New poster here.
Been a season ticket holder since 1987, and a constant reader of everything on this and previous forums for years, and finally decided to register and join in with the fun and games!
I personally agree with both the more positively inclined posters, but can also sympathise with the concerns of the perceived more negative posters.
From a positive point of view, yes, we are targeting a higher calibre of player than the last couple of seasons, and yes, that will take time, as there will be other clubs (some bigger than us) interested, and even if we manage to get our bid accepted, the players themselves will have big decisions to make over wages/contracts being offered, living costs, and the potential for success or failure of the clubs on offer to them. Then the selling club will need to be sure of the players they have coming in before they agree to the sale of that player. All these things combined, take more time to get things finalised, so yes, patience is needed.
However, it's only worth the extra time if there's a genuine chance of getting these players in the first place, which in the case of Findlay, for example, I don't think there ever was, and I just hope we don't fall behind in our search for more realistic options, whilst chasing players who are realistically, currently out of our reach.
Under Mapp/Eales/Ashton, we developed a really impressive, and refreshing recruitment model, of bringing in young, hungry players, who were struggling to break through at their premiership clubs, and turning them into senior professionals, and then selling them on to a higher level for a profit, and then repeating the process, something that worked well for all concerned, helping kickstart the players career, and helping our club to progress on and off the pitch. We had become an attractive option to players, and their agents.
Unfortunately, due to Eales not being able to carry on funding the project, the wheels started to come off, and Mapp saw the kind of buyers who were looking to purchase the club, and due to his history at previous clubs, saw what was coming, and jumped ship.
From that point onwards, everything changed. Lindsay, the kind of player we had been attracting under the old regime, pulled the plug on his deal, and then the new management, calibre of player, and ownership of the club changed, and in a way, the clubs been in disarray ever since, with poor communication between the club and the fans, multiple WUP, wages not being paid, and poor recruitment (with a few exceptions) leading to a poor couple of seasons, and due to this summers transfer window being very similar to last, I can understand the concerns of the perceived "negative" posters on this forum.
There are still positives however. The training ground facility, investment in the u23 squad, for example.
Personally, I think it might be wise for Robbo to change his approach, and stop overloading the squad with midfielders/wingers, whilst neglecting both attack and defence (something he did last season as well) and create a more balanced squad, with strength in depth throughout, and if that means, for now, lowering his sights a little bit to build the foundations of a solid, balanced squad, then so be it.
We don't need to chase marquee signings to make us competitive this season, and I worry the time we're spending waiting around for players who, currently, are probably out of our reach, could be costing us the chance to get ahead of other clubs for more realistic targets.
I think we just need to get our house in order, from the top down, learn from previous mistakes, and make ourselves the serious, organised, professional and ambitious club that made us such an attractive option to players and agents under Mapp/Eales