Would love to post and talk about players but after I said Arter & Maddison will be quality signings I’ve decided to ban myself until 2023
No shame in that…..I think most of us expected both of them to be successful with us. How wrong we were. 😕 Incidentally, I would say that for me, Kirk proved to be one of the biggest disappointments in a long long while. So much so that I am convinced there was something psychologically wrong with the lad and his whole approach to being where he was and his misapprehension in moving to London in the first place…….he never settled and was utter pants IMHO. He should have been, to all intents and purposes, an excellent signing.
We have known we would be L1 again for ages it is odd we would leave a decision on contracts until after the last game. Feels like the comments end of last season which proved an error on Aneke and Amos.
I do wonder if JJs performance related contract is based on top half and hence we are stuck until the outcome of this game to know who manager will be. Hope not as that would be crazy.
Wouldn’t make sense, TS has surely made up his mind either way. If JJ is going I’d expect us to know by early next week.
What if he doesn't want to sack him (whether that's financial or because 12th would meet the target)? But if we finish bottom half we can get rid of him for free. I'm not saying it's the case but I don't agree it doesn't make sense.
Fair point, so it might be that TS is hoping we lose to save him paying JJ off!
TS said this year's performance was an easy target for JJ (or words to that effect). He took over when we were bottom 4. An "easy" target I would imagine would have been top half.
I genuinely think top half sees JJ meet his performance target and TS needing to pay him off if he wanted to replace him and a bottom half finish sees TS having a free shot at replacing him.
Would def explain lack of player contract offers. Would also be mad. But there you go.
There's never, ever been a successful central midfield pair in history who've had the same dominant foot, so we shouldn't sign this guy
I hope this is sarcasm
Of course it’s sarcasm. I’m sure Leuth wants Rudoni signed up for his surname alone - he sounds like an exciting foreign flair player, he simply must be far more technical than Gilbey.
Johnnie Jackson has been briefed by Chris Powell on how to put a team together as CP had to with the help of Phil Chappel after the mediocre mid table finish under the gang of three in League 1. Jacko said it's CP he is closer too which is understandable rather than Curbs. My understanding is the delays in JJ becoming full time from caretaker was that he wanted more say in the incoming transfers than Nigel Adkins had as well as Sandgaard seeing if he could have a good working relationship with JJ.
JJ is his own man and now Roddy has moved on, and Steve Gallen is happier helping rather making the final decision as was demonstrated with his zoom appearance with Ged Roddy when we were in the bottom 4 where it was the first time I had ever seen Steve Gallen look stressed.
Obviously Thomas Sandgaard has too sign off the transfers but it doesn't necessarily has to be in the Wigan and Ipswich figures of the August window but it will need to be a top six budget in League 1 window if Thomas is really serious about taking Cafc forward on and off the pitch.
JJ won more games than he lost which I said was a Shay Given when he took over but the bar will be raised higher than mid table and Johnnie will be judged on his ability to get players in to fit his prepared system and results which means another striker to go with Stockley, Aneke and I think Washington if the contract suits both sides.
Two new fast wing backs to go with CBT and we will probably keep one of Purrington or Matthews for back up. CBT ability to play either side and go past people is a fantastic asset and I would always play him on the side of the slowest defender/back.
Been in Steve Gallens company a few times recently. Not going to go into his capabilities other than to say he knows his stuff but like everyone in his position he has to depend a great deal on the budget…..which none of us are quite sure about at this stage. One thing I can say is that he comes across as a real gentleman and is very pleasant company. I wish him the very best of luck over the next few months….it looks like he is going to have his head spinning for a fair old while, that’s for sure! PS……out of politeness I rarely if ever discuss our possible targets with him………he wouldn’t tell me anything of note anyway, so I don’t embarrass him or myself by asking. 🤐
Budget is of course the elephant in the room. I mean, I get it. "It isn't your money", "Thomas said from the outset we would grow sustainably", "We aren't going to 'do a Derby'" etc etc. But sometimes you have to ask, how badly do we want X player? If we "sensibly" end up with a bunch of 5th choices, we could be back to square one again. Difficult decisions ahead.
Therefore along with JFC and Fraser he would ensure that our midfield would have a natural balance. His age wouldn't go against us in the squad cap also.
It wouldn't be a balanced midfield if he played alongside JFC and Fraser, as that would be 3 left footers!
Good point about his age, I always thought that we screwed up by not signing any under 21s last summer, meaning that we maxed out our squad numbers
I meant in terms of squad rotation. This would give us good options. For much of this season we haven't had any variety of set play takers.
Of course we did have a two footed player in Arter, except he was passed his prime.
Therefore along with JFC and Fraser he would ensure that our midfield would have a natural balance. His age wouldn't go against us in the squad cap also.
It wouldn't be a balanced midfield if he played alongside JFC and Fraser, as that would be 3 left footers!
Good point about his age, I always thought that we screwed up by not signing any under 21s last summer, meaning that we maxed out our squad numbers
I meant in terms of squad rotation. This would give us good options. For much of this season we haven't had any variety of set play takers.
Of course we did have a two footed player in Arter, except he was passed his prime absolute wank
Judge JJ on this summer's recruitment, where he has the casting vote;
Do you have a source for this assertion? Vitally important he gets the casting vote imo. Would also like to believe he has significant input in whoo we go for, not just position/type but individual.
He said at sponsors’ dinner that a lot of stats work is done by recruitment team then he inputs re character and word of mouth. He didn’t describe it as casting vote.
If the guy who picks the team at League 1 level doesn't get the casting vote then who ? Roddy gone, Thomas doesn't but obviously he signed off the deal as it's his money which only leaves Jacko and Steve Gallen.
