Hit, Miss or Maybe

[Doctoroncall]

Considering money was (and still is) in short supply I was thinking about the acquisitions this season and how they had to be carefully selected based on position, experience and cost (if any) of the player. Here is the list of players with a few stats I could find (mainly soccerbase or Guardian stats sites) to help gauge their status of hit, miss or maybe:

 

Sqd Name................... P.. Start Sub Mins Goals YCs RCs

 

13 Tommy Forecast.......G

... Jack Cork................ D. 24....1.. 2193........... 4

... Alex Pearce............. D....6....3....508... 2...... 1

2..Chris Perry.............. D.. 31....2.. 2855.. 2...... 3

5..Jan-Paul Saeijs........ D.. 13.........1185........... 4

6..Michael Svensson......D....4.......... 366........... 2

41 Zoltán Lipták.......... D....4.............13........... 1

43 Lee Molyneux...........D....4.......... 327........... 3.. 1

10 Paul Wotton........... M.. 12.. 11.. 1231........... 2

12 Lee Holmes.............M.. 11.......... 725

16 Romain Gasmi..........M....0.... 3..... 39

19 Morgan Schneiderlin M.. 21....4... 1664........... 5

39 Ryan Smith.............M....5.....3.....371........... 1

40 Anthony Pulis......... M

... Tomas Pekhart........ F....2.....8.....353.. 1

... Jordan Robertson......F....8.....2.....593.. 1

 

Hit:

Cork, Pearce, Perry, Saeijis - All decent defenders, Cork versatile, Pearce showed an attacking threat.

 

Miss:

Svensson - missed too much football and in/out of the side with injuries, not his normal calm self. Glad he's on the coaching staff sorting out the defence.

Molyneux - not better than what we have, no first team experience, wages and agent fees to pay.

Wotton - too slow, distribution poor, only had one good game out of the 12.

Gasmi - injured but hasn't shown anything in the reserves from what has been reported.

Pulis - matching his past playing and injury history, so why did we take a chance when money is tight?

Pekhart - didn't start many games, was isolated and looked like he didn't enjoy playing. Perhaps didn't suit the style of play so why waste a loan.

Robertson - debut was full of promise but went rapidly down hill.

Forecast - yet to play first team football, however why buy a player when the budget is tight and three other second string keepers are already here?

 

Maybe:

Liptak - nothing to gauge him although his playing career doesn't suggest he's a quality player but let's wait and see.

Holmes - has shown some good performances but is too injury prone.

Schneiderlin - has only shown glimpses of his quality with his passing but little else. Could £1m have been better spent?

Smith - Signs that he can be a reasonable player but anonymous much of the time.

 

Of course there will always be some misses but surely some research and scouting could have been to save picking up so many. Only 4 hits, 8 misses and 4 maybes which isn't a great return.

 

 

The rest of the squad that have played:

Sqd Name....................P.. Start Sub. Mins Goals YCs RCs

 

1..Kelvin Davis........... G.. 39............ 3556..........2..

24 Oliver Lancashire... D.. 10...............808..........3.. 2

7..Rudi Skácel............M.. 23............ 2080.. 1......4

11 Andrew Surman......M.. 37............ 3350.. 7......7

15 Jason Euell............M.. 12.... 5..... 1123... 2......2.. 1

18 Jake Thomson....... M....5.... 4........448

22 Simon Gillett..........M.. 21.... 4..... 1818............5

23 Lloyd James..........M... 34... 1..... 2980.............7

37 Oscar Gobern....... M.....4.... 1.......348.............1

4..Marek Saganowski.. F.. 12.... 1..... 1083.. 6........2

8..Bradley Wright-P.... F.. 11....15.... 1392.. 3........1

17 David McGoldrick... F.. 38..... 1.... 3330.. 9........6

20 Adam Lallana........ F.. 29..... 4.... 2639.. 1........1

34 Jamie White..........F.....2..... 1.......122

35 Matthew Paterson. F.....1....10......260... 1

42 Kayne McLaggon... F.....1.... 6.......245... 1

... Stern John........... F.....?

