Robbie eyes January signings

[Madjambo21]

A lot of negativity on this thread.

Robbie inherited one of the worst Hearts teams in recent history.

 

Needed a keeper so he brought in Gordon.

Kingsley at left back also.

Not impressed with popescu.

 

On paper Frear and Robert's should have been good at this level.

 

He had to do this during lockdown in this pandemic which I'd imagine was not easy to bring players to a team that were demoted to the championship.

 

Defeat to Dunfermline was a shock and the Alloa result terrible but Robbie has to try get the best out a team that have been serial losers for the best part of 2 seasons.

 

I'm confident Robbie will get it right.

Let's not judge till he has a window and promotion.

 

HHGH👍

[Pasquale for King]

6 minutes ago, Jim Panzee said:

agree - something is not right. we've changed managers, players - even leagues(!) and for RN to say the players need a confidence boost when they're 1 point off top spot and in the cup final.....seems odd.

 

am slightly worried that RN doesn't seem to want to play the youngsters in place of the likes of naismith, boyce & walker - either as a punishment or for trying something different.  

 

lets hope we get a reaction from the players tomorrow, and Alloa turns out to be a blip.

I feared that from the start, every signing was an experienced player. Imagine being HendersonMoore/Macdonald/Morrison and seeing 30yo Frear get a trial, not show up well enough to get a contract then get one. You would be happy the manager says he wanted to play with two wingers then sign three, no wonder the two that hadn’t just signed new contracts left. 
I also queried the signing of Halliday, saying that it might hinder Irving’s progress. 
Nothing Neilson does is a shock, he’s using the same playbook he’s always used and unfortunately it was written by Levein. 
Dunfermline was the blip, nothing has changed since then. We then went 3 hours without scoring against the worst team in the league whilst creating about 6 chances in that time. 

[Rick Sanchez]

I like Robbie and I try to stick up for him but he talks a good game but doesn't actually deliver. I'm not talking results, I'm talking about the things he says. 

 

He signed three new wingers to use pace and be more direct...only one of them is faster than anything we had before.

 

I'm 100% confident that Moore and Henderson are faster and trickier than Frear and Roberts. This was the perfect season to give them a make or break chance. Aidy White has shown more than them ffs.

 

And we always seem to sign chicken hearted wingers for some reason.

[JamboJoker98]

Feels like Groundhog Day. Worryingly, summer is always easier to sign better players, and we trialled and signed Frear & Roberts so this window is giving me the absolute fear.

 

The only way to get a decent player of calibre that isn't going to be totally wasted next year in (hopefully) the SPL is to spend money on decent, known quantity players. Judging by our recruitment for going on 5 years this doesn't fill me with hope

[Pasquale for King]

3 minutes ago, Madjambo21 said:

A lot of negativity on this thread.

Robbie inherited one of the worst Hearts teams in recent history.

 

Needed a keeper so he brought in Gordon.

Kingsley at left back also.

Not impressed with popescu.

 

On paper Frear and Robert's should have been good at this level.

 

He had to do this during lockdown in this pandemic which I'd imagine was not easy to bring players to a team that were demoted to the championship.

 

Defeat to Dunfermline was a shock and the Alloa result terrible but Robbie has to try get the best out a team that have been serial losers for the best part of 2 seasons.

 

I'm confident Robbie will get it right.

Let's not judge till he has a window and promotion.

 

HHGH👍

You missed out Halliday who wasn’t needed and Ginnelly who has talent but is at his 11th club at 23yo. 
Another window, sounds familiar. 
We might not get promotion if something doesn’t change. 

Edited December 4, 2020 by Pasquale for King

[Rogue Daddy]

5 minutes ago, Rick Sanchez said:

I like Robbie and I try to stick up for him but he talks a good game but doesn't actually deliver. I'm not talking results, I'm talking about the things he says. 

 

He signed three new wingers to use pace and be more direct...only one of them is faster than anything we had before.

 

I'm 100% confident that Moore and Henderson are faster and trickier than Frear and Roberts. This was the perfect season to give them a make or break chance. Aidy White has shown more than them ffs.

 

And we always seem to sign chicken hearted wingers for some reason.

 

...and they'll get better. Frear and Roberts are at their peak (or beyond it?)

[Coco]

Suso was mentioned above.

 

Players with that sort of mentality are desperately needed.  Would our opposition prefer to play against a guy like that with niggle and aggression or a total sap like Olly Lee?

 

Levein and MacPhee assembled a squad of weak losers.  Neilson added a few more in the summer.

 

As for a pacy striker - it beggars belief that he did not address this in the summer.  Who was behind the idea of re-signing Moore, Brandon and Henderson while managerless?  The funds spent on them could have seen the desperately needed striker signed.

[Ford Prentice]

If young players are going out to get game time to get nearer the first team does that mean those who have been out on loan now come back? If the thinking is correct Cochrane