Alfreton....Match Thread

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Not true. PH made it very clear that players who were putting cones out wouldn’t impinge on his budget.

Correct, he did say that. Is he just being stubborn? He is known for that. Perhaps the asking prices are too high and it’s a poker face. A dangerous game though, we’ve been that way before and finished with barrel scrapings. The other side of this of course is that if we don’t sign a couple of really decent players, where does that leave the ones we have who were promised ambition and and a quality side? Can’t imagine the likes of Pearson will continue to be impressed forever with what we have, and fans will start to think why did we bother to sign up for a season ticket.

Quoted from golfer

I think that the reason we have stalled with signings is the fact that we have possibly reached our budget limit mainly due to us being unable to offload our highly paid unwanted players

Hurst said that it had been agreed that his budget wasnot dependent on offloading those players.

Personally I still think its daft to insist we won't come to Ana rrangement with them, if we don't make them an offer some will just see out the season on full pay with the youths. I would be surprised if anyone will match their current contracts so they will be reluctant to leave.

Offer them 50% to get gone, surely they can find somebody willing to pay them half or more of what we were. Then they will be better off and so will we. An incentive for them to go, and maybe we can reinvest those savings towards a player we will use!

Quoted from 123614

Hahaha, you know nothing about my background in football, don't assume things sonny, because assumptions are often wrong.  Also I was saying we could stay up until it was mathematically impossible, i.e. if we still had enough to points to play for to avoid relegation.  Those of you experts who said we were doomed from months before the season ends are just those few who always make derogatory comments  when Town lose, but are nowhere to be seen when Town win.

All I know about you was you kept spouting balderdash and wouldn't accept the fact that we were excrement and going down.

Quoted from arryarryarry

All I know about you was you kept spouting balderdash and wouldn't accept the fact that we were excrement and going down.

No, I wouldn't accept that we were going down until it was not possible, haha pot kettle black re balderdash, that's all you ever spout.

There's a difference between wanting something to happen and simply identifying that problems/issues are present that can cause something to happen and being concerned about it.

If the side has players that aren't good enough in it then pretending they are good enough won't help, they will be found out in the reality of the season.

Quoted from toontown

There's a difference between wanting something to happen and simply identifying that problems/issues are present that can cause something to happen and being concerned about it.

If the side has players that aren't good enough in it then pretending they are good enough won't help, they will be found out in the reality of the season.

I want us to get promoted but I don't think that will happen and I'm willing to accept that we are in transition. If a team finishes 3rd in League 2 everybody is happy because they are promoted automatically yet in this league you can finish 2nd and not go up so the ultimate goal of promotion is always going to be difficult and no matter what we spend, there will always be a few good teams making it difficult.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I want us to get promoted but I don't think that will happen and I'm willing to accept that we are in transition. If a team finishes 3rd in League 2 everybody is happy because they are promoted automatically yet in this league you can finish 2nd and not go up so the ultimate goal of promotion is always going to be difficult and no matter what we spend, there will always be a few good teams making it difficult.

Yeah I was talking about last season really but the point stands for this season  - I thought our pre season started really well with early signings. However my optimism is wearing off, we seem to be short of a couple of strikers one of which at least needs to be a proven goal scorer  TBH I think we are short of goal scoring potential throughout the squad but maybe some will have that at this level. Other teams are more obvious candidates for the top spot. I would still like to think we can be in and around the playoffs with a couple more quality signings.

I suspect we may be waiting for dembele to be sold before we can then put our recruitment into practice. Just got to hope our targets don't choose to move whilst we have to bide our time...

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I want us to get promoted but I don't think that will happen and I'm willing to accept that we are in transition. If a team finishes 3rd in League 2 everybody is happy because they are promoted automatically yet in this league you can finish 2nd and not go up so the ultimate goal of promotion is always going to be difficult and no matter what we spend, there will always be a few good teams making it difficult.

This exactly, Wrexham finished second one year with 98 points and didn't get promoted. Tough league,  but on the other hand just a 7th placed spot and a bit of luck could do it.

Maybe, just maybe, Hurst is in the middle of negotiations with agents/clubs and doesn't want to show his hand by blabbing to the press that he's absolutely desperate to sign a striker...

Surely it's not lack of money that's impeding the recruitment of some quality players for the obvious gaps in the squad. We have parachute payments, healthy season ticket sales and a good wedge from the sale of two of our young players, with the real possibility of more to come from the Dembele add on.

I have to say that I am so far a little underwhelmed with our recruitment from an attacking point of view. We look to be solid, as you would expect from a Hurst side, but we need those players that can turn possible defeats into draws and draws into wins.

I accept that Hurst is rebuilding from a very low base, but I'm bored with hearing every bloody season how we need to build a side for the future. We have been doing this for what seems like forever.

No excuses for Hurst as far as I'm concerned. It's play offs as a minimum considering we should be one of the biggest and best supported teams in non league. If we aren't in the top 7 teams in that league, then the manager is not doing a good enough job IMO.

Lincoln were at a lower point than us when the Cowleys took over, with crowds down to under three thousand, but with new backing and pushing the boat out with their recruitment, they took off in a big way. No reason we can't do the same.

Crawley and Fleetwood in our last stint down there showed what can be done if you push the boat out for quality players and they both smashed the league.

If you pay them, they will come.