Robinson Signings

[prideoflanarkshire]

After reading many posts about we should be happy with our position and we are hitting our targets with our budget it got me thinking about how our budget has been used by Robinson.  The following players are a list of Robinson signing:

G. Ariyibi - Loan

R. McCormack - Loan

T. Aldred

C. Sammon - Loan

Alex Gorrin

D. Johnson

M. Gillespie

A. Taylor-Sinclair

P. Hartley

L. Donnelly

S. Hendrie – Loan

N. Çiftçi – Loan

C. Main

G. Xenodochof

L. Grimshaw

D. Petravičius

E. Plummer - Loan

G. Newell

C. Kipre

C. Tanner

C. Dunne

G. Bigirimana

A. Fisher

T. Carson

A. Rose

Out of 25 signings in 2 years I would say 8 of them (bold) were a complete waste of money before even discussing the rest. 

The list above is just not good enough.

[Neilwell86]

This might just be me, but for a club like ours, who operate in the market that we do, 8 failures from 25 isn't actually all that bad. Every player we sign is a risk, some work some don't that is the nature of it. I reckon most clubs in world football would take a return similar to ours. Barcelona for example spent the best part of 300m on Coutinho, Dembele and Malcolm and they are looking to offload all three.

[steelboy]

Surely George Newell won't survive this window? His secret extension is everything that is wrong with the club just now.

[prideoflanarkshire]

26 minutes ago, Neilwell86 said:

This might just be me, but for a club like ours, who operate in the market that we do, 8 failures from 25 isn't actually all that bad. Every player we sign is a risk, some work some don't that is the nature of it. I reckon most clubs in world football would take a return similar to ours. Barcelona for example spent the best part of 300m on Coutinho, Dembele and Malcolm and they are looking to offload all three.

and you think the other 17 have been a success?

[Neilwell86]

25 minutes ago, prideoflanarkshire said:

and you think the other 17 have been a success?

Well given Mccormack and ariyibi have been here all of 10 ten minutes, you can't judge. the keeper we had for a month, also can't be judged, the rest however have varying degrees of success, i certainly wouldn't call any of them a waste of money, neither did you in your original post? in all honesty, the only from the other 17 people with a question mark over his head is Gorrin, the rest played a huge part in our success last season and Gillespie proving he is a good keeper this term. Like I said if you expect all 25 players to be a massive hit then you need to re evaluate.

[CoF]

38 minutes ago, Neilwell86 said:

Well given Mccormack and ariyibi have been here all of 10 ten minutes, you can't judge. the keeper we had for a month, also can't be judged, the rest however have varying degrees of success, i certainly wouldn't call any of them a waste of money, neither did you in your original post? in all honesty, the only from the other 17 people with a question mark over his head is Gorrin, the rest played a huge part in our success last season and Gillespie proving he is a good keeper this term. Like I said if you expect all 25 players to be a massive hit then you need to re evaluate.

Taking McCormack and Ariyibi out of the equation leaves 23 players, of which I'd say 7 have been solid signings (Kipre, Aldred, Hartley, Gillespie, Carson, Tanner, Rose), leaving 16 players who have drifted in and out the team with seriously inconsistent levels of performance. 

I think it's significant that of those 7, 3 are defenders and 2 are goalkeepers.

We look absolutely clueless going forward and that's reflected perfectly in the players we sign. 

 

[Neilwell86]

I would also include Dunne in that list, grimshaw as well. Not been in the team every week but he has stepped up to the plate. Main was good last season and unfortunately just not hit the ground running, by no means a failure, i just loved ciftci, for that performance against accies.

[grizzlyg]

2 hours ago, Neilwell86 said:

This might just be me, but for a club like ours, who operate in the market that we do, 8 failures from 25 isn't actually all that bad. Every player we sign is a risk, some work some don't that is the nature of it. I reckon most clubs in world football would take a return similar to ours. Barcelona for example spent the best part of 300m on Coutinho, Dembele and Malcolm and they are looking to offload all three.

What???  Barcelona signed Bob Malcolm!!!!   heh he

[CoF]

23 minutes ago, Neilwell86 said:

I would also include Dunne in that list, grimshaw as well. Not been in the team every week but he has stepped up to the plate. Main was good last season and unfortunately just not hit the ground running, by no means a failure, i just loved ciftci, for that performance against accies.

Oh aye, I actually meant to include Dunne  - another defender so that's 8 solid signings. 

[Haggischomper]

Does the chief scout not have a huge part to play in this? Can't all be put on Robinson.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[El Grew]

We need to stop fishing for players from English non-league clubs and look to the lower divisions in Scotland for potential players. 

[Tassinari]

2 hours ago, steelboy said:

Surely George Newell won't survive this window? His secret extension is everything that is wrong with the club just now.

Its the old pals act, that will allow Newell to survive.  His dad was Robinson's manger at Luton for a few years!!

[Neilwell86]

22 minutes ago, El Grew said:

We need to stop fishing for players from English non-league clubs and look to the lower divisions in Scotland for potential players. 

