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First of, I think I love Michael Jolley, not in the sense that I'm going to leave my girlfriend, start stalking him and rifling though his bins kind of love - or am I 🤔

I love his fresh thinking, his articulation of ideas and tactics, his use of psychology, his innovation, his passion for football and I think he's genuinly appreciative of us giving him his first shot in English football. We all know he can set a team up, switch tactics and formation mid-game, out-think the opposition and try that something a little different etc etc.

The thing that's has niggled me the last few days hough is we have no idea about his recruitment strategy or his eye for a player. Am I right in thinking he wasn't at Elkistuna during a transfer window? Will his time at Burnley, Palace etc give him the required knowledge of players that are out there?

By question is, should we be worried that come the summer, whatever league we're in, about his ability to bring in the right players for the fight? Managers/Ex-players usually stick to what they know with regards to players, Slade with Clarke and Wilko with Kelly, Hooper and Jaiyesimi, and Paul Hurst with his current squad of how many ex-Town players. Does Jolley have that to fall back on? Perhaps he does.

Should we be worried? I suspect not, but that's the one chink in his armour that I see at the moment - anybody else agree?

Having said all that, I genuinly do have a feeling that we've stumbled upon a gem in Michael Jolley and if given time and more importantly, resources then we can go far under his leadership.

As soon as he changed it second half i knew we would score , i could see it coming , maybe not injury time but could defo see it , So he is obviously tactically astute , if we love this club like we say we do and the fans and board help him i can see a bright future , and im sure he will just as astute with recruitment . Having said that im still not convinced the team is good enough to keep us up , cheers for that Slade.

If I had been on the interview panel that is the question I would be most delving in, as you say it maybe the making or the fall of the man, a poor recruitment campaign in the summer will almost certainly leaving him looking for a return to banking. I truly like the chap talks well , looks the part on the touch line let’s hope he can give this lot the belief to keep us in the league.

I think that you should still worry about the players Slade recruited (and players released). The generally bad choices will haunt us in the run-in and next season in some cases.

For all the love-in I've seen with Jolley so far (which reminds me a little too much of Bignot's tenure - some people delighted with his interview technique, for instance!), let's not forget that we only won a point on Saturday thanks to a fantastic performance from our goalkeeper. The starting line-up was completely lacking in pace, we only had 2 attacking players on the pitch in Matt and Dembele and I think Jolley got that selection badly wrong. Much improved after the substitutions so he did the right thing in making the changes though of course we were chasing the game for a long time.

Not a huge criticism of Jolley who certainly says the right things and seems to be a bit more of a thinker than some managers we've seen without the flannel of the likes of Bignot, but I'm hoping for a bit more of a positive approach in the future matches at home. I realise you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and our attacking options were very limited on Saturday but hopefully, the introduction of fit-again Jackson and Wilks will give the opportunity to mix things up a bit.

I'd expect us to be pretty compact in the tough away matches coming up so don't expect all-out attack and would be delighted if we could nick a couple of points (or more!) in these, but we need to play a lot better at home to have a chance this season.

I think Michael is the sort person who has a very good network of contacts in the game. It is those contacts that has enabled him to progress his career so far. Having taken the chance on recruiting him the board need to back him because I think he is a winner. I think he will start with the systems he wants to play and recruit players who will fit into those systems. He has already talked about round pegs in round holes within the existing squad.

With so many players out of contract in the summer and the rest of the season to appraise his squad, I'm sure MJ will have a good idea of what he needs for next season. His time in charge of the under 23's at Burnley will give him a vast knowledge of the players in that age group at many clubs. Quite often a lot of these players are not deemed good enough to retain for Premier or Championship teams but could be excellent acquisitions for teams lower in the football league pyramid. One thing is for sure and that is that I don't think MJ will sign players just for the sake of it , unlike " The Nearly Man " in last summers transfer window.
The only thing of concern to me is not so much the playing budget but any kind of " wage cap " on what we pay individual players. I heard that RS had a player lined up last summer but someone allegedly interfered with the negotiations with the players agent to get a lower wage and the whole thing fell through. Now obviously this allegation is only hearsay but if true then could hamper future negotiations with quality players.

All hungry managers are out watching loads of matches in their spare time. Slade had obviously lost any hunger he once had and spent most of his spare time in Don Noble in Louth (allegedly). I'm sure MJ is out there looking at relevant players and building up a knowledge base.

Quoted from Mighty_Mariner

First of, I think I love Michael Jolley, not in the sense that I'm going to leave my girlfriend, start stalking him and rifling though his bins kind of love - or am I 🤔

I love his fresh thinking, his articulation of ideas and tactics, his use of psychology, his innovation, his passion for football and I think he's genuinly appreciative of us giving him his first shot in English football. We all know he can set a team up, switch tactics and formation mid-game, out-think the opposition and try that something a little different etc etc.

The thing that's has niggled me the last few days hough is we have no idea about his recruitment strategy or his eye for a player. Am I right in thinking he wasn't at Elkistuna during a transfer window? Will his time at Burnley, Palace etc give him the required knowledge of players that are out there?

