Fc_exile wrote:Last night has highlighted our lack of progression from 3-4 seasons ago and this has to be down to our recruitment policy and our consistent over-hauling of squad year-on-year.
Last night we only had a couple of players that played for us in our 2012 and 2013 season; Thus how can we expect continuity.
The players which we have signed in the last few years;
Wade McKinnon
Will Sharp
Tony Martin
Martin Aspinwall
Joe Arundel
Jason Crookes
Paul Johnson
Brett Seymour
The above are a select few i have chosen; but all are bang average. We claim to be a stable club financially but were is our development on the field and what needs to change....
McKinnon is the best we've had since Prescott, and was certainly better than anything we've had since. Seymour also wasn't a bad player, but his issues are well documented.
The rest I agree with. They range from guys who gave their all but simply weren't good enough (Sharp, Aspinwall) to guys who were a waste of a shirt (some might skin in Crookes' case).
That said all clubs make dud signings, and we have made some good signings in that time frame too. There are guys playing for Leeds and Saints who I wouldn't look at twice if they were on a transfer list, but they are well drilled and are able to do a job because they are playing in a good system.
Our recruitment policy seems to be. Release 5 or 6 players who have been deemed not good enough. Sign one or two "marquee" names, regardless of whether they are what we need or not. Then being in a handful of fairly middle of the road young english players. Then at the end of the season we do it all over again and expect a different outcome. We don't know what we want to be.
First of all we need to identify what we want to be as a team. Are we going to go for a big powerful side that overwhelms the opposition like Saints? Do we want a bit of flair and pace to allow us to play a more attractive brand? ie Warrington or Rovers. Or do we want to be more of a thinking team that plays high percentage, controlled rugby and can then be clinical when we get in the right areas which is mostly how Leeds play?
When we've decided that we need to identify which players at the club are suited to that brand and tie them down to contracts. Then over the course of 2 or 3 years we fill in the gaps, targeting the priority areas first and then fine tuning in years 2 and 3.
It's not a quick fix. It's almost an entire rebrand and change of philosophy, and we need an experienced man in to oversee it.
