we need, Cox would benefit also from playing up front along side him, I think a few clubs might be interested in him when season finishes.

Not the worst shout, but ideally someone about 6 years younger.
 
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