Who's next?

VOF, I don't care about the age of the player so much, I care more about whether they are quality and can make a difference.

Have Benedicic, Del Fabro, Morntenegro or even Adryan made a difference this season.

Certainly for the first 3 no, and for the last one, he's not won us any games I believe.

Would you pay 1 mill for Benedicic, Del fabro or Montegro. Would you pay 3 mill for Adryan?

You say you'll give the loans time, but they only have a year to prove themselves and they are just not playing.

So fine then Jonty we won't sign them - where's the problem?

Wouldn't you rather try out loans for a year, with a first option to sign, rather than sign them up on 3 year contracts? Haven't we learned anything? You'd be jumping up and down had we signed them all up to 3 year contracts. It's a try before you buy logic - makes perfect sense to me.

I believe we're being incredibly unfair on Adryan. New league, new environment and we all expected him to run on to the pitch and be the new Ronaldo. Was never going to happen. He's shown glimpses of real talent - but has also been found wanting. For me he's not had a proper run in the side to get used to the league and the pace/strength of it. He's been caught up in a political game behind the scenes. From the bits I've seen of him, at the very least he should be on the bench as an impact sub. Up to NR how he picks the team, but I certainly don't get the logic of omitting a player with definite talent. He also works hard for the team - he just doesn't fit the current style of play we're adopting.

I do care about the age. I want the club to build for the future. I don't want a here and now fix, then struggle further down the line. We've had a conveyor belt of journeymen for too long - time we built for the future and within our means.

Im an advocate of the loan before buy for these unknown quantities, but not if they're never going to play.

In our scenario we are wasting wages on Liam players not playing and depriving academy players their chance in dev squad.

VOF,

To pick up on here.

Like you say the majority of the sales when look at individually were the right thing to do. Even Ross who I rate very highly. Warnock doesn't but that's the only one, Pearce I wouldn't have sold but get it.

Signing younger players is obviously a big positive.

Loan with option to buy makes a lot of sense.

But for me the way we did all this was always going to mean a season of struggling, and many new faces needed to be bought and sold again this summer.

For a start changing so much of the squad at once was going to send us backwards no matter how good the players were. Hockaday was probably useless, but there isn't many managers in the world that could have managed to get a team of 8 new signings to play well within 6 games. I feel sorry for him to be honest.

Also when the manager doesn't have a say in the players being side, there is very little chance that the players will be the right ones for the system. And a large proportion will not get any game time (assuming the coach gets to pick the team) which means large amounts of money are being wasted and we are not improving as a side.

This is where the loan to buy idea has failed. They are not loans the coach sees something in, it wasn't him that so that diamond in the rough, nothing caught his eye, so why would they be given the chance?

There is also the worry of the reasoning behind certain transfers such as Warnocks, which appears to me to be due to a personal dislike from Cellino.

Then there are situations as touched upon like Hockaday, no manager could have succeeded in those circumstances in 6 games, so if Cellino really saw something in him why wasn't he given time? It just appears childish and a very unproductive way of running a football club.

These are Cellino's methods and have been for 20 odds years. And the above are what are holding us back in my opinion. So as much as there are a number of things that are a positive. I think we will always have the other side of things holding us back. And I can't see that changing.

We are just a few players away from a promotion push, I agree, but so are 75% of the clubs in the Championship, you have eluded to that when pointing out how close the league is. And we were just a few players away from a promotion push at the end of last season. The form shown by the majority of last seasons squad without Ross, Smith, Warnock, Pearce, Kenny, Lees is showing that at the moment. Add them to the side playing now, in place of the signings that are playing and on the whole we are better off.

I would want to sign Cooper still, and a keeper. And another defender.

What is such a shame is that we got such a fantastic fee for Ross which had to be taken, but that was a great opportunity to replace him and buy the other 2 or 3 players we needed. And we have wasted it.

We still need at least 3 players now.

HaveFaith - I can't argue with any of what you've put.

In an utopian world i'd not have Cellino anywhere near the club if i'm being honest. He's brought too much baggage - and we've had baggage for a decade and i'm bored of it.

I want a football team run by an owner who knows what they're doing, and for the most part remains in the background and supplies the nouse and finance.

Hockaday was a joke - not the guy himself, though others may differ on that view, but the way in which it all happened. Smacked of an owner being clueless and hiring the guy after a night sniffing white lines. You can't blame Hockaday for jumping at the opportunity and the pay cheque.

Just give me a season where we're arguing about who was man of the match, and not which a(rse) is mishandling our club. I do strongly believe though that had we remained with GFH running the club, we'd be racking up and ever increasing debt and facing the very real prospect of more admin. They were just a bunch of feckwits ...............

Fully agree, about everything.

We are better off than we would have been with GFH definitely.

I think they were more intelligent than Cellino.

But they were only interested in stiffing us out of as much money as they could.

I think Cellino really does want whats best for the club. I think he will do anything to feel the adoration of us fans.

I just think the man has it all wrong in his head. He is so sure he knows how to make it all happen. And is trying his best to stick to that plan. But his plan is all wrong.

It's a shame really. Because I think he has the right passion and ideology that we need.

If GFH had had his passion and his ideology they might have been able to do something positive. I don't know, it's coming out that they too tried to influence team selection and signings too which I didn't realise so probably not. But I don't think there have been many owners out there that have solely aimed to screw the club like GFH did, and for that reason anything is better.

Anything has to be better than GFH ..................

Would have done better to sign 2/3 players in the summer and keep the spine of last season.

Imagine if we'd have just signed Cooper, Antenucci and...Adryan. Our team wouldn't even be that much different, these players could have come into a more settled side and I don't doubt we'd be doing a lot better.

Completely agree best fans

Yes, agree too, always said the same, would much rather quality over quantity.

Get 3 good players + maybe 2 loanees to see how they go during season. Ship deadwood players out during and at end of season, then get another 3 quality players, transfer loans to permanents in any good and trial another couple of loanees.

Solid, progressive strategy that doesn't cost a fortune.