What is needed ...

[Jeff]

I'm surprised we are finding it SO hard to get players in. Perhaps the tight nature of the bottom half of L1 (7pts from 15th to 21st) isn't helping us.

You'd think at this stage of the season, most managers would know who they are retaining and releasing for next season so if they knew they were letting somebody go, they'd allow them to put themselves in the shop window with a spell with us. But with L1 being so tight, perhaps a lot of managers haven't been able to plan for next season and as such don't know quite who is for the chop yet?

[CP Gull]

It seems, by his (Alan Knill's) own admission that rather as some of us thought might be the case, our new Manager is far more familiar with Northern based players than Southern, not really surprising given that all of his managerial experience has been in that part of the country(note to Mr Baker!). Having all those northern" contacts" may not unfortunately be of much use in our current predicament!

So, having been knocked back by all these "Northerners" that he knew, it seems that he is now being offered "Southerners" he doesn't know and has never seen play! Fair play to him, he has not panicked and just brought someone in for the sake of it and it makes good sense to go and see some of these players that have been recommended to him, so that he can make his own mind up, which he is apparently planning to do next week.

Personally though, I would have liked to have seen at least another one or two more added this week and the Benyon "situation"'just increases the pressure as it seems by no means certain, due to his ongoing knee problem, that he will even stay beyond the weekend, let alone be fully fit!

I really do like the sound of Labadie and with Downes (hopefully) back it certainly makes the "spine" of our team look a lot more solid, but it is all about goals and we need to find our shooting boots on Saturday and make sure we secure he three points we so desperately need, otherwise the (relative) lack of squad strengthening this week will begin to seem like a huge mistake.

I like the sound of Knill and am encouraged by his approach to things, but he is nearly three weeks into the job now and, despite his undoubted hard work and efforts to bring people in, I still maintain that the "focus" has been a little bit wide of the mark in terms of where the team needed strengthening ( a centre half was the least of our worries and young Angus is an able deputy for Downesy anyway) and the types of players he has been going after ... seemingly northern based, experienced, League 1 types, who surprise, surprise seemingly have no interest in joining a struggling league 2 side in our south western outpost on a short term basis !!! A generalisation, I know, but I suspect it's not too far wide of the mark!

Like I suggested in a previous post, perhaps we should look at how Sheridan (who has admitted how surprised he was at how difficult it has been to bring players in ) has gone about his business at Argyle and how he has recruited from almost exclusively Southern based clubs. I suspect Alan Knill is finally coming around to that way of thinking, but in he meantime another week and another game passes by with just the one addition to show for all his efforts.

If Knill stays beyond the end of this season, I am sure he will have more luck in persuading some of those reluctant "Northerners" that life ain't so bad down here and once they come and have a good look around heck they might actually find life down here ain't so bad after all, but unfortunately persuading them to come down now, for even the briefest of stays, just isn't the right time.

I suspect that over the next few weeks I.e up until he loan "window" closes we will now see an influx of largely untried and untested kids coming in from out of the Premiership/Championship Academies, which is probably where the focus should have been from day one. Who knows, there might be a few more experienced pros knocking around locally, who might fancy a few weeks in Devon, but there may not be too many of those around at this stage of the season. The time spent focusing elsewhere will hopefully not have been entirely wasted as it did at least produce Labadie but I think we need to shift direction now to more "realistic" targets and hope that we can uncover some real gems.

[AustrianAndyGull]

I'm delighted that Joss has joined us and all being well he will be pitched straight into the action come 3pm tomorrow and i'm confident he will have a good game and a positive influence on the team both going forward and defending. However, i share your concerns CP about the need for us to score goals which STILL (for whatever reason) hasn't been properly addressed. It looks unlikely that anyone else is going to come in before the Oxford game which we will at best get a draw out of even with the inclusion of Labadie (he isn't superman and anyone who expects us to suddenly start winning because we have signed someone is certifiably insane and that includes Knill ). If nobody comes in on Monday then we go into the Daggers game with the same squad who can't score. Again, a draw at best IMO. Then we go to Southend where WE SIMPLY NEED STRIKING OPTIONS IN TIME FOR THIS GAME TO REMAIN COMPETETIVE.

Even before the Southend game comes round 2 more winnable games will have passed without us winning (IMO) and because we can't score goals and the problem hasn't been solved. I don't know what fingers are in what pies for Knill but the upshot is that if we can't score goals we have no chance of winning football matches and if we don't win many football matches then we will be relegated in 8 weeks time. So i would very much like him to get someone in at some point next week. I understand when people say there is no point in bringing in players who aren't better than what we've got and i totally agree, all it means if that is the case is that we are going down. It's as simple as that. So again, the ball is firmly in Knill's court and i just hope he has managed to identify some players and can get them in next week. I have to trust him and i have to believe in him because i cannot think about failure.