By question is, should we be worried that come the summer, whatever league we're in, about his ability to bring in the right players for the fight? Managers/Ex-players usually stick to what they know with regards to players, Slade with Clarke and Wilko with Kelly, Hooper and Jaiyesimi, and Paul Hurst with his current squad of how many ex-Town players. Does Jolley have that to fall back on? Perhaps he does.

Should we be worried? I suspect not, but that's the one chink in his armour that I see at the moment - anybody else agree?

Having said all that, I genuinly do have a feeling that we've stumbled upon a gem in Michael Jolley and if given time and more importantly, resources then we can go far under his leadership.

I am sure he has wide ranging contacts and players under review.

He would be ideal in persuading players to come and play for him with his personable manner and knowledge of the game.

Two flies in the ointment however - one it depends on what division we are in and two whether he will be allowed the money needed to get the players in he needs.

We cannot have any more of this two for the price of one rubbish; we are either serious about investing for the future, or we aren't.

Can I just add to this conversation, before Saturday I thought to myself I wonder what Dembele would be like upfront with a big man.. It was so strange when I see the line up that, that is what he tried.... For me it wasn't a mistake, it was an experiment that didn't quite work.

He should have good knowledge of u23 players, which is were we should be looking. I'm sure he'll also be aware of players in Sweden who he may be able to persuade to play over here.

Us going up is bound to be a good bet next season if we survive this year. We're likely to be long odds because of where we're going to finish. As were Shrewsbury who I am still hoping to clean up on come the end of the season.

As much as Jolley has done his research on us as a club and the division we're in, Saturday would've been a real eye opener for him in terms of the standards we're playing at.

It should give him a real sense of which players he thinks will be able to do a job at this level next season - if we stay up, of course.

Quoted from lukeo

Can I just add to this conversation, before Saturday I thought to myself I wonder what Dembele would be like upfront with a big man.. It was so strange when I see the line up that, that is what he tried.... For me it wasn't a mistake, it was an experiment that didn't quite work.

The biggest issue was that nobody was close enough to Matt in the first half or, indeed, until Cardwell came on. If you're going to play a lone striker, you've got to get support right up to him as quickly as possible so you have a chance to win the second ball. He was much too isolated. I think this is where our lack of pace is an issue - we just didn't have anyone quick enough to push forward in support yet still get back into position where necessary.

I say lets get relegated and start again

Quoted from somersetmariner

I say lets get relegated and start again

You may well get your wish, but i'd much rather start again from the bottom of League 2 , thanks.

If we do go down, we need to use the parachute payment better than we did last time. Get the very best players in that we can and go for it, before we get embroiled in that god awful league again.

Recruitment was absolute appalling under Slade, not one player (including Dembele) has improved us. All of our best players this season (McKeown, Davies, Summerfield) were all Hurst's signings! The only save in grace this year is that the vast majority of the squad are out of contract at the end of the season and it should give Jolley an effective free reign on the transfer market, given his enthusiasm and contacts in the higher echelons of the game I'd expect the recruitment to be incomparably better. The two problems with that of course are the players still in contract (Rose, Kelly, Dixon, Cardwell, Hooper) are, except Cardwell, all complete wastes of space. The other issue is if he has the tactical wherewithal and the ability to get a dead cat bounce at the end of this season to enable him to have a much better recruitment policy.

Why would anyone be worried about his recruitment??
He's here to get us out of the excrement and that's it for the moment.

After the season has finished then he can get rid of every player we have and get his own lot in bit until that time he's got what he's got.

Very strange question 😱

I ask TAGG because a very large part of his job over the coming months is to build a squad capable of either challenging for upper mid-table/play offs in L2 or gaining promotion from the National League, and we have no evidence whatsoever to go on as to whether he has got an eye for a good player. My question was, are people worried about his lack of experience in the transfer market?

Perfectly reasonable question I thought given that's going to be his only focus in 9 games time!

Quoted from Mariner_09

Recruitment was absolute appalling under Slade, not one player (including Dembele) has improved us. All of our best players this season (McKeown, Davies, Summerfield) were all Hurst's signings! The only save in grace this year is that the vast majority of the squad are out of contract at the end of the season and it should give Jolley an effective free reign on the transfer market, given his enthusiasm and contacts in the higher echelons of the game I'd expect the recruitment to be incomparably better. The two problems with that of course are the players still in contract (Rose, Kelly, Dixon, Cardwell, Hooper) are, except Cardwell, all complete wastes of space. The other issue is if he has the tactical wherewithal and the ability to get a dead cat bounce at the end of this season to enable him to have a much better recruitment policy.

It wasn't that good!

I do wonder if Slade either set his sights too high and thought his name alone would bring quality players in or underestimated/forgot just how difficult it is to attract players to Grimsby.

There seemed to be very large gaps between signings which indicated to me that either discussions were going on far too long/we were left hanging on or we were being turned down by targets Slade thought were attainable but then realised he had no plan B when they decided on a move elsewhere!

