AB/PH comparisons

Quoted from diehardmariner

He had good six weeks extra and six games (appointed early November).  Whilst there was a youthful element of the squad with the likes of Bore, North, Hegarty and Taylor coming through he also had a very good experienced core to the squad.  Whittle, Bolland, Toner, Croft, Macca and Gary Jones all key players from the 2006 season under Slade.  

The loss of the likes of Mildenhall, Rob Jones and others in the summer was a blow, as were the injuries to Reddy and Cohen but he still inherited a good squad with a decent top-up coming through the youth set-up.  To my memory there wasn't any bad eggs in that group either. Certainly can't imagine he arrived at Cheapside find the balls were square and a non-contract defender was doing shuttle runs in front of The Pier.  That he only signed 3 players initially on loan (Paterson, Till and Pulis) suggests it didn't need the critical surgery that Hurst was left with.

I think Wembley was the season after too.

Don't get me wrong, Buckley did a good job in turning the tide that season because, unfortunately, he inherited a bit of a mess from Graham Rodger who was completely out of his depth.  But there's a bit of a mess and then there's an absolute excrement show.

See the difference Buckley brought in Patterson, Till and Puis 3 quality additions and got the best out of the rest of gge existing squad. I also recall he played 4-5-1 a lot to get results especially away from home .

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

What catch phrase have I used? It's just an opinion which you obviously don't like.

I was actually referring to the amount of players he signs.

I was probably a bit harsh, but I've seen this tinkerman label thrown at him, and it was playing into that. I've also seen this comment he signs too much rubbish many times also.

I think the vast majority of players he signs improves on ones we had. Obviously there have been signings that haven't worked (gambles such as Grant, desperation loans last year for example), but on the whole, I think he's very purposeful in where he strengthens and improving things. There were many tactical signings at first when he joined us, and with the quality in that squad, it was probably much needed, but they are getting less and less.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Hmm, I don't agree.

As I said earlier, the 1st team under Holloway had some reasonable players in it but not enough and they were very poor as a team. The squad was garbage and you couldn't replace the 1st choice players with the squad players. He brought in a couple of players from very low levels (one from the League of Wales - his name escapes me) who were miles away from being good enough to play in a L2 team.
Hurst did use players who Holloway brought in and he did bring in some players who were mistakes but the players who made us look better later in the season were all brought in by Hurst. And almost all of Holloway's awful signings were gone very quickly in the following summer.

Like I said I didn't see much but decided to have a look at the squad assembled by Holloway or players that were already here at the start of 20/21 season

Jake Eastwood is ironically back here (assuming he was backup)

Luke Hendrie - has had a steady career
Luke Waterfall- done well here after that season
Eliott Hewitt - done well at Mansfield - long term injuries

Pollock & Idehen - both at teams in the Champ and doing well  

Clifton- still here done well
Matete-  good player at league 1 level now
El mizouni - leyton orients star player
Joe starbuck- signed a contract with Tranmere

Tilley - doing well at Wimbledon
Terry Taylor - a big move after no great reviews here

Green & Hanson up top probably past there best but still ok on their day .


I have cherry picked

There are double figures in that squad who didn't progress but my point is surely we had enough 'in the building ' to stay up so I think Hurst must take some responsibility for the relegation .

As on paper a lot of these have gone on to be very decent players some even at a higher level .

Quoted from Mappers

Like I said I didn't see much but decided to have a look at the squad assembled by Holloway or players that were already here at the start of 20/21 season

Jake Eastwood is ironically back here (assuming he was backup)

Luke Hendrie - has had a steady career
Luke Waterfall- done well here after that season
Eliott Hewitt - done well at Mansfield - long term injuries

Pollock & Idehen - both at teams in the Champ and doing well  

Clifton- still here done well
Matete-  good player at league 1 level now
El mizouni - leyton orients star player
Joe starbuck- signed a contract with Tranmere

Tilley - doing well at Wimbledon
Terry Taylor - a big move after no great reviews here

Green & Hanson up top probably past there best but still ok on their day .


I have cherry picked

There are double figures in that squad who didn't progress but my point is surely we had enough 'in the building ' to stay up so I think Hurst must take some responsibility for the relegation .

As on paper a lot of these have gone on to be very decent players some even at a higher level .

My final defence of Hurst because I really don't want to pick a fight and we're going have to agree to disagree...

Waterfall was awful in that team - most were surprised when he stayed and Hurst turned him into the Titan he is today.
Green was the most unpopular player I can recall in my 45+ years supporting Town. A majority of Town fans thought he was sh*t.
Hanson was sh*t. He was either sh*t injured or sh*t playing. But mostly sh*t injured.
El Mizouni hardly played for us - he signed, played a handful of games and then got injured so went back to his club (Ipswich?)

