[Archived] Hughes`s Buying

[Exiled in Toronto]

The fact is the club was sufficiently clued up to take Samba and Nelsen on trial and not several hundred other players.

Yawn

Perhaps letting Charlton look at Nelsen first was also a part of this flawless system.

The difference is clearly in Hughes's eye for a player when seeing him in the flesh, rather than some global factbase, as accounted for by the fact that players are coming for a trial all the time and are then sent packing.

[American]

I think we've only signed about 10% of our trialists to contracts (just an estimate that we've had about 20 trialists here - would like to see the total).

[tony gale's mic]

Hughes' deserves credit for his transfer dealings. However, you mustn't go overboard.

Take Samba and Nelsen for instance. As far as I know, no intricate research, imaginative foresight or sedulous scouting went into their signings. It was a simple case of an agent ringing the club and offering their client on a trial. Samba and Nelsen rock up at the training ground, do their stuff, Hughes is impressed and signs them up ASAP.

The signing of Roque Santa Cruz was, by contrast, very impressive in that Hughes identified a good value quality foreign player who has not played much recently, accepted the risk relating to his injury record and has got him to perform at Rovers. Admittedly, an agent may have originally brought the name to Hughes, who knows.

It still takes the ability to spot an excellent player from a couple of training ground sessions. We're a top 10 Premier League club and one where unknown players can harbour hopes of making it into the first team, we must get lots of offers for players to come on trial. But the fact is that Hughes (and his coaching staff) were astute enough to recognise these players for what they were, rather than the likes of Charlton who let Nelsen go.

If it was as simple as clubs being offered players by agents then everyone would have bargains like ours.

[LeftWinger]

I think we've only signed about 10% of our trialists to contracts (just an estimate that we've had about 20 trialists here - would like to see the total).

Like you I'm guessing, but I reckon we've probably had far more than 20 trialists here while Hughes has been at the club. Nicko would be the best person to ask - but my guess would be in three figures.