Ross Wilson

Lord Summerisle

Lord Summerisle

Administrator
Staff member
Everyone else is getting it in the neck, so why not?…

But, seriously, would you say our recruitment was better before or after Wilson arrived?

It feels like we’ve been treading water for a few windows now, and we seem to have regressed this season, despite keeping our squad intact.

The promise was quality over quantity, but there is very little evidence of this so far.
 
sherbrook_loyal said:
Everyone else is getting it in the neck, so why not?…

But, seriously, would you say our recruitment was better before or after Wilson arrived?

It feels like we’ve been treading water for a few windows now, and we seem to have regressed this season, despite keeping our squad intact.

The promise was quality over quantity, but there is very little evidence of this so far.
Click to expand...

I’ll play along as Devil’s Advocate.

I mean, you don’t need to be the brain of Britain to spot that Roofe and Hagi are excellent footballers. Itten was a misfire, while Bacuna - not writing him off before you all pile in - seems a bit old boys network given the Huddersfield connection.

Let’s see what he can do with the reinvestment from a big sale.
 
Well we only signed 3 players.

Assuming we spent most of our budget we likely did go for quality over quantity, by only brining in 3 players with it rather than 5, 6, 7 or whatever.

Whether it works out that way or not remains to be seen, but I don't think you can say they didn't try to follow through on their words.
 
This is just a silly thread, the only reason we have regressed this season is because of injured players and then continuing to play on for the team. There is evidence of qualify over quantity, roofe and hagi are examples of that
 
I reckon it’s improved with signings like Hagi, Roofe, Wright and the fact we’ve gotten fees for fringe players we’ve wanted rid of. In that time there has been a few misfires as well though like Itten who didn’t suit out system at all and seems like a costly mistake financially.

However this summer has been a let down imo but that can be easily blamed on champions league failure and lack of bids for our players.
 
I can see us going full steam in January if the league title is up for debate.

Maybe held back funds due to that? Qualification for the Champions League and we will bring in game changers for next season.
 
sherbrook_loyal said:
Everyone else is getting it in the neck, so why not?…

But, seriously, would you say our recruitment was better before or after Wilson arrived?

It feels like we’ve been treading water for a few windows now, and we seem to have regressed this season, despite keeping our squad intact.

The promise was quality over quantity, but there is very little evidence of this so far.
Click to expand...
You’ll be hounded for this reaction after a Lyon defeat …

But you’re correct. We haven’t improved the 11. More quantity over quality and it’s showing.

Summer was a poor transfer window IMO and I don’t believe it’s what the management had in mind
 
Think questions needs asked of him for not only incomings but outgoings as well. Baffling why we’ve had zero concrete bids for any of our big players yet that mob across the road attract a lot.

we always go on about player trading etc but we can’t do that if we IMO are pricing clubs out of making bids.
 
sherbrook_loyal said:
Everyone else is getting it in the neck, so why not?…

But, seriously, would you say our recruitment was better before or after Wilson arrived?

It feels like we’ve been treading water for a few windows now, and we seem to have regressed this season, despite keeping our squad intact.

The promise was quality over quantity, but there is very little evidence of this so far.
Click to expand...
Last summer (2020) was good with the addition of Roofe, Hagi, Itten and Balogun.

January is always a funny month for transfers. Sometimes you do well (Defoe and Davis) other times not so well ( Simpson - time will tell).

This summer was very disappointing and we are paying the price for it now.
 
sherbrook_loyal said:
Everyone else is getting it in the neck, so why not?…

But, seriously, would you say our recruitment was better before or after Wilson arrived?

It feels like we’ve been treading water for a few windows now, and we seem to have regressed this season, despite keeping our squad intact.

The promise was quality over quantity, but there is very little evidence of this so far.
Click to expand...
He gets a very easy ride.

We have barely signed a player who is an automatic starter since he arrived, Roofe being the closest.

We’re also no better at shifting players.
 
He has had a lot of praise but so far but only helander, Roofe and hagi are pass marks (all paid fees for)

Jury is out on bassey, Wright and this years lot.

Edmunson money in, but not much else to crow about

Balogun good also
 
sherbrook_loyal said:
So why did certain were we told it’d be quality over quantity?

It’s not as if they didn’t know about COVID?

Why not temper expectations and say we might be limited in what we can do because of… etc.
Click to expand...
Because every transfer window we are told it’s quality over quantity. In the real world it’s not quite as simple as that. It depends how any transfer window will go. I didn’t think tonight went too bad. We weren’t great, we Weren’t shite, these things happen, sometimes we wikl
get a result, sometimes we won’t.
 
Last edited:
Manhattan_Loyalist said:
He's had it good until now because his first, full season, whilst settled in was last season where in literally 75% of our games we won or done what we wanted/was expected of us.

We are at a bit of a crossroads now.

and it's not a knee-jerk to tonight's Lyon defeat because this has been coming. It's been brewing since the start of the season but now it's just came to a head.

