AbbeyOx it will all depend who we end up getting. Look at last off season and I think we really have to see as how this one is going. We signed a lot of players late (some after the season had started) some players were old and or carrying injuries. Some were very young and had no real competitive league experience never mind a full league one level pre-season of training. They all took time to find their feet (some never did and hardly featured). Add to this the fact we spent weeks messing with the team trying to find the best positions for everyone (Moushino in defense) and this maybe more than a few injuries to existing players contributed to our awful start.
Now if this season we do not sign the quality players we need (not just a couple of center-backs but strikers and midfielders too) we run the risk of the same old problems as last season. Youth loans who take time to get up to speed, and players deemed unwanted by other clubs (often older, or players recovering from injuries). We relied way too heavily on loans last season and now we are paying by having to rebuild each time. Back when MApps was here we used loans to add quality with potential to sign them permanently. Now we seem to train players for other clubs to benefit from them.
I can't help think there is something a bit wrong in the way we are currently being run. We just don't seem to be able to land our targets. Now yes it is a competitive market, but are we identifying the correct targets to start with or are we just pretending we are bigger than we are until we all fall to earth at the end of the summer and we end up panic signing? I just get the feeling the club isn't being sold well to players (under Aston and MApps I never got that feeling), or at least not well enough for the really good players then to sign. I also don't understand why all of these rich men are sitting on the board and no one is putting any money into the first team. We seem to have the ambition to be a Crewe type selling club (which is fine until you run out of talent to sell as they found out) not a club who is challenging for the play offs. This club seems to spend more time worrying about loosing players then signing them.
Now this could all change in this week. However it could also go the way some of us are concerned about. I just hope we don't end up with 5 or 6 loans filling the key positions in the squad again as at worst we could have a very poor start again, and at best we will be looking to rebuild again next transfer window.
