[Archived] Barnsley Away

[mustard]

Thing is, it was pointed out that Coyle's teams have a history of picking up niggling injuries. Plenty of rumours went round that his training methods aren't fit for modern football and then he goes and signs a bunch of crocks and acts surprised that they drop like flies. I think a lot of people foresaw an injury prone squad with an easy excuse lined up each week.

[ABBEY]

Haha, having just seen the highlights, Evans hitting the crossbar on that midfield chip after the Barnsley keeper scuffed his kick was pretty funny... On that first goal, I can't fathom how two Barnsley players seemed to be wide open while both Brown and Lenihan appeared to be covering nobody... I personally have preferred Lenihan's midfield performances...

---

There are definitely quite a few who were never going to give Coyle a chance. Some because of his Burnley connection, though I would hope/think that's a minor point for most. Some because outside of Burnley, he's largely been a pretty **** manager. Some due to a general antipathy toward the owners and anything the club does while they're in charge. I can see why Coyle would be frustrated with the latter faction of the fanbase (though he's obviously clueless to those who just think he's always been a **** manager!)... I recall a game thread a few games ago where someone posted "Feeney actually had a good game... but Coyle was still wrong to pick him!" Now, I'm not going to defend the Feeney signing or his general performance. I agree he's been a poor signing and I was annoyed he was picked over Mahoney AND Bennett yesterday (as well as for the game in question from my above paraphrase)... but Coyle can hardly win with some fans if that's their attitude (though he should also be aware and accepting of that given our ****show owners).

I think Coyle deserves some credit for some of the "transfer" (er, loan) business he has managed with practically zero budget (while having to sell his top two CBs right at the start of the season). The likes of Emnes, Gallagher, and Hoban have been astute loans, I was pleasantly surprised he managed to bring Graham back in, and while they haven't worked out, I think Byrne, Hendrie, and Samuelsen were worthy "swings" at bringing in PL youngsters not yet ready for the PL. People moan about those signings, but one of the benefits of loans over signings/transfers is if they don't work out, you're not then saddled with their contracts. It's a perfectly reasonable strategy GIVEN the complete lack of a budget (which of course brings this all back to Venky's horrific reign).

Having said that (and please keep reading before you flame me haha), Coyle's defensive signings have predictably blown up in his face. It shouldn't be any surprise to him that Mulgrew, Greer, and Brown haven't been able to provide him consistent minutes (I actually like the Greer and Mulgrew signings... but you can only count on them as bit players). Coyle's had some bad luck with Hoban and apparently Wharton suffering injuries (and, again, he lost his main CB pairing right before the season...), but it's clear he had set up a house of cards. I've also never been convinced by Lenihan back there.

I had also resigned myself to Lowe being our starting RB given his captaincy and I'll shamefully admit I was trying to stay optimistic about it given, in my opinion at the time, Lowe was a better RB than MF given a few decent performances in the past. Once that "experiment" ended, it's clear Coyle had no fallback option. Marshall seems to only work back there on occasion and his head isn't in it, Nyambe has some promise but he's hardly ready for a very demanding position at the level of Championship football... Henley's always injured, and is also terrible. Maybe Bennett... but he's been injured and would also be playing out of position... Coyle's essentially ****ed up 3/4 of our back line (I'm actually not too fond of Williams at LB either, but some seem to like him)

In sum... even if Coyle has managed to assemble some decent talent after starting the year with only 12 players (no easy task), he's well demonstrated his tactical ineptitude and he's assembled a tinderbox rather than a backline... I think there is enough talent in the squad to scrap us out of the bottom 3 with a sounder (boring, defensive) manager and I'm all in favour of his sacking, but my suspicion is Venky's have ruled out/can't afford any further severance packages...

He's deserving of no credit whatsoever .. do you think he brought players in ? He's a brown nosing , rovers fans hating , dodgy , @#/? fecking venky loving turd in bed with agents and bottom feeding pond life

[Amo]

People detest Coyle because he's a lying, deluded, two-bit creep with ties to a certain football agency. The fact he's an ex-Dingle rubs salt into the wound.

[matt83]

Coyle has gone fully into the default self-preservation settings. I don't think he's a good manager in fact for what it's worth he's bloody atrocious. But the biggest problem at this club is the Venkys.

It's all irrelevant after that.

