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Post by hookycrooky on Sept 16, 2024 18:01:35 GMT
This was on the cards squad already looks really poor in quality. Monk sounded pretty much down in that interview personally think he has been let down by those above him with the recruitment etc this season Preseason was a total joke with hardly any players getting the needed minutes because they was already injured. I know it's only September but this season is already looking like we are heading down.
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Post by unitedwestand on Sept 16, 2024 18:01:55 GMT
OMG this is just terrible news. Although with our injury record since being in league 1 it's news I genuinely expected. This is the most difficult year in this league to date and we only signed 2 recognise forwards with injury records. There cannot be ANY side in our division that signed just 2 strikers. Ah well we will have to wait till the new year to pick up another injury prone/has been forward!!!
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Post by huddsmoose on Sept 16, 2024 18:06:51 GMT
As much as he's partly responsible, it feels that Strang is taking a lot of heat off Monk here. It's his squad right, he wanted to keep certain members of the previous squad and would have had a big say in the players that ended up here. I'd love to know how recruitment happens in reality, I assume Monk gets the final say but how many options is he presented with and who makes the recommendations? Recruitment is looking very shaky this season already, the retentions and signings seem at odds with our intended tactics and lacking a coherent plan. The gambles on Loft (if he's ever fit) and Nlundulu need to pay off now.
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Post by Andrewlang on Sept 16, 2024 18:08:16 GMT
Ugh
I'd still rather have-a-Lavery than not though, he's quality and the sort of player that's worth taking a risk on.
Having all our eggs in his basket does leave us a bit screwed though. Hopefully Brandon can step up.
Andrew
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danielcufc
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Post by danielcufc on Sept 16, 2024 18:20:59 GMT
As much as he's partly responsible, it feels that Strang is taking a lot of heat off Monk here. It's his squad right, he wanted to keep certain members of the previous squad and would have had a big say in the players that ended up here. I think they are both to blame and there seems a disconnect in what Monk wants to do and some of the players bought in. Monk decided to keeo the likes of Kachunga & KaiKai so that's down to him when I believe we could have got better value as neither will be on peanuts. He then decided to move on Lankester - which may have been right - but who could probably fit better into his system IMO than the 2 mentioned. He wanted to keep Mannion but he obviously took a better deal elsewhere. Contract extensions on the likes of Cousins and controversially maybe Morrison were out of his hands. The bigger recruitment issue - that has been highlighted on the Radio and Podcasts today - is the general stategy of signing injury prone elder players which then leads to huge turnover every summer. We have little in the way of Assets unless Barton, Jobe etc develop and are eventually sold. That is down to Strang as he is Sporting Director and the fact it has happened for a few seasons has to be questioned.
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rozza1
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Post by rozza1 on Sept 16, 2024 18:22:38 GMT
As much as he's partly responsible, it feels that Strang is taking a lot of heat off Monk here. It's his squad right, he wanted to keep certain members of the previous squad and would have had a big say in the players that ended up here. Neither are blameless. Monk has been here a matter of months and there's already calls for him to be sacked, so he's getting plenty of stick already to be honest. Suffering similar issues repeatedly season after season under different managers suggests the issue is bigger than the Head Coach role. Strang as Sporting Director oversees the whole football operation, that includes recruitment and planning, presumably as well as involvement in the hiring of the head coach. If Monk's tenure ends in failure either due to tactics, planning or recruitment, then bigger questions also have to be raised. If Strang isn't involved, then what's he getting paid for? Time and time again, when these topics are raised, they get shut down because of our low budget and small financial capabilities. But that's part of the job the Sporting Director has to deal with and overcome, playing russian roulette with relegation on the last day each season isn't progress. If our goal is a couple seasons in League 1 and then back to League 2 then everyone is doing enough, but it's not. Our ambition on the pitch has to match our ambition off it, signing Loft on a 3 year deal, leaving our squad imbalanced and light (AGAIN) isn't matching what we are striving to achieve off the pitch. If Monk's job is being questioned, then I think it's fair to ask whether Strang is the man to help improve us long term too. I'm not calling for him to be sacked tomorrow, but depending on how the season goes, it's something that should be reviewed.
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Post by El Goodo on Sept 16, 2024 18:36:19 GMT
I'd be surprised if Strang's position hadn't been reviewed.
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tojo
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Post by tojo on Sept 16, 2024 18:39:16 GMT
6-8 weeks probably means 10 ffs
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simon
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Post by simon on Sept 16, 2024 18:42:41 GMT
I can just imagine Monk’s press conference in 8 weeks time. “Lavery is close to being back on the grass”
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Post by zx10racer22 on Sept 16, 2024 18:43:19 GMT
6-8 weeks probably means 10 ffs He needs to have been on the grass last week to be back six weeks, judging by our previous comms on other players
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danielcufc
First team star
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Favourite CUFC player: Dion Dublin
Favourite CUFC match: Peterborough 1, Cambridge 5 London Road 3.1.1989
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Post by danielcufc on Sept 16, 2024 18:45:06 GMT
I can just imagine Monk’s press conference in 8 weeks time. “Lavery is close to being back on the grass” Will Monk be doing press Conferences in 8 weeks time. Lavery might not play for him again
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joe77
On trial
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Post by joe77 on Sept 16, 2024 18:52:27 GMT
Its the issue of being light up fron every single season. Should we (Strang) have perhaps learnt our lessons from previous campaigns? Learning lessons from previous campaigns isn't really the Cambridge United way of doing things, sadly. Never has been, perhaps it never will be. Can't sustain progress long term. Recruitment strategy lacks cohesion and is very short-term. A bit of youth development, a bit of taking gambles on expensive journeymen with questionable injury records. I get we need a flexible approach to recruitment but none of it seems cohesive. To think that Tunbridge, Monk and co were talking in the summer about not settling for scraping survival at this level and wanting to kick on up the league seems a million miles off what's going on right now.
