Ive mentioned this before, but the big mistake made at this club was the Chinese money and the impact that had on the signing policy that summer. If you recall JE was in charge and we seemed to take an age to make any signings. Many other clubs had either finished or were a long way to finishing their transfer business before we even got going. Possibly this was because those at the top knew the money was coming and told the likes of JE and Melville to stall throwing any cohesive plan they may have had regarding recruitment out of the window. Once it arrived there was an air of panic buying and like kids in a sweet shop it seemed that we went around buying the biggest name players we could get without much thought to whether they were the right fit as a collective or whether they had the right attitude. Its my opinion that 2 things linger from that event. The first is that we are still struggling with the ramifications of that today with an unbalanced squad, short on certain qualities. The second that whole debacle was created from the very top, right sentiment but misjudged in timing as the recruitment became chaotic. In any event if the manager is not backed from the top and doesn’t have the necessary clear out, the inconsistency and underachieving will continue. Personally I’d chop 11 of them, possibly 12. I’m not going to name them as it’s all subjective and I can’t be bothered to row about individuals.
pre chinese - Powell, Bowditch, Waters, Barnett, Foley
Post chinese (26/6) - Crooks, Taylor, Pierre, Kasim, Smith (plus caddington late august)
Not sure there was panic buying, the 'investment' came in a good 6 weeks pre the season starting.
Poll