[tomphil]

Signing a few decent loans can't cover up the fact he foists rubbish and crocs onto the books on full time contracts. He has form for doing both before it's the way he operates and it's proven rubbish for the clubs he's managed.

Question is why does he keep going down the same path when it doesn't work. Just inept or more to it ........?

What is Coyles agenda ?

[RoverCanada]

Just concentrating on the transfer business for a second, I'm curious what some of you think should have been done when you start with 12 players and have £250k to spend on fees and a limited wage budget. That's not a rhetorical question, nor do I mean that as a snarky "as if Coyle could have done better!" I wouldn't mind reading some counterfactual proposals.

I suppose you can start by taking what Greer, Feeney, and Brown are earning and applying it elsewhere, although I doubt they're earning too much. Perhaps you don't like the Mulgrew, Graham, or Stokes signings either, so there's some money to spend too. But who were available on frees? I doubt we're spending too much on the Emnes, Gallagher, Byrne, Hendrie, Hoban, and Samuelsen loans, but potentially a bit there too to spend elsewhere... Maybe take those 6 loanees and turn them into 2 signings.

Thoughts? I'm not quite remembering the summer transfer window.

Sign 10-13 players... go! (and stay within FFP hehe...)

[tomphil]

Well guess what plenty other clubs with nothing and their managers somehow find players to get by with. Who else was offering contracts to Brown, Greer, Stokes, Mulgrew in this division ?

You can't sign well known injury prone players then throw your hands up in the air and bemoan the fact you have injury problems and form problems which is basically what this idiot has done. If there isn't 40 grand a week tied up in that lot i'll be surprised.

Yes each has had some quality but basically 3 of them are busted flushes whilst the other has proved nothing outside of Scotland.

[RoverCanada]

Well guess what plenty other clubs with nothing and their managers somehow find players to get by with. Who else was offering contracts to Brown, Greer, Stokes, Mulgrew in this division ?

You can't sign well known injury prone players then throw your hands up in the air and bemoan the fact you have injury problems and form problems which is basically what this idiot has done. If there isn't 40 grand a week tied up in that lot i'll be surprised.

Yes each has had some quality but basically 3 of them are busted flushes whilst the other has proved nothing outside of Scotland.

Hard to disagree, though let me rephrase the question. Is there a past case study of a club having to fill out some 50% of its roster on practically zero money in one transfer window?

I was just taking a glance at Birmingham's transfer dealings as I'd read they have a hard cap on salaries and are doing relatively well. They brought in 6 first-teamers this year (including 2 loans), but only one was a free. They brought in a bunch of loans last year, though only 1 in the summer (I suppose the new restrictions on loan windows is a new constraint). They added 3 freebies, but paid fees for 4, including £1.5M for Fabbrini.

I took a glance at Barnsley, and while on first look they've added a lot of freebies this year, most of them aren't regular players and they spent about £1M on Bradshaw and Moncur, and spent fees on 4 others as well. PNE added 4 freebies, 3 loans, and 3 for fees, close, but not quite 12 additions!

There's obviously other teams on strict budgets in this league, but I suspect most have had some foundation to work with year-to-year. I'd guess any examples you could find of teams experiencing roster turnovers as abrupt as ours led to relegation... just as we're on pace to do.

edit: anyway, perhaps these hypotheticals about what we should have done are best left to some other thread

[Blue blood]

Just concentrating on the transfer business for a second, I'm curious what some of you think should have been done when you start with 12 players and have £250k to spend on fees and a limited wage budget. That's not a rhetorical question, nor do I mean that as a snarky "as if Coyle could have done better!" I wouldn't mind reading some counterfactual proposals.

I suppose you can start by taking what Greer, Feeney, and Brown are earning and applying it elsewhere, although I doubt they're earning too much. Perhaps you don't like the Mulgrew, Graham, or Stokes signings either, so there's some money to spend too. But who were available on frees? I doubt we're spending too much on the Emnes, Gallagher, Byrne, Hendrie, Hoban, and Samuelsen loans, but potentially a bit there too to spend elsewhere... Maybe take those 6 loanees and turn them into 2 signings.

Thoughts? I'm not quite remembering the summer transfer window.

Sign 10-13 players... go! (and stay within FFP hehe...)

