It's interesting isn't it - very few of his pre-Prem signings were complete disasters.

Some were ineffectual or forgettable, but those were usually the ones signed as back-up anyway (Briggs, Heckingbottom, Crichton), some were (arguably) disappointing but still contributed a fair amount (Rivers, Libbra, Nielsen, Easton), some were very, very good (Holt, Drury, Francis, Edworthy, Huckerby) but I'm struggling to think of anyone, besides Neil Emblen (who was very unlucky) who was an expensive catastrophe.

I'm excluding loanees from this, by the way.

What's also weird is that when he took over, he immediately filled the left-back slot, which had been a problem ever since Bowen and Ullathorne left in 1996, and cleared out all the dead wood very effectively. And gave a lot of young players a chance - I think it's fair to say that Forbes, Llewellyn, Green, Kenton, Russell and even Coote got a reasonable amount of first-team football in 2001.

Now, we haven't had a proper right-winger for ages (and even Nedergaard is dubious - wasn't he primarily a full-back), the central midfield is ludicrously understaffed (even with the loanees), there's virtually no skill in the side at all, and the young players aren't really getting a look in. What happened?

Posted By: Ottosson Foxtrot, Dec 4, 00:33:49