Window Closed, Bigger Squad But Is The Club Serious About Promotion?

[HykehamRed]

Twelve incomings?

How much per week do you think they will earn collectively and how could we have spent that differently?

Not just that how much do the players were never going to see in a red shirt again extract from the club?
Cummings, Clough, Bridcutt, Pantillimon, Yacob, Murphy, etc earn near enough collectively what the Shaggers are paying Rooney!

[BadDog]

And that is the problem Baddog, we dont know because we have gambled on 12 signings, all bar Adomah and to an extent Ameobi are unknown quantities.
What we actually needed was 4 or 5 proven quality signings to complement what was already here. Then we would have known we were stronger.

I agree 100% but this is what we have now, we have to trust them until they prove to us one way or another.

[Jean_claude_killy]

I have to agree and I would say we are actually weaker and a worse team than last season. They say finish on a positive so I will say we do start with a better manager than the one we finished with.

How can any of us actually honestly say how stronger or weaker we are yet?

We are missing Carvalho, Semedo is an upgrade, Chema may boss it, Bostock may boss it, Samba x2 might hit the ground running.... we just don't know yet.

Correct.

We have clearly upgraded at Right Back; then again we could have signed a traffic cone and it would have been an upgrade on Darikwa.

We have cover at Left Back and signed a player who stood out in a struggling side in La Liga last season.

So the defence should be stronger.

We have lost Colback, who was never our player, and Osborn, who would not have got a game had the supporters picked the side; I find it impossible to believe that the players we have signed will not prove better that what we had last season.

So the midfield should be stronger.

We have not signed the forward we needed but that is hardly surprising as they are the hardest ones to get, the most expensive to buy and want the most wages.

If we had signed a complete unknown it would not have been good enough for the experts; it had to be a break the bank striker and f**k the cost.

Its very easy for people to spend someone else's money without giving any consideration whatsoever to the consequences.

[Widdow]

So solution is sell the other strikers and don’t spend anything on a proven striker then?

Grabban has been shocking since his injury and is another year older Mir is unproven and spent most of career on wing, as has Ameobi who will hardly worry other teams

Perhaps Sabri will get the best out of them, cos it is what is and that’s not a forward line for a promotion winning side

[the jock]

42 players in 4 windows.

[Widdow]

It still a scattergun approach with no long term planning and building, and as I said originally squad bigger but less value.

Modesto and the new DOF haven’t improved things at all

[ac_vodka]

Not loaning out Tyler Walker would have at least given us a bit more depth if only to cover or try and change things.
For me it wasn`t about spending a lot of money as probably some decent loan options available also for cover but I agree on someone`s comments about we don`t know what went off behind closed doors.

I just can`t get behind the EM`s strategy of sack the manager if not in the top 6 when we don`t have sufficient depth of quality to the squad to maintain top 6.
Top 6 would massively exceed expectations at this point in time - not impossible if we are lucky with injury's but unlikely.
Can our recruitment team realistically say any different based on this window and if not who should be accountable if we think the coach is doing a good job with what he has but not top 6 at Christmas ?

Its evident from where we today with our squad size and limited scope of where we go for players that this strategy of changing the manager simply doesn`t work and no sound bytes will change that without a re-think on approach to recruitment imho.
The only defense I can think of where we are today is our current wage bill so we may have to accept a realistic challenge can`t take place until we have trimmed down but we may have had another manager or 2 by that point and so it could continues.

[Redgirl]

Everyone could see we needed a striker, yes they are harder to find especially the calibre were looking for, so how come other championship teams have found them... and signed them.

I like Grabban and if we play the ball how he wants it he will get us goals, but we should have an alternative. He will get injured and our season will be derailed by it, coach will be sacked for it and the circus will all start again.

It’s the club that keep feeding us the line about promotion, all the PR in the world counts for nothing if we aren’t winning. If we don’t score goals we won’t win games.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

It still a scattergun approach with no long term planning and building, and as I said originally squad bigger but less value.

Modesto and the new DOF haven’t improved things at all

Far too early to make a statement like that. We will know at Christmas.

I stopped reading your original post when you said ''are our owners serious about promotion'' (and that was only in the thread tital).

Surely nobody can question the ambition of EM?

Some very very short memories around.

[Widdow]

No doubting the plans for stadium and infrastructure around city ground, but we shall see if those ambitions for promotion on the pitch and if their latest head coach can get the best out of what he has been given

They talk a good game, but results last two seasons haven’t backed that up and again Marinakis said we should accept losing. Although we do rarely hear from owners or our hierarchy

I tried to make a balanced review, I did say let’s wait and see, and the serious about promotion was a nod to the past.

As for Modesto he was here in January and those signings didn’t deliver

Problem Modesto is working for two clubs. It’s such an important position, we need someone dedicated for Forest and not looking at players for Forest and Olympiacos. Oly will always get the better players.

He also seems to ignore strikers, only one we get was a Mendes client. Doesn’t seem to the U.K. market.



Well, so far it seems, after all has been said and done, more was said than done

[Sabricadabra]

I don’t see how anyone can definitively say that this summer’s recruitment hasn’t improved things at all. Some of the players haven’t played for us yet, and the others have only started one game.

Give it time.

[Paplane]

Remember the last few teams that got us out of this devision? Frank Clark went out and bought us Collymore. Dave Basset bought us PVH. Both expensuve but unbelievable strikers primarily responsible for the subsequent promotions. Last year Norwich got Pukki, Villa Abraham. Only Sheff Utd didnt have a recognised top man up front. You dont get promotion unless you got a striker knocking them in for fun up front.

Hopefully Grabban can be this for us this season. I rate him a lot but I have my doubts.