[Papa Shango]

Hit:

 

Cork

Perry (Unsung hero of the season)

Saeijs

Holmes (Was class at the start of the season before his injuries)

 

Miss:

 

Forecast (Totally pointless,didn't need another keeper),

Molyneux (total rubbish)

Wotton (can't pass to save his life)

Gasmi (Again, what was the point of this one?)

Smith

Pulis (Wouldn't be playing professional football if his dad wasn't a manager)

Pekhart

Robertson

 

Maybe:

 

Schneiderlin (Has been inconsistent, but looks quite promising)

Liptak

[Andy_Porter]

Schneiderlin - has only shown glimpses of his quality with his passing but little else. Could £1m have been better spent?

 

Easily...

[Greenridge]

Hit:

 

Cork

Perry (Unsung hero of the season)

Saeijs

Holmes (Was class at the start of the season before his injuries)

 

Miss:

 

Forecast (Totally pointless,didn't need another keeper),

Molyneux (total rubbish)

Wotton (can't pass to save his life)

Gasmi (Again, what was the point of this one?)

Smith

Pulis (Wouldn't be playing professional football if his dad wasn't a manager)

Pekhart

Robertson

 

Maybe:

 

Schneiderlin (Has been inconsistent, but looks quite promising)

Liptak

 

That's pretty much how I see it PS. It's not a great success ratio to be honest. I know you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette but our broken eggs are splattered all over the floor. Pulis has to be the most incredulous of the lot and I'm sorry but I find it hard to believe a shrewd business man like RL got suckered into the 'makeweight' theory.

[John B]

So developing our own seems a good idea.

 

 

It has been our problem for years bringing players in has not been that successful I know one or two have been OK Davis Davies John but lots have not performed that well consistently

[Alain Perrin]

Hit:

 

Cork

Perry (Unsung hero of the season)

Saeijs

Holmes (Was class at the start of the season before his injuries)

Wotton (no nonsense player, good motivator, every team needs one to close out games)

 

 

Miss:

 

Molyneux (although perhaps too early to say)

Gasmi (not seen much of him, but I suspect that tells it's own story)

Pulis (never expected him to play. Sweetner in the Davis deal I suspect)

Pekhart (I'd put him in the 'worth a risk' category based on his prior stats)

Robertson (muscle upfront, worked a couple of times, but not consistently enough.)

 

Maybe:

 

Schneiderlin (Has been inconsistent, but looks quite promising. Personally I think he'll be very good - very calm on the ball.)

Liptak (good heading from what I've seen)

Smith (glimpses of promise)

Forecast (Not totally pointless, Saints had 3 injured keepers at the same time a couple of seasons ago and good loans aren't always available. Planning for the future is also sensible as KD is one of our higher earners),

 

 

Personally, what I'd expect. A mixture of good, bad and indifferent. If you don't try out loans like Pekhart, Robertson and Gasmi, you don't find Saeijs' and Cork's. I'd rather we tried and failed, than not tried at all.

 

People talk ******** about Schneiderlin being a waste of a million quid, but the way deals are structured we'll have paid little upfront with potential resale value to offset/benefit from. You're not the French U19 captain for nothing, so I don't see this as wasted cash.

[Doctoroncall]

Hit:

 

 

Miss:

 

Pulis (never expected him to play. Sweetner in the Davis deal I suspect)

 

Maybe:

 

Schneiderlin (Has been inconsistent, but looks quite promising. Personally I think he'll be very good - very calm on the ball.)

Forecast (Not totally pointless, Saints had 3 injured keepers at the same time a couple of seasons ago and good loans aren't always available. Planning for the future is also sensible as KD is one of our higher earners),

 

 

People talk ******** about Schneiderlin being a waste of a million quid, but the way deals are structured we'll have paid little upfront with potential resale value to offset/benefit from. You're not the French U19 captain for nothing, so I don't see this as wasted cash.

 

All well and good if you know you don't have money concerns but since short term finances seem to be more important it doesn't make sence to buy a couple of players with potential, one has never played, the other hasn't contributed anything more than average performances.

 

There is no evidence that Pulis was a make weight in the deal for Davies. I would have preferred a lower price than having a waste of space in the squad having paid agent fees and wages.