We need to freshen that team up. Not the squad, the squad itself is in great shape but by team I mean the outright starting XI.

This is where he needs to earn his money now.

We might not have a lot of money at the moment and we might need to win the league and get that more-or-less assured 40-million Champions League money next season but we need to upgrade that team in a couple of positions.

That's not a sleight on the players on management. They've all been great, literally to a man.

But we need to do some work now. Or start planning. Or even step up the planning.

Warning signs are here. The players, management and DOF all have credit in the bank. We need to build from (relative) strength now.
Click to expand...

Excellent post.
 
It’s hard to tell just how much our finances play into this following on from Covid and not selling anyone.

I fear we might have the Eduoard a year too many type of scenario with someone like Kamara or Goldson. Can’t pretend that their contract scenario isn’t a slight concern and that’s surely part of Ross’ job as well.

I always believe that your squad should be improved by signing new people for your starting XI and those who are replaced move to the bench.

Hard to judge a Bacuna based on no games and players like Sakala who looks to be filling out the Itten role of not having too many chances and won’t be able to show us what they can really do before cutting their time short and loaning out and essentially selling them.

The fact new signings aren’t starting often might just be the indicator that the players we’re bringing in aren’t up to the task either? Hard one to judge so far.
 
sherbrook_loyal said:
Was it not last summer they signed? And we already had Hagi for six months prior to that.
Click to expand...

Wilson joined in Oct 2019, he brought Hagi in the next window and Roofe the window after that. We don't have a season like last season without the contribution of either.

Has been pretty obvious with the last two windows that our finances in the midst of the pandemic don't allow us to spend big on transfer fees.
 
rinosprayer said:
He has had a lot of praise but so far but only helander, Roofe and hagi are pass marks (all paid fees for)

Jury is out on bassey, Wright and this years lot.

Edmunson money in, but not much else to crow about

Balogun good also
Click to expand...
Helander was before Ross Wilson.
 
I’d say our recruitment has been better, however, the summer was a poor window.

Sakala needs time, and that’s fine, but we needed players to come in to the squad to make a relatively immediate impact. Lundstram has done that, but for all the wrong reasons.

Fair enough, the market is pretty stagnant, but I believe we missed a trick not shopping local. Walter was always the master of picking up the right Scottish based talent at the right time to bolster the squad, and the summer was the perfect time to do that. Whether we’ll live to regret it, time will tell.
 
We kept literally all our big hitters, so we didn't splash the cash

It was one or the other

Cash isn't there otherwise

So criticism about not improving the first XI is a bit off

Clearly things would've been 'freshened up' if we had the cash from a big sale, or if money grew on trees
 
It's a rehash of other threads about recruitment.

We didn't sign anyone that instantly improved the team. We replaced Jones, Stewart and Edmundson with Sakala, Lundstram and Bacuna. Arguably as well our winter window 'buy now' players Wright (deal for McCrorie) and Simpson.

The trade off is in retaining players that are proven in the league. Goldson, Morelos, Kamara, Tavernier, Kent, Roofe, and of course Patterson who is one of our brightest prospects. Replacing them for the cash we bring in wouldn't have been easy and potentially players who were available (those we signed)

McCann and Alegria hopefully will be developed properly but they are longer term players.

It isn't the worst couple of windows, all things considered. But we do need to ensure that we do what we need to do in January to secure #56 and CL football. We have no reason not to trust Wilson, Gerrard and the board to deliver that.
 
For me it comes down to finances.

The club have said they expect player trading to be an important part of our business model going forward, and so far we’ve not been happy to accept the few bids we’ve had.

It ‘usually’ costs serious money to make obvious and instant improvements. Finding another 50K Kamara, or £1M Alfredo isn’t going to be easy, and we can’t sustain the alternative strategy on charity alone.

It’s where we’re at unfortunately. Still champions though and have more than enough to win silverware this season.
 
We’ve sold players for peanuts since Wilson has came in. Our biggest sale was from Mark Allen when Windass went for 2.5 million way back in the 18/19 season.

Since then Wilson has managed to get minimal feels for players like Jones, Edmundson, Polster, Docherty etc. Whilst shelling out big fees for Roofe, Itten etc, whilst im glad we kept some of our big hitters I’d have liked to have seen Wilson do a far better job at attracting bids for our players so we can refresh the squad to stave off stagnation
 
A1bertz said:
We added to the squad.
We haven't improved the 1st team.
If anything we are a little stale.
Click to expand...
Agree

I feel like I keep repeating myself but regardless of what you win in one season, the following season you need to strengthen

we haven’t done that and it’s showing with our performances. I just hope it doesn’t cost us
 
Summer has been a disaster. I’ve no idea what the %^*& Ross Wilson is doing. Sakala looks like he’s won a competition and lundstrum looks like a Sheffield united player playing against Lyon.

it’s actually had a detrimental affect on the squad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Latest posts

Back
Top