Well, firstly, Owen Clueless judged on transfers only is a bit like saying about a serial killer, "if you ignore the murders and just focus on his personality," what with how he got the job and how he sets up the team, but I'll give it a go. I don't think you're on the wind up and I'm up for a debate.

Firstly if I had £250, 000 to spend and a team to do then there'd be three key principles I'd stick to:

1) Consider what I already have got

2) Have a style of play and buy players that fit into that style

3) Make every penny, every transfer count

Well I doubt Coyle has done that whatsoever. Let's take a look at each principle in turn:

1) Consider what I have already got:

If I know that I have several injury prone center midfielders (Guthrie, Evans) then the last thing I might add is an injury prone midfielder. (Mulgrew). It doesn't matter if he's the next Viera, if he's crocked, and the other options are crocked, I'm in a bit of a pickle.

Likewise if I had a player who was doing excellently at right back (Marshall) then I might want to make sure he's available to play there. For that to happen I need a few wide midfielders - and no, Feeney doesn't count.

Also center backs - it was obvious to everyone and their dog that Duffy and Hanley were off (just read the LT, or the Rovers daily sales promotion boorchure as I prefer to call it, from that time). In which case we needed top quality cover in the center back positions. Whilst I think Greer was astute cover for the cb positions, getting an injury prone loanee and a 36 year old with more medical problems than an A and E department as their replacements was asking for trouble.

Goal keeper - Steele is appalling, end of story. A good keeper gets you an extra 10 points. I reckon Steele easily costs us that. To not address this very glaring weakness was surprising to say the least. Admittedly I wouldn't want to go between the sticks given the welcome party that passes for a defense under OC, but even so, Steele has never been good enough for a Championship team. Not getting in a new keeper was a right clanger.

Up front - I;ll give him this one, we needed some strikers and he got a couple of good ones in. Whether Graham would've come without Lambert's involvement before, I'm not so sure, but we needed strikers and he got a number in quickly.

2) Considering a style of play

Other than open at the back and easy to score against I'm not sure what we're meant to be. Perhaps that's because I haven't been much, and so not massively well placed to comment. I'll leave this one there, safe to say, if you look at the players, there certainly doesn't seem to be a "type" or "character" like we saw under Hughes or Lambert. Perhaps this lack of type hasn't helped us.

3) Make the most of every transfer

Now no manager can make sure every single transfer works out, but I believe Owen Clueless has massively been careless with an admittedly appalling budget.

Firstly loans from Premier league clubs. Two of them can't get in a relegation threatened side. When a rank bad right back is preferred over you, (Henley over Hendrie) you've got to be utterly crap. Likewise for Byrne, we had no other ball playing midfielder (maybe Guthrie but he's always injured) yet again he can get nowhere near the side. Likewise Samuelsen got nowhere near the team (despite being good enough for Norway...) What a waste of getting young promising talent from Premiership clubs; talent we couldn't afford to buy, and can only have 5 in the match day squad. Yet half of ours are not up to even our shoddy standards. What a waste of an opportunity! Especially when you consider what other premiership loans are doing for other championship clubs.

This is made worse by buying in injury prone players. Brown was never going to play enough games to be worth a wage. And I doubt Hoban is either - him being a double waste as that's another loan signing from the PL wasted. Likewise Mulgrew - two injuries already. Even if Brown was the next Madini or whoever, if they

can't get on the pitch it's pretty pointless. So that's three transfers and wages wasted due to lack of contribution due to fitness. Stokes may also fall into this list, more for his off-field problems than injuries or lack of ability, but perhaps it was a risk getting such a temperamental player when every transfer counted.

Thirdly there are those who just aren't good enough. Feeney heads up this bracket - he was terrible two years ago and I doubt he's got any better with age. Thankfully there's pretty much it for those who aren't loanees in this category (although if Brown played regularly I reckon he'd get in this list). It's another waste of a wage though.

So based on this I'd say that leaves Graham, Gallacher and Williams as successes, potentially Emnes, Greer and Stokes as ok, and the rest as wasted transfers. That's not a good record, at best 50-50, and isn't taking into consideration the opportunities and weaknesses he failed to address in the players he inherited. To say he did a great job on a shoestring is misleading imo, and plenty better can be found at Birmingham, Barnsley, and Ipswich to name but three. Not even in his transfer dealings has Owen Clueless looked at all like a decent manager.

