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Tetteys Jig

Improving the squad

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So after McNally admits the deals didn''t prefer the team, let''s look at each deal and who they were supposed to replace

Olsson or Garrido: Probably upgraded here, Olsson has been dynamic and class at both ends. I don''t think it was as clear cut as completely marginalising Garrido as has been done. He was a solid enough left back for us without ever standing out. New 1 - Old 0

Redmond or Pilks: The stats don''t lie, while Redmond had a promising season, he''s far from the finished article. We missed Pilks goals this season. A bit harsh on Redmond who one day may prove himself to be an absolute bargain. He suffered from playing too much after Pilks and EB struggled for fitness. New 1 - Old 1

Fer or Hoolahan: The one guy I thought would turn out to be an absolute bargain. Left wondering what his best position is. On his day, he can dominate the midfields of anyone in the country (bar YAYA maybe) but his day wasn''t often enough. His impact was not worth what it''s done to Hoolahan. New 1 - Old 2

RvW or Holt: Don''t think i''ll bother say much here. New 1 - Old 3

Elmander or Kamara: Neither massive goalscorers but I felt Kei was a better impact player and a lot cheaper. Add his clearly better desire and attitude and it''s clear that he beats Elmander who''s contributions were far too sporadic for someone we''ve most likely spent about £2m on with no return. New 1 - Old 4

Hooper or Morison/ Becchio: Scored a couple, largely ineffective, but i''ll give Hooper this one.

New 2 - Old 4

Not counting Nash as he''s not played.

January window, Yobo was alright for a bit before tailing off once he was confirmed in the Nigeria WC squad. Jonas was a complete fail. All he succeeded in doing was slagging off our club. He can kindly b****r off back to Newcastle who probably don''t want him either.

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Technically we bought Garrido this summer as well. So it should perhaps read:Olsson / Tierney - new 1 old 0Garrido / Empty squad place to save the club some money as Whittaker can cover the role and do a better job of it anyway - new 1 old 1

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How I read it McNally meant that we should have strengthened more than we actually did. We had a lot of deals fail for one reason or another and if we had the ''on paper'' team we were after there is no way we would have been relegated.

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Fer has been the biggest disappointment for me. I expected him to be a real powerhouse in midfield but just as we were inept up front and slow wide right, we found it very hard to get hold of the crucial central area. It left our strikers isolated and or defenders overrun at times.

Redmond seems no better than Murphy, I like his "zing" but ended up down ratholes too often.

I agree with the others but I though Gutierrez could have done a job for us, a wasted and unnecessary loan.

I am still surprised at how good I felt at the start of this season, I genuinely thought we were well equipped to push on. If there is a table of mismatch between anticipation and reality, this has got to rank as one of the greatest gaps ever.

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Definitely RVW is the biggest disappointment for me. I was expecting Hooper to prove to be the better player of the two as RVW looked a bit of a lazy, shot-shy lightweight when I saw him in pre-season but Sweet Holy Mary Mother of Jesus he was dour.

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Elmander has done a lot more than Kamara...

Completley underrated by Norwoch fans.

And Jonas wasn''t slagging of our club, he was talki about some armature/semi pro club back home. He mentioned them in the tweet he was ''slagging our club'' off in. Monero or something like that, and was tweeting players from that club, and was talking about going back there in ten days. Don''t see how it''s so hard for people to understand that.

And even if that one tweet was about our club, it was a perfectly reasonable tweet. Why on earth are fans allowed to say whatever they want about a player, club, other fans, but as soon as a player says one little word put of place they become the devil?

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We have required an upgrade on Wes/ Goalscoring attacking midfielder for several seasons and ultimately the lack of signing this player along with an over reliance in giving the ball to a passionate and committed yet hopelessly out of form Snodgrass is what has got us relegated.

It could only be funnier if he had been named player of the season.

Fer was never this player for me he was an upgrade on central midfielder he could play this role better than the rest but was more suited to play further back alongside Howson.

A player who has skills, goals and can play anywhere across midfield is still number one priority, a Striker to freshen up attack and replace those that jump ship.

If we can keep most of the rest of the squad together and add these two players I would hope with a manager that can drive the team forward we would have a reasonable shot next season.

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[quote user="KeelansGlove"]We have required an upgrade on Wes/ Goalscoring attacking midfielder for several seasons and ultimately the lack of signing this player along with an over reliance in giving the ball to a passionate and committed yet hopelessly out of form Snodgrass is what has got us relegated.

It could only be funnier if he had been named player of the season.

Fer was never this player for me he was an upgrade on central midfielder he could play this role better than the rest but was more suited to play further back alongside Howson.

A player who has skills, goals and can play anywhere across midfield is still number one priority, a Striker to freshen up attack and replace those that jump ship.

If we can keep most of the rest of the squad together and add these two players I would hope with a manager that can drive the team forward we would have a reasonable shot next season.[/quote]Agreed, if we''re lucky our strike force might even be good enough to have two reasonable shot''s next season at Championship level.

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I actually think McNally has been a bit harsh on himself/the board when saying we didn''t strengthen enough. To be honest, I think the signings we made were, at the time and on paper, more than enough to keep us up. The amounts we spent and the "reputations" of the players we brought in were fine.

Unfortunately, those players haven''t performed as we were expecting. The strikers haven''t been half the players we thought they would be. Fer has blown hot and cold and not added any huge impact. Others haven''t done too badly whilst not being game changers.

It wasn''t a lack of ambition or a lack of spending which has been our downfall this season. It was simply that the players we brought in weren''t right. Yes, that''s easy to say with hindsight, but the job of a scouting team is to try and pre-empt that hindsight if you like. We can moan about Hughton''s tactics all we want, but had RVW and/or Hooper and/or Elmander scored half of the fairly easy chances they''ve had this season, Hughton would have kept us up.

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