What’s happened to Harvey Knibbs?

AberystwythAddick said:

Crispywood said:

AberystwythAddick said:

We don’t know what’s gone on, but I am disappointed with how the club have treated both Knibbs and Apter. 

They were likely bought here on the presumption that they would be important to us and told how they would contribute. Both now have been seemingly bombed out. 

The Knibbs one is especially strange considering how long he was chased 

With Apter Jones said he wanted to keep him but he wanted to go on loan and he didn’t do himself any favours flopping in the division below. 

Also whilst Knibbs has been unlucky there was no chance he was getting in over Carey last year and when Carey did have his fall off it was when Knibbs was injured. Also Knibbs hasn’t exactly set the world alight when he has started. 

It’s harsh but not unfair treatment given the circumstances, If players aren’t good enough then thwy’ll get replaced 

They’ve been bombed out by the same manager who signed them in less than too seasons. 

If they aren’t good enough why were they signed in the first place. It’s not like we’ve parted with a couple of million to just see if they can make the step up.

Its neither right or sustainable.

But what were we to do? We couldn’t afford Championship ready players, probably still can’t, but needed to recruit a number of players. So we went for what we thought were the best from League One in the positions we needed hoping, nay praying, that they could make the step up. It didn’t work, or rather to date it doesn’t look like it worked, but hey shit happens. And those concerned have to live by the consequences of their decisions but ultimately it was a gamble and the only option available other than sticking with the squad that got us promoted and likely get relegated.

Recruitment isn’t simple. In any transfer there are many risks involved at whatever club at whatever level. You won’t find many Liverpool fans agreeing that Florian Wirtz is worth 100m or whatever he cost. He’ll be bombed out of Liverpool no doubt and he’ll end up being a very costly mistake. So why was he signed in the first place? For the same reason we signed Rob Apter and Harvey Knibbs, because those involved thought he’d be a good signing for the Club. Some transfers work out, a great many don’t. It’s just the way it is.

killerandflash said:

letthegoodtimesroll said:

NabySarr said:

He’s not really showed on the pitch why he should be playing, so I’d imagine it’s the same story in training. Maybe he just isn’t that good 

Personally, I think it’s more to do with the scenarios on the pitch that have unfolded so far  which Nathan is probably seeing as not suitable for Knibb’s to come on and join in to. 

Cardiff would have been a waste of time when we were trying to claw back from a 2 goal deficit. Had Karlan looked up and seen TC on his own with the goal open or Charlie Kelman had scored from that unlikely position and we had got back to level terms at 2-2 then I suspect we may well have seen Knibbs come on to nick the winning goal and wind up the opposition to waste time.

3-1 is hardly a "write the game off scoreline" especially with 30 minutes left. Both Kelman and Carey came on after Cardiff got their 3rd goal, and Knibbs could have been brought on instead. 

He can't come on at 3-1 down, he can't come on when we're 1-0 up, he can't come on when it's 0-0...

I'm not even a big fan of Knibbs, but we signed him 13 months ago for nearly £2m and on reasonable wages too. We can't afford to just write that sort of investment off, especially when our other attacking options are hardly delivering a goal fest. 

Leuth said:

Would be fun to compare Andy Scott era signings to post Scott... 

I can see what you’re trying to say but I think the actual split should be league 1 and championship. When we had a top 6 league 1 budget it was a lot easier to make good signings that it is under a bottom 6 championship budget. Our league 1 recruitment after Scott was still good and led to promotion 

Regardless of what anyone says about him 'not being good' this has got to be one of the more baffling player situations in recent years, it's not exactly like WE have looked good for the best part of a month, strange that a senior pro can't get any kind of look in, in that environment when players in equivalent positions haven't played well at all 

PWR: He's just not that good. 

I still think there is a player there and there must be something non-footballing going on for him to not even be given a chance when weve had such issues in the 10 role.