[Dunnfc]

Must be a contender for Post of the year Blue blood.

[RoverCanada]

I don't think you're on the wind up and I'm up for a debate.

Cheers! Definitely not on the wind up and I appreciate your thoughts. I'm not necessarily defending Coyle, but it's just the more I think about it this is the roster we "deserve" given numerous years of folly. Fully agreed on Coyle's signings lacking a character/style of play (which comes back to his tactical ineptness), but I think this also relates to the necessarily "scattergun" approach when having to sign so many players.

I'd quibble that Mulgrew fits alongside Greer as a decent veteran presence. He's often been our best player when he has played. As you rightly bring up, his injury-proneness makes regularly relying on him a folly, but I can't be too critical of that signing given his performance when he has played.

RE: the loans, it strikes me as the right approach with such a limited budget, but Coyle's failure to utilise Byrne and Samuelsen has been odd. Seems he's translated the relative success of Emnes, Gallagher, and Graham into "we gotta play with 3 strikers!".... I couldn't remember, but I think you're right Hoban was also injury prone coming in, compounding his failings on the defensive side. Hendrie's probably the biggest "failure" of that group, but that one's softened by a) him ultimately being a low-stakes loan, b ) Williams seems okay at LB. Hence why I was instead also looking at our black hole at RB.

Also, you say a 50-50 hit rate isn't good enough. Certainly true given how limited the margin for error this transfer window. However, I'd bet if you went through every team's transfer dealings, that's a pretty typical "hit" rate. Hence why I bring it back to how difficult it is to make 10-12 signings in one window. Maybe I'm trying to say Coyle has done "ok" transfer-wise (yes, I realise there's a lot more to a manager! I'm just trying to narrow the discussion for second), but "ok" wasn't nearly going to cut it for what he was coming into.

[JHRover]

One thing we always seem to have had is the ability to pay decent wages. Venkys have never been particularly keen to shell out millions on transfer fees, Rhodes being the big exception, but since we've been in this division we've always paid decent wages.

Remember Bowyer bemoaning 'only' being able to offer £10k per week when under the embargo yet Rowett could only pay £8k per week at Birmingham without an embargo?

Whilst there's been next to no money made available for transfers as they trouser the proceeds of the sales I bet we're still now well up the list of wage payers in this league. The likes of Graham, Mulgrew, Stokes, Conway, Evans, Marshall and even Bennett will all be on good Championship money.

When compared to the likes of Burton, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Ipswich, Rotherham and Brentford I bet they are nowhere near us for wage paying.

[Cherry Blue]

One thing we always seem to have had is the ability to pay decent wages. Venkys have never been particularly keen to shell out millions on transfer fees, Rhodes being the big exception, but since we've been in this division we've always paid decent wages.

Remember Bowyer bemoaning 'only' being able to offer £10k per week when under the embargo yet Rowett could only pay £8k per week at Birmingham without an embargo?

Whilst there's been next to no money made available for transfers as they trouser the proceeds of the sales I bet we're still now well up the list of wage payers in this league. The likes of Graham, Mulgrew, Stokes, Conway, Evans, Marshall and even Bennett will all be on good Championship money.

When compared to the likes of Burton, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Ipswich, Rotherham and Brentford I bet they are nowhere near us for wage paying.

Which confirms venkys are clueless. Is it one of twenty-eight subsidiary companies? We a very small part of their business activities and football doesn't come into it.

[Blue blood]

Cheers! Definitely not on the wind up and I appreciate your thoughts. I'm not necessarily defending Coyle, but it's just the more I think about it this is the roster we "deserve" given numerous years of folly. Fully agreed on Coyle's signings lacking a character/style of play (which comes back to his tactical ineptness), but I think this also relates to the necessarily "scattergun" approach when having to sign so many players.

I'd quibble that Mulgrew fits alongside Greer as a decent veteran presence. He's often been our best player when he has played. As you rightly bring up, his injury-proneness makes regularly relying on him a folly, but I can't be too critical of that signing given his performance when he has played.

RE: the loans, it strikes me as the right approach with such a limited budget, but Coyle's failure to utilise Byrne and Samuelsen has been odd. Seems he's translated the relative success of Emnes, Gallagher, and Graham into "we gotta play with 3 strikers!".... I couldn't remember, but I think you're right Hoban was also injury prone coming in, compounding his failings on the defensive side. Hendrie's probably the biggest "failure" of that group, but that one's softened by a) him ultimately being a low-stakes loan, b ) Williams seems okay at LB. Hence why I was instead also looking at our black hole at RB.

