Recruitment (in January)

[oldage]

I didn't say they were targets identified and given to IF though.

From AP's update... 'transfer budget was provided for Ian to sign players that he had identified'. I.e. they were his signings and not data driven, again if that wasn't obvious already when 4 of the 6 are England U20 players.

The players Foster signed may also have been data driven? Who’s not to say Foster looked at the list he was given and identified players he was already familiar with?

 

[Argy1e]

ND also had major contacts at England youth level, I don't believe for a second all those signings were Fosters, by the time SH, AP & ND appointed a new manager half the window had gone, he would not have had the time to assess the squad and negotiatiate the loan dealings, ND was most likely influential there.

5th January he was appointed. Window had barely begun.

 

[mutley marvel]

End of season post mortem will probably dissect January's recruitment & what can be learnt from it
Also the 87 day tenure that went so horribly wrong
Plenty to digest & dissect in the close season

 

[Biggs]

The players Foster signed may also have been data driven? Who’s not to say Foster looked at the list he was given and identified players he was already familiar with?

It would be interesting to see where the data would have come from for Gyabi, Sousa and Phillips with barely 10 senior appearances between them. Devine was the one that potentially made some sense with an impressive half season at Port Vale.

Previously even our young loan signings had a decent data sample size at senior clubs to look at (Whittaker at Lincoln, Azaz at Newport, Cundle at Swansea, KKH at Huddersfield/MK, Longwijk in the Eredivisie etc etc) so we really saw a clear departure from our usual model.

 

[Montybulldog]

It would be interesting to see where the data would have come from for Gyabi, Sousa and Phillips with barely 10 senior appearances between them. Devine was the one that potentially made some sense with an impressive half season at Port Vale.

Previously even our young loan signings had a decent data sample size at senior clubs to look at (Whittaker at Lincoln, Azaz at Newport, Cundle at Swansea, KKH at Huddersfield/MK, Longwijk in the Eredivisie etc etc) so we really saw a clear departure from our usual model.

That's a great way of assessing it, and seems very logical.

 

[Montybulldog]

Picking up on one thing SH stated recently, in Jan 2024 there wasn't really any funds for new signings just loans, this kind of suggests we invested all our transfer budget at the start of the season.

Perhaps we need to divide our player transfer budget, 50 % at start and 50% locked away until January transfer window.

What appears to have happened Argyle spent its budget in bringing Whittaker and Mumba to the club.

 

[zakbrown96]

Picking up on one thing SH stated recently, in Jan 2024 there wasn't really any funds for new signings just loans, this kind of suggests we invested all our transfer budget at the start of the season.

Perhaps we need to divide our player transfer budget, 50 % at start and 50% locked away until January transfer window.

What appears to have happened Argyle spent its budget in bringing Whittaker and Mumba to the club.

Honestly value for money in January is really difficult. Due to clubs being unwilling to sell.

 

[truejanner]

Perhaps this is why SS was so keen to get away, no money to buy Azac, no money to buy a striker, knowing he basically had to get cheap loans in to try to survive in the championship when he was hoping to build on what he had achieved. I’m sure more information will eventually become available the same as it did with Hollowhead.

 

[Said old Green]

Perhaps this is why SS was so keen to get away, no money to buy Azac, no money to buy a striker, knowing he basically had to get cheap loans in to try to survive in the championship when he was hoping to build on what he had achieved. I’m sure more information will eventually become available the same as it did with Hollowhead.

I suspect that there is a lot of truth in what you say .

Schumacher is an ambitious manager and perhaps he felt that
a. he could not fulfill his ambitions at Argyle
b. that despite his efforts there was a good chance Argyle would be relegated and that it was in the interest of his career to leave whilst his stock was high

 

[Said old Green]

Picking up on one thing SH stated recently, in Jan 2024 there wasn't really any funds for new signings just loans, this kind of suggests we invested all our transfer budget at the start of the season.