I reckon he had a pretty clear. Plan of who he wanted to bring in and play to his system but quickly realised that was too ambitious after X, Y and Z turned us down. He didn't seem to have a plan B or C and that hampered us, and it could also explain the number of trialists we had in the summer.

I have to agree with Mighty_Mariner - Slade was after Revell, Maynard, Chicksen etc, that turned us down, Slade managing at Cardiff, Charlton and Coventry would have been able to attract players and my opinon is he forgot his roots of non - league and league 2 players, he signed the likes of Bolland, Mildenhall, Cohen from Non - league never have seen a player limited but give the most effort on a football pitch, also Toner, Woodhouse, G/R Jones, Kalala, Parkinson, Whittle also Macca and Croft had experience the team was small but good.

Slade went for unobtainable players and was left panicked and had to go for Hooper etc in August, fans blame Wilko for Kelly and Hooper but Slade signed them on 2 year deals then wanted to disgard both of them along with J Osbourne and Clements but kept Clarke in the team because he's his man, to be fair Kelly cameo last saturday he didn't look to bad.

Quoted from Mighty_Mariner

I ask TAGG because a very large part of his job over the coming months is to build a squad capable of either challenging for upper mid-table/play offs in L2 or gaining promotion from the National League, and we have no evidence whatsoever to go on as to whether he has got an eye for a good player. My question was, are people worried about his lack of experience in the transfer market?

Perfectly reasonable question I thought given that's going to be his only focus in 9 games time!

The coming months can wait.
Get the next 9 games out the way first.
I hope that recruitment is not even in his mind, that will only take focus off the job in hand and that is to try somehow make what Slade has left behind into a side that can keep us in this league.

I think it is a legitimate question and did say when we signed MJ, that he was the type of manager i wanted, but i personally would have preferred someone who had managed at a lower level with some success in building a competitive side already. However, all managers start somewhere and if his obvious intelligence and organisation on the coaching side is matched on the recruitment side, i think he will have a fair idea of the types of player he wants to bring in. It's not just down to him either. I imagine we will have scouts on the look out for suitable players to target. Even in non league, we would have a league 2 budget for at least a year and a half with the parachute payments. It's then down to how many fans he can get through the gate to help with subsequent budgets. The areas he knows well, Yorkshire and Lancashire, have many teams we can pluck players from.

Quoted from TAGG

The coming months can wait.
Get the next 9 games out the way first.
I hope that recruitment is not even in his mind, that will only take focus off the job in hand and that is to try somehow make what Slade has left behind into a side that can keep us in this league.

Apologies, i thought this was a forum for debate.

I'm not asking Michael Jolley who he plans to sign in the summer, I'm asking for the opinion of the fans whether they're concerned with his lack of experience in the transfer market.

Are we only allowed match-related discussions for the next few weeks?

Quoted from TAGG

The coming months can wait.
Get the next 9 games out the way first.
I hope that recruitment is not even in his mind, that will only take focus off the job in hand and that is to try somehow make what Slade has left behind into a side that can keep us in this league.

I certainly hope he is thinking of recruitment, could do with a couple more free additions to strengthen us. He didn't mess around in noticing Dixon is a weak link and so signed Fox.

Quoted from Bignic69

I certainly hope he is thinking of recruitment, could do with a couple more free additions to strengthen us. He didn't mess around in noticing Dixon is a weak link and so signed Fox.

I was wondering if he might have any other immediate signings up his sleeve.

I know there was talk of McSheffrey on trial but not seen or heard enough about him to have any idea of whether he'd improve on what we have here already, or what sort of player he is.

Quoted from Bignic69

I certainly hope he is thinking of recruitment, could do with a couple more free additions to strengthen us. He didn't mess around in noticing Dixon is a weak link and so signed Fox.

Let's not forget that Dixon is out injured, possibly requiring surgery. I don't doubt he may have brought Fox in regardless, but he didn't really have a choice other than playing a right-footer on the left!

Quoted from McAllisters Ghost

I was wondering if he might have any other immediate signings up his sleeve.

I know there was talk of McSheffrey on trial but not seen or heard enough about him to have any idea of whether he'd improve on what we have here already, or what sort of player he is.

McSheffry is a goalscoring winger and was a very good player in his day. Think he went for big money earlier in his career, but whether he still has anything in the tank at 35 is anyone's guess. He was playing for Eastleigh just before Christmas, so he's not entirely past it yet. Wouldn't have to be great to improve our lot and he has bags of experience. On the other hand, he could be another Beagrie. :B

When I think of Mcsheffrey I think of really good technique, dead ball delivery, goal threat and good in the air.
No idea if he's fit enough, but has bags of experience and could improve us. I'd trust Jolley's judgement.

I think we could do with one player if he could get a good one and that's a centre midfielder (still, after all this time) - mobile and a goal threat or good provider. I think we are one or two players short of being good enough to win a few.
If he can get a gem it might be decisive. Fine margins.
Hoping the return of Jackson and Wilks can make us more of an offensive threat. It's palpable that we can't expect to acquire points if we can't score/win. Maybe one or both of these can improve us.