Also, you say a 50-50 hit rate isn't good enough. Certainly true given how limited the margin for error this transfer window. However, I'd bet if you went through every team's transfer dealings, that's a pretty typical "hit" rate. Hence why I bring it back to how difficult it is to make 10-12 signings in one window. Maybe I'm trying to say Coyle has done "ok" transfer-wise (yes, I realise there's a lot more to a manager! I'm just trying to narrow the discussion for second), but "ok" wasn't nearly going to cut it for what he was coming into.

Thanks for the reply. Think we're going to agree to disagree here though!

I like the look of Mulgrew as a player too, but when you need players to be fit then his regular injuries limit him from being a success. It's hardly a success if he's only there for half the games! It'd be less of a gamble/problem if every other player for the positions he played was fit but given they're mostly crocks as well then it goes from folly into madness. You talk about the need for numbers but what kind of numbers, let alone quality, is being added when they're in the treatment room? It just doesn't add up.

Not sure how the it's the right approach for the loans.either. Again, they're a waste of space and wages. It's a waste of opportunity as there are some brilliant loanees playing at championship level who would have really added to our team. You only need to look at Gallacher to see the impact they could have and yet you seem happy with a one in six hitting this level - or two in six hitting above poor for that matter! That's a total utter waste imo. Added to which it holds our youngsters back. There's no positives attached to it.

The 50% success rate is based on players being ok - if it were that they were good or had a significant positive impact on the team, then the percentage drops right down. (But we don't have those standards any more!) Only Williams, Graham and Gallacher would pass that benchmark and have noticeably improved the team. That doesn't suggest a transfer genius, or even someone astute in the transfer market at all.

You suggest that this is down to having to buy so many players at once, possibly so. But look at his record of signing players who've had a good impact at other clubs too. Again, it's not good or pretty, and suggests that whether he had to make 3 signings or 13 his ratios would still have been the same.

Regardless having 50% of transfers in the dud category is terrible business. 50% dud is appalling, it's half our transfers being detrimental. There is no way that that can be acceptable for any club. Having 50% make a significant positive impact perhaps is comparable with other clubs, but 50% to be complete let downs is not. Perhaps other clubs may have a similar success rate in terms of significant positive impact, but they would have a much lower proportion of duds, or non contributors. I reckon any chairman who had a 50% dud ratio in transfers from a manager would be telling the manager that he was fired. Strangely, only at Rovers is this considered ok.

[tomphil]

Yes the whole idea of getting out of the embargo was so we could sign a few again or so they told us. Bowyer had to root about in the bin under bottom drawer of the bargain basement for freebies with a bit of experience on less than 10k pwk. You'd presume that was relaxed a bit when Lambert and Coyle got the reigns after embargo and with movement on the already budgeted for wages of well paid players sold.

Guys coming here from Sunderland and Celtic etc are not signing for peanuts.

[DE.]

Yes the whole idea of getting out of the embargo was so we could sign a few again or so they told us. Bowyer had to root about in the bin under bottom drawer of the bargain basement for freebies with a bit of experience on less than 10k pwk.

Only in his final transfer window, from memory, and dear god did he @#/? that up by bringing in the likes of Akpan, Guthrie, Chris Brown and Koita. Coyle has signed marginally better players but is just as bad tactically as GB, and with all of our better signings from the past few years gone we're now even worse off than when we were initially under the embargo.

[Stuart]

Worth noting that Barnsley have one of the lowest wage bills in the league and are now 3 points off the playoffs. Coyle only mentions money when it suits him.

Ex-frickin-zactly!

There is no reason we should be doing as badly as we are. Money is an excuse - and makes Bowyer's moans (with one of the best squads in the league) all the more grating!

[tomphil]

Don't forget Delfy and one or two others but they were on 10k pwk or less (and not worth half) but for bigger wages being paid by Coyle you'd expect players who could contribute more.

The only full timer worth his wages is Graham because he gets goals and he was set up by Lambert anyway although Coyle got it over the line.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Another side of the coin is coaching. How many of the existing players and new signings have shown an improvement in their play since Coyle arrived ? Any ? Maybe Gallagher. How many have gone backwards ? Most of them in my opinion.