As much as I agree with you, unfortunately it isn't that easy. The pool of players isn't that big to pick from and if they are good enough every team in the spl will be after them who can pay much more money than we can. Seen last week rangers and norwich looking at some thistle youngster for a reported 400k. Shankland as well had 200k bids knocked back. So as nice as it would be, the Scottish contingency at our club will come from the young boys.

[Yorkyred]

Given the budget I would say overall the percentage of decent signings is actually ok. The problem at the moment is we are not using them effectively.

[mfc]

24 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:

Given the budget I would say overall the percentage of decent signings is actually ok. The problem at the moment is we are not using them effectively.

Agreed,that is a big part of the problem,we haven't used our players effectively this season,were near the end of the january and robinson doesn't know what his best 11 is.we actually found ourselves in a really good position at the end of last season,all that was needed was 2 or 3 players that could come straight into the first team and introduce the likes of turnbull,if we were shrewd with the money that was brought in through the cup runs and player sales,we really could have kicked on but we did the complete opposite,the standard of player we brought in over the summer was dire,too just focus on strengthening the bench while expecting the majority of last seasons team to keep there standards up,has really backfired,we have found ourselves with under performing players and utter garbage on the bench,that can't be relied on.last summer has set the club back along way and whoever is in charge for next season,can't allow the same thing to happen again.

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, mfc said:

all that was needed was 2 or 3 players that could come straight into the first team and introduce the likes of turnbull

If only it was that easy.

[prideoflanarkshire]

Three major issues at the moment:

We have no effective pace in our team - None of the signing have that

We have no left winger at the club - None of the signing are left wingers

We have no right winger at the club - None of the signing are right wingers

The above three problems have been there for his full spell in charge and after 25 signings he hasn't addressed this issue.

[MelvinBragg]

Taking it position by position

GOALKEEPERS

As others have said, Robinson's record is decent here. Carson and Gillespie are good goalkeepers.  Xenodochov was clearly a short term fix, would seem harsh to judge him on that. Griffiths (for he signed him permanently too) was far from the worst back-up keeper we've had but wouldn't have wanted him as first choice. 

 

DEFENDERS. 

Maybe this should be in two sections. Centre halfs, generally he's done ok. Kipré and Dunne were both excellent last season. Hartley was great til January 2018, Aldred great after that (still unsure whether they should play as a pair). Giving Hartley a permanent deal while carrying an injury was a bad decision as he hasn't looked the same player since. Plummer was a waste of a wage due to injury and sadly Liam Donnelly looks to be heading the same way. On Donnelly, I don't think he's looked as bad as some have made out and certainly hasn't been helped by coming in at a time when we lost Dunne and Kipré and Hartley was returning looking half the player he was when he first arrived. 

Full backs, or to be more precise left backs is another story. Hendrie and Taylor-Sinclair are strange in that he signed them and you got the impression, having signed them, he didn't like the look of them. Neither of them have convinced in the role but without extended runs who can tell. A preference for playing Frear there or Tait, allowing Cadden to play right wing back certainly suggests they aren't doing anything in training. 

MIDFIELDERS 

Sigh. Where to start here. He has signed a fair few centre midfielders but they all look pretty similar. Rose and Grimshaw do a lot of unfashionable dirty work. In his few cameos, Gorrin looks to do the same job despite the suggestion he would be more creative (take better care of the ball was, I think, the phrase used). Bigirimana, has shown in flashes what he can do but as soon as Robinson stumbled across his McHugh-Campbell-Rose midfield and it fitted his plans, he's been marginalised. Doesn't track runners but certainly can pass. Would his defensive frailties have been as noticeable had he had last season's back three playing behind him earlier this season? Maybe not, but like the left backs, seems like a signing Robinson decided very quickly wasn't for him. Tanner is the real shame. A creative player that seemed to fit into our team. I suspect had he been fit, we'd be a good few points better off given one goal would have made a difference in so many results.

FORWARDS

Fisher and Sammon are guys that from word one, just haven't seemed to have fit in, it hasn't for whatever reason worked. Petravicius. Not sure of the point of his signing. Signed a winger at a time when Robinson would rather have cut off his own leg than play a winger. Ciftci just seemed like a bad fit, short term panic signing (I fear we may end up saying the same about McCormack). Main looked like a world beater for four months but for whatever reason, now looks like he hasn't seen a football before. Did he start to believe his own hype or were the first four months an anomaly? Starting to suspect the latter. Newell, like Plummer, a waste of a wage on injury record alone. Johnson is simply a goalscorer who doesn't add much else. Fine if you have another striker to do the hard yards (Still can't fathom why we didn't see more of Johnson and Bowman as a pair other than the manager's perseverance with Main).

 

Looking at it (and obviously it's not just Robinson but the scouts that this applies to), he seems to do alright signing goalkeepers, centre halfs or hard working midfielders. Struggles to see a creative player, or spot one that he can fit into his tactics. Tanner being the notable exception.

Guess that explains why as we get further into his tenure, we're scoring fewer and fewer goals...

[ScottW1886]

19 minutes ago, prideoflanarkshire said:

Three major issues at the moment:

We have no effective pace in our team - None of the signing have that

We have no left winger at the club - None of the signing are left wingers

We have no right winger at the club - None of the signing are right wingers

The above three problems have been there for his full spell in charge and after 25 signings he hasn't addressed this issue.

