| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry 17:12 - Mar 8 with 2464 views | cbower |
The club were certainly targeting the right player, just a shame we couldn't persuade the lad to sign. One way or another, can't see him in the Championship next season. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:16 - Mar 8 with 2432 views | gainsboroughblue |
Boro's season arguably made a second go at him in January futile as well. He'll be in the Prem next season whatever happens. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:17 - Mar 8 with 2415 views | RetroBlue |
Not sure we would be top two. Our strikers would be no better for Hackney bring the team. Weve failed to replace Delap. End of. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:24 - Mar 8 with 2362 views | vapour_trail |
He’s an absolute gem of a footballer.
Think he’ll be at Palace when they sell Wharton on if Boro don’t get up. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:56 - Mar 8 with 2231 views | HatStand |
Whittaker and Sarmiento look reasonable too |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:00 - Mar 8 with 2181 views | MattinLondon |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:17 - Mar 8 by RetroBlue |
Not sure we would be top two. Our strikers would be no better for Hackney bring the team. Weve failed to replace Delap. End of. |
If we started the season with a striker on-par with Jaden, Nunez and Clarke etc I don’t think it’s too far stretch of the imagination to state that we will be at least six points better off. |  | | |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:03 - Mar 8 with 2122 views | cbower |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:17 - Mar 8 by RetroBlue |
Not sure we would be top two. Our strikers would be no better for Hackney bring the team. Weve failed to replace Delap. End of. |
Oh, I see. His goals assists and forward drive combined with the energy to get back would have made very little difference to our team that is already one of the highest scoring in this league.. | |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:14 - Mar 8 with 2001 views | Radlett_blue |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:24 - Mar 8 by vapour_trail |
He’s an absolute gem of a footballer.
Think he’ll be at Palace when they sell Wharton on if Boro don’t get up. |
I have met Adam Wharton's mum.
Maybe I'm on the wrong thread here. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:17 - Mar 8 with 1978 views | itfc1108 |
I know that you can't sign every player that you want, but I don't know how you get from coming close to signing Hackney, to signing Cajuste instead. | | | |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:20 - Mar 8 with 1939 views | vapour_trail |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:14 - Mar 8 by Radlett_blue |
I have met Adam Wharton's mum.
Maybe I'm on the wrong thread here. |
Mr Wharton, I presume? | |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:35 - Mar 8 with 1819 views | pointofblue |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:03 - Mar 8 by cbower |
Oh, I see. His goals assists and forward drive combined with the energy to get back would have made very little difference to our team that is already one of the highest scoring in this league.. |
Plus would have weakened Middlesbrough. I think they'd be scrapping for a play off place without him. | |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 19:59 - Mar 8 with 1534 views | Illinoisblue |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:17 - Mar 8 by itfc1108 |
I know that you can't sign every player that you want, but I don't know how you get from coming close to signing Hackney, to signing Cajuste instead. |
No doubt we offered significantly more in wages than he’s on at Boro. And would have been a nice fat signing bonus. What else can we do? Can’t kidnap players and force them to sign. If Hackney was the #1 target, who were the next three in line? Cajuste made sense as a backup even if he’s been thoroughly underwhelming since. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:03 - Mar 8 with 1511 views | Guthrum |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:17 - Mar 8 by itfc1108 |
I know that you can't sign every player that you want, but I don't know how you get from coming close to signing Hackney, to signing Cajuste instead. |
Maybe his other half had a small dog in her handbag. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:05 - Mar 8 with 1498 views | Benters |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 18:03 - Mar 8 by cbower |
Oh, I see. His goals assists and forward drive combined with the energy to get back would have made very little difference to our team that is already one of the highest scoring in this league.. |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:19 - Mar 8 with 1429 views | itfc1108 |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 19:59 - Mar 8 by Illinoisblue |
No doubt we offered significantly more in wages than he’s on at Boro. And would have been a nice fat signing bonus. What else can we do? Can’t kidnap players and force them to sign. If Hackney was the #1 target, who were the next three in line? Cajuste made sense as a backup even if he’s been thoroughly underwhelming since. |
I know what you mean. There just seems such a disparity between Hackney and Cajuste. Like you say, there were probably some more midfielders in line before we ended up with Cajuste, and we have the benefit of hindsight as well.
We probably wouldn't have spent big on the right hand side, if we had signed Hackney as well. | | | |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:32 - Mar 8 with 1372 views | Len_Brennan |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:19 - Mar 8 by itfc1108 |
I know what you mean. There just seems such a disparity between Hackney and Cajuste. Like you say, there were probably some more midfielders in line before we ended up with Cajuste, and we have the benefit of hindsight as well.
