Quality signings

[tommytwoholes]

Why or how is it that other clubs in this league are able to attract real quality players and we cant? Is down to tilly not being a big star (ie) Tony Adams. Is it that uncle Ron is reluctant to spend any money ? Or is it that the club believe that we can achieve promotion with the players we have.

We definately have a squad that on its day can pretty much match anything in this division , but we just seem to lack that little bit of quality that will get us out of this league. I am glad that tilly has made a signing upfront , but a non league striker seems to be a very cheap stop gap until our other non prolific strikers get fit. I hope the boy turns out to be amazing , but i cant see it. We need somebody in the same mould as Mooney to get us out. Its a tightrope for uncle Ron , but i think that we should offload a few fringe players and bring some quality in. If not then the playoffs may be beyond our reach.

Up the blues

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Tommy, you are talking out of the wrong one of your two holes.

You sign players based on a mixture of experience/potential and yours and others' opinions about their ability and attitude. That does not automatically make them come from a bigger club than you - indeed most of Southends best players were signed from more 'lowly' clubs.

Furthermore, you are overlooking the wage cap. We must be mighty close to it now - so any new signings must fit in with what we can afford.

I think Eastwood will be a success - I just feel that in the end he will go to a bigger club than us.

 

[Gremlin]

Quote[/b] (tommytwoholes @ Oct. 04 2004,12:36)]Why or how is it that other clubs in this league are able to attract real quality players and we cant? Is down to tilly not being a big star (ie) Tony Adams. Is it that uncle Ron is reluctant to spend any money ? Or is it that the club believe that we can achieve promotion with the players we have.

We definately have a squad that on its day can pretty much match anything in this division , but we just seem to lack that little bit of quality that will get us out of this league. I am glad that tilly has made a signing upfront , but a non league striker seems to be a very cheap stop gap until our other non prolific strikers get fit. I hope the boy turns out to be amazing , but i cant see it. We need somebody in the same mould as Mooney to get us out. Its a tightrope for uncle Ron , but i think that we should offload a few fringe players and bring some quality in. If not then the playoffs may be beyond our reach.

Up the blues

I could understand this post if Spencer Prior had turned us down in favour of Wycombe.

 

[tommytwoholes]

I just dont see the point of having Kightly/Corbett and Husbands (transfer listed) On our books if Tilly is not going to play them. For the money they are costing us we could get a proven forward. And i seem to remember we had Leon Gutzmore on trial from Billericay town after he had scored 40+ goals in a season. He played 2 reserve/freindly games and was p1ss poor. Boylan is hardly setting the conference alight is he. All i am saying is that this moment in time bringing in a teenager to score goals for us is asking alot of the lad. I hope he does score a hatrick against boston , but i fear that will not be the case. Bramble and duddfield are the only two who will score goals. The rest will either not get a game or are not goal scorers . Surely we should cut loose a few players ad invest 1/2 of a higher quality.

 

[fbm]

We've had big name managers in the past  - Bobby Moore, Ronnie Whelan... and made several "quality" signings.

Where did they get us?

Relegated.

With the current set up, I am always suspicious when a supposed "quality" signing joins us.  Why would they want to unless they were a) damaged goods (i.e. always injured), or b) have a bad attitude or something similar?

Surely any decent pro would want to ply his trade at the highest level possible.  Yes, we may get a decent pro at the end of his career to come and do a job but to be honest we've had them before and they haven't been that successful.

The best players we have had are those on someone else's scrapheap and/or with a point to prove... Chris Powell, Stan Collymore, Paul Sansome, even Tilson himself all fit into those categories as do many others.

"Big" name players are expensive and generally do not do the business.  For those with long memories, Billy Kellock, Glen Skivington fit this bill (they were both plucked from Div 1 - now the Prem - in the mid 80's when we were near the bottom of Div 4) and more recently Mike Marsh are players who have never quite lived up to their price tag or reputation.