Charles Dunne is one of the fastest players in the country... Danny Johnson managed to out pace Shay Logan over a pitch long race.. Aryibi has pace to burn... Cadden is no slouch and neither is Frear.  There's pace in the team.

Elliot Frear is an out and out left winger, Jake Hastie is also a left winger.

Aryibi is a right winger, he's probably the very definition of a right winger.

Robinson's signings can be questioned, but none of those statements above are accurate!

[prideoflanarkshire]

4 minutes ago, ScottW1886 said:

Charles Dunne is one of the fastest players in the country... Danny Johnson managed to out pace Shay Logan over a pitch long race.. Aryibi has pace to burn... Cadden is no slouch and neither is Frear.  There's pace in the team.

Elliot Frear is an out and out left winger, Jake Hastie is also a left winger.

Aryibi is a right winger, he's probably the very definition of a right winger.

Robinson's signings can be questioned, but none of those statements above are accurate!

In your opinion.

Dunne, not effective pace going forward.

In two years how many times has Frear turned up? Hardly gets past a guy, has hardly played.

Hastie hardly kicked a ball

Aryibi just here cant pass judgement yet, but looked far better for 10 mins on the left wing than the rest of the game on the right.

Johnson blows out his backside after 60min every game

Cadden not the quickest.

 

[ScottW1886]

So it's now changed to 'pace going forward' as opposed to pace?

Johnson is unfit rather than having no pace then. He has pace, and I'd argue that the showed enough pace and fitness to score the late equaliser against Celtic.

So there are left wingers at the club after all? Just that we haven't played with wingers and loaned one out?

Aryibi has pace, has played all his career as a right winger, but because he's just signed that's indicative that the manager hasn't done anything to address the lack of pace and a right winger?

[prideoflanarkshire]

Effective pace was in my first comment. 

How can you have pace but be unfit. Cause he scores in one game in the last two mins he has pace and fitness...what about the number of games he cant finish because hes bent over blown on the half way line.

You think its acceptable for the manager to take two years to sign a winger its all good now, fair enough.  

 

 

[ScottW1886]

Dunne's pace is critical at time in defence, how is that not effective? Is it only effective if it's attacking?

Usain Bolt would struggle to complete 90 minutes of football, but would you say he has no pace? Of course you can have pace but not have the fitness to play 90 minutes. Johnson should be fit enough to last 90 minutes of course, but that's nothing at all to do with his pace.

We've not played a system with wingers in Robinson's entire time until the last couple of games... There was little need to sign one. He has 3 now, and Cadden has the attributes to play there so possibly 4. All good now? Well, not yet because we're not playing a style that suits wingers yet.

[fizoxy]

Some singings haven’t panned out, but there are too many factors in play to make this a black and white issue. I think this is also on Martin foyle, who is our head of recruitment. Was foyle responsible for moult? (And Blyth, fletcher)?

keepers - no faults there, solid.

kipre - no doubt one of the best signings we’ve made in a long time, but he was second choice to another trialist. He was signed as a project too. A lot of luck here.

tanner - freak injury, but before that he was in and out of the team. I like him and think he’d be a great fit in this new system, but a lot of folk are going to be disappointed when he comes back.

bigi - great signing on paper at the time, but have to question the management on this one since his defensive shortcomings must have been clear when he was scouted. However, a good manager knows how to use talents like this. 

dunne - took a gamble on someone he knew, but had come back from horrible injuries. I think we’re all in agreement he is a good one.

aldred - fucking love him

Hartley - we tried to get him before Robbo, and at the time of getting his contract we were all over the moon, so unfair to judge this one with hindsight. He will be fine after a run of games.

mbulu, petravicius, Newell - all signed as projects and the manager admitted as much.  Newell’s contract is a joke though.

Fisher - pretty popular signing at the time, looked good against us and has done alright since leaving, albeit at a lower level. 

Donnely - seems to be an up and coming NI player, but can’t stay fit. Don’t know if it’s bad luck or just how he’s made. 

Johnson - scores goals apparently, but is pretty poor in his all round game. Most strikers know that there has to be more to their game thesedays. Still like him though.

Hendrie, ATS, Plummer - we clearly aren’t scouting left backs.

Gorrin - we had Turnbull, I don’t see the point in this one, poor decision.

rose - solid enough, but signing him for half a year to be nice was a poor decision.

sammon - needless, Scott can do what he’s doing.

McCormack- costing next to nothing, low risk/high reward.

Ariyibi - we’ll see, but on the face of it the right kind of signing.

For a lot of these you have to question the process, not results. Unless there is an overlooked medical problem we can’t predict injuries. It is also hard to gauge who can handle a move to Scotland, both personally and adapting to the league.

So based on that I think it is fair to say we have recruited badly at full back, and don’t seem to know what we want in midfield. 

[steelboy]

How many of Robinson's signings are guys who can be counted on to give you a solid 6/7/8 out of 10 most weeks? For me it's just Kipre and Aldred (I would have added Tanner but Robinson didn't play him all the time when he was fit).

That's shocking.