STFC Transfer Rumours

[4D]

I think Young on his day is a cracking striker, goals don't lie. Although he could sometimes disappear from a game. Seemed to score in batches, no goal in last 6 games for us.

[Batch]

At danger of bringing the thread on track I do find it interesting reading comments from fans about Jake Young, mainly being too inconsistent/flaky etc. Some of it is the usual football fan response whereby Flynn admits he's out of our price range and immediately the defences go up and his faults are picked apart to the nth degree and eventually he's deemed crap anyway, or wouldn't have scored anything like the amount of goals if we didn't have Dan Kemp etc.

And yet if we are linked to a striker, let's say for arguments sake Lee Angol, who has 4 in 19 for Sutton, immediately he's written off because his goalscoring rate isn't very good.

I know he wasn't brilliant all the time, but Young was the second highest scorer in league 2 behind Langstaff, and he's only 22 years old. If we could afford his asking price, surely you have to take the punt given the start of the season at the club, don't you?

I thought young was a real panic signing. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But it couldn't have have worked out much better really. Good luck to him. His goals may have dried up, but so did everyone else's (bar Kemp). Yeah it would have been good to keep him, but I can understand not entertaining that at the start of the season.

With e.g. Angol - its the optics of a league 2 club taking league 2 castoffs as a strategy . It doesn't seem sane despite our relatively successful dabble.

He is experienced I guess, handy though hardly prolific away from Boreham Wood - but what are we expecting to be able to get right now?

[Berniman]

You will struggle to replace Young with better at this level (whether a fluke or not) and also struggle to replace Kemp with better.  Kemp was more important to us because there was just nobody in the squad (and perhaps league) that could do what he does in the position he plays.

We will just have to get used to the fact that replacements that come in (if any) are likely to be a downgrade on both players. Trying to survive is now the aim, the big question is whether we will do the necessary to survive next season, as the chances of going on a 9 game unbeaten run next season become less likely with our current budget strategy, which will likely be smaller next season due to reduction in ticket sales.

[Quagmire]

I think Young on his day is a cracking striker, goals don't lie. Although he could sometimes disappear from a game. Seemed to score in batches, no goal in last 6 games for us.

I’m by no means comparing them as players.
But isn’t that basically what Erling Haaland does?

[welshred]

I think Young on his day is a cracking striker, goals don't lie. Although he could sometimes disappear from a game. Seemed to score in batches, no goal in last 6 games for us.

Show me a striker that has never had a patch when they didn't score (who isn't worth £50 million+). Calling Jake Young inconsistent is ridiculous.

Jake Young was a great player for this level. He didn't just score either, he made chances by himself. I'd give my left arm to get him back because whoever we replace him with will be nowhere near as good.

[Batch]

as the chances of going on a 9 game unbeaten run next season become less likely with our current budget strategy, which will likely be smaller next season due to reduction in ticket sales.

Richard Briers and Penelope Wilton would be perfect to comedy up our predicament.

[JoeMezz]

We will just have to get used to the fact that replacements that come in (if any) are likely to be a downgrade on both players. Trying to survive is now the aim, the big question is whether we will do the necessary to survive next season, as the chances of going on a 9 game unbeaten run next season become less likely with our current budget strategy, which will likely be smaller next season due to reduction in ticket sales.

Just some musings going back to that unbeaten 9 game run, I feel that the tempo was higher, energy levels were higher and we were so much more forward thinking. Has that ended due to squad size or fatigue or have players downed tools in recent weeks? I'd love to see the running stats and see the differences

[Riddick]

Just some musings going back to that unbeaten 9 game run, I feel that the tempo was higher, energy levels were higher and we were so much more forward thinking. Has that ended due to squad size or fatigue or have players downed tools in recent weeks? I'd love to see the running stats and see the differences

It was a great point haul from 8/9 games, but if you interrogate a little earlier you can see the problems even then.

Crewe - Dropped a 2 nil lead to draw
FGR - Labored to beat a team with 10 min with a goal in the last minute
Wrexham - Dropped a 4-1 lead at half time to draw 5-5
Crawley - Battered them, but crawley had a lot of chances early
Doncaster - Couldnt beat a team with 10 men for half the game
Sutton - We won 5-3, but Sutton are adrift in the bottom two.
Walsall - Good win (but walsall had 10 men for 30 mins)
Morecombe - Drew with a team with 10 men for 40+ mins

Outside the Crawley game we threw away leads repeatedly (as now) and failed to take advantage of 10 min on 2 occasions and labored to beat one team with 10 men.

It was a good haul, but honestly the truth is we should have had way more points from these games than we did. So i dont share the opinion that everything was rosy at the start.

[Jilted John]

Show me a striker that has never had a patch when they didn't score (who isn't worth £50 million+). Calling Jake Young inconsistent is ridiculous.

Jake Young was a great player for this level. He didn't just score either, he made chances by himself. I'd give my left arm to get him back because whoever we replace him with will be nowhere near as good.

