January signings: Hit or miss?

[Del Boy]

GJ will keep us up. I am much more confident we will rise to L1 than I am we will fall to the Conference.

Yep, great chance of promotion. Let us not forget three years ago "anything but the play-offs is failure".

I did not say this season. I was thinking more long term - something I forget knee-jerkers and boo-boys cannot do.

It's hardly knee-jerk to question the manager when we are in the relegation zone, three points from the team above and don't even look capable of winning a game. Johnson did brilliantly last season. But as good as that was, this season has been as bad.

Some seem to think last season makes the manager untouchable - how long does this continue because as it stands we are walking back to the conference. I wouldn't call for him to go because that rarely solves the problem but to blindly keep saying we won't go down is delusional. Something has to change and fast.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

It continues until January. Last season's success was built on the fact that the players were promised that if they were Champions they would get a chance in the Football League. Gary came good on that promise. It is not sentimentality, it is honesty and integrity. Which is what CTFC is all about. Gary and the players are honest to know come January who has taken the chance and who is not good enough. Until then, what do you suppose Gary does? He can keep flogging a dead horse. Or keep trying to craft a silk purse. But the players can't be changed.

For example, it was obvious with the errors throughout last season that our experienced centre backs were not league standard but I never begrudge them as they held up their side of the bargain and as we are CTFC we held up ours. And I am proud the integrity and honesty has remained in tact even if we are second bottom currently, and would rather that than be top five having lied to players and sold out the ethos of the club.

Gary is the man to steer us to safety, even if the current squad are not.

[horlickfanclub]

The squad of last year included George and Burgess .Neither of these were replaced with as good or better and the loan signings should have been players who are first choice in the eleven. The rest of the squad needed help from league 2 quality players and to come out with the " we had to give them a chance" may be true but only half the story.The recruitment, tactics and Management has not been good. Some of last years players who have struggled have not been done a favour by the balance of the squad. Every other Manager will be looking to improve in January and I hope we can come up with three or four better players. SuperPete needs to earn his money and the Manager needs to prove he is still up to managing in the league.

[Shade]

I'm just going to say that if everybody had been fit and suspension free at the start of the season I don't think we'd be having these conversations right now. We'd probably have some people moaning we weren't in the play-off positions, but I think we would have won a couple of the drawn games at the start of the season and the confidence would never have dropped and we'd probably be mid-table. I feel we have been very unlucky this season in virtually every way on and off the pitch, but then the players that have played and have lost confidence...we can tell who hasn't been able to step up to the challenge mentally.

Last season we heard a lot of talk about the players being asked who is going to step up and be the hero and make a difference in games. We need that again, they all need to step up and try and make something happen, because they all seem to be relying on each other a bit too much at the moment.

[Robin]

GJ has apparently told the media 2-3 players in January if that's the case forget about a new left back, it's surely a centre half, big striker and a replacement for Barts if we can move him on.

[horlickfanclub]

Check your numbers Robin. We have four loan players hardly being used who may be returned so it looks like none of our contact players will leave and the squad will shrink.

[Fuller]

I think it is fair to say that our playing budget might not be as big as some people think.
Like most on here not only did I expect most if not all of last years squad to be kept on, but also 4 or 5 seasoned FL pros to be added to help us along.
None of the seasoned pros came along as we know and we are now struggling.
If only 2 or 3 come in as Gary says then that probably says much about the budget available after Xmas.
The Sutton result didn't help. Puts it in to perspective that Newport could clear close to half a million if they beat Plymouth in the replay and get their trip to Anfield.
Expect a rocky ride for the rest of this season.

[Shade]

I think it is fair to say that our playing budget might not be as big as some people think.
Like most on here not only did I expect most if not all of last years squad to be kept on, but also 4 or 5 seasoned FL pros to be added to help us along.
None of the seasoned pros came along as we know and we are now struggling.
If only 2 or 3 come in as Gary says then that probably says much about the budget available after Xmas.
The Sutton result didn't help. Puts it in to perspective that Newport could clear close to half a million if they beat Plymouth in the replay and get their trip to Anfield.
Expect a rocky ride for the rest of this season.

Or it just means he doesn't want to rock the boat too much. There's no point bringing in too many players as a) we don't need that many and b) it might make matters worse.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

We saw what happened last time a cockney manager signed too many players.

No one on here knows the budget, and some certainly think we have more money in the bank than we probably do. No one knows which internal and external players GJ has been speaking too.

All we do know is that PB and GJ will act with the club's best interest in mind. Thus, whether that aligns with some of the ideals people on here have is irrelevant. We will sign the best players we can afford.