The Loan Market

[Dave]

What has got me thinking about the loan market is Saturday, both Rovers goal scorers were players they have on loan, also both Rotherham and Plymouth won their games Saturday thanks to goals scored by loan players.

We have seen two different styles of management Buckle who tried to fix a run of indifferent results/performances with loan signings and Lingy who is steadfast saying it’s a squad game and the answer must be found from with in.
Personally I am not a big fan of loan signings, they are not free and you are effectively paying rent for the players services, I like most agreed last seasons squad was helped by being close knit, however I think we all know our club is not flushed with cash and the loan market could be a means to an end.

The reason I say this is our team have been inconsistent for some time now, at the back end of last season I thought it was player burn out, but now they have had their summer break and we are enough games into the new season for the players to be firing on all four cylinders, yet we are not just seeing Jekyll and Hyde performances match to match, we are seeing it from one half to another in the same match , first/second half performance against Aldershot was followed by a no show at Wycombe, and probably the best home performance against Stanley was followed by a first half no show at Rovers etc.

To me some of our home performances have been nervous to say the least, and from what I can gather our team have looked like a scared rabbit in headlights away from home, this is what I wrote on the ten games in thread,word of warning however, this could still go either way the team to me are still not fully clicking together, and stating the obvious one win is no good if you follow it with a draw and a loss.
Still prefer to wait untill the 15-20 game mark to should give a real indication of the season will hold for us ,and this remains a real concern for me.

More and more league 2 clubs due to finance are running smaller squads and turning to loan signings, Barnet turned to Davids which I must admit, I simply thought that would be a disaster yet they promptly went from a team looking like they would not win a single game to beating Northampton 4.0.

I have no doubt our team on paper is capable of chasing down a play-off spot, however the more clubs in the division who bolster their line ups with loan signings the more I worry that we could end up being dragged down to the wrong end of the league.

Our squad looks like it needs a boost and a couple of loan signings might just be the thing that kicks our season off, get us back to a sustained winning run, so simple question is Lingy right stick with the squad, or do you think now is the time to bolster our own squad from the loan market.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I certainly wouldn't be opposed to Lingy bringing in fresh faces on loan to add a bit more zest to the squad, like you say many clubs are using the loan market well and Ling would be foolish to ignore this option totally. I don't think he is though and i've no doubt he would use it if he felt we needed it. That is the key thing, IF HE FEELS WE NEED IT. From what you have said it looks like Martin is placing total faith in his current sqaud and isn't looking to bring anyone in at the minute. My first point is that i actually agree with him and the principles behind his stubborness. I am happy with our squad, it is a very good squad with plenty of potential so it would appear that, in my view anyway, Ling is spot on again. The problem, i believe lies mostly with Ling and each time i criticise him i feel guilty and don't wish to incur the wrath of the yellow army but i'm hopefully trying to put across a valid argument to support my views. I always start by saying that what Ling has done for us is immense and in no way do i wish to see him under pressure so that's out of the way. Now for the critcism. There is a massive problem with fear i believe in Martin. The way he sets the team out and the formation and tactics are generally always conservative and to make us hard to beat, especially away from home except that it's not working at the minute and not only is it not working but we look like a team of circus performers plus the stilts for nealry all of the game. We are absolutely toothless and clueless and admittedly players like Bodin who has been atrocious haven't helped but the blame has to fall at Martins door. Take Gillingham for example, have they got a better squad than ours? Arguably but i'd say no, not really, yet Martin Allen sends his teams out with positivity and fervour from the off. Ok that isn't going to work all the time but they are up for it, they test teams and put them uder pressure home and away. We go out from the off scared to have the ball and transmit to our opponents that fear and negativity. We can make crap teams look good and once the game has bedded it's too late to change the mindset. It's all about intensity and we don't have it. Martin has to look at changing his psychology in his approach to games otherwise we can expect a long hard season on the road especially. Take the Wycombe game for example, i'm sure if we had thrown men forward and attacked them at pace and with persistance we would have broken them and won the game. Games like that can be won by changing the approach. The Vale game away was the ideal game to play the way we did, no complaints. WE DON'T NEED TO DEPLOY THE SAME TACTICS AGAINST EVERY TEAM REGARDLESS! So for me the problem isn't personnel it's management of it.

