Has this been achieved?

[Westdene Seagull]

It's this kind of drivel that annoys me about NSC. Rosenior was a key player for Hull and their fans seem genuinely annoyed that they released him. Maenppa was offered an extension and had other clubs after him but chose us. Bong only signed a short term contract for Wigan so was always likely to leave if they went down. Hemed cost us £1 million and scored goals in La Liga this season. Yet, with no further knowledge than that, you're writing them off already. Great support for the team!

Indeed. The idea that you have to spend big to be successful is utter tripe. Zamora didn't cost us very much, nor did Barnes ( yes I know that one is a crowd splitter ). Yet CMS cost us millions. Burnley spent less than £1m the season they were promoted.

 

[spanish flair]

I would like to know which of the four players brought in has suddenly turned us from a relegation fighting team to something better.
We were a poor team last season and 6 of those regulars at the end of the season have left, so which one of the four signings has turned us now to a promotion chasing team ?

 

[dr415414]

Fence at present for me, but if we don't make some serious signings in the next two weeks, I suspect we are in for a repeat of last season. It's all very well saying pre-season games are just preparation run outs, but previous ones have shown how we will perform in the actual season: Crawley 2009-2010 we were appalling, losing 1-0 after a howler by Graeme Smith (wasn't that a sign of things to come?) and really struggled until Slade was sacked, and I then spent an afternoon before last season watching the game from Peterborough. They had just been relegated, but walked over us.

And I was there when we got beaten 3-2 at Hastings and went on to finish 4th in the Championship. Just saying.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

I would like to know which of the four players brought in has suddenly turned us from a relegation fighting team to something better.
We were a poor team last season and 6 of those regulars at the end of the season have left, so which one of the four signings has turned us now to a promotion chasing team ?

Where has anybody said they have (although they may all help to push us up there along with more signings). No club is going to sign one player that is going to make that difference, although if Hemed became a 20 goal striker (or provided the support for Baldock to do that), he'd definitely make a big difference.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

And I was there when we got beaten 3-2 at Hastings and went on to finish 4th in the Championship. Just saying.

Absolutely, friendlies are generally irrelevant. I seem to remember Newcastle losing 6-1 at Leyton Orient and getting promoted from this league that year (with Hughton in charge). Friendlies where a team plays almost a reserve team are even more irrelevant.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

The gloom is absolutely nothing to do with the friendly result.

It's the fact that we still need 5 attacking singings ( and 1 central defender ). To make room for 2 of these signings, COG and Colunga have to go.

 

[spanish flair]

Where has anybody said they have (although they may all help to push us up there along with more signings). No club is going to sign one player that is going to make that difference, although if Hemed became a 20 goal striker (or provided the support for Baldock to do that), he'd definitely make a big difference.

I should have quoted Supaseagull, but in general my question still stands. We were a poor team last year and I believe CURRENTLY I am seeing the squad weaker now than at the end of last season, for a second season running.

 

[B.W.]

Again, I don't think anybody is predicting that next season will be poor due to the reserves drawing 0-0 with Lewes, from what I gather most people are highly sceptical about the season ahead as it mirrors last summers transfer window all too closely. The long and the short of it is that we simply haven't addressed the key areas where our deficiencies were last season, we still have ZERO pace, ZERO creativity and little chance of creating goals against Championship teams.

This. The arrogance of those claiming that most are using the Lewes game as a litmus test for the new season is beyond belief. The majority are correct to point out the oh too ****ing obvious shortcomings in our squad... 3 in bare minimum and quick, or we are ****ed again, which would be unforgivable because the club have known the gaps for a year or so...

 

[Finchley Seagull]

I should have quoted Supaseagull, but in general my question still stands. We were a poor team last year and I believe CURRENTLY I am seeing the squad weaker now than at the end of last season, for a second season running.

I don't agree that we're weaker than the end of last season. Baldock's return from injury more than makes up for losing CMS and Best, even ignoring the signing of Hemed. I'm hopeful of Rosenior and Bong offering a better option at left back than Bennett. March is back too. We've lost Texeira and Hughes/Halford so are a bit weaker in those positions but overall I think we have better options available now than at the end of last season.

Having said that, we're still not strong enough to do more than be mid table this season (and that's if all the signings work out and Hemed is the answer to our goalscoring issues) so there's still a lot of work to do.

 

[B.W.]

Except we already have Stockdale, Bruno, Greer, Dunk, Bong, Stephens, Crofts, Kayal, LuaLua, Baldock and Hemed who didn't feature without any new signings.

