Johnnyrotten

I'm not too concerned about getting an upgrade on Bonham, although it would be nice, but as you mention the injury possibilities for CBs, its reminded me how much we are relying on Bonham not being injured. We are nackered if he does, I admit I've never seen any of the back ups play but I don't think its too much of an assumption to say they aren't ready for the championship, given they weren't proven at L1 either. At least with CB we can throw someone else in there temporarily (Christie, Famewo) and know they can handle themselves physically. I'm not sure the back up keepers can.

Luckily he didn't do that at Wembley, or at Barnsley this time last year in the last few minutes. I'm not disputing we need better for this league, and I've been critical of his none tackling on here when Evatt used to bring him back to defend and he was incapable of doing it other than conceding free kicks. I was disputing the "shit, end of". That would apply to someone like Etete, not someone that scores more than everyone else for us away from home, if picked. Reasonable L1 striker, end of.

FWIW I'm working with a PNE fan today (went to Goodison on Saturday) and they've got 4 strikers, very unlikely to be investing in another.

The logical thing would be Kenny in on loan, McAtee out on loan, in Jan. Might possibly still happen in August, because if we get Dean in too the writing's on the wall for McAtee anyway, he could go without leaving us short on numbers.

Kenny has been injured most of the last 5 months, its just that we've had no games for nearly 3 of those months. Whoever we sign is an injury risk, this time last year Dalby was a crock, a few months later it was ACD. Tutu was a crock before, how he isn't. Dempsey the same. Its in the lap of the gods. And Hardie is more proven that Kenny for the championship.

That says more about you than McAtee though

I'm happy with this signing, assuming he's reasonably fit (who knows the answer to that one yet?). Always been one of those players I've admired from afar. The pro-Kenny fans that spent a fair chunk of Feb to April slagging off Hardie's contribution for Hudds will be fuming, or backtracking 😄

I wasn't putting McAtee and RR in the same bracket, of course RR is better. You said you can't recall McAtee putting in a 90 minute performance. I can't remember RR putting in a 90 minute performance, or anyone else bar ACD and maybe Sheehan (excluding defenders). If game changing means scoring a goal, McAtee did his bit when selected under IE, if game changing is just scoring a 30 yard wonder strike then we can't count RR either. Bottom line is most strikers are a bit disappointing when they come here if we're expecting a bagful of goals and hat-tricks.

Signing 6 sounds great in theory and like there's been a big influx. But we're just replacing the 11 players that we've lost: Dempsey, GJ, Cissoko, Burstow, ACD, Taylor, Tutu, Apter, Forss, CBT and effectively Randall. There are some duffers in there but certainly a few we haven't replaced yet, or the jury is out on whether we've got an upgrade.

That's true but most don't want to sit behind the goal. We have 6 stands available to us (3 lower, 3 higher) and 5 are top prices, same as top tier for away fans. They do normally get about 2k at same price as NSL although we are yet to find out where they will be seated this year if they only bring 2k - we'll find out v Lincoln.

I can't remember a good 90 minutes or many game changing moments from many players, relative to the number of games played. They are few and far between, obviously ACD was an exception but he wasn't our's. RR is good but very rarely does he play 90 minutes, and he does flatter to deceive (imagine if McAtee had missed those at Sheff Wed). We aren't very good up front, we don't have those players and they aren't easy to find, so we go for the next level down like McAtee and Dalby unless we can get a star on loan. Randall is the next level down, L2, he isn't cutting it in L1.

Why are we comparing L1 standard players (McAtee, Collins) with a player that has failed at that level (Randall). If we want to dump everyone that is in your words miles off championship quality, who would be left in the squad? As you say, tallest dwarf. The away goals is a factor for me because we have a history of not turning up in them. Especially last season, it was painful at times. The year before, as bad as it was, we did at least have McAtee and as you say Collins joining in away from home (not always of course), instead of the powder puff stuff of Burstow for eg. Of course McAtee hasn't scored many in the last year or so, he never starts games. When he did, he was a guaranteed regular scorer/creator in L1, but he was replaced and/or injured/suspended.

And home fans that don't have a S/T - more in that category that we probably realise, that can only do half a dozen games a season. I agree though the cheap S/Ts have to be subsidised realistically.

To be fair the same is true of RR and he's doing OK 😄 Kyle Wooten, McAtee and RR played in that play off semi Notts County v Grimsby and probably scored more at that level than in the EFL per season, a pity we didn't sign all 3 a few years ago.

I've never heard of Cundle, but I wasn't comparing him to championship standard players. They are like gold dust in this squad if they exist at all. I'm questioning how an unproven player for us (Randall) can be compared with a proven goalscorer (11 league goals last time he was given a run of games). Who consistently turns up in away games (and Wembley!) unlike the majority of our squad, and that goes for some players I rate like Sheehan, and Burstow who was perceived to have scored a lot but only got 2 away. FWIW I'm all for an upgrade on McAtee now that we're in this league, and assumed that's where we'd be at by now, but we aren't, so we need to keep hold of him given that we won't get much of a fee anyway and the 2 strikers we seem to be in for are no more proven at this level than he is (no idea on Cundle, genuinely never heard the name before).