Lower league players - the truth

According to me

Just a few thoughts, I have been reading recently that lower league players have more drive (play for the shirt) etc. What is failed to be mentioned is the spectacular failure of the past 3 transfer windows at the club. Surely players at larger clubs than us usually are there because they were scouted as and deemed excellent prospects. If anything has been proven by signing players from clubs of the same stature as us (Reading) is that all that has happened is losing existing players and replacing them with no upgrade upon the quality.

Another popular thought is that clubs are now being successful by signing only players from lower leagues. Swansea has been a club used to reference a club that has it's squad developed from lower leagues.

This may be have some truth in it. However, many are overlooking

Brenda Rodgers - very modern, attack-minded coach
Scott Sinclair - Big money signing that made a promotion possible
Fabio Borini - Brenda using good contacts in the game to bring in talent from PL academies

Bournemouth is the prime example of how lower league players can be moulded together to succeed.

Eddie Howe - very modern, attack-minded coach

Conclusion: It is correct to scout lower leagues, the top players in L1 will have the quality to succeed in the Championship as the gap in quality is not large. However, top league 1 players still cost money, Dele Alli of MK Dons cost Spurs £5mil in the last transfer window, the cheaper end of the market will see players replaced like-for-like in my opinion, not an upgrade on the current quality of the squad, solely financial restructuring of the club.

Promoted teams from the Championship either invest heavily or have extremely competent managers.

So you are joining the many on here saying slade is not up to the job?
Players OK but not manager !!

So you are joining the many on here saying slade is not up to the job?
Players OK but not manager !!

Yes Allan, Slade has no contacts of note within the Premier League clubs to bring promising youngsters to the club. All his contacts are lower league. I will be proved wrong if the lower league signings significantly improve the quality of the squad, as all I see is getting rid of high earners, and replacing them like-for-like.

I must add, this is fine completely understand it. However, I am confused by the talk of a top 6 finish by Slade if an influx of lower division players becomes reality.

The Everton lads, have good pedigrees as trained by a very professional set-up at the Everton Academy. Kennedy is an upgrade for the squad and must be given time and patience to develop. Mcaleny hardly played.

It's clear that Slade has no access to talents such as Bamford who are ready for immediate/significant impact upon the Championship, Brenda got a bargain in Sinclair all those years back, made a huge difference to their league status. The signings to make a massive difference we wait in this transfer window (2 big signings?) I just don't see what Slade can do other than throwing money around.

I do not see us getting granted any favours with Tan as an owner, and Slade as a manager.

Our squad is still too big and some of the top earners who are still under contract to us for the next season and beyond, obviously have to come off the wage bill!

Irrespective of the wages, we can't hope to keep such a large squad happy, when they aren't even making the bench on match days, or the dressing room would revert back to being a poisonous area, which would continue to breed negativity and distractions for the players and coaches alike!

Going back to the wage bill however, I've no idea how much we have to shed in wages to avoid us falling foul of the FFP Rules, but I'm sure somebody at the club is/has been busy working out the figures!

If it means that the majority or all of those players brought in under Ole, who obviously thought that their prayers were being answered at once need to go, then so be it!

There should still be a nucleus of decent players at the club to integrate some younger and hungrier new recruits into a competitive unit!

I think it is very true that there are not bargains there for easy pickings. I do think that Doyle will prove to be a good signing, one that I think could be a 20+ goal sticker in the championship next year. Kennedy has the promise of a good player.

As far as the squad is concerned it has to be reduced down to around 26 players which even after the 3 released last week will mean a net reduction of another 7 or 8 players, if Slade is to bring anyone in then there will need to be further departures to accommodate the incoming numbers of players. As much as we all see that Ole went crazy last Summer, there was no control on that spending from the Chief Executive, I just get the feeling that at last the spending on players is being regulated within a controlled budget within the club I HOPE SO OTHERWIZE WE COULD BE IN THE SAME S--T as QPR

I'm all for going looking for rough diamonds in the lower or Scottish leagues. Look at Jamie Vardy at Leicester for example no one fancied him to get goals at Championship level when he made the step up from Fleetwood in 2012, now look where both him and his club are now. Hungry players looking to further their careers as aposed stagnating on huge wages. BLUEBIRDS

I'm all for going looking for rough diamonds in the lower or Scottish leagues. Look at Jamie Vardy at Leicester for example no one fancied him to get goals at Championship level when he made the step up from Fleetwood in 2012, now look where both him and his club are now. Hungry players looking to further their careers as aposed stagnating on huge wages. BLUEBIRDS

I agree with that, the players Ole assembled showed little desire to be premiership standard. If the club can get the balance right of getting in players that want to better themselves from lower leagues, along with 2-3 real quality players, possibly players fed up of waiting for a chance at a Premiership club

Players stuck in overbloated PL squads/academies are just as hungry to make names for themselves. Let's hope the club gets the right balance.