[tomphil]

And the fitness side of things, might take a while to show up but 5 months in a lax training ground and regime will finally show and it is.

[Athlete]

Yes the whole idea of getting out of the embargo was so we could sign a few again or so they told us. Bowyer had to root about in the bin under bottom drawer of the bargain basement for freebies with a bit of experience on less than 10k pwk. You'd presume that was relaxed a bit when Lambert and Coyle got the reigns after embargo and with movement on the already budgeted for wages of well paid players sold.

Guys coming here from Sunderland and Celtic etc are not signing for peanuts.

making some of the performances all the more galling

When you are on that much cash you have to accept criticism

[MGAndy]

Question is why does he keep going down the same path when it doesn't work. Just inept or more to it ........?

What is Coyles agenda ?

I would imagine it is doing the job he was hired to do, collecting his monthly salary and all contractual bonuses.

Same as anyone else

What is Venkys agenda?

[Gav]

Ex-frickin-zactly!

There is no reason we should be doing as badly as we are. Money is an excuse - and makes Bowyer's moans (with one of the best squads in the league) all the more grating!

Open your eyes man, it's about more than just the 11 players that take the pitch every week.

The players have had no communication streams with the club for years, contracts and bonuses never discussed, transfers never discussed, nothing discussed, which causes division and insecurity for everyone on the playing staff.

Finance directors that have no power, directors that have no power, club officials that have no communication streams and managers trying to run the club with no lines of communication.

Gary Bowyer was probably washing the kit at one stage it's been that bad Stuart.

It's not just about 11 players at 3pm on a Saturday, if every facet of the club is rotten you can have a 40 goal strike force and still fail big time.

We have thousands that sleepwalk to and from the ground every other week, don't be just another lemming, accept it's about more than just 90 minutes of football every Saturday for goodness sake.

[MGAndy]

Open your eyes man, it's about more than just the 11 players that take the pitch every week.

The players have had no communication steams with the club for years, contracts and bonuses never discussed, transfers never discussed, nothing discussed, which causes division and insecurity for everyone on the playing staff.

Finance directors that have no power, directors that have no power, club officials that have no communication streams and managers trying to run the club with no lines of communication.

Gary Bowyer was probably washing the kit at one stage it's been that bad Stuart.

It's not just about 11 players at 3pm on a Saturday, if every facet of the club is rotten you can have a 40 goal strike force and still fail big time.

We have thousands that sleepwalk to and from the ground every other week, don't be just another lemming, accept it's about more than just 90 minutes of football every Saturday for goodness sake.

pasha out

[chaddyrovers]

Well, firstly, Owen Clueless judged on transfers only is a bit like saying about a serial killer, "if you ignore the murders and just focus on his personality," what with how he got the job and how he sets up the team, but I'll give it a go. I don't think you're on the wind up and I'm up for a debate.

Firstly if I had £250, 000 to spend and a team to do then there'd be three key principles I'd stick to:

1) Consider what I already have got

2) Have a style of play and buy players that fit into that style

3) Make every penny, every transfer count

Well I doubt Coyle has done that whatsoever. Let's take a look at each principle in turn:

1) Consider what I have already got:

If I know that I have several injury prone center midfielders (Guthrie, Evans) then the last thing I might add is an injury prone midfielder. (Mulgrew). It doesn't matter if he's the next Viera, if he's crocked, and the other options are crocked, I'm in a bit of a pickle.

Likewise if I had a player who was doing excellently at right back (Marshall) then I might want to make sure he's available to play there. For that to happen I need a few wide midfielders - and no, Feeney doesn't count.

Also center backs - it was obvious to everyone and their dog that Duffy and Hanley were off (just read the LT, or the Rovers daily sales promotion boorchure as I prefer to call it, from that time). In which case we needed top quality cover in the center back positions. Whilst I think Greer was astute cover for the cb positions, getting an injury prone loanee and a 36 year old with more medical problems than an A and E department as their replacements was asking for trouble.

Goal keeper - Steele is appalling, end of story. A good keeper gets you an extra 10 points. I reckon Steele easily costs us that. To not address this very glaring weakness was surprising to say the least. Admittedly I wouldn't want to go between the sticks given the welcome party that passes for a defense under OC, but even so, Steele has never been good enough for a Championship team. Not getting in a new keeper was a right clanger.

