| Has the recruitment been any better? 16:56 - Jan 21 with 1395 views | FightingEssex |
My personal view is anyone coming down from the Championship is a good option on average in League One, so not too unhappy with that, however I see there is again a lot of digs at supporters with concerns over Ashton.
I’d say to everyone let’s see what Ashton actually delivers in a year before heaping praise or criticism on him, frankly I am in the minority that thinks the summer recruitment was way below standard so far and have massively underperformed, how much was Cook and how much was Ashton is a debate, but I can’t say our recruitment has looked any better than it did under Evans so far. We had to bring in Walton because Hladky was a dud, we’ve already moved replacements in the midfield and are shipping off Harper just months in. It’s hardly a resounding success so far.
I’d have brought in Edmonson, Burns, Aluko and Bonne, the rest I could have left as they’re fundamentally not much better than what we had. In terms of our backline it has been a mess this season, and despite being labelled a bomb squad on average Holy, Ward, Chambers, Wilson, Wolf and Kenlock didn’t give away as nearly as many silly goals away as the current backline. Bishop is a far better footballer than Morsy and Evans, though we probably couldn’t have kept Downes or Dozzell they are also better players than what we recruited.
For me that tells you a lot about the quality of the recruitment so far. The results haven’t lied, the performance has largely been average from most of them, how can we honestly say Ashton has recruited better than before so far? I think if we finish anywhere below 3rd given the investment, questions do need asking of Ashton. |  |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 17:00 - Jan 21 with 1363 views | BlueBadger |
It'll only be demonstratably 'better' when these allegedly Championship players can actually start beating League One teams on a regular basis. |  |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 17:51 - Jan 21 with 1300 views | Illinoisblue |
Bishop is a “far better” player than Morsy? I liked Bishop but that’s a heck of a take. |  |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 09:03 - Jan 22 with 1064 views | ElephantintheRoom |
Results this season and last under Cook suggest the club would have been better off sticking with Lambo - who at least was teetering on the edge of the play-offs with last season’s rejects.
Personally I think the problem is ‘recruitment’ and Town need stability and some established players to add to, rather than constant upheaval and wholesale change, not to mention 5 loans
I agree it’s a pity that a generation of home grown players were frittered away - but Dozzel and Downes neatly sum up the problem. Downes pointlessly loaned to Luton when he could have played for Town - Dozzel never being trusted by short term gravy train riders - and both seemingly capable of playing at the sharp end of a higher division despite being unwanted here |  |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 09:15 - Jan 22 with 1040 views | Herbivore |
You don't think the players recruited under the new regime are of a better calibre than Dai Cornell and Ollie Hawkins? I think that's a hot take to be honest. The market we were shopping in over the summer was worlds away from the market we could access under ME. And I doubt we'd have been able to keep Walton here permanently under ME, in fact we wouldn't have splashed out on loaning him in the first place.
There are a couple of reasons why the squad has struggled despite being better on paper. The first is that we signed too many players, which has caused a few issues for us. The second, most important, reason is that Cook did an absolutely terrible job here and couldn't get these players performing as individuals, let alone as a team. You say we need a year to judge Ashton as having done a good job of recruitment but seem to have concluded 6 months in that he hasn't done a good job. You can't have it both ways. |  |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 09:20 - Jan 22 with 1014 views | RonFearonsHair |
In all honesty, before the season kicked off, I was more excited about Pigott joining than Bonne. |  | | |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 09:36 - Jan 22 with 982 views | bazza |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 09:15 - Jan 22 by Herbivore |
You don't think the players recruited under the new regime are of a better calibre than Dai Cornell and Ollie Hawkins? I think that's a hot take to be honest. The market we were shopping in over the summer was worlds away from the market we could access under ME. And I doubt we'd have been able to keep Walton here permanently under ME, in fact we wouldn't have splashed out on loaning him in the first place.
There are a couple of reasons why the squad has struggled despite being better on paper. The first is that we signed too many players, which has caused a few issues for us. The second, most important, reason is that Cook did an absolutely terrible job here and couldn't get these players performing as individuals, let alone as a team. You say we need a year to judge Ashton as having done a good job of recruitment but seem to have concluded 6 months in that he hasn't done a good job. You can't have it both ways. |
Totally agree regarding too many players in, it was never going to be easy with a whole new squad, a whole team doesn’t gel in a few games, so many different personalities , I just hope it doesn’t come to light, that some of them ain’t as good as we all thought.. I hope McKenna can get them working as a unit and the individual ability we see from time to time can be brought together and last a full 90 minutes week in week out, as opposed to 5-10 minutes one game on one game off , because if they don’t it won’t be on McKenna, it will be on the players. |  | | |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 09:47 - Jan 22 with 948 views | Churchman |
‘I’d say to everyone let’s see what Ashton actually delivers in a year before heaping praise or criticism on him’ and then begin to demolish him in the same sentence. Wow.
