Our transfer strategy this summer

Was pondering this on the train this morning and can't help but feel we have not really had a coherent strategy about recruitment/team building this summer. In part of course this is down to Lambert going and Hoot coning in but I dopn;t think its been helpful to us. Whereas really in my view we just needed to try and make 3 or 4 really targetted additions to the squad in key areas we are now going to end up having 6 ofr 7 new players and it taking much more time for us to gel.

Can;t help thinking that letting Zak go was a mistake and that he, Ayala and Bennett alongside a new quality CH (not Turner who I am not sure i can forgive having seen his pathetic effort to block that shot for their third) and with Ward as back up would have been enough. i feel we should have been seriously pursuing both Clyne and Naughton (or players of that sort) to add pace to the back line. Had we got those then probably all we really needed was a defensive central midfielder and then maybe a striker if there was enough cash left in the pot. 4 quality additions for say ?15m and it probably would have been enough.

Instead we have bought two talented midfielders in Butterfield and Snodgrass but who we didn't really need (unless Butts proves to be the missing link between midfield and the lone striker). They are nice to have but the defence should have been the first priority. We have Turner who put in a performance far worse than anything Ayala and Whitbread have served up and we have Whitaker and Garrido on whom the jury is obviously still out. We are now scratching around trying to sign first team players with the season already underway. Its all such a far cry from the organised and focused way we have done things for the last 2 summers and it just seems to add to the sense that we are a bit all over the place at the moment.

I am also at this moment in time disappointed in the board for what, on the face of it, appears to be a hugely conservative approach this summer. And before people start banging on about not wanting to be another Pompey thats not what i am advocating, i'm talking about loosening the ourse strings sufficiently to anable us to build on what we have achieved rather than go backwards. provided its done sensibly and on young players who are likely to hold their value it should be possible but instead I fear we have handicapped ourselves with an overly rigid wage structure and i am not yet convinced Hughton is enough of an a**ehole to force Mcnally's hand like Lambert might have done. he was recently quoted as saying "I leave transfer negotiations to the important people at the club". I bet lambert didn;t do that and was a right pain in the backside until he got the players he wanted. They have 2 more weeks to prove me worng on this. I hope they do.

After all beat QPHa and we will be a point better off than we were after two games last season. We do still have a lot of good players so all is not lost!

Posted By: Jim, Aug 20, 09:41:43