We probably wouldn't have spent big on the right hand side, if we had signed Hackney as well. |
At that time, McKenna was still expecting us to have Omari Hutchinson for the season. No doubt having Hackney & Hutchinson over Egeli/McAteer & Cajuste for the first half of the season, would have made a big difference for us. | |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:41 - Mar 8 with 1321 views | waveneyblue |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:17 - Mar 8 by RetroBlue |
Not sure we would be top two. Our strikers would be no better for Hackney bring the team. Weve failed to replace Delap. End of. |
Damn Ashton for not replacing a £30m striker. Bloody amateur |  | | |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 07:24 - Mar 9 with 904 views | tractordownsouth |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:17 - Mar 8 by RetroBlue |
Not sure we would be top two. Our strikers would be no better for Hackney bring the team. Weve failed to replace Delap. End of. |
Our striking department could be better but I think "we've failed to replace Delap" is a bit unfair. If you were expecting us to sign a player of his level whilst in the Championship, you were setting yourself up for disappointment. |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 08:27 - Mar 9 with 775 views | franz_tyson |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 19:59 - Mar 8 by Illinoisblue |
No doubt we offered significantly more in wages than he’s on at Boro. And would have been a nice fat signing bonus. What else can we do? Can’t kidnap players and force them to sign. If Hackney was the #1 target, who were the next three in line? Cajuste made sense as a backup even if he’s been thoroughly underwhelming since. |
We tried to get Cajuste to stay on and he declined us... and then spent the next 2 months linked to Turkey and Saudi and.... um... Burnley.... before we went back in and he finally agreed to come here. That put us backwards and he didn't get a pre-season. Not good all-round. . Really didn't get the feeling we were his priority and that's not a great start when you decide to come to a tough old league like the Championship.
The Hackney saga was a setback, but you have to give him credit for staying with his home town club. And it is going to pay off. He'll get a better move now if he decides to move on.
If Matusiwa hadn't signed last summer we'd be in a far worse position. It's not all bad. | | | |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 08:45 - Mar 9 with 726 views | tractorboy1978 |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:19 - Mar 8 by itfc1108 |
I know what you mean. There just seems such a disparity between Hackney and Cajuste. Like you say, there were probably some more midfielders in line before we ended up with Cajuste, and we have the benefit of hindsight as well.
We probably wouldn't have spent big on the right hand side, if we had signed Hackney as well. |
The replacement wasn't Cajuste, it was Nunez. I can't find it now remember seeing a stat from 24/25 - he was 2nd to Hackney in terms of progressive passes/other deep lying playmaker stats. Problem for us is we didn't a nail suitable 10 down until Mehmeti came in (and even he's different to Nunez in style) and Nunez role needed to change. | | | |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 19:27 - Mar 9 with 431 views | armchaircritic59 |
If we had started playing in August, and had already signed a goalscorer with a good record, we wouldn't just be up there with Coventry, we'd have at least a few points extra if not more. Sadly all ifs of course. Lessons learned I trust. | | | |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 19:36 - Mar 9 with 404 views | Swansea_Blue |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 17:17 - Mar 8 by RetroBlue |
Not sure we would be top two. Our strikers would be no better for Hackney bring the team. Weve failed to replace Delap. End of. |
It’s a mystery why we don’t have a PL striker in the Championship, isn’t it? 
(Surely you can understand why we haven’t a striker similar to Delap?) |  |
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| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 19:55 - Mar 9 with 359 views | HighgateBlue |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 07:24 - Mar 9 by tractordownsouth |
Our striking department could be better but I think "we've failed to replace Delap" is a bit unfair. If you were expecting us to sign a player of his level whilst in the Championship, you were setting yourself up for disappointment. |
This is of course entirely right. We couldn't hope to replace him with someone of equivalent quality. But I do think, as you say, our striking department could be better. And I do think that that fact is an important one in the context of this season.
I think we have failed to replace Delap with a striker who is a top 6 championship level striker. And that is a shame, especially with the money at our disposal, and the money spent on two or even three expensive options in some other positions.
When we say "we did enough to win in that second half against Leicester", what that really means is that we were by far the better side by every metric apart from being able to take our chances. I appreciate the refereeing decisions went against us and were palpably unfair. And if we'd had that final penalty and scored it, we would be delighted at four wins on the bounce.
And also, we're not entitled (in any sense of the word) to every single signing turning out to be a winner.
However, we have had too many occasions when we've been notably on top, and then we've failed to take our chances. The Boro match was one of many examples, but in terms of the table is one of the key ones. We need to be able to unlock teams who come and sit, and also teams who are just high quality for this league such as Boro. This is especially true away from home, where our record is just plain mid table.
We needed a better striker, and even though Azeez would have been a cracking signing, it is frustrating that even at that stage, with the crazy net fees spent in the RW position (Ogbene, Egeli, McAteer), we were /still/ looking to spend massive money in that area rather than in the number 9. It never seems to be a priority in terms of resource allocation. We spent big on Delap, it was a big success, we made a profit, but that money didn't go back into that area of the pitch. And I think that's cost us big. Now of course, if I'm wrong and Azon has a £10m loan fee, then we have a different kind of problem.
