Re: Dead wood out?! : Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:23 pm  

Fair do's eagle!!!

Re: Dead wood out?! : Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:42 pm  

Whilst I have big concerns over our coach, it does appear that GH does not want to invest in the team. This is the only explanation for our pathetic recruitment policy over the last couple of years. To bring in lightweights like Moore , Griffin & Hauraki , while we lose players of the calibre of Senior , Ali , Eastwood & Danny B ( the best hooker seen at Leeds for years ) must have cut our wage bill dramatically.
A big decision is now needed as we now need 4 to 5 top class players to make us competitive with the top teams - does GH have the balls to do this ?

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:29 am  

Hetherington has one eye on a very large capital project, for which the club is not going to be able to rely on some batshit decision making from its local polytechnic to cover the costs.

Spending a great wad of cash on transfer fees is a thing of the past - at least until the South Stand is completed.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:57 am  

Archer wrote:

Whilst I have big concerns over our coach, it does appear that GH does not want to invest in the team. This is the only explanation for our pathetic recruitment policy over the last couple of years. To bring in lightweights like Moore , Griffin & Hauraki , while we lose players of the calibre of Senior , Ali , Eastwood & Danny B ( the best hooker seen at Leeds for years ) must have cut our wage bill dramatically.
A big decision is now needed as we now need 4 to 5 top class players to make us competitive with the top teams - does GH have the balls to do this ?

As stated there is a lot of rebuilding to do on the ground, and there is no bottomless pit of cash. Our "sugar Daddy" is in construction - probably a little cautious with the cash at the moment. GH doesn't have that kind of cash and never has had. What he has done is invest wisely and sustainably. Chucking cash you haven't got at the problem isn't a good idea. Ask Bradford. It's not about balls, it's about cash.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:58 am  

El Diablo wrote:

As stated there is a lot of rebuilding to do on the ground, and there is no bottomless pit of cash. Our "sugar Daddy" is in construction - probably a little cautious with the cash at the moment. GH doesn't have that kind of cash and never has had. What he has done is invest wisely and sustainably. Chucking cash you haven't got at the problem isn't a good idea. Ask Bradford. It's not about balls, it's about cash.

Completely agree with this.

What I would say is that if this is the case, a coaching structure needs to be in place to get the absolute maximum from the players at our disposal - This is one of the areas we fall down on in my opinion. With the current playing rostar, the tactic is to coast through the season and try and lift for the business end to save our old guard from burning out (I've mentioned on other threads I dont like this as a long term solution, but that is a seperate arguement). However, even for this lift, the attacking and defensive structures are still way behind other top teams. Even if we want to coast through the season and keep the players fresh for the business end, the same attacking and defensive structures should be in place all season long, with greater rotation of players to keep them fresh.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:11 am  

Archer wrote:

Whilst I have big concerns over our coach, it does appear that GH does not want to invest in the team. This is the only explanation for our pathetic recruitment policy over the last couple of years. To bring in lightweights like Moore , Griffin & Hauraki , while we lose players of the calibre of Senior , Ali , Eastwood & Danny B ( the best hooker seen at Leeds for years ) must have cut our wage bill dramatically.
A big decision is now needed as we now need 4 to 5 top class players to make us competitive with the top teams - does GH have the balls to do this ?

It's generally agreed that the players brought in over the past couple of years have been average at best and nowhere near adequate replacements for those who have left.

But how do you know it's GH restricting recruitment? Maybe it's a symptom of having a poor coach in charge - poor decisions whether in terms of tactics, player development or recruitment.

There's a saying - A class people bring in A class people. B class people bring in C class people. Maybe this applies to BMcD.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:19 am  

El Diablo wrote:

As stated there is a lot of rebuilding to do on the ground, and there is no bottomless pit of cash. Our "sugar Daddy" is in construction - probably a little cautious with the cash at the moment. GH doesn't have that kind of cash and never has had. What he has done is invest wisely and sustainably. Chucking cash you haven't got at the problem isn't a good idea. Ask Bradford. It's not about balls, it's about cash.

I agree re throwing cash in terms of transfer fees isn't rfeally feasible currently.

But Leeds is a club that is able to spend to the full salary cap, and in these terms is on the same level as the likes of Wigan and Warrington. It's the choice of players brought in rather than their value that gets to me.

We sign Griffin, Moore, Lunt, Hauraki - all very average players (and players who won't cost much in salary), while players like Gareth Ellis, for example, get overlooked as presumably they were asking for too much. It's this lack of ambition that gets to me and is the reason why our squad is now weaker than before.

Warrington should be applauded for being ambitious and taking a punt on Morley when he came back to SL. Lots of people at the time said he was too old and demanded far too big a wage, but he's lasted six years and has been the lynchpin of Warrington's pack during that time.

How we need a Morley at the moment.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:32 am  

ThePrinter wrote:

One last option is to try find a young gem from the Championship such as Zak Hardaker or Chris Hill but can't say i'm too well clued up on that division so don't know if any are there ATM. The problem with this option is that they probably wouldn't be ready for first team action straight away thus you might not see the benefits until 2014.

Sam Barlow at Halifax.
Just re-signed for (I think) 3 years but could maybe be bought-out of his contract.
I'm amazed he's not a SL front-row by now.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:34 am  

Mr Scruff wrote:

How we need a Morley at the moment.

They got Morley, we got Peacock. Reckon we got the better of it.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:46 pm  

Richie wrote:

They got Morley, we got Peacock. Reckon we got the better of it.

True dat.