Give me a hard working, honest and hungry nobody any day of the week.

 

[Einstein]

Quote[/b] (tommytwoholes @ Oct. 04 2004,12:56)]Surely we should cut loose a few players ad invest 1/2 of a higher quality.

Simple Answer, No.

We can't afford to lose all 3 of those players you have mentioned. We have a squad of just over 20 professionals and with Dudfield, Bentley, Smith, Griemiek and Broughton all out, we are struggling to actually get 5 players on the bench should anyone get injured in training this week!

Einstein

 

[Andy_S]

Quote[/b] (tommytwoholes @ Oct. 04 2004,11:56)]Boylan is hardly setting the conference alight is he.

All i am saying is that this moment in time bringing in a teenager to score goals for us is asking alot of the lad.

Surely we should cut loose a few players ad invest 1/2 of a higher quality.

Boylan has already got 6 in the Conference, which in my opinion isn't bad at all. We're also not signing Boylan at this moment, so I don't see why this is relevant.

I'm sure he's not being brought in as our 'saviour', but by all accounts he's a very highly regarded young player, who we'd be stupid not to give a chance to when we have an opportunity to like this. Lots and lots of bigger clubs are looking at him, and I look at it that we're very lucky to have snapped him up ahead of them. What have we got to lose? He's come in for a month on loan, we haven't spent a hefty fee on him have we?

We've got a small squad as it is, we can't afford to cut the squad down by much at all, otherwise we'll have a bench full of first year scholars.

I'm quite excited by this signing, and I can't see why there are already doubts about him despite the reputation he's got, and despite the fact he hasn't even kicked a ball for us yet!

 

[tommytwoholes]

Ive already stated that i hope the lad does really well. But the fact is we need goals and putting this pressure on teenager who has not played league standard football would be a bit much. If we are not going to play certain individuals then why should the club keep them buy paying for nothing? Surely we should get rid them off the wage bill and then invest in some more talented players or atleast ones who are more likely to be in tilly's plans. I rate Corbett very highly , but the fact is tilly would probably prefer to play himself than give jimbo a decent run in the side.

 

[Einstein]

Quote[/b] (Andy_S @ Oct. 04 2004,13:26)]I'm quite excited by this signing, and I can't see why there are already doubts about him despite the reputation he's got, and despite the fact he hasn't even kicked a ball for us yet!

Could not have put it better myself!

 

[Einstein]

Quote[/b] (tommytwoholes @ Oct. 04 2004,13:31)]Ive already stated that i hope the lad does really well. But the fact is we need goals and putting this pressure on teenager who has not played league standard football would be a bit much. If we are not going to play certain individuals then why should the club keep them buy paying for nothing? Surely we should get rid them off the wage bill and then invest in some more talented players or atleast ones who are more likely to be in tilly's plans. I rate Corbett very highly , but the fact is tilly would probably prefer to play himself than give jimbo a decent run in the side.

You still do not seem to grasp the situation. If we had a 40 man squad and then you said get rid of 10 and bring in 3 superior players then I could understand. When we have a squad of 20 we cannot afford to get rid of 4/5 players for one player. Unfortunately, you always have to have 3 or 4 players that we will be paying and not playing, its a squad game.

You also keep stating about Corbett, he is being gradually introduced to the side, but hardly making a massive impact when he is coming on anyway!

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Can someone remind what is everyone's view of Bentley? And where exactly did he come from?



I think this rests the case of that you have got to give non-league boys a chance. And so far Tilly's signings from this end of pyramid do not seem too bad!!

 

[Its grim up north!]

Why cant we sign Dicanio?

 

[overseas shrimper]

Quote[/b] (Bob Cratchitt @ Oct. 04 2004,14:42)]Can someone remind what is everyone's view of Bentley? And where exactly did he come from?



I think this rests the case of that you have got to give non-league boys a chance. And so far Tilly's signings from this end of pyramid do not seem too bad!!