Jake Young is the absolute epitome of inconsistent. He hasn't scored many goals for any team before he came to us and he averaged 1 goal every 6 games all at league 2 level.

Yes we would all have him back as he fitted into our "style" really well, but, I would bet now that he does not score more than 5 more goals this season for whoever he signs for in this window (or if he stays at Bradford).

On his day he is almost unplayable but there were probably more games when he barely even kicked the ball.

If he was more consistent then he would be in the Championship already and not in a lower L2 team.

[JoeMezz]

It was a great point haul from 8/9 games, but if you interrogate a little earlier you can see the problems even then.

Crewe - Dropped a 2 nil lead to draw
FGR - Labored to beat a team with 10 min with a goal in the last minute
Wrexham - Dropped a 4-1 lead at half time to draw 5-5
Crawley - Battered them, but crawley had a lot of chances early
Doncaster - Couldnt beat a team with 10 men for half the game
Sutton - We won 5-3, but Sutton are adrift in the bottom two.
Walsall - Good win (but walsall had 10 men for 30 mins)
Morecombe - Drew with a team with 10 men for 40+ mins

Outside the Crawley game we threw away leads repeatedly (as now) and failed to take advantage of 10 min on 2 occasions and labored to beat one team with 10 men.

It was a good haul, but honestly the truth is we should have had way more points from these games than we did. So i dont share the opinion that everything was rosy at the start.

Interesting and very valid observations. So our scoring rate has dropped, defence hasn’t changed much really but lack of goals compared to those rates correspond to the lessened points?

[Peter Venkman]

It was a great point haul from 8/9 games, but if you interrogate a little earlier you can see the problems even then.

Crewe - Dropped a 2 nil lead to draw
FGR - Labored to beat a team with 10 min with a goal in the last minute
Wrexham - Dropped a 4-1 lead at half time to draw 5-5
Crawley - Battered them, but crawley had a lot of chances early
Doncaster - Couldnt beat a team with 10 men for half the game
Sutton - We won 5-3, but Sutton are adrift in the bottom two.
Walsall - Good win (but walsall had 10 men for 30 mins)
Morecombe - Drew with a team with 10 men for 40+ mins

Outside the Crawley game we threw away leads repeatedly (as now) and failed to take advantage of 10 min on 2 occasions and labored to beat one team with 10 men.

It was a good haul, but honestly the truth is we should have had way more points from these games than we did. So i dont share the opinion that everything was rosy at the start.

Absolutely spot on. We have squandered so many points from winning positions or against 10 men, games that we really should have won.

As you state thats been happening all season.

Young and Kemps goals are the difference between us being bottom 3 and where we are now.

Everything was not all rosey back then, it was way rosier though than it is now, but I think many fans could see that we were struggling more than we should have been in games, especially late on in games defensively.

[RobertT]

I called mid table after the Crewe game - it was obvious the defensive shape was a massive problem.  Plenty of teams since have racked up 20 shots against us, just as Crewe did that day I believe.

The goals were from energy, which was always going to sag as we got into the grind of the season with a small squad.  We did nothing to fix the problems at the back, it's not rocket science.

Now we have lost the two players capable of getting us the odd result.

Just to be clear, 9 days into a Transfer window that we knew we were short of players for five months ago and we have signed nobody on a permanent deal.  I understand loans will be used, they have their place (usually of higher league talent though), but we don't exactly have a massive squad we need to shift players out from to sign players on actual wages.

I have already sent in about 6 questions for the fans forum, maybe need a few more.

[4D]

I live in hope of mid table   

[Riddick]

I called mid table after the Crewe game - it was obvious the defensive shape was a massive problem.  Plenty of teams since have racked up 20 shots against us, just as Crewe did that day I believe.

The goals were from energy, which was always going to sag as we got into the grind of the season with a small squad.  We did nothing to fix the problems at the back, it's not rocket science.

Now we have lost the two players capable of getting us the odd result.

Just to be clear, 9 days into a Transfer window that we knew we were short of players for five months ago and we have signed nobody on a permanent deal.  I understand loans will be used, they have their place (usually of higher league talent though), but we don't exactly have a massive squad we need to shift players out from to sign players on actual wages.

I have already sent in about 6 questions for the fans forum, maybe need a few more.

The fans forum will be a disaster as most predicted, given the number of panel members there is no chance we will get the level of answers or interrogation needed from key individuals.

But i agree. This season is dead. We need to be building for next season and that means perm transfers that we keep into next year and add to. Lets see, but the signs are not promising.

[RobertT]

And I am not counting Kokolo's extension.  That guy must be thanking his lucky stars.  Managed to bag a L2 club with all the shit hanging around him that has about 5 left backs who have been proper shit before him.  All he has had to do is manage not to fall over his own feet to look semi competent.  I'm not sold on him yet, looked very suspect tracking his player last time out when we were dropping deeper.  Maybe he is just a left winger.  Even Drysdale could probably hold down the left back spot these days.