Hi everyone,
i’ve been reading this forum for years without ever registering or posting, but can no longer contain myself from joining in the comments, banter and general discussions. Sorry this is such a long post to start off!
So being totally serious about the most important thing for all OUFC fans at this point in time, this summers recruitment! I was completely in the middle ground of neither negative or positive until the last week or so. For a club we keep hearing about with top 30 aspirations, and wanting to be aggressive, it’s clear even to the most positive amongst us that things haven’t gone as hoped. The reasons we can all debate and have our own thoughts on, and I don't know who’s right, wrong or got the most realistic answer. But if everyone is 100% honest it’s been disappointing thus far. If we realistically are acting as has been suggested we’d have made signings, no question! So why haven’t we?
I‘d suggest in many cases we are perhaps aiming too high and if we were prepared to sign two or three fairly big or wow signings and 4 or 5 sensible solid league one players we’d be far better off than perhaps fishing continuously in over ambitious waters. No matter what the positive amongst suggest, it’s surely obvious that the funds aren’t there to be expecting 7 or 8 top notch players, but if we acted sensibly we could secure a few and then make sure we signed some of the better lower league players or out of contract solid league one players which would give us a serious squad to go to war with. Signing players with a long or serious injury history is just asking for trouble, even if they may produce the odd sensational performance once every now and then. Keep signing the same old players because the manager knows them is just crazy. Jerome Sinclair prime example. Sorry to use him as a scapegoat but if we do sign him it’s a waste of a wage even if on a cheap pay as you play basis. Hardly ever scores, 11 in well over 100 games), didn’t really set the world alight with us a couple years ago and no one has wanted him for 12 months. We can do better, so much better surely, if we really are serious about challenging at the top end this season. You pay for what you get, if the player is really cheap there’s a reason, let’s be all be totally honest!
I’ve got plenty of time and a lot of respect for KR. I think he’s done well for us and his passion and commitment is simply fantastic. He’s brought some very good players to the club as permanent or loan signings, but something just doesn’t sit right these last few months in terms of what we’re led to believe. It’s all very well to suggest we’re looking at some seriously talented high end players but we should be looking at players who we can realistically sign and not those above our station, meaning we miss out on some sensible signings who would enhance the quality of the depth of the squad and enable us to field a strong team week in week out, regardless of any injuries. Squad balance is vital and we‘ve had too many “fancy“ players and lacked proper solid defensive cover for a couple of seasons. Above all we lack generally physical players to actually get us over the line in terms of promotion. The balance of defence, midfield and attack (wingers and strikers) needs to be much better, but we badly need some taller, bigger and stronger players and not keep signing physically weak players who may produce some magical moments now and then, but can‘t cope with the demands of some of the physical league one clubs or wet and cold nights in the middle of winter.
We’ve got a great base of players with those currently in the first team squad but we need to address the issue of proper balance, proper cover and physical presence thats so obviously been lacking. I get so disappointed when I see some of the names mentioned, even if they are supposedly quality they don’t address our problems, especially physicality and size wise. We need some bigger, stronger players to balance everything and give us more options.
I don’t believe the current board really want to go for it until a new ground location is secured, which is fair enough on one hand. If on the other they really want a football club to grow the name and their reputations then we would be signing players like Nicky Cadden ahead of Barnsley all day long. We may of course still do so and I seriously hope we will. The supposed wealth of our owners would mean they don’t honestly worry about spending much bigger than we are used to, as they have so much collateral behind them it’s like buying sweets from a sweet shop. That’s maybe a bit unfair but looking at their backgrounds and financial status they can afford to “play“ with a football club if they really want to, and not worry about a few million losses here and there. I appreciate FFP must be considered, but it worries me when we couldn’t get a shirt sponsor over the line and not to get some new players in by now, even more so. Yet we have fantastic new training facilities etc… so lots of dots but for some reason we’re not crossing the t’s and it’s not all coming together quite as it should.
So here‘s hoping the next few weeks will address squad balance and get us some more physically solid players who are not injury prone (yet at least). Also no cheap but ”let’s take a chance“ options that no one else wants to take a punt on! If we’ve got serious backers we shouldnt be needing to do that.
