Are we right to be optimistic? (Compared with last summer)

L

Lanc_seasider

Well-known member
I thought it would be interesting to directly compare the summer transfer window we had last summer with the one we are currently having. Because I remember there was a decent level of optimism last season and it didn’t pan out how many of us expected really.

Last summer:
Adi Yussuf
Ben Tollitt
Ryan Edwards
Sullay Kaikai
Jamie Devitt
Ryan Hardie
Jak Alnwick
James Husband
Joe Nuttall
Rocky Bushiri
Calum McDonald
Sean Scannell

Compare that with this season so far..
Keshi Anderson
Jerry Yates
CJ Hamilton
Marvin Ekpiteta
Oliver Sarkic
Ethan Robson
Jordan Williams
Alex Fojticek

Obviously in hindsight we are going to look and think we’ve done far better this summer, which for the record I think we have, but it’s interesting to compare. I won’t go through all of them but Edwards came respected Plymouth and they’d have definitely kept him given the choice. Not dissimilar to the Ekpiteta signing. The Nuttall signing was very similar to Yates, seemed to drag on a couple of weeks his previous clubs fans rated him highly. Saying that I’ve seen enough in Yates in pre-season to suggest he’ll hit the ground running, and Yates is proven in the football league, Nuttall played most of his football for Blackburn’s development side. Kaikai was and still is a good signing, think he’ll thrive this season. Keshi Anderson has been one of our better players pre-season, but although he’s younger it’s not too dissimilar to the signing of Devitt. In that his last club rated him but he’s never played higher than league 2.

Don’t get me wrong I think we’ve had a much better summer this time round, I feel like there’s an aim to our recruitment now and a clear style of player and person we go for. Something that certainly wasn’t evident with Grayson. Some interesting comparisons though.
 
Lanc_seasider said:
I thought it would be interesting to directly compare the summer transfer window we had last summer with the one we are currently having. Because I remember there was a decent level of optimism last season and it didn’t pan out how many of us expected really.

Last summer:
Adi Yussuf
Ben Tollitt
Ryan Edwards
Sullay Kaikai
Jamie Devitt
Ryan Hardie
Jak Alnwick
James Husband
Joe Nuttall
Rocky Bushiri
Calum McDonald
Sean Scannell

Compare that with this season so far..
Keshi Anderson
Jerry Yates
CJ Hamilton
Marvin Ekpiteta
Oliver Sarkic
Ethan Robson
Jordan Williams
Alex Fojticek

Obviously in hindsight we are going to look and think we’ve done far better this summer, which for the record I think we have, but it’s interesting to compare. I won’t go through all of them but Edwards came respected Plymouth and they’d have definitely kept him given the choice. Not dissimilar to the Ekpiteta signing. The Nuttall signing was very similar to Yates, seemed to drag on a couple of weeks his previous clubs fans rated him highly. Saying that I’ve seen enough in Yates in pre-season to suggest he’ll hit the ground running, and Yates is proven in the football league, Nuttall played most of his football for Blackburn’s development side. Kaikai was and still is a good signing, think he’ll thrive this season. Keshi Anderson has been one of our better players pre-season, but although he’s younger it’s not too dissimilar to the signing of Devitt. In that his last club rated him but he’s never played higher than league 2.

Don’t get me wrong I think we’ve had a much better summer this time round, I feel like there’s an aim to our recruitment now and a clear style of player and person we go for. Something that certainly wasn’t evident with Grayson. Some interesting comparisons though.
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A lot depends on the next 3 or 4 signings. The defence needs improvement and I think we need another striker. Once that’s done then we can revisit this.
A lot of people thought Grayson was a good appointment, I didn’t, a lot of people think Critchley is a good appointment too. Let’s hope he’s as good as we think he is because this Lg1 is there for the taking. It’s never been more important to get back into the Championship and quickly.
 
More could and should have been done with most of the signings last summer.
The fact the set up was a shambles hampered almost all of them.
It was only the sheer class of Moore, Ronan & KDH that was able to shine through the utter shower that was Grayson's team towards the end of his tenure.
 
Simply Grayson was the problem, and he destroyed the confidence and attacking intent of those with talent. Whilst NC has got many of the players that he wants in, if he had been the manager last summer, we would have made a much better attempt, with skill and attacking intent rewarded, not sit back and lump it. Poor managers can kill players careers.
 
My confidence isn’t based particularly on the players but the style of play. It’s unrecognisable from last year and is bound to win us matches. We will do better than last year so I’m very optimistic.
 
I'm optimistic that it's going to be more enjoyable. I'm not that bothered if we get promotion or not as long as it looks like we're moving in the right direction and it clearly does.

I think player for player, the signings are better but more importantly, we're playing a system that looks to bring the best out of those players we've signed.

At times last year it felt it didn't matter who we played or signed, the outcome was the same.
 
I think if we're comparing this summer's transfers to last summers, we can see a clear transfer strategy this summer. There is a particular type of player we're going for, and we've already seen each player bring something that we've needed. Pace from Hamilton, a creative midfielder who can pick a pass in Anderson, composure on the ball in Antwi and Robson etc.

