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[andrewflynn]

Stoke City:

Gabriel Adebambo, Jacob Holland-Wilkinson, Tommy Jackson, George Lewis, Dan Malone, Luke Redfern, Josh Roney and Douglas James-Taylor

[MarpleAlty]

I hope this post ends up making me look very foolish, however there's no chance in hell that Nick Haughton is a realistic signing.

[Saughall Robin]

Hope it does too but you're probably right.

[Timperley The Best]

Will be interesting to see  how many loan signings we start the season with if any wasnt it one last season ?

[andrewflynn]

Will be interesting to see  how many loan signings we start the season with if any wasnt it one last season ?

Two. Chris Conn-Clarke and Aaron Bennett, who signed on the eve of the season.

[HashtagAlty]

I hope this post ends up making me look very foolish, however there's no chance in hell that Nick Haughton is a realistic signing.

That's the spirit... If we're being beat by Oldham, we may as well give up before the season starts.

[andrewflynn]

I hope this post ends up making me look very foolish, however there's no chance in hell that Nick Haughton is a realistic signing.

That's the spirit... If we're being beat by Oldham, we may as well give up before the season starts.

In a way, I agree with you both.

I would like to think we are at least in the race and we've offered as much as we deem sensible. He's the type of signing we should be making (mixed with the broken toy, youthful Parky approach) and there's no harm in putting something on the table for an Urmston lad with serious quality in a position we desperately need to fill. It wouldn't be too dissimilar to the acquisition of Matty Kosylo in 2020 so to say there's no chance in Hell is slightly OTT imho.

At the same time, I do fully expect to be outgunned for these marquee signings by the likes of Oldham, Rochdale and Fylde, whether people like it or not. That's just the reality of our situation.

[MarpleAlty]

I hope this post ends up making me look very foolish, however there's no chance in hell that Nick Haughton is a realistic signing.

That's the spirit... If we're being beat by Oldham, we may as well give up before the season starts.

Just because someone is expensive, doesn't mean they're the best signing. It's absolutely not how I meant it.

I'd rather sign someone that wants to be here, rather than someone clearly playing below his level for a number of years because of the money on offer.

Honestly as much as I'd be pleased a player of his obvious quality came here, I'd want to be convinced he believes in the Alty project and not the fact we've thrown money at it.

Oh and yes, we're not in the same market as Oldham. Obviously. Let them throw money at people, we can be smarter about it.

[HashtagAlty]

I hope this post ends up making me look very foolish, however there's no chance in hell that Nick Haughton is a realistic signing.

That's the spirit... If we're being beat by Oldham, we may as well give up before the season starts.

Just because someone is expensive, doesn't mean they're the best signing. It's absolutely not how I meant it.

I'd rather sign someone that wants to be here, rather than someone clearly playing below his level for a number of years because of the money on offer.

Honestly as much as I'd be pleased a player of his obvious quality came here, I'd want to be convinced he believes in the Alty project and not the fact we've thrown money at it.

Oh and yes, we're not in the same market as Oldham. Obviously. Let them throw money at people, we can be smarter about it.

We paid for Ryan, for Newby, for Jennings, albeit for a short while and all added tremendous value. Sometime you have to pay for a bit of experience.

[andrewflynn]

Again, agree with you both, and hopefully this summer we can strike the balance between cracking open the war chest and doing it on the cheap.

We must continue to be astute and smart in what we do, but we do also need to acknowledge that we played our best football with players who are no longer at the club: Colclough, Newby, Conn-Clarke, Jennings, Oyedele, Mullarkey specifically. Mooney, Senior and Hancock last season, three players who are still yet to be replaced permanently.

Serious money needs to be spent this summer if we want to replace them and progress - not in every signing, and we've shown we can really pick a player with the superb acquisitions of Marriott, Senior, Mullarkey, Linney, Lundstram etc - but we can't spend the first few months of the season looking at the likes of Sami and Kaja on a free again. Not at this level.

For every Conn-Clarke there's a Cashman, every Newby a Gyasi, and if we end up in that situation next season we can't guarantee that it's going to click as it did this time around. We got away with it this season because we got 5 months out of Ryan and were lucky to put together that RC-CCC-Newby-Jennings side for a good run. If Maxi Oyedele wasn't up to it in the second half of the season, we may well have been dragged into the scrap.

It's evident at Southampton, who have rebuilt numerous times in the Premier League after losing their better players (Van Dijk, Shaw, Mane, Wanyama, Forster, Clyne, Alderweireld, Lallana, Schneirderlin, Lovren...) that time finally runs out on clubs that aren't able to retain and attract.

There are similarities there in who we've lost in the past couple of seasons and we simply have to replace the quality like-for-like (Colclough aside, that's pretty much impossible) or we could be in serious trouble next season. We're walking a tightrope.

It sounds more negative than it is, I'm excited, and I know we're progressing. It's a huge summer ahead and I've full confidence in what we're doing but it really is a mammoth task and our most important window since 2017/18. I know Rob, Phil, Neil, Cathal and others will be working tirelessly.

Sorry this has turned into an overdue end-of-season retrospective (wasn't the plan when I started my dinner break!) but that's just where I think we're at!

Up the Alty.

[Saughall Robin]

Excellent and though provoking post. 👍

[MarpleAlty]

I think it's a well-measured post and I agree with much of what is on there - I think we're stating the obvious by saying that we need to display increased ambition year on year; I think that goes without saying, and the off-field investments will allow us to continue to do that.

Ambition aside, we'll still continue to lose star players, simply because their own ascent is quicker than what we can manage as a club. To that effect, we do have to be a 'Southampton' (or obviously a 'Brighton' in the current day) - whilst figuring out how to consolidate as we go.

There's models to follow, of course; Fleetwood have managed it (albeit with significant investment) and yet they lost players like Jamie Vardy along the way - all of which allowed them to reinvest and go again stronger each time. Once we neglect to have a 1, 3 and 5 year plan is when we'll start going backwards.

Perfect example is probably Rochdale, who punched above their weight for 15 years or so by investing in data & sports science, developing players, selling them on, and reinvesting. Once the right people weren't in place behind the scenes, that well dried up and then - well, they are where they are now.

Maybe I'm looking at it too black and white, but last season's window was more critical than this one in terms of starting positions...

- last year we needed a GK, LB, one more CB, RB, one more CM (and then both once we lost Isaac), an AM once we lost Matty, a RW and a ST. 7 positions that became 9 following injury.
- this year we need a GK (being brutal), one more CB, RB, LW, AM and a RW - we have a LB, one CB, two CMs and a ST. 6 positions but with stronger existing backups to each of those positions.

[robininstockport]

Spot on Andrew Flynn

[Saughall Robin]

A massive step forward would be for the five essential signings to be permanent ones (or at most one season long loan for someone like CCC.)
We ought to be aiming to use loans as fill ins for injury etc rather than 'star' regular starters. This may be unrealistic but we've surely got to have that as our aim?

[distancetraveller]

We have got to get an established back four and GK. if we keep chopping  and changing the back 4 then we will never stop conceding goals. Baines has been good at the back and I wouldn’t mind seeing Cooper have another run next to him,. We do also need a GK. Team confidence starts from the back, if we concede like we did this season just gone then we will do well to stay in this division.