I kind of see where you're coming from, but Bentley was from the Conference, not the Conference South and (IMHO) there's quite a difference between the two leagues.

Bentley was also a player that had impressed over a number of seasons and came to us with a bit more experience.

I'm not knocking Eastwood as a player, or the potential he may have... I'm just not that enthused at the moment.

Don't forget, Wayne Gray looked like a 'scoring sensation' against some of the kind of defenses Eastwood has played against... but look at how he struggles against league opposition.

I hope Eastwood does the biz and becomes a Shrimper.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Quote[/b] (overseas shrimper @ Oct. 04 2004,13:48)]

Don't forget, Wayne Gray looked like a 'scoring sensation' against some of the kind of defenses Eastwood has played against... but look at how he struggles against league opposition.

I hope Eastwood does the biz and becomes a Shrimper.

A tad harsh... I think a few goals would transform Wayne Gray to Constantine levels (ok - thats not very high, but at least he'd look the League Two business...). I think Wayne is suffering from the lack of confidence that afflicts strikers when they aren't scoring.

For proof of this you need look no further than Real Madrid. Owen is doing a Wayne Gray and Raul has finally scored last week after 9 months at the Bernabeu without a goal. If that lot can suffer from a lack of confidence then ours certainly can!

 

[Napster]

Quote[/b] (Spaceman Spiff @ Oct. 04 2004,12:54)]Owen is doing a Wayne Gray

How bizarre is that sentence?

 

[Guest]

Quote[/b] (tommytwoholes @ Oct. 04 2004,12:36)]Why or how is it that other clubs in this league are able to attract real quality players and we cant? Is down to tilly not being a big star (ie) Tony Adams. Is it that uncle Ron is reluctant to spend any money ? Or is it that the club believe that we can achieve promotion with the players we have.

We definately have a squad that on its day can pretty much match anything in this division , but we just seem to lack that little bit of quality that will get us out of this league. I am glad that tilly has made a signing upfront , but a non league striker seems to be a very cheap stop gap until our other non prolific strikers get fit. I hope the boy turns out to be amazing , but i cant see it. We need somebody in the same mould as Mooney to get us out. Its a tightrope for uncle Ron , but i think that we should offload a few fringe players and bring some quality in. If not then the playoffs may be beyond our reach.

Up the blues

Compared to a lot of teams we do have decent quality. Spencer Prior is one of the bigfgest names in the division and we have a few players who are established and well known within the division.

I had the misfortune of seeing Kiddy play Cambridge on saturday in the worst game I've ever seen. There were virtually no players of any quality on either side so it could be worse for us.

Building a team takes time. Notice that two of the top three sides in the division have had the same manager for a considerable period. Notice also that four of the five bottom teams have had the same manager for less than a year!

What I don't understand about this signing is that Grays wanted a lot of money for him in the summer. Why would they have changed their minds now?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Quote[/b] (Napster @ Oct. 04 2004,13:56)]

Quote[/b] (Spaceman Spiff @ Oct. 04 2004,12:54)]Owen is doing a Wayne Gray

How bizarre is that sentence?

I could have put it the other way round but basically they are both having similar starts to their new club careers

 

[Benfleet Blue]

How can anyone expect Corbett to make an impact give a maximum of 10 minutes and minimum of 3 minutes!!

 

[Suffolk Blue]

The other fly in the ointment as far as getting rid of players to free up funds for new signings is that these players are on contracts so, unless we sell them to another club (unlikely) getting rid of them will free up little or no funds.

 

[tommytwoholes]

And why would they allow there star striker to leave??

Something doesnt add up. And i never mentioned that we should get rid of five players maybe just two or three who are not playing which we could replace with others very quickly . Mark gower and Mark bentley have made great impacts, but they were a league higher than Fredy Eastwood. The last time we got a player from the level was Simon Livett and i seem to remember he came from the hamsters aswell.