Others in your list were decent players and I take your point.

Little bit out with the timelines of some of those  players there Mappers.

Matete, El Mizouni and Eastwood were all Hurst signings.

The rest, with the exception of Taylor and Tilley, were already here before Holloway.  Hendrie, Waterfall, Hewitt, Hanson and Green were all actually Jolley signings.  Pollock was also given h chance under Jolley.

Taylor has gone onto have a far better career than I think anyone imagined.

My memory is very much like that of BobbyCummingsTackle, in that Holloway's signings were almost unanimously binned off at the first opportunity with the exception of very few.  Racking my brains, I think it's only Scannell who Hurst ended up holding onto beyond the summer of '21.

Selected squads for Hurst's first three games...the only word that springs to mind when looking at them is 'awful'.  

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/3428684
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/3428857
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spielbericht/index/spielbericht/3428745

Holloway hooked me when he first came in.  I was very sceptical upon his arrival but he pulled the wool well and truly over my eyes.  Those first signings of the likes of Tilley, Billy Clarke, Josh Benson, Anthony Glennon, Elliott Grandin....I really, really thought we were going to be something special.

We can go into the reasons until the cows come home, but having lost virtually all of those he brought in and then the guy who was his star performer (Charles Vernam), the recruitment that summer was absolute abysmal.

Danny Rose
Ira Jackson Jr
Montel Gibson
George Williams
Alhagi Touray Sissay
Sean Scannell
Owura Edwards
Luke Spokes
Terry Taylor
Owen Windsor
James Morton
Danny Preston
Kyle Bennett
Virgil Gomis
Bilel Mohsni
Filipe Morais

Taylor went onto better things and perhaps his time here came just too early for him.  Scannell was a class act on and off the field, but horrific fitness record, Williams was something different but has done sod all since here.  I thought Edwards was something exciting but we didn't seem to quite know how to use him. ....after that, nah.  Nothing.  I'd completely forgot about Virgil Gomis and James Morton so I apologise if I've put the memory of them back in the mind of anyone.

Quoted from 1mickylyons

See the difference Buckley brought in Patterson, Till and Puis 3 quality additions and got the best out of the rest of gge existing squad. I also recall he played 4-5-1 a lot to get results especially away from home .

But he had a decent squad to start with, no?  It lacked a bit of cutting edge which we lacked with Reddy's injured and he fixed that (short-term) with Paterson.  Hurst inherited a turd.

4-5-1 definitely became his favoured formation but it was horrible to watch.  Was a run of home games when we were going a goal or two behind and he would sacrifice James Hunt for Gary Jones to go back to 4-4-2.

Fwiw Hurst did manage a 7 wins out of 8 run in 14/15 from 21st February to 6th April. Closest we came to winning the league that year but we’d have had to win 12 out of our last 13 games  

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

My final defence of Hurst because I really don't want to pick a fight and we're going have to agree to disagree...

Waterfall was awful in that team - most were surprised when he stayed and Hurst turned him into the Titan he is today.
Green was the most unpopular player I can recall in my 45+ years supporting Town. A majority of Town fans thought he was sh*t.
Hanson was sh*t. He was either sh*t injured or sh*t playing. But mostly sh*t injured.
El Mizouni hardly played for us - he signed, played a handful of games and then got injured so went back to his club (Ipswich?)

Others in your list were decent players and I take your point.

You  have more insight into that season than me mate  , like I said I hardly watched that covid season but i did hear that Waterfall was a disaster - it sounded like Holloway asked him to play like Van Basten which was never going to work .

My timeline probably is off , I just looked at the player database from that season .

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

My final defence of Hurst because I really don't want to pick a fight and we're going have to agree to disagree...

Waterfall was awful in that team - most were surprised when he stayed and Hurst turned him into the Titan he is today.
Green was the most unpopular player I can recall in my 45+ years supporting Town. A majority of Town fans thought he was sh*t.
Hanson was sh*t. He was either sh*t injured or sh*t playing. But mostly sh*t injured.
El Mizouni hardly played for us - he signed, played a handful of games and then got injured so went back to his club (Ipswich?)

Others in your list were decent players and I take your point.

Green was flipping awful. So so bad. Hurst even commented he was surprised green scored when he happened to once

Quoted from toontown

Green was flipping awful. So so bad. Hurst even commented he was surprised green scored when he happened to once

I was more angry with Hanson. He scored a handful very early in the season and then was constantly injured. I thought he was taking the p*ss, putting the money in the bank and doing nothing.

I never said Green wasn`t sh*t