We were sold this committee way of recruiting last season which left Adkins frustrated after hearing him on Zoom; Nigel definitely didn't sound positive judging by his body language and words.
Has the new COO guy taken GED Roddy's place ? As it's the manager who carries the can and gets sacked when things don't work out then unless your title is just head coach you must've the final say if it's within the allotted budget of the owner. Maybe JJ was just being modest ?
I know the list of 5 for every position was mentioned by *Gallen over the last few seasons but a 5th choice sounds desperate to me.
Other than Charlie Kirk and the loans this season's the transfers were decent last August, the problem was they came in too late to hit the ground running.
* Steve Gallen was given stick by quite a few on here but he should be pleased that Dobson, Clare and CBT all had good seasons and I would claim all 3 of them were my shouts if I was SG !
Judge JJ on this summer's recruitment, where he has the casting vote;
Do you have a source for this assertion? Vitally important he gets the casting vote imo. Would also like to believe he has significant input in whoo we go for, not just position/type but individual.
He said at sponsors’ dinner that a lot of stats work is done by recruitment team then he inputs re character and word of mouth. He didn’t describe it as casting vote.
If the guy who picks the team at League 1 level doesn't get the casting vote then who ? Roddy gone, Thomas doesn't but obviously he signed off the deal as it's his money which only leaves Jacko and Steve Gallen.
We were sold this committee way of recruiting last season which left Adkins frustrated after hearing him on Zoom; Nigel definitely didn't sound positive judging by his body language and words.
Has the new COO guy taken GED Roddy's place ? As it's the manager who carries the can and gets sacked when things don't work out then unless your title is just head coach you must've the final say if it's within the allotted budget of the owner. Maybe JJ was just being modest ?
I know the list of 5 for every position was mentioned by Gallen over the last few seasons but a 5th choice sounds desperate to me.
Other than Charlie Kirk and the loans this season's the transfers were decent last August, the problem was they came in too late to hit the ground running.
Adkins didn't get the final say. Why would you think Jackson will. Of course he should, but so should have Adkins. Bowyer didn't in January and had plenty of "money on the bank".
Your underpaying how much influence Thomas has and haven't even mentioned Junior.
Judge JJ on this summer's recruitment, where he has the casting vote;
Do you have a source for this assertion? Vitally important he gets the casting vote imo. Would also like to believe he has significant input in whoo we go for, not just position/type but individual.
He said at sponsors’ dinner that a lot of stats work is done by recruitment team then he inputs re character and word of mouth. He didn’t describe it as casting vote.
If the guy who picks the team at League 1 level doesn't get the casting vote then who ?
Apparently we don't know do we? We can only surmise. I'd like to think that Jackson says I want this or that player. I suspect it is more likely he identifies what positions he wants filling and what type of player, maybe even a suggestion as to who. I presume again that somebody (MS? previously SG?) identifies a list of targets to fill each role. SG negotiates a deal and TS has the final decision to go ahead or move on to the next target down the list.
Comments
How wrong we were. 😕
Incidentally, I would say that for me, Kirk proved to be one of the biggest disappointments in a long long while. So much so that I am convinced there was something psychologically wrong with the lad and his whole approach to being where he was and his misapprehension in moving to London in the first place…….he never settled and was utter pants IMHO.
He should have been, to all intents and purposes, an excellent signing.
Pogba and Kante
Walsh and Pitcher
Kashi and Forster-Caskey
Bloody decent player too tbf
Not going to go into his capabilities other than to say he knows his stuff but like everyone in his position he has to depend a great deal on the budget…..which none of us are quite sure about at this stage.
One thing I can say is that he comes across as a real gentleman and is very pleasant company.
I wish him the very best of luck over the next few months….it looks like he is going to have his head spinning for a fair old while, that’s for sure!
PS……out of politeness I rarely if ever discuss our possible targets with him………he wouldn’t tell me anything of note anyway, so I don’t embarrass him or myself by asking. 🤐
I mean, I get it. "It isn't your money", "Thomas said from the outset we would grow sustainably", "We aren't going to 'do a Derby'" etc etc.
But sometimes you have to ask, how badly do we want X player?
If we "sensibly" end up with a bunch of 5th choices, we could be back to square one again.
Difficult decisions ahead.
Of course we did have a two footed player in Arter, except he was passed his prime.
If the guy who picks the team at League 1 level doesn't get the casting vote then who ?
Roddy gone, Thomas doesn't but obviously he signed off the deal as it's his money which only leaves Jacko and Steve Gallen.
We were sold this committee way of recruiting last season which left Adkins frustrated after hearing him on Zoom; Nigel definitely didn't sound positive judging by his body language and words.
Has the new COO guy taken GED Roddy's place ? As it's the manager who carries the can and gets sacked when things don't work out then unless your title is just head coach you must've the final say if it's within the allotted budget of the owner.
Maybe JJ was just being modest ?
I know the list of 5 for every position was mentioned by *Gallen over the last few seasons but a 5th choice sounds desperate to me.
Other than Charlie Kirk and the loans this season's the transfers were decent last August, the problem was they came in too late to hit the ground running.
* Steve Gallen was given stick by quite a few on here but he should be pleased that Dobson, Clare and CBT all had good seasons and I would claim all 3 of them were my shouts if I was SG !
Your underpaying how much influence Thomas has and haven't even mentioned Junior.
I'd like to think that Jackson says I want this or that player.
I suspect it is more likely he identifies what positions he wants filling and what type of player, maybe even a suggestion as to who.
I presume again that somebody (MS? previously SG?) identifies a list of targets to fill each role.
SG negotiates a deal and TS has the final decision to go ahead or move on to the next target down the list.