Why exactly did we sign Colin Hawkins?

[Storer68]

El Abd is a better centre half than Hawkins and could be relied upon as back up to Lynch and Elphick.

The club must have had faith that Hinshelwood would return long-term otherwise they would not have kept him on, but I do agree Hinsh was a risk.

That said, we did have El Abd, Elphick, Lynch all of whom can hold their own at centre back. We then signed TWO more centre backs, at least one of whom was not needed. Surely a manager should take time to assess his transfer options and not end up, as you suggest, signing Hawkins and then Virgo because he 'didn't know Virgo was available'.

It is called managing a limited budget.

might i suggest that saturday's evidence completely disproves the "El Abd is a better centre half......" theory