Are you for real? Who on here is using the Lewes game as evidence that our squad has massive gaps? We don't need the Lewes game to KNOW we lack at least 3 players. Hughton has said it publicly himself, and he is correct. FFS.

 

[spanish flair]

I don't agree that we're weaker than the end of last season. Baldock's return from injury more than makes up for losing CMS and Best, even ignoring the signing of Hemed. I'm hopeful of Rosenior and Bong offering a better option at left back than Bennett. March is back too. We've lost Texeira and Hughes/Halford so are a bit weaker in those positions but overall I think we have better options available now than at the end of last season.

Having said that, we're still not strong enough to do more than be mid table this season (and that's if all the signings work out and Hemed is the answer to our goalscoring issues) so there's still a lot of work to do.

I wished I shared your optimism, lets hope you prediction and optimism is proved correct and better than this time last season.

 

[B.W.]

Seriously, I think some people on here are deluded. Most teams don't complete their business until the season is well under way so why should a team who were lucky to stay up last season and want to bring in better players than that be any different? There aren't many teams who've signed more than 4 or 5 players so far this pre season so we're not doing as badly as the over reaction on this thread suggests (although in an ideal world we'll bring in 2/3 this week).

Get your head out of the sand. We needed to spend and spend big to get good players in early precisely because we ****ed up last pre-season with our player acquisition. Your solution? Repeat the previuous mistake. Moronic.

 

[B.W.]

It's this kind of drivel that annoys me about NSC. Rosenior was a key player for Hull and their fans seem genuinely annoyed that they released him. Maenppa was offered an extension and had other clubs after him but chose us. Bong only signed a short term contract for Wigan so was always likely to leave if they went down. Hemed cost us £1 million and scored goals in La Liga this season. Yet, with no further knowledge than that, you're writing them off already. Great support for the team!

Well, this we can agree on.

 

[B.W.]

I would like to know which of the four players brought in has suddenly turned us from a relegation fighting team to something better.
We were a poor team last season and 6 of those regulars at the end of the season have left, so which one of the four signings has turned us now to a promotion chasing team ?

Answer = they will all contribute, but we are way, way short at the moment.

 

[B.W.]

I don't agree that we're weaker than the end of last season. Baldock's return from injury more than makes up for losing CMS and Best, even ignoring the signing of Hemed. I'm hopeful of Rosenior and Bong offering a better option at left back than Bennett. March is back too. We've lost Texeira and Hughes/Halford so are a bit weaker in those positions but overall I think we have better options available now than at the end of last season.

Having said that, we're still not strong enough to do more than be mid table this season (and that's if all the signings work out and Hemed is the answer to our goalscoring issues) so there's still a lot of work to do.

You are living in cloud cuckoo land.

 

[spanish flair]

Answer = they will all contribute, but we are way, way short at the moment.

I really really hope you are correct, but please forgive me in thinking about Toko, Collunga, Hughes and Best when I view these signings, with maybe Rosenior being the one to buck that trend. A proven Player in the Prem and Championship. The type of signing I would like to see us make more of.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Get your head out of the sand. We needed to spend and spend big to get good players in early precisely because we ****ed up last pre-season with our player acquisition. Your solution? Repeat the previuous mistake. Moronic.

Did you actually read my post? I didn't say we shouldn't be trying to do that. But why are these players going to sign for us early on? We struggled last year. There seems to be this thought process on here that quality players are queuing outside the Amex to sign for us but we're turning them away. We're obviously trying to sign these sort of players but it's not easy. Sadly, I think many people (including you) live in a Championship Manager world where signing players is so easy. The reality is different.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

I wished I shared your optimism, lets hope you prediction and optimism is proved correct and better than this time last season.

To be fair, it's not that optimistic. I'm saying that I think our current squad is better than the one who got 2 points and 1 goal from our last seven games. Hardly the most optimistic post ever.

 

[Triggaaar]

Paul Barber: "We knew at the start of the transfer window that it was important to bring in our new players as early as possible

We also knew that a lot of transfers happen at the end of the window for reasons beyond our control, so it was very unlikely we'd have it all done by now.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Are you for real? Who on here is using the Lewes game as evidence that our squad has massive gaps? We don't need the Lewes game to KNOW we lack at least 3 players. Hughton has said it publicly himself, and he is correct. FFS.

Read the whole thread. There are people moaning on it about the Lewes game and my post was in response to a post suggesting that it would probably be our first team at the start of the season.