Up front - I;ll give him this one, we needed some strikers and he got a couple of good ones in. Whether Graham would've come without Lambert's involvement before, I'm not so sure, but we needed strikers and he got a number in quickly.

2) Considering a style of play

Other than open at the back and easy to score against I'm not sure what we're meant to be. Perhaps that's because I haven't been much, and so not massively well placed to comment. I'll leave this one there, safe to say, if you look at the players, there certainly doesn't seem to be a "type" or "character" like we saw under Hughes or Lambert. Perhaps this lack of type hasn't helped us.

3) Make the most of every transfer

Now no manager can make sure every single transfer works out, but I believe Owen Clueless has massively been careless with an admittedly appalling budget.

Firstly loans from Premier league clubs. Two of them can't get in a relegation threatened side. When a rank bad right back is preferred over you, (Henley over Hendrie) you've got to be utterly crap. Likewise for Byrne, we had no other ball playing midfielder (maybe Guthrie but he's always injured) yet again he can get nowhere near the side. Likewise Samuelsen got nowhere near the team (despite being good enough for Norway...) What a waste of getting young promising talent from Premiership clubs; talent we couldn't afford to buy,

And I doubt Hoban is either - him being a double waste as that's another loan signing from the PL wasted.

Thirdly there are those who just aren't good enough. Feeney heads up this bracket - he was terrible two years ago and I doubt he's got any better with age. Thankfully there's pretty much it for those who aren't loanees in this category (although if Brown played regularly I reckon he'd get in this list). It's another waste of a wage though.

Firstly, This post is excellent and one of the best this year. deffo top 5.

Secondly, when Coyle came in (who ever the manager was) should have been looking to strength in 4 areas, Goalkeeper, Right Back, Left Back and Striker. Plus when Duffy and Hanley likely to go to leave centre back area. He didn't strength two of those 4 areas. Plus also decide where Marshall was going to be playing this season(so far this he has played 5 different positions for the club).

Keeper

Steele has gone backwards the last 12 months for me. so a new keeper was a must for me. Raya should have been loaned out with 24 hour recalled clause in the deal instead either got injury.

Right Back

Henley is useless. so I right back was a priority for me. Why didn't we look to sign Nathan Byrne before he joined Wigan. or Joey O'Brien. or Ryan Shotton.

Left Back

​​Hendrie was a waste of a signing. Williams has been fairly good signing. But I think we could have signed Joe Bennett before he joined Cardiff from Villa. or get Borthwick-Jackson on loan from Man Utd?

Centre Back

Hoban has been a good signing until he got injured. Greer was signed a 4th centre back. Brown shouldn't have been signed due to poor injury record. Why didn't we sign Alex Baptiste or Dan Burn? Plus we had Lenihan and Wharton who could play centre half. Mulgrew is good signing but has a poor injury record

Centre Midfield

​​Jack Byrne was signed but he has hardly played. Coyle formation or style of play doesn't suit him so what was the point of signing him. Why didn't sign Robert Tesche before he signed for Birmingham City? or O'Kane before he signed for Leeds or McDonald before he signed for Wigan. any of improve our midfield

Wingers

Feeney was a poor signing. Samuelsen never played but Coyle formation never suited him so another pointless signing. Why didn't look at signing Joe Newell from Rotherham or Callum Robinson before he signed for Preston who is left side midfielder and then play Conway wide right with Mahoney and Bennett as back ups. Plus Marshall if then where he was going to play there.

Strikers

​Graham and Gallagher have been very good signings and Emnes been good But Stokes has been very poor

Coyle formation and style of play

​I think Coyle changed his formation thinking after a couple of games due to the players who were available late in the window. Problem with this is He had signing Byrne who needs to play in 3 man midfield in 4-3-3 or 3-5-2.

Coyle using the academy players

​Did Coyle know the who our best academy players were and who could step up? Did he speak to Johnson or Dunn to see what their thoughts were on who could step up?

Coyle's coaching staff

Why didn't Coyle tried to keep Irvine at all cost? Instead of bringing in Sandy Stewart who he has failed with at other clubs, why not bring in an experience number 2 like Ray Wilkins or Kevin McDonald instead. To bring a different style of coaching to his staff which may make him a better manager.