[Plymouth Gull]

That Tom Eaves is exactly the sort of player we need on loan. Could do the same role Howe does and be effective too.

[SteveDeckchair]

I think Andy is hitting the nail on the head with his comments. I believe it is telling that when we have nothing to lose and attack like our lives depend on it, we score at will.

[Plymouth Gull]

Regarding your comment on Gills, Andy. I'd say they have a better squad than ourselves at present, without doubt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

They have a bigger squad Nick so i suppose technically they have more in depth and from that you could say that yes they have a better squad too, i meant in terms of first 11, theirs is no way better than ours. I should have made it a little clearer in the post, sorry.

[Plymouth Gull]

Even then I still disagree! Guess we'll just have to disagree on this one, but I'm pretty confident the likes of Whelpdale, Charlie Lee, Myles Weston etc would walk into our XI.

[AustrianAndyGull]

OK Nick, it's another one on which we'll have to differ mate.

That's what it's all about though, opinions. I agree with Whelpdale but no way the others.

[Plymouth Gull]

No Myles is the winger, formerly of Brentford.

Was it Martin who scored their 4th on Saturday? Excellent strike.

[AustrianAndyGull]

just read the 'backbone' comment by Lingy on the BBC Sport website league 2 page and whilst i agree when he says he wants players who are able to pass the ball he also has a responsibilty for making sure they don't do what England do and pass it sideways and backwards. That's what has been happening away from home, no purpose and no forward passing. In short, no options if a decent pass were available anyway so i'm concerned that Martin still hasn't identified this as a problem. We have been passing the ball, just not forwards and not often enough. Reminds me of the bad period last season v Bradford et al. The sad thing is that even if we beat Gillingham AND Morecambe AND Hyde/Harrogate, I KNOW that when i pitch up at Oxford away on the 10th of October the game will start slowly, we will be lethargic and have the odd half chance. Nothing will change and when you are forking out for these games and every time getting negative tripe then it does annoy you. I'm not an unreasonable man and accept we can't play well every time but in the 5 away games i've been this season we have been utterly dire, not 'oh we were unlucky; did ok, totally and utterly abysmal. There comes a point when do you decide to start giving games a miss until the team give you something back? All i'm asking is for a tiny bit of excitement, a tiny bit of end to end, a tiny bit of enjoyment in actually watching the game. This season away i've had none of that and it just isn't acceptable. It's not as if we are Peterborough and have a much inferior squad to the rest of our league, we have one of the better squads and shouldn't be frightened in going out there and showing what we are capable of. We've seen glimpses but for some reason Martin won't let us express ourselves. I could understand the defensive attitude if we were much inferior to the opposition and hoping for a draw but we're not, we're Torquay United not San Marino. We are no better than San Marino away from home in my opinion, all they did was try not to get beat and hope to nick one with a single attack. That was ok for them as they were playing England, We played Wycombe so what's our excuse. Honestly, i'm getting seriously f*cked off now i'm typing this and it isn't doing me any good so i'll finish but if we don't start being more offensive on our travels then i don't know if i can watch any more of the boring, stale, turgid rubbish that passes for a 'performance'. I can accept a couple in 5 games but not all 5. Something HAS to change because not only is it about being competetive in the league which we are and if we finsihed mid table i'd be over the moon but the management and players have a responsibility to the fans to make some sort of effort which is what they are paid for. I used to be one of these fans who would go to games i could get through thick and thin and i still am but times have changed and people are skint and at the end of the day i could fully understand fans who may be thinking of not attending as much because the financial outlay is just not justified anymore when you look at the overall product we are getting.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Please don't reply with 'well we got 4 against Rochdale and had that amazing 4-3 v Aldershot so how much more more entertainment do you want?'. That would get my back up big time and identify you as pretty easy to please. Why were we 3 down to Aldershot in the first place? Was it because we were stale, turgid and let them have the ball making them look good and giving them confidence? Of course it was. I am mainly talking about our away games but i am aware that there have ben a few home games where we have looked clueless too so.

