I think this deserves a thread of its own, rather than getting lost amongst the many others?
Up until now, I don’t think anyone’s questioned his role in the recruitment shambles of the past few seasons and I’m not necessarily laying any fingers of blame in his direction but he has been a constant in the recruitment process and he’s always been considered good at what he does but is he? I realise budget comes into play, so maybe his hands are tied?
Is he still part of the recruitment process or just the negotiator of deals?
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What he said about signing Sam Lavelle, who had 2 teenagers picked Infront of him against Cheltenham...
"We’ve been talking about him internally for quite a few months,” Gallen said, “there was talk about shall we bring in a centre back or not because obviously we’ve got a few and we’ve got a few good players in that position but then Sam became available quite late to us and we decided to do it.
“I think he is a great signing for the football club and one of a few players now that we’ve paid a transfer fee for and this is all quite new to me because I’ve been at the club for four and half years and for the first few years we didn’t pay a transfer fee for anybody.
“Now Thomas Sandgaard has come in, he’s allowed us to do that and we’ve got a player now who is on a three-year contract, with an option for an additional year, so potentially a four-year contract, so we’re pleased to get someone of his age, captain of Morecambe, a good player, he’s a winner and I think he’s really going to help the team and the squad. He was a fan favourite at Morecambe and there is certainly no reason why he can’t become that at our club.”
Yeah he's not above getting some of the blame, maybe that's why TS stopped spending money, when Gallen spunked a load of it on absolute guff like Lavelle
Thats it.
Doubt he gives a stuff quite frankly.
We have had a distinct lack of success in the last 2 years when we've actually spent money, starting with DJ in January 2021. None of the below have enhanced their reputation or value since joining.
DJ
Kirk
Lavelle
Stockley
Aneke
Fraser
In terms of signings he did definitely have a purple patch of getting a lot of very high quality loan players in and making sure that we were trusted by the big PL clubs to develop their talents. I'd probably even include players like Ian Maatsen in the success category although he was incredibly raw as a prospect. Obviously there was the 2 Matt Smith's that failed to make an impact at all.
In terms of signings for fees it has seemed a bit scattergun. Lavelle was a B list choice when we got outbid for Jason Kerr who went to Wigan. Ironically DJ was a deadline day signing when we failed to get a deal across the line in that January for Charlie Kirk , think that Kirk was a long term Gallen target. Fraser I thought made a lot of a sense , a player that had impressed at multiple clubs at this level but was just buried by that avalanche of signings at Ipswich (think they were even playing him wide left at one point). Converting Stockleys loan made sense , even if I think we probably ended up overpaying to see off Pompey.
So all in all I think it's a bit of a mixed bag at least the last couple of windows I'm not entirely convinced by but not knowing what his role is makes it tough to properly judge.
Lavelle, Kirk, DJ, yeah, less convicing.
There's just been no money for a) any others or b) any better.
Don't think SG has been that good or that bad.
if he and Sandy's son rely on videos to evaluate players, there are lies, damned lies, statistics and videos to confuse them
Harsh to say, any REAL expert at player spotting would be at a big club .. obviously at CAFC the idea is to spot unrecognised/unfulfilled talent of any age and recommend that they can do a job
It's a very fine art .. look at how massive clubs can spend a fortune on a player, find out he's not what he seemed and then loan him out or sell him at a loss .. the big uns can afford mistakes, we can't
I am prepared to give Gallen the benefit of the doubt .. he's brought in (e.g.) Gallagher, Cullen, Bielik, Taylor amongst others and it looks as though he is now trying to sign the proverbial sow's ears and turn them into silk purses. Lastly, competition for talent is hot, could be that a t m CAFC is not regarded by talented players as the place to be
It’s a difficult one to judge as there’s so much we don’t know.
Which signings did he recommend?
Who did we miss out on (good and bad) due to disagreements from managers, owners and MS/TD or budget?
How well has he been supported with the people and tools he needs? Scouts, analysts and the systems they use? How much of this is in his control?
The more time passes since 18/19 the less relevant Taylor, Bielik and Cullen etc become. It could be argued they were obvious targets for someone in that role and players of their level rarely become available in the third tier. A lot of the players that go to Ipswich, Wigan last season etc are probably easily identified by all clubs of a similar size and it’s more down to budget and the manager than each scouting set up.
If we had a takeover I’d be happy to see a new recruitment team in place.
I think some of our recent singings have been demonised a little more than they should but there is no denying that we have missed on some great signings like Scott Twine. Small fee to buy but big sell on...vital at League 1.
Gallen has had his day I think and like most people behind the scenes at board level....needs to go.
After relegation, Sandgaard spent some money. We have paid fees for Lavelle, Clare, Kirk, Fraser, DJ, Stockley, and Aneke. So until the summer just gone, Gallen has been in a better position than the years previously yet we're not performing better. We've not spent money particularly well and Gallen has been a part of that.
For what it's worth, I think he is an asset to the club. He clearly has decent contacts and has received high praise for his negotiations. But from a scouting perspective, I think he deserves blame.
Given we have had instances of players not signing because the deal got changed at the last minute I can't imagine it's easy to convince a club to loan us a player and for us to actually come good on it - and pay the wages of the player. We can only identify the targets - but if we won't pay the bills we don't get the player - it's that simple.
In the summer I was talking to Steve Gallen about targets but he informed me he was looking at a budget of around zero. Thomas had it in his head that he wanted to emulate Sheffield Wednesday last season with a load of players who cost nothing but still got into the play offs.
The Macauley Bonne situation most recently was a last minute decision that we needed another striker despite repeatedly stating we were ok in that dept. . That late decision (a week or two before the deadline) was made by Garner. At the very last minute we (TS) tried to pull a fast one on the wages apparently and QPR or Bonne puled the plug. Again if we won't pay the bills we don't get the player - it's that simple.
I am not saying the man is faultless and all the players we recruit are successes but here we have another man trying to work with a hand tied behind his back at times
Conor Gallagher. He had to persuade Bowyer to bring him in
Recently the latest 2 loanees.
Gallen is not the problem here. He can only work with the budget given by Sandgaard.
Like Garner you can only work with the tools you have available to you.
If you get a chance have a read of this around the time of the Play offs
For every Mark Kinsella, John Robinson, Clive Mendonca, Josh Cullen you will have a Ralph Milne, Simon Francis, Neil Redfearn.