I watched a clip of his a day being a footballer for EFL show. Apparently warming up your boots to soften them up is a thing these days 

Position: Attacking midfielder, winger, forward
Matches on bench: all 8 games
Minutes played: 0
Number of subs used by manager: 33 
Goals scored by team: 7
Goals scored in last 4 matches: 1

That's the sort of treatment a manager, with a decimated squad, affords a teenager in order to give him the match day experience, not a 27 year old seasoned pro. It's a thing some coaches do to keep a player interested but, in reality, there is no intention to ever use them. Eventually that player will lose all hope of playing and the manager will use that as an excuse to offload them because "their attitude was wrong". Apter is no different bar that he's played 11 minutes and been on the bench five times. Why put them on the bench in the first place?

The issue for NJ now is that he has made a rod for his own back, especially given our recent run of lack of goals. If he brings on (and we're not even talking about starting him) Knibbs (or Apter) now and he proves a success then two issues arise for NJ - criticism as to why he hasn't been played previously from the fans and pressure for him to do the same again when he really doesn't want to because he simply doesn't rate him.  

Chunes said:

Leuth said:

Would be fun to compare Andy Scott era signings to post Scott... 

Scott's Flops:

Macauley Bonne. 
Lewis Fiorini.
Tennai Watson.
Sam Walker. 
Chem Campbell.
Freddie Ladapo. 
Harry Isted.
Slobadan Tedic. 
James Abankwah.
Panutche Camara.
Louie Watson.
Gavin Kilkenny.
Matt Penney.

Oh alright lol

Crispywood said:

AberystwythAddick said:

Crispywood said:

AberystwythAddick said:

We don’t know what’s gone on, but I am disappointed with how the club have treated both Knibbs and Apter. 

They were likely bought here on the presumption that they would be important to us and told how they would contribute. Both now have been seemingly bombed out. 

The Knibbs one is especially strange considering how long he was chased 

With Apter Jones said he wanted to keep him but he wanted to go on loan and he didn’t do himself any favours flopping in the division below. 

Also whilst Knibbs has been unlucky there was no chance he was getting in over Carey last year and when Carey did have his fall off it was when Knibbs was injured. Also Knibbs hasn’t exactly set the world alight when he has started. 

It’s harsh but not unfair treatment given the circumstances, If players aren’t good enough then thwy’ll get replaced 

They’ve been bombed out by the same manager who signed them in less than too seasons. 

If they aren’t good enough why were they signed in the first place. It’s not like we’ve parted with a couple of million to just see if they can make the step up.

Its neither right or sustainable.

Because we thought they could make the step up it’s nothing personal not all transfers work out. Not a single person was complaining when we initially brought them in for thinking they won’t be good enough. 

You’re right it’s not sustainable to keep getting that kind of business wrong which is why we’ve entirely switched transfer model this season going for experience or very cheap players over those top L1 players. 

What’s happened to Knibbs and Apter has been disappointing but it’s not unfair it’s not like they came in dropped 10 goals and then bombed out for no reason. 

Knibbs was not displacing Carey and besides a few goals didn’t offer much when he did play, Apter couldn’t hack the defensive side of the game pushed for a loan and did so badly played himself out of getting back in. 

Let’s be honest, Carey offers just as little as Knibbs and Knibbs was scoring goals at almost twice the rate that Carey did last season - 3 in 657 minutes compared to 8 in 3400 minutes.
 

Leuth said:

Is there a single one of those I'd like to defend? You've even left Hector out to be really nice to me. Nah yeah I can't defend any of these

I'd defend Camara, in the same way I'd defend Chalobah now. He was good when he played, it was just a gamble due to his fitness.

That free-kick alone was of a higher quality than I've seen from 80% of our attackers in the past two months. 

Other than the free kick, he never got into the game. Shame, would like him to do well.

SELR_addicks said:

That free-kick alone was of a higher quality than I've seen from 80% of our attackers in the past two months. 

A rare moment of quality we’ve seen from Knibbs since he signed aside from grabbing a few goals.