If our striking problem is not in the failure to allocate resources there, then there may be a different problem. The failure of Akpom and SS to come close to replicating their scoring form elsewhere may lend weight to that possibility. Player identification? Playing position? Coaching? I don't know. But the shots on target, big chances missed, and goals to xG stats for our number 9s this season have been very much short of that required to get us into the top 2. And that was clear in January.
As regards the OP's point about Hackney, all I'll do here is commend the club for identifying the right player, not being afraid to bid the right amount, and doubtless selling the place in two contrasting ways through Ashton and McKenna. It didn't quite work, and nobody can really be blamed for that. He would have been a great player, and indeed he has been at Boro. Our midfield was 'knife through butter' stuff in the Prem, and it still needs to complete its recovery. Azor is clearly a lovely little marvel, but we've not had a pair which has been a real strength rather than slight weak point since Morsy and Luongo. Hackney would have completed the look. Twas not to be.
Here's hoping Neil comes good long term, because I'm sorry to say I have never been convinced by Cajuste, and I don't think Taylor is more than a squad player at the levels to which we aspire. Nunez has been really good and rightly popular, and now we have Mehmeti, he might have a role in the middle of the park, but it's surely not his best position, and I think for hard battles a player in the Hackney mould was what we needed. Take our chances, though, and we shrug that off by mid April and start planning on the next phase of recruitment. A trip back to Hackney even... |  | | |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 20:15 - Mar 9 with 316 views | Swansea_Blue |
| If Hackney had signed in August, we would've been up with Coventry on 19:55 - Mar 9 by HighgateBlue |
This is of course entirely right. We couldn't hope to replace him with someone of equivalent quality. But I do think, as you say, our striking department could be better. And I do think that that fact is an important one in the context of this season.
I think we have failed to replace Delap with a striker who is a top 6 championship level striker. And that is a shame, especially with the money at our disposal, and the money spent on two or even three expensive options in some other positions.
When we say "we did enough to win in that second half against Leicester", what that really means is that we were by far the better side by every metric apart from being able to take our chances. I appreciate the refereeing decisions went against us and were palpably unfair. And if we'd had that final penalty and scored it, we would be delighted at four wins on the bounce.
And also, we're not entitled (in any sense of the word) to every single signing turning out to be a winner.
However, we have had too many occasions when we've been notably on top, and then we've failed to take our chances. The Boro match was one of many examples, but in terms of the table is one of the key ones. We need to be able to unlock teams who come and sit, and also teams who are just high quality for this league such as Boro. This is especially true away from home, where our record is just plain mid table.
We needed a better striker, and even though Azeez would have been a cracking signing, it is frustrating that even at that stage, with the crazy net fees spent in the RW position (Ogbene, Egeli, McAteer), we were /still/ looking to spend massive money in that area rather than in the number 9. It never seems to be a priority in terms of resource allocation. We spent big on Delap, it was a big success, we made a profit, but that money didn't go back into that area of the pitch. And I think that's cost us big. Now of course, if I'm wrong and Azon has a £10m loan fee, then we have a different kind of problem.
If our striking problem is not in the failure to allocate resources there, then there may be a different problem. The failure of Akpom and SS to come close to replicating their scoring form elsewhere may lend weight to that possibility. Player identification? Playing position? Coaching? I don't know. But the shots on target, big chances missed, and goals to xG stats for our number 9s this season have been very much short of that required to get us into the top 2. And that was clear in January.
As regards the OP's point about Hackney, all I'll do here is commend the club for identifying the right player, not being afraid to bid the right amount, and doubtless selling the place in two contrasting ways through Ashton and McKenna. It didn't quite work, and nobody can really be blamed for that. He would have been a great player, and indeed he has been at Boro. Our midfield was 'knife through butter' stuff in the Prem, and it still needs to complete its recovery. Azor is clearly a lovely little marvel, but we've not had a pair which has been a real strength rather than slight weak point since Morsy and Luongo. Hackney would have completed the look. Twas not to be.
Here's hoping Neil comes good long term, because I'm sorry to say I have never been convinced by Cajuste, and I don't think Taylor is more than a squad player at the levels to which we aspire. Nunez has been really good and rightly popular, and now we have Mehmeti, he might have a role in the middle of the park, but it's surely not his best position, and I think for hard battles a player in the Hackney mould was what we needed. Take our chances, though, and we shrug that off by mid April and start planning on the next phase of recruitment. A trip back to Hackney even... |
That’s all fair enough, but does’t address how hard it is to predict who’s going to become that top 6 team striker. Hindsight is of course great, but I don’t think any of the strikers currently top of the goal scoring charts would have been on anyone’s radar, except maybe for Ollie McBurnie (and he’d only scored 39 goals in 180 games over the 6 seasons before this one, with this year being his best season in his career). The others have been nowhere up until this year. And of course we do still have a a top 5 goal scorer in Jack Clarke.
I don’t think you have to have a goal scoring CF. You just need the goals. It doesn’t matter where they come from. The lack of goals from RW and AMC are just as important as those not coming from the strikers. | |
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