5 minutes ago, Seamus O'Wye said:

I would hope that he was annoyed at his own poor performance, rather than at being subbed. Last night he contributed very little, apart from a 'pea-roller' of a shot in the first half.  Not sure we can keep playing both him and Arblaster in the same team against the better teams.

Totally agree.  From what I’ve seen of Devine  I wouldn’t have him as a starter, either Chizz or Plant all day long for me.

Totally agree.  From what I’ve seen of Devine  I wouldn’t have him as a starter, either Chizz or Plant all day long for me.

Luxury player for me. We need some steel and experience in the midfield to get us out of this mess

Sent from my XQ-CC54 using onevalefan mobile app

What will be interesting if Crosby goes and we get a new man in is what formation will he want to play? Because a new man may prefer 4 at the back. Which means a massive change in playing personnel at the club. Plus if we are thinking of making a change then it needs to be done soon so the new man can assess the squad himself. We don’t want another situation of the manager not going til the end of the jan window. 

Edited November 29, 20232 yr by PV1973

2 hours ago, gags 64 said:

Luxury player for me. We need some steel and experience in the midfield to get us out of this mess

Sent from my XQ-CC54 using onevalefan mobile app
 

...to quote Bart Simpson... "exactamundo!" (or something like that!)

2 hours ago, Seamus O'Wye said:

I would hope that he was annoyed at his own poor performance, rather than at being subbed. Last night he contributed very little, apart from a 'pea-roller' of a shot in the first half.  Not sure we can keep playing both him and Arblaster in the same team against the better teams.

I don't understand why Arblaster and Devine were signed one or the other for me, the recruitment team need to answer a few questions, I thought the lesson had been learned last season Re. the Keepers  (Two average ones or one good one) same mistake with the strikers this time round except we never got round to signing anyone and now looking back they all seem to be panic buys and I guess none of them have come cheap. 

Can anyone remember the last time we actually signed who and what we needed and had a positive productive outcome in a January window? [emoji848]

3 minutes ago, Bimbleabout said:

Can anyone remember the last time we actually signed who and what we needed and had a positive productive outcome in a January window?

No.

If we balked at signing players in the summer because we thought they were overvalued, then I’m afraid to say they don’t get any cheaper in January.

3 hours ago, blackdog said:

I don't understand why Arblaster and Devine were signed one or the other for me, the recruitment team need to answer a few questions, I thought the lesson had been learned last season Re. the Keepers  (Two average ones or one good one) same mistake with the strikers this time round except we never got round to signing anyone and now looking back they all seem to be panic buys and I guess none of them have come cheap. 

Pretty much bang on the money this.

9 minutes ago, Bimbleabout said:

Can anyone remember the last time we actually signed who and what we needed and had a positive productive outcome in a January window?

Connor Hall?

3 hours ago, blackdog said:

I don't understand why Arblaster and Devine were signed one or the other for me, the recruitment team need to answer a few questions, I thought the lesson had been learned last season Re. the Keepers  (Two average ones or one good one) same mistake with the strikers this time round except we never got round to signing anyone and now looking back they all seem to be panic buys and I guess none of them have come cheap. 

Probably in the minority but I get why we signed both, for me both will have very good careers and within a year or two they will be playing regularly at Championship level I have no doubt.  When you play the system we do, which is 3 centre backs and Ojo sitting in front, for me you need to 2 players like Arblaster and Devine who will create and get forward.  I only saw positive comments on here earlier in the season when Devine joined, never saw anyone post why have we signed him.

For me the problems rests with the negative tactics been deployed and awful recruitment or lack of it of a centre forward in the summer.  I feel with a decent forward Devine and Arblaster would look even better than they do.  I feel like a broken record with Sang but I maintain that after a shaky start, we have a decent player who when played on the right will get assists on a regular basis if we have a forward.  Uche and Loft are not good enough and don't want to get on the end of some good balls into the box.  

I don't think Devine was a planned signing - we just got told he was available and put our hat in the ring. I don't think we should have signed him though, we should have signed a left-back and let Plant play in his natural position behind the striker. That is of course if it was either/or 

Devine came so highly rated that i think it was a no brainier to take him. And we dont know how much we are paying for him. The problem with the recruitment was the strikers and fullbacks. To only have one left back who was injury prone has left us without a plan b. And left backs cant be that hard to find. Unforgivable oversight to not see what would happen. Though the worst crime was paying actual money for and giving a two year contract to loft. Not good enough for league 2 never mind league 1. And his name has been mentioned a number of times as though we had tracked him for a long time, and so not really a panic buy. 

6 hours ago, Seamus O'Wye said:

...to quote Bart Simpson... "exactamundo!" (or something like that!)

I thought that was Fonzie 

2 hours ago, valefan79 said:

Probably in the minority but I get why we signed both, for me both will have very good careers and within a year or two they will be playing regularly at Championship level I have no doubt.  When you play the system we do, which is 3 centre backs and Ojo sitting in front, for me you need to 2 players like Arblaster and Devine who will create and get forward.  I only saw positive comments on here earlier in the season when Devine joined, never saw anyone post why have we signed him.

For me the problems rests with the negative tactics been deployed and awful recruitment or lack of it of a centre forward in the summer.  I feel with a decent forward Devine and Arblaster would look even better than they do.  I feel like a broken record with Sang but I maintain that after a shaky start, we have a decent player who when played on the right will get assists on a regular basis if we have a forward.  Uche and Loft are not good enough and don't want to get on the end of some good balls into the box.  

Spot on

14 hours ago, Santa said:

No.

If we balked at signing players in the summer because we thought they were overvalued, then I’m afraid to say they don’t get any cheaper in January.

They may actually go up in price as selling club knows people will need strikers.  Last chance to make money from them.

As they say - trust the process.  😭