Upgrades

Quoted from grassbandits

Appreciate this likely isn't the most exciting news and he's out injured for the rest of this season but 100% deal done for Vernam return in the summer..

My concern about Vernham if he is out injured is will he be any good ( back to his good form) when he returns from injury. Both Morris and McAtee looked completely different players when they returned from injury and I wonder if Vernam might be the same.

Weird with this as after some games I am thinking keep the majority , add a few bit off quality because we are not too far away .

Then after 170 minutes of Hartlepool and Donny I am thinking we need a complete rebuild .

I have a feeling it will be somewhere in between with probably all under contract staying, around half of out of contracts offered new deals and half released .

Orsi i would release but then he was fantastic yesterday and in some of the cup games ,maybe he just has not had enough game time?

I dont know ,this is why I am a supporter first and not a manager , in Hurst we trust and hope he gets it right

Quoted from bradzmilne

However, due to the goals - I think we view him with somewhat rose tinted glasses.

But that's what strikers get judged on.  Whilst at Town, his record was absolutely peerless.  7 goals in 16 games (only 3 of which were starts).  A goal every 71 minutes he played.

12 in 38 at a Halifax side that's spent most of the season struggling is the sort of return we've dreamed off from a striker this campaign.  

I dunno if he's league standard, or certainly not to the standard of a side that have aspirations of promotion into League One.  But he was a damn sight better than the raft of loanees that were brought in throughout the season and you can probably include those that have had permanent deals this season too.  

Very much like in 2016 when we came up.  We rightly looked to upgrade, but we actually downgraded in some areas.

Hindsight is ace, but I'd have kept Mani with the challenge of 'go and prove you're good enough to start'.

Quoted from bradzmilne

Mani wasn’t of quality, that’s the bottom line.

He scored some goals I’ll be eternally grateful for and should never had to buy a drink in Cleethorpes ever again. However, due to the goals - I think we view him with somewhat rose tinted glasses.

On the whole he was poor & if we set the bar at Mani’s level at the end of last season (sentiment aside) we wouldn’t have been best pleased.

Why we didn’t push the boat out and buy an even semi-recognised striker, I honestly don’t know. Equally though, that also doesn’t mean Mani was necessarily the answer.

We have to look forward now, who can we bring in? A couple of early names to throw in the hat:

Luke Armstrong from Harrogate. Would require a decent fee but the first time I saw him, I instantly thought he was a PH striker. Scored goals in a struggling Harrogate team. If we could somehow secure a Lloyd & Armstrong partnership up front next year….  

Toto Nsiala - out of contact. Tried and trusted by Hursty. I’m not a huge fan of resigning ex players, however he’d ease our prospective centre half worries & will still have plenty in the tank.

The fee for Armstrong might be reduced if they get relegated and that's looking more likely as they nosedive and Hartlepool and (to some extent) Crawley are making a fight of it. Their game in hand may be golden.

Quoted from diehardmariner

But that's what strikers get judged on.  Whilst at Town, his record was absolutely peerless.  7 goals in 16 games (only 3 of which were starts).  A goal every 71 minutes he played.

12 in 38 at a Halifax side that's spent most of the season struggling is the sort of return we've dreamed off from a striker this campaign.  

I dunno if he's league standard, or certainly not to the standard of a side that have aspirations of promotion into League One.  But he was a damn sight better than the raft of loanees that were brought in throughout the season and you can probably include those that have had permanent deals this season too.  

Very much like in 2016 when we came up.  We rightly looked to upgrade, but we actually downgraded in some areas.

Hindsight is ace, but I'd have kept Mani with the challenge of 'go and prove you're good enough to start'.

7 in 16 is better than Orsi has done for us or Harrogate.

Quoted from bradzmilne

We have to look forward now, who can we bring in? A couple of early names to throw in the hat:

Luke Armstrong from Harrogate. Would require a decent fee but the first time I saw him, I instantly thought he was a PH striker. Scored goals in a struggling Harrogate team. If we could somehow secure a Lloyd & Armstrong partnership up front next year….  

I'd be very happy with Armstrong as well, he's looked decent every time I've seen him. Said on another thread, Baker-Richardson at Crewe is someone I'd like to think is on our radar.

This thread is entitled "Upgrades"

I'm afraid some people are easily pleased as most of the names mentioned are definitely NOT upgrades.

Why the obsession with ex players ? Vernham, had a few decent games but was anonymous the rest of the time. Done nothing since he left us, NO. Nsiala, always looked like an accident waiting to happen, NO.

Liked the look of the Hartlepool right wing back and the midfielder who scored a hat-trick, they would be upgrades. Also watched the Halifax v Wrexham match and Alli for Halifax would be an upgrade. He was a bit like Sousa but knew what he was doing  

There are players out there but they must be BETTER than what we have or whats the point ?

Quoted from Sir Matt Tease

This thread is entitled "Upgrades"

I'm afraid some people are easily pleased as most of the names mentioned are definitely NOT upgrades.

Why the obsession with ex players ? Vernham, had a few decent games but was anonymous the rest of the time. Done nothing since he left us, NO. Nsiala, always looked like an accident waiting to happen, NO.

Liked the look of the Hartlepool right wing back and the midfielder who scored a hat-trick, they would be upgrades. Also watched the Halifax v Wrexham match and Alli for Halifax would be an upgrade. He was a bit like Sousa but knew what he was doing  

There are players out there but they must be BETTER than what we have or whats the point ?

I take your point completely but I'm not sure players playing below our level can be seen as upgrades unless they are really outstanding. Is a player from Halifax really going to be an upgrade? (Yes, Paul Futcher....)

The general feeling is that Loyd looks the business and we should sign him and he comes from a team above us.

Quoted from Sir Matt Tease

Liked the look of the Hartlepool right wing back and the midfielder who scored a hat-trick

Kemp, the midfielder who scored a hattrick, is on loan at Hartlepool from MK Dons so not sure that's a goer.

The only thing I'd say about Dieseruvwe (I would have been happy if he had stayed as back-up this season), is that he's only scored a dozen this season, despite being involved in pretty much every game. 3 goals in the last couple of games makes his tally look a bit better - they all count, of course.

As we've seen from all our forwards this season, a reasonable scoring record in the Conference isn't necessarily a great indication that similar numbers could be achieved a division higher as it is certainly more difficult to get the goals here.

I expect he could well have done a bit better than the bit part players we've seen with Taylor and McAtee injured or out of form, but I think Hurst wanted to move away from long-ball stuff this season. Didn't work out quite as he had hoped!

It will be interesting to see what the plans are for next season. We've ended up playing much of the season with 3 at the back almost by accident, but I'm not convinced we really have the players to make a real success of this. Glennon certainly isn't quick or fit enough to play wing-back, Amos a bit quicker but hasn't won the place so that's the left-hand side lacking. On the other side, Efete isn't confident enough to make a go of being an attacking wing-back enough, even though I think it is probably within his range. Emmanuel in and out of the team as well and not a wing-back.

On the assumption that Smith isn't with us again next season, I could certainly see us playing Efete in a back 3 regularly and this could give us the chance to sign a proper attacking wing-back, but that still leaves us a little lacking on the left-hand side. If Vernam is to return, I'd expect we'll be going back to a flat back four once again.