Can anyone say that last summer? Of last summers signings, only Husband and KaiKai had any meaningful impact. 2 out of 12. I'd be amazed if 5 of the 8 we've signed so far this summer aren't regulars, and we'll likely sign one or two more as well. They've been signed with a specific system in mind, whereas even after half the season last year I'm not sure Grayson had a specific style or strategy in mind. If he did, he forgot to tell the players.
 
I believe we are right to be optimistic. It looks as if we have a far better manager now, I do not expect many of us thought Grayson would be as poor and negative as he was. It looks as if the squad are now buying into what the manager believes in. I also believe that the current signings have been an improvement . So many of last seasons signings were poor.
 
I never felt any optimism over Larry's appointment and thought I was going to have to eat my words when I saw how well we'd started, However, I was never convinced by any of the performances and I even skipped quite a few games because I was genuinely bored. Didn't watch last night but if we can play like we did against Everton then I can see no reason to be anything but positive,
 
Got to be positive and if you look at our transfer activity compared to many other league one teams at the moment we're in very good shape indeed
 
Grayson was obviously affected by his Sunderland experience and collapsed mentally as soon as things started to go wrong. His signings were random, I doubt he knew much about most of the players. His second spell suggested that Tony Parkes was the key figure first time round. NC arrived here full of confidence, signed players he's familiar with to fit a system that Liverpool have won the league and Europe with. It augurs well but he's no league experience and we don't know how the side will hold up to league games twice a week. The defence in particular. But also have we enough in midfield to be be combative, possibly a bit light there. As things stand. We are a much more coherent and potent side going forwards though, and I believe the coaches will sort the defence out. Good reason to be positive, we've come a long way in a short space of time since the transfer window opened. Without the first 11 minutes if the Everton game, though, things would feel a fair bit different I suspect and the perennial doom mongers would be more evident.
 
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I felt positive last season & the same for this one. The tactics were very disappointing with Larry & but for the individual skill of the loanees in spite of poor tactics improved it. Given that team with what I’ve see so far then I believe results would have been much better. So for this season it looks like we could be a decent force to reckon with, only the defence being a concern ATM for me.
 
Optimistic yes, but also need to be patient, I expect a few more ins and several outs, plus, we are a work in progress, there maybe a few games where things dont go to plan !!
 
As voy says there are so many unknowns that mean you can be cautiously hopeful, but optimistic may be pushing it a bit.
 
Not expecting miracles to start off with but I think we’ll grow as a team and as a club throughout the season and end up competing strongly at the top end of the league and giving every team we play a stern test.
 
The quality of players he has brought in and the style of play will give any league one side a headache be optimistic this is going to be a fantastic season with any luck. UTMP
 
Don't forget to factor in the stability in the boardroom now. We had the interim board at the start of last season, whereas now we have the personnel behind the scenes who can set a long- term strategy and work with the playing staff to take us forward.
 
We’ve clearly got a method. We clearly have some decent players who can play within that method. The question is whether we have the gamesense to secure the wins needed. I think we need experience in the centre and without it we will fall short but I’m still optimistic.
 
Lanc_seasider said:
I thought it would be interesting to directly compare the summer transfer window we had last summer with the one we are currently having. Because I remember there was a decent level of optimism last season and it didn’t pan out how many of us expected really.

Last summer:
Adi Yussuf
Ben Tollitt
Ryan Edwards
Sullay Kaikai
Jamie Devitt
Ryan Hardie
Jak Alnwick
James Husband
Joe Nuttall
Rocky Bushiri
Calum McDonald
Sean Scannell

Compare that with this season so far..
Keshi Anderson
Jerry Yates
CJ Hamilton
Marvin Ekpiteta
Oliver Sarkic
Ethan Robson
Jordan Williams
Alex Fojticek

Obviously in hindsight we are going to look and think we’ve done far better this summer, which for the record I think we have, but it’s interesting to compare. I won’t go through all of them but Edwards came respected Plymouth and they’d have definitely kept him given the choice. Not dissimilar to the Ekpiteta signing. The Nuttall signing was very similar to Yates, seemed to drag on a couple of weeks his previous clubs fans rated him highly. Saying that I’ve seen enough in Yates in pre-season to suggest he’ll hit the ground running, and Yates is proven in the football league, Nuttall played most of his football for Blackburn’s development side. Kaikai was and still is a good signing, think he’ll thrive this season. Keshi Anderson has been one of our better players pre-season, but although he’s younger it’s not too dissimilar to the signing of Devitt. In that his last club rated him but he’s never played higher than league 2.

Don’t get me wrong I think we’ve had a much better summer this time round, I feel like there’s an aim to our recruitment now and a clear style of player and person we go for. Something that certainly wasn’t evident with Grayson. Some interesting comparisons though.
Click to expand...
Where is Scannell?? Did he get released?
 
Always optimistic, but we really won't know what we still need for a while yet. I can recall this time last season several people bigging up KaiKai as a wonder signing, but in reality his performances last season were sporadic irrespective of whether Grayson was a problem. There's a good player there, but he needs to convert promise into reality.

I'd also add - more on a cautionary note than anything else - that we really have no clue how Critchley will take to the real deal of first team professional football in League 1. Doesn't matter how much people want to eulogise the kids playing in reserve/U'23 football, it's a world apart from first team life - as Nuttall found out last season. He's no longer in a training environment, we're paying customers and we want results and the opposition are playing for their lives and won't be standing on ceremony.
 
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