Perhaps we need to divide our player transfer budget, 50 % at start and 50% locked away until January transfer window.

What appears to have happened Argyle spent its budget in bringing Whittaker and Mumba to the club.

Whatever way you cut it out budget was not big enough to sustain Championship football

No one's fault but it's reality.

 

[Frank Butcher]

Whatever way you cut it out budget was not big enough to sustain Championship football

No one's fault but it's reality.

One could argue that it’s been the price of success.

But while budget is a major issue it’s not just a coincidence that the decline started mid-season.

Nothing to do with being ‘sussed out’ as someone put it, simply down to outgoings and incomings - players and leadership. We put faith in one man - probably quite rightly - the problem was that it was the wrong man.

 

[Said old Green]

One could argue that it’s been the price of success.

But while budget is a major issue it’s not just a coincidence that the decline started mid-season.

Nothing to do with being ‘sussed out’ as someone put it, simply down to outgoings and incomings - players and leadership. We put faith in one man - probably quite rightly - the problem was that it was the wrong man.

Or we had the right man but couldn't match his ambition.

But then again he might just be the duplicitous person that most on here believe him to be.

Without knowing the man himself or the discussions between him.Dewsnip and Hallett, I genuinely don't know .

 

[Railway sleeper]

I think there will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ( hope I'm not shouting too loud 😉) be targets in budget

Those 'diamonds in the rough' - yannick bolasie, jason puncheon, dwight marshall, craig no one ....these guys are still out there I'm very sure of that ...waiting to be discovered by championship clubs

What we need is much more data and a greater emphasis on data driven approach

I would like us, as a club , to reduce our links ( not completely, but substantially so) with the england youth set up.We need to ask if certain 'contacts' are of value to the club, if we have ambitions as a mid- table championship club.i have my own views on this.

Whatever happened to ' working smarter' ??

 

[Frank Butcher]

Or we had the right man but couldn't match his ambition.

But then again he might just be the duplicitous person that most on here believe him to be.

Without knowing the man himself or the discussions between him.Dewsnip and Hallett, I genuinely don't know .

I was actually referring to his successor but I also agree with you here.

 

[WoodsyGreen]

Perhaps this is why SS was so keen to get away, no money to buy Azac, no money to buy a striker, knowing he basically had to get cheap loans in to try to survive in the championship when he was hoping to build on what he had achieved. I’m sure more information will eventually become available the same as it did with Hollowhead.

That's exactly why he left... I thought that was common knowledge by now? He gave an interview a few weeks before he skulked away to Stoke in which he basically admitted he was being held back by the club's budget and inadequate facilities. None of us caught it at the time and we really should because he couldn't have made it any clearer had he put up a sign in big neon letters saying "I WANT OUT" on the side of Smeaton's Tower.

Schumacher in the Herald, Nov 23:

"Yeah, I'm desperate to have a top 10 budget in the Championship now and have a go at trying to get to the Premier League this season but I understand where we have come from. That's just not possible.

"I understand it because that message is getting relayed all the time so I can't get frustrated with where we are at. We have got to compete and do as best as we can, and keep trying to get the team to perform to the levels we can under the restraints that we have got.

"The Brickfields development is huge for the club in the long term. It's going to help us produce more players that are going to play in our first team. I think two of our best players have come through the academy despite not having any facilities.

"Not only has the team got to be better on the pitch to get into that top six, we have got to have everything better. We have got to have the infrastructure behind the scenes.

"We have got to have a better training ground. We have got to have better coach facilities. We have got to travel better. And if you are going to do that and you want to be a top six team it's going to take a lot of hard work and a lot more investment and, obviously, a bit of luck as well.

"You are up against better teams, better managers, huge crowds. Having that infrastructure behind you gives you a chance to attract players.

"Money obviously plays a huge part in what you can pay them, but what you are working with as well is a huge part - what your stadium looks like, how many fans you can get in, it all helps."