Signing in the morning

😂

Quoted from quebec38

Toontown you are in for it now pal 😂

I know that, the bigot that I supposedly am! 😉

Quoted from quebec38

The weird thing here is we are agreed we both think he is a good footballer. I said I liked him before it ever took you to “challenge” me.

What you can’t seem to separate in your weird mind is that you can be good at football whilst not kicking it with great technique.

I would point you in the direction of a podcast with a recent £30m footballer that admitted until recent years that he didn’t kick the ball very well at all - he just didn’t get it. But that would blow apart this weird obsession you have with Adam Crookes’ left foot.

You are quite a rude bloke aren’t you chaos.

Good film that.

Quoted from toontown

To be honest since he's return one thing I have been really disappointed in is hursts recruitment at full back. He has had a few shockers to be honest, bunny the worst (possibly for health reasons) but Haversham was poor and revan doesn't look upto men's football in division 5. Effete, crookes and sears whilst not bad are not a patch on the likes of magnay, tait, Danny Andrew, Connor townsend, and Robertson who he brought in in his first spell.

Is this a bit of a myth?  

Obviously having to take into account when Hurst was with Scott at the helm, his first summer of recruitment was 2011, from there I think it's quite a mixed bag as to who's brought in as full-back, on either side.

2011-12

Gary Silk, Jamie Green, Conor Townsend (loan).

Silk was average at best, Green could have been excellent if it wasn't for chronic injury problems whilst Townsend was a huge success.

2012-13

Sam Hatton, Aswad Thomas

Hatton very average as I recall.  Thomas went from very impressive to very frustrating at an alarming pace.

2013-14

Paul Bignot, Jamal Fyfield

Less said about these two the better.

2014-15

Carl Magnay, Daniel Parslow, Gregor Robertson.

Magnay was a big success, although he tailed off post Christmas as I remember.  Parslow was more utilised in midfield and I think the previous comments on Robertson sum him up nicely.

2015-16

Danny East, Richard Tait, Evan Horwood, Anthony Straker, Conor Townsend (loan).

Successes first.  Tait and again Townsend.  Both excellent additions and I think you'll do well to ever find a finer pair of full-backs at Conference level than those two.  Tait was an upgrade on Magnay, even when it looked unlikely we would ever do so.  Townsend was absolutely levels above anyone else by this point.  Arguably the best player I've seen in a Town shirt in terms of how much better he was than the level we were operating at.  Quite literally a Premier League player slumming it in the Conference.  

East - thought he was ok but inconsitent.  Horwood, brought in as short term cover for Robertson and largely average.  Straker, awful.

2016-17

Danny Andrew, Zak Mills, Dan Jones, Ben Davies.

Andrew was class and I think it's fair to say only his knee history resulted in us having a chance of signing him, no surprise he's progressed back up the ladder.  Mills had potential and whilst I expected him to go onto better things, he's consistently performed either at the same or a level above us since leaving.  Davies was a very astute signing.  Jones never got a chance other than that bizarre decision by Bignot to play him in centre-mid at home to Donny.  He's interesting a near ever present for the Port Vale side that our new signing couldn't get into...

early 2021

Joe Bunney, Sam Habergham

I didn't think Bunney was as bad as some made out. Whereas Habergham clearly looked a player who had been good a few years back, I guess in both cases unfortunate how injuries had robbed them of their abilities.  Also says a lot when we ended the season with Evan Khouri and Harry Clifton playing out of position ahead of them.


All in, yeah there's some real success stories like Magnay, Tait, Andrew and Townsend.  But largely there's a lot more what I would class as poor to average signings than good ones.   I think that's the nature of football transfers, not all will be amazing.  But over a course of 8 full years (taking 2021 as a whole), it's not exactly outstanding from Hurst on the full-back charge sheet is it?

2021-2022 so far

Michee Efete, Adam Crookes, Ryan Sears, Seb Revan.

Efete the stand out of the bunch but after an impressive start he's faded a bit (as per most the team since October).  Crookes is very steady and I honestly don't get the recent negativity towards him.  Sears I thought was fine, much like Crookes on the other flank but obviously bigger issues at play.  Revan was poor to be honest.

When you look at that list DHM has posted it's clear the likes of Danny Andrew, Connor Townsend, Carl Magnay and Richard Tait have clouded our judgement.

Efete and Crookes have been decent on the whole and Sears looked good when he played but it's off field issues there.

I think our biggest mistake this season is offering Giles Coke another year and making him captain. Aside from injuries and suspensions, you would expect the captain to be in the starting 11 most weeks.

I’d agree it has turned out to be an error with Coke but I think it would be harsh to put it on Hurst. He was good last season and everyone welcomed the move in the summer.

Shame what’s happened with him though although tbf I think it was the Chesterfield game he played well and then obviously went off early against Halifax at home. I hope he can continue to recover his form but he does look leggy.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

I love opening a thread after a long day at work to find an argument going on, keep up the good work lads 👍

Just did the same during my lunch break, crikey what a load of old nob rot, We really do need to win a game of football. I have just had a bet that says we will win by three or more clear goals utm

I think the thing with Coke is that he was exactly what we needed last season.  We lacked someone who could just protect the back four and be a bit of a shithouse, not just in terms of ruffling feathers but that really quite annoying habit of getting in the way just at the right time to halt a dangerous attack.  

He was also someone who was prepared to be brave and hold onto the ball, not just finding the easiest way to get rid of the ball.  He was calm, composed and slowly it spread to the rest of the team - albeit not quite enough to get us out of trouble.

This year though our aspirations are better than of 12 months ago.  We don't want someone in the heart of the midfield who is going to look after the back four and recycle play in a nice manner.  We're up against teams who have that in place themselves.  We don't want to even be in a position where we need to have someone shielding the back four, hell we don't want the ball going anywhere near them and when it does they should be good enough to deal it with it themselves.  We want people who can make things happen on an attacking front.  

Naturally there has to be a balance and you can't have 10 attackers out there.  But the better teams would have someone in the deepest midfield role who can still switch play at pace, drag opposition players out of position, carry the ball forward themselves and create chances.  Arguably that's the role Alex Hunt can and did do (at times).   It's not Coke's game, not anymore. But largely the midfield itself is quite imbalanced.

I'm not so sure that signing Coke to another contract was a mistake.  Just that we didn't get the rest of it right.  If you had Coke in a 3-man midfield with say John McAtee and another attack minded player, that we largely lack so let's say Harry Clifton and he's under orders to bomb forward, you would probably get away with it.  But if you've got Coke, Fox and Hunt in there it's not really dynamic.  You've got two guys who want to take the ball off the centre-backs and then the other who is looking to be that all action box-to-box with an eye on breaking stuff up too.  

Coke's probably got a role to play, but ironically it's probably in a team that's set up to be quite gung-ho.  With him as the one who gives the freedom to the full-backs to bomb on, the other midfielders to push further forward etc.

I think Coke is one of those plyers that is appreciated more by managers and team mates than he is fans.

Agree. I think he’s being a little harshly judged by some.