Although fully investing into the new owners’ and Mark Ashton’s vision outlined through their interviews/podcasts, a high turnover of players was clearly both desired and required. I had doubts, like many did, that the amount of free agents would make moving on players, such as Drinan, near impossible and that the quality of players coming in could be underwhelming or no better than what we had last year due to the 60% revenue cap. Being stuck with a load of contracted players who didn’t want to play for us/were deemed not good enough by Cook, as well as most who have left (20 so far) already signing for other clubs, preventing resigning should the plan go horrendously wrong, were reasonable fears, especially after the Hurst rebuild. I have thus far tried to keep low expectations to avoid disappointment, a symptom of being a Town fan in his mid 20s.
So far, I have been happy with every signing. Imo they are a level above what Wigan and other rivals are signing. As of Stuart Watson’s article yesterday, Sunderland, Lincoln, Rotherham, Wednesday, Sunderland, and Wycombe have just 1 signing combined. So for us to have 5 quality signings in already, with a 6th coming in today, we are doing great. The more we can get in for the majority of pre-season, the more chemistry will be developed together, Cook’s system will be learnt and high fitness levels achieved. Ashton and the new structure seems to be really making a difference.
Personally I was going to be assured if we got a solid GK and our captain in early. I think Hladky is a great signing and prefer him over Amos and MacGillivray. Maybe we will get Siegrist in too. I am hopeful we will get in Crooks, who for me would be our marquee signing. He is everything we have been missing- physical, creative, battle hardened and experience of promotion from League 1. Should we be able to get another few in, maybe a CB, a winger and a CAM, we will just need to adopt a ‘one out one in’ policy.
Sure, it’s not a foregone conclusion that the players signed already are as good as we hope, that the rest of the window will go successfully, or that we will achieve promotion this season, but things are pointing in the right direction and we should all be excited for the journey ahead. |  |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
