Next season - new approach

Thinking onto next season, and referring to something somebody said on a previous thread which was:

"that's what you get when you have 9 strikers on £800 a week instead of 3 on £2,000"

If we were to go down that route, who do people think we should be approaching?

I'll chuck a name in for starters:

Gabby Agbonlahor - who will be a FREE AGENT in the summer.

Comments/Suggestions

No chance of him coming here i'd have thought.

It was me who mentioned the 800 quid thing. Anyway he wouldn't come here, and he's a waster anyway. At his boyhood club he's been stealing a living for years. Always starts the season well then gets on the pies and hardly nets after October.

I would definitely prefer a 20/22 man squad next season, easier said than done to be fair as some players don't work out and replacements need adding. That said, our recruitment this season speaks for itself. We need to recruit earlier, we've paid the price for shopping in the bargain bucket when all the good players have been signed up. That's what John Fenty does for you, 90th of 92 and I'd say we are likely to finish 91st due to his policy. Fenty out.

Players will have to live within 1 hour of by.does that mean dannY Collins won't be here next year?

A few things that should be changed about our recruitment that would make a huge difference:
1) Smaller squad
2) Younger, hungrier players. The type of players striving to make a living in football, not those on their way down.
3) More physicality. Our squad is so weak and slow which is half our problem. Get some raw pace in the side and at least a couple of players who are more than happy to roughen things up a bit.

Gabby Agbonlahor is probably earning (stealing) 50K plus a week at Villa - nobody earning that level of money is going to drop to 2K a week. Not that I'd want him anyway, think people need to be a bit more realistic.

Quoted from 75

It was me who mentioned the 800 quid thing. Anyway he wouldn't come here, and he's a waster anyway. At his boyhood club he's been stealing a living for years. Always starts the season well then gets on the pies and hardly nets after October.

I would definitely prefer a 20/22 man squad next season, easier said than done to be fair as some players don't work out and replacements need adding. That said, our recruitment this season speaks for itself. We need to recruit earlier, we've paid the price for shopping in the bargain bucket when all the good players have been signed up. That's what John Fenty does for you, 90th of 92 and I'd say we are likely to finish 91st due to his policy. Fenty out.

That is spot on Vic. I have lost count of the number of posts I made over past seasons, going back to Woods' time, on the same issue. It may be expensive to get quality but you need at least 4/5/6 quality players in your Xl every week to do any good. Otherwise you rely on luck or on percentage play, in the hope that eventually you will grind your way up. For all his faults as manager, and I did criticise him virtually weekly, Neil Woods knew that and did try to get quality. He just did not have the knowledge of the market to go for the right ones and we ended up with more dross.

You can only go so far by developing the Cliftons and the Keebles and you can only go so far by organisation, sports science, motivation and psychology. The key factor is always going to be about adding ability to the squad and football ability costs money in fees and/or wages.

I'm hoping if we do manage to stay up that MJ will bring in a mixture of players he knows from the U23 circuit who haven't quite made the grade at premier/championship level, some players he knows from the swedish leagues, some up and coming non-league prospects and a few experienced "good-pros" from league one/two, plus Harry Clifton and Max Wright..

If we do go down then I'd be worried that MJ wouldn't be able to attract players from a higher level and probably doesn't know a great deal about non-league players. If this does happen then getting in a new assistant with experience of that league would be a smart move imho.

This time next week we will have a better indication of whether survival is a realistic possibility but whichever league we are in next season, we need a total rebuild.

I would keep Macca, Fox, and Mills, and maybe Clifton and Dembele in the squad for their potential, but that's about it.

We need younger players with pace and skill in all areas, Perhaps one older head in midfield, but only if surrounded by several players of significantly higher quality than anything in the current squad.

Most of all we need strikers who can at least hit the target occasionally.

This can't be done on the cheap. So Fenty will need to splash some cash or walk away so that someone else will.  

The only new approach that will work for many is a complete change of leadership and direction.