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Post by El Goodo on Sept 16, 2024 19:09:39 GMT
Ultimately none of us know who we tried to sign, who we failed to sign or why, who were our first choices that we got (I'd imagine Loft was one given the fee & contract length) & who was 2, 3, 4, 5 players down the lists, who Monk pushed for, who he didn't, who he said no to, or what our budget actually looks like.
Without all the information, none of us from the outside can make a properly informed judgment about Strang's performance, nor that of the coaching staff, nor the scouting/recruitment department, nor the physios. So in that sense we have to trust that the people who do have all that information – which presumably is the board & owners – are making the right choices.
Operating on a smaller budget, as we are at this level, means you are always going to have a squad that's not perfect or is light in some areas or others, and we know that strikers are both the most sought-after & therefore also the most expensive ones. There's always going to be something to weigh up: would going all out for another striker have meant we didn't sign Longelo, leaving us light on that flank? Or perhaps we wouldn't have been able to have brought in O'Riordan, leaving us more reliant on Okedina, a player we transfer-listed.
We're also competing not just with the teams in our league for players but the with the top 8-10 in the league below too. Crawley came up & lost 2 of their best players to Notts County this summer, 1 to MK Dons & another to newly moneyed Burton.
Is it better to have an anyone-will-do type signing just for the sake of another player in there? Possibly, but that's where we found ourselves with Bonne (and to a degree Taylor) so it's not always better to have someone than not, especially not when we as fans have been saying we want to see us blood more youth players – well this is partially what that looks like. Signing another striker in the summer means someone like Njoku would almost certainly not have played a minute in the league so far.
On the injury point, it's a tough one isn't it? I'd be keen to see how many players out there, especially ones in their mid-20s or older, haven't had significant injuries at some point or other. It's football, people get injured, and the longer you've played the game the more likely that is. Digby had a poor injury record when we signed him yet has gone on to make 200 appearances in just over 4 seasons. Brophy doesn't seem to have had anything significant in his whole career, but that's a rarity. McConnell's 19 & has now had two mid/long-term ones. Jodi Jones has one of the most unfortunate injury histories you'd care to imagine but has now barely missed a game in 2 seasons & is absolutely ripping up L2. We signed ageing journeyman Hoolahan off the back of him missing most of a season through a broken ankle. Gardner has already missed more games for us than he did in the entirety of last season. Where does the blame lie for that, if anywhere?
As for the "ageing journeymen", that was a significant departure last summer & Bonner explained the thinking behind that. You don't have to agree with the thinking (I don't) but it was something that was deliberate & something that has had a knock-on effect this season with our hands tied as Morrison, Andrew & Cousins were all baked-in contract extensions (although the the latter's only just turned 30 anyway).
This summer our new signings signings have been 20, 20, 23, 24, 26, 33, 32, 23, 20, 25, 26 & 25. Kaikai's 29 & Kachunga 32. We actually only have 7 players >30 in the entire squad & 10 teams have a higher average squad age than us.
I dunno really. We've certainly not got everything right, not even close to it, but given we are in a broad sense a fairly well-run club, it does suggest what we're trying to do is pretty difficult. Of the 11 teams that either came up with us or did in the 3 seasons after, 5 of them have already been relegated again & the only other one from our season that's still here is Bolton.
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Post by El Goodo on Sept 16, 2024 19:14:27 GMT
Learning lessons from previous campaigns isn't really the Cambridge United way of doing things, sadly. Never has been, perhaps it never will be. Can't sustain progress long term. Recruitment strategy lacks cohesion and is very short-term. A bit of youth development, a bit of taking gambles on expensive journeymen with questionable injury records. I get we need a flexible approach to recruitment but none of it seems cohesive. To think that Tunbridge, Monk and co were talking in the summer about not settling for scraping survival at this level and wanting to kick on up the league seems a million miles off what's going on right now. This is fair, although I'd imagine the managerial merry-go-round of last season did put a bit of a spanner in the works in some respect.
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rozza1
Reserve team regular
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Post by rozza1 on Sept 16, 2024 19:30:43 GMT
Should we (Strang) have perhaps learnt our lessons from previous campaigns? To think that Tunbridge, Monk and co were talking in the summer about not settling for scraping survival at this level and wanting to kick on up the league seems a million miles off what's going on right now. This is it for me. There's plenty of time this season but so far the actions currently have not matched the words or seem to align with what we are striving to achieve away from the pitch.
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