Guess I ought to bitch about our lack of signings a bit more often… 
So, welcome Warren Cummings, who got released from Bournemouth this summer, and who spent time on loan at Crawley at the end of last season. He’s from Aberdeen (hence the punchline above) and he’s a left back. And according to Steven Gregory on Twatter:
@wcummings28 congrats.. il take 10% lol. You will enjoy it there mate. I don’t think@simonbass10@SMooro15 are ready for your banter!
Before I go on, I will happily support this country becoming a hardline Islamic state if they could make the use of the word “banter” punishable by death.
The OS is coming up with the usual platitudes that any new signing will get, of course. He’s got a sweet left foot, plays the style of play we want to play, everyone speaks highly of him, usual stuff. The proof will come when he actually plays, needless to say.
Reading around, he doesn’t appear injury prone which sadly seemed to do for GG. Needless to say, he will do his ACL against Reading, and we’ll be phoning GG for him to return. Unlike Osano, the oppo fans generally do seem to have positive things to say about him, but one suspects we’ve signed our new Jamie Stuart.
Which for this season and under current management, I’m fine with.
He is “vastly experienced” – the words of the OS, not mine – and to be honest I wish we’d made a couple more of those signings in the past. We do badly, urgently, need more players who know something about the Football League, and Cummings could be a useful addition on that score alone.
Which does put a bit of a question mark over who we’re going to sign next. It looks like we’ve given up on Sam Wood now we’ve signed WC, although I’m trying to think of what other positions we need to fill. Two centre backs and somebody in midfield? I’m not convinced we’re short in just two positions, and I expect as usual we’ll end up signing about 3/4 “promising” youngsters.
I would much prefer one experienced CB and another experienced one in midfield. At the very least they would know what to do in situations we had last year from October onwards. Half – OK, most – of the reason we slumped so badly was that we had both players and management who didn’t know what to do when the results were going against us each week.
(Actually, I’d also like an experienced goalkeeper who is prepared to sit on the bench and is looking to go into coaching, and will act as a mentor and backup to Seb. He needs to up his coaching and it will save us having another Jack Turner type stropathon to deal with).
No, the likes of Cummings won’t take us into League One, but for the next 2-3 years the club doesn’t need to do that. It’s nowhere near ready for such a step up. For the next couple of seasons, a solid mid-table side that doesn’t even look remotely like going down will give the club the chance to catch up off the field. Being an Aldershot isn’t going to affect us too badly for a little while.
True, if a promising youngster does come about, then by all means look at him, but with the smaller squad let us get a bit more proven quality in the most important areas first. We’re going to get the usual triallists coming in and out before you’ve had a chance to spell their names (ref: the Pole we had last pre season), and you can bet we’ll be dipping into the loan market come September anyway.
Anyway, pre-season training starts Monday, and at least we do have another player to give a bib to now. Those planning to go down KM this weekend won’t need their boots after all…
Cummings on the face of it appears to be a decent signings. Plenty of experience under his belt, which as you eluded to, was sadly lacking last season.
At the other end of the spectrum are there any rumours about as to what is happening with Billy Knott next season?
Is there any remote prospect of him coming back on loan to us?
He wrote this yesterday on Twatter:
billy knott @billy_knott
@lapurcell not sure mate go to Sunderland pre season next week and see what happens
If everyone in S London shouted we love Billy Knott at once do you think he might turn the car around?
To be honest, I wouldn’t bother trying to pursue Knott any more – Sunderland are likely to loan him out to an L1 side, we are unlikely to afford to buy him, and there’s a very good argument in trying to develop our own new BK (and I don’t mean Kiernan).
He gave us a few months of pleasure, but like so many other things it’s time to move on.
Somehow I’m a bit uncomfortable with the phrase ‘Cummings on the face…’
IMHO we still need to sign:
1 x Back Up Keeper (like the coach/back-up idea)
1 x 1st Choice Cente Back (McNaughton still injured / unproven)
1 x Back Up Left Back (unless this is where Fenlon plays)
1 x Back Up Centre Back (unless this is where Fenlon plays)
1 x Back Up Right Back (unless this is where Fenlon plays)
1-2 x “Able to Compete for places” midfielders, preferable able to play wide. 3 of our 7 midfielders have NO experience, 1 with little wants to leave so that only leaves 3.
So I make that 7 more to find. Up front looks good though.
I’d be amazed if we signed any more than three or four players. The clear priorities are an experienced centre half, a young, promising centre half and another keeper.
With what we’ve heard about budgets, I think the priority has been to keep our best players (on improved money) and sign some experience – which we will have completed if we get the right centre back. Midfield looks a little light, but L Moore, Jolley and Kiernan can all play there or further forward.
Any serious injuries is clearly going to see the youngsters have to play – which is hopefully a real incentive to develop them properly this season…
Perhaps the most important thing that has to start happening this season (apart from staying in the division) is for the youngsters to start becoming first teamers.
I know why it’s been the case, but even from watching Senior Cup matches the bulk of the youngsters have been, ahem, uninspiring. None of them looked any closer to being part of the first team as much as our R1 players.
And remember when most of our reserves FOed to Banstead? They did pretty poorly there….. in the CCL.
Seeing the likes of Huw Johnson coming on for the Shrewsbury game is a promising sign, but we need the likes of him to come through and turn us into producers of talent rather than constantly buying it in
With a much smaller squad this season we will need to be more careful to preserve our senior players. I imagine we’ll see players like Huw Johnson coming on for the last 10 minutes of most games. That way when the injuries do happen, we’re not turning to players with no experience whatsoever. The biggest mistake TB made at the beginning of last year was keeping a load of young players who, in the end, he didn’t trust. I’d love to know what portion of last years budget went on players that made less than 10 (or so) league appearances.
Franks, Mulley, Minshull, Jackson, Djalli, R Jones, Kiernan, Ademeno, Porter (?)