Amuses me the way people are classing Dunwald-Turan in the same bracket as Loft, Jarvis and Hippolyte.
He’s started just two games. Away at Crawley, where he played the full 90 minutes, and home to Solihull in the FA Cup where he lasted 71.
His only other two appearances have been as a sub. He got 37 minutes away at Tranmere and 3 away at Exeter.
A grand total of 201 minutes, all in games ending in defeat. He hasn’t even made the bench since mid November!
To say this guy did not need to be signed by the club as he is clearly surplus to requirements is an understatement!
He made one appearance for Bristol Rovers. That should have told us something along with his only two goals in English football being on loan at Weston-super-Mare!
Someone we definitely need to ask Godders and Swanners about!
But like you, not happy with the way things are and have been since Alexander’s departure. I don’t know PS personally so I won’t slag him or any of his family off, but I can make critical observations.
Swann always talks a good game when he comes on the radio or on an IB podcast. He tells us he cares about the club and the town and is doing all he can to build success. However we are used to politicians speaking to us in a similar manner. “We’ve a world beating track and trace programme in place!” “Brexit will be of benefit to all of us!” PS does often sound like a politician on Question Time.
I won’t repeat the list of promises. They’re there in the OP. But were they promises, or pipe dreams? Swann cannot be criticised for having a vision for the club.
The vision however appeared to put the stadium (new, rebuilt, refurbished or whatever) ahead of the football. To me it was always cart before horse. Surely the emphasis on developing youth should have been one of the first of the new owner’s actions, not one of the latter.
Of course when things are going okay football wise then it’s relatively easy to get fans on board with these visions. A promotion in his first season in charge. Three seasons flirting with the L1 playoffs. Not the heady days of Adkins and the Championship, but not too bad. After all we were still two divisions higher than Grimsby and Lincoln!
However, if you scratched off the veneer then the cheap chipboard beneath was clear to see. The promotion under the record breaking Russ Wilcox was particularly turgid. So much in fact that it didn’t really feel like one. Being in the upper reaches of L1 should have been joyous, yet there was always some mischief going on in the background. Players falling out with management and ownership over contracts or being played out of position. We then stated to hire and fire our managers at the drop of a hat. This despite PS telling us each time that (insert name) was the best man for the job and that he was here for the long term. One day we may learn what happened with Paul Hurst a year ago.
Around the same time news of the much talked about “transfer committee” emerged. There then followed a list of players signed but never featuring in matches, other than the odd cameo appearance. You know their names, Vose, Margetts, Lewis, El Mhanni, Olomola, Dales, Hallam. Now we have the likes of Mooney and Dunwald-Turan to add.
Many of us have questioned whether these signings have anything to do with the manager and coaches. Particularly as recent managers have been appointed after the squad has been put together.
Recently we’ve been told that the club has to cut its wage bill. This is fair enough of course, all clubs are in the same boat. But what do we do? Sign a lot of poor, inexperienced youngsters when surely a smaller number of new additions a mix of youth and experience would have been better. Then to cap it off we hear that the new chief scout is the Chairman’s son!
But to me it’s the whole atmosphere surrounding the club that seems to have died. Players don’t seem bothered whether they win or lose. No urgency, no pride in the shirt.
Change has to start at the top. I don’t know whether a new owner would be the catalyst or whether the Swann family can turn it around. Maybe they have reached the limit of what they can do. Who knows?
These are difficult times, sure enough. Would anyone want to buy a football club in the lower reaches of L2 at the moment?
Shows (we probably knew anyway) that Onariase + McGahey = above par. Any other combination = below par!
And that without Kev we don’t have a striker worthy of the name.
The one thing that these stats don’t show is the inconsistency. As Samways1 says, Gilliead can be a match winner on game and anonymous the next. The same can be said of Eisa and to a lesser extent the CMFs.
With those four blowing hot and cold and a donkey up front goals are always going to be hard to come by.
just look at the past 20 players brought into the club, andname one that is of any use!!!,
Onariase and Spence in summer and Beestin last January.
But I get your drift. The poor ones pretty much cancel the decent ones out.
The worst thing is that we have not signed anyone we can call a leader. KvV apart we have no one who can grab a game by the scruff of the neck and turn it around.
Reality is we need to offload Olomola, Turan, Jarvis and release/flog Mooney…we need 3 new strikers.
You may be right WG, but it would be interesting to tot up the number of minutes each of them have spent on the pitch in a league game. Not many I’ll wager.
Seen enough of Jarvis to realise he’s not league standard. Yeovil and Carlisle have seen more of Fela since he signed for us and as for Mooney and Turan – no bloody idea!
Dales pretty much permanently on loan for eighteen months. Hallam seldom featuring. Swann has said we need to cut our cloth accordingly yet he continues to sign players who rarely pull on the shirt.
It’s quite clear Cox has absolutely no motivational ability whatsoever,
Let’s not forget Mark Lillis. If a Scunny lad and the guy who flew the flag ahead of that playoff semi can’t motivate this shower then something is desperately wrong.
I suspect there’s more to it than Cox’s lack of managerial experience.
Hurst in running for Bradford job according to my Bantam mate.
The players today were just not good enough in both ability and attitude.
Swanny’s policy of getting rid of the better, more experienced and ultimately more expensive players over the past two transfer windows is looking like false economy.
What he’s given us is a larger, yet inexperienced and unbalanced, squad comprised of players who are not EFL standard. Maybe half a dozen are good enough along with some of our youngsters, like O’Malley that given time will be.
Injuries haven’t helped but that doesn’t excuse the poor attitude of those who took to the pitch today. What wouldn’t we give for Matt Lund or even a Rory McArdle now?
,but the racist abuse of chanting or shouting has been virtually eliminated from grounds up and down the country.
You’re lucky. I witnessed an incident at Spennymoor Town v Chester last year. Encouragingly, everyone around the guy shouted him down, but the fact he needed to act in that way is depressing.
I was also sat behind a family in SoL at a Sunderland v Carlisle tie in the EFL Trophy, who were using what I can only describe as colourful non-PC terminology.
Repeating for the umpteenth time, this is not JUST about what happens in sports stadia. It is about drawing attention to injustice in all walks of life.
Sportsmen and women support this because they know people look up to them and that their actions are visible.
The fact you have never witnessed it is neither here nor there.