[Dave]

Probably going to win the Matt award for stating the obvious here, our season has reached the pivotal stage now and I don’t think its to over dramatic to say our season sits on a bit of a knife edge right now, the team could pick up six points out of six and back that up with a good away performance and everything is rosy once again, yep I know Gillingham are as though as they come right now but I do feel four points at least must be the target and failure to gain that could see the club on the edge of the bottom five in the league.

If the team don’t get the desired results, personally speaking I would start to form the opinion that our current squad would had enough time to prove themselves, wouldn’t do anything until Christmas, quite often you get odd player who’s had a fall out or seeking a new challenge that becomes available for a loan move, I do know the club runs of a tight budget there must however be some room for loan moves.All said and done really hope it doesn’t come to it though, oh nice discussion on Gillingham.

[royalgull]

I hate the loan system.

Like with lots of the things the idea behind it is good but the actual practise of the loan system is flawed and gets abused by clubs at all levels.

Premier League clubs generally hoover up a young talent from his club (Bostock, Eaves, Sturridge etc) these players then never play for the first team of their new clubs, and then often end up at rival clubs of their original clubs on loan at no cost. Making that club stronger and their original club weaker, how in god's name is that fair?

It also allows clubs at lower levels like ours who blow all their money on cack to then dip into the loan market to strengthen their squads for little or no money. It puts a false llok on the quality of that club and gives them a false/unfair advantage of where they would actually be. The best example is Hereford who had 7 or 8 loan nees the year they won promotion from this league. They then had to give them all back as there was no way they could afford any of them and promptly were relegated the next season.

The player might get some benefit out of it but ultimately the only club that really benefits from it is the loaning club who get their bloke playing some minutes when they don't need him, he then comes back a better player, again Sturridge a good example.

How much better would football be if Eaves stays at Oldham progresses as a player while playing for them, does very well and then Bolton sign him for good money to play in their first team, like it used to happen.

Like everything in football the only benefit is for Premier League clubs, the ones with all the money anyway.

[Glostergull]

I note Martin Lings comments on passing the ball. He's right. if we pass the ball intelligently we can be unbeatable. If we pass to the other team we make ourslelves unreliable. We can go from looking like Barcelona to St Paddys pub team in five minutes.
he's no doubt got them to concentrate on playing to our strengths and keeping the ball away from the other team. Just hope it sinks in.
Sorry guys, can't be with ya tonite. even having trouble getting to Newport to see our own town team Yate Town try and emulate the FA cup shock they delivered to County on Saturday. No doubt will lose heavily. but we will see.
I wonder when Lingy says he's put his fingure on it whether it pulls out a bit o steak or Kindney.

[Chris B]

It's so easy to demand new players, as if they'll automatically solve everything. We have the most reluctant manager in the country when it comes to loan signings, and after a bad result or another injury it can be baffling seeing other sides 'strengthen' on a weekly basis. But who would loan signings replace in our team? What do we need?

Despite plenty of goals at both ends, I'm guessing most want attacking players, but a new winger would only hold back the exciting progress of Niall Thompson. Our main striker is scoring in every match, his understudy scored two when he last started.

I think we need to trust our defence will gel as it did this time last year, that Billy Bodin will add to his goals and begin to fulfil the undoubted potential we've invested so heavily in, and that a fit Danny Stevens will repeat last season's form.

Ling won't have changed too much from the set-up which saw us win as many away games as ever before last season. I'm sure he's equally frustrated that it isn't working at the moment.

If we can't reverse our away form we may, just may have to accept a finish in mid-table. It hasn't happened in a long time, but other sides are blighted year in year out by the inconsistency we're currently showing.