I suggest you have a look at the Bristol City forum OTIB. When I last looked there was a 42 page thread on ITFC/Ashton. You will find plenty of material there to adapt and use. You don’t have to wait for our regular Bristol bringer of glad tidings to fill your ‘suspicions’. There’s even a reference to the Yorkshire Ripper, but I’d leave that where it is if I were you.
No, the results don’t lie. But that doesn’t mean necessarily that the quality of all bar four players was worse than last years squad. It could mean, for example, that the bloke who managed those players had no idea what he was doing. It might mean that the bloke who wanted to replace all last years players 2 or 3 months before the CEO pitched up took completely the wrong approach.
I only have one question to ask Ashton and that is was Cook made fully aware of how the club was going to be structured in the summer and if so and was unhappy about it, why wasn’t he moved on then? It’s the same question I’d ask of Cook. The timing and ‘fit’ of Cook looked all wrong to me once the club started putting in some structure. |  | | |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:18 - Jan 22 with 870 views | Westcountryblue |
The recruitment has been fantastic. Edmonson, Burns, Walton, Morsey, Bonne, Celina, Chaplin, Edwards to name a few are a significant step up from what we had last season. The Walton deal in particular (low 6 figure fee) is an exceptional piece of business for a 26 year old goalkeeper who could very easily ply his trade in the Championship.
The issue has been with the coaching and management set up off the pitch...which certainly didn't reflect the quality of our squad. Cook was completely inflexible, both this season and last, to change his preferred formation to suit the players he had at his disposal. I would argue that he was also naive and boardline arrogant to assume he could do the role without a good number 2. In terms of coaching, Francis Jeffers, Gary Roberts, Ian Craney et al certainly didn't bring the experience and quality of coaching needed to work at club like Ipswich with some of the quality we have in the squad.
With a better coaching set up now, we can realistically hope that the likes of Harper, Fraser, Pigott and maybe even KVY can benefit from a more competent and accommodating coaching and management set up. [Post edited 22 Jan 2022 10:21]
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:18 - Jan 22 with 868 views | franz_tyson |
I think the quality of the players is without question far better than previously.
My big concern is that the recruitment hasn’t been balanced. Too many players in one position and pretty thin in others. And on the final day, we signed Morsy, Walton and Celina which seems a bit desperate. Some players are obviously linked to Cook and others you might think come from Ashton. Was there a bit of conflict between the two? Did we really need to sign Celina, Aluko, Fraser, Chaplin, Barry who could all play the number 10 role? And then we find out later that Harper is better as a number 10. Seems a bit muddled and/or greedy.
The OP lost me when he said Bishop is better than Morsy. Two different players and Morsy is obviously far better and can give more to the team. This squad has far more potential than the previous bomb squad, but Cook couldn’t realise that potential. Just hope McKenna is able to pick up where Cook left off and with a few tweaks get the team functioning.
Given a choice, I’d take this position with the new squad, new owners, a sacked manager and now a new one to that of a year ago with Lambert/Evans/the old squad. | | | |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:22 - Jan 22 with 854 views | Westcountryblue |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:18 - Jan 22 by franz_tyson |
I think the quality of the players is without question far better than previously.
My big concern is that the recruitment hasn’t been balanced. Too many players in one position and pretty thin in others. And on the final day, we signed Morsy, Walton and Celina which seems a bit desperate. Some players are obviously linked to Cook and others you might think come from Ashton. Was there a bit of conflict between the two? Did we really need to sign Celina, Aluko, Fraser, Chaplin, Barry who could all play the number 10 role? And then we find out later that Harper is better as a number 10. Seems a bit muddled and/or greedy.
The OP lost me when he said Bishop is better than Morsy. Two different players and Morsy is obviously far better and can give more to the team. This squad has far more potential than the previous bomb squad, but Cook couldn’t realise that potential. Just hope McKenna is able to pick up where Cook left off and with a few tweaks get the team functioning.
Given a choice, I’d take this position with the new squad, new owners, a sacked manager and now a new one to that of a year ago with Lambert/Evans/the old squad. |
Morsey and Bishop are completely different players.
Bishop is certainly a player i would have kept though. He's quickly become a fans favourite at Lincoln. | | | |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:39 - Jan 22 with 826 views | franz_tyson |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:22 - Jan 22 by Westcountryblue |
Morsey and Bishop are completely different players.
Bishop is certainly a player i would have kept though. He's quickly become a fans favourite at Lincoln. |
I got fed up watching Bishop get another chance and to offer glimpses of his former potential and then to break down yet again. Time for him to move on. If you take away his ability to glide past players a few times in matches and draw fouls, then there wasn’t much else to his game. Strangely, now playing at RB for Lincoln so maybe he has developed his game or offering something else. | | | |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:50 - Jan 22 with 799 views | Vic |
It’s all been done to death before, but for what it’s worth, in my opinion the recruitment has been much, much better than anything we had in the last few year of Evans ownership. We have brought in quality players as opposed to bang average stop gaps like Ollie Hawkins, etc. the fact that most of the previous squad are playing at a lower level says a good deal about them really!
At the same time because Cook chose to build a completely new squad it was all rushed and too many new players duplicated themselves - the #10 slot is a classic example. It looks like he bought a couple, then realized he could get better so signed them as well, rinse and repeat.
Personally I’d have done all I could the keep the best of what we had, namely Bishop, Dozell, Downes and seen what they could do with better players around them. Certainly the latter two in particular are doing exactly what most of us thought they would given the chance.
So, yes quality of recruitment is miles better, but it wasn’t perfect in terms of execution. |  |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 10:58 - Jan 22 with 769 views | ghostofescobar |
Bonkers. No better than under Evans? Seriously? Last summer we seemed to have a manager who was a bit like a kid in a sweet shop “I’ll have one of those, and one of those, oh and maybe one or two more for luck”, but the never quite knew what to do will all those players once he had them. Hindsight is wonderful thing and all that, but it now seems obvious that Cook was not the kind of manager to fit into the structure that the new owners obviously want at the club. Most modern, forward looking clubs rely massively on a team for recruitment, not just the old fashioned way of a manager doing it all. |  |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 11:00 - Jan 22 with 767 views | Herbivore |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 09:36 - Jan 22 by bazza |
Totally agree regarding too many players in, it was never going to be easy with a whole new squad, a whole team doesn’t gel in a few games, so many different personalities , I just hope it doesn’t come to light, that some of them ain’t as good as we all thought.. I hope McKenna can get them working as a unit and the individual ability we see from time to time can be brought together and last a full 90 minutes week in week out, as opposed to 5-10 minutes one game on one game off , because if they don’t it won’t be on McKenna, it will be on the players. |
Cook made a big thing of having a smaller, tighter squad to work with and we then went out and signed almost as many players as we'd let go. We had too many senior pros for the first team squad again. That creates all kinds of issues, not just the good old gelling, but trying to keep everyone happy as well and having capacity to do meaningful work with individual players on the training ground. It also muddies selection as the temptation is to tinker if things aren't working straight away when you have such a large squad to pick from.
It's notable that this window we've added one so far (Walton already oart of the squad) but three have departed (Kenlock, Nsiala, Barry) and a further two have been made available. It looks like we'll probably have a trimmer squad by the end of the window than we did in December and for me that's a good thing. I'd add I got pelters when I made the point about the large squad in the summer......... | |
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| Has the recruitment been any better? on 11:53 - Jan 22 with 697 views | bazza |
| Has the recruitment been any better? on 11:00 - Jan 22 by Herbivore |
Cook made a big thing of having a smaller, tighter squad to work with and we then went out and signed almost as many players as we'd let go. We had too many senior pros for the first team squad again. That creates all kinds of issues, not just the good old gelling, but trying to keep everyone happy as well and having capacity to do meaningful work with individual players on the training ground. It also muddies selection as the temptation is to tinker if things aren't working straight away when you have such a large squad to pick from.
It's notable that this window we've added one so far (Walton already oart of the squad) but three have departed (Kenlock, Nsiala, Barry) and a further two have been made available. It looks like we'll probably have a trimmer squad by the end of the window than we did in December and for me that's a good thing. I'd add I got pelters when I made the point about the large squad in the summer......... |
Looking back it was bizarre how cook conducted things here, but he’s left us with a core of a decent team, just need to iron out the individual errors, and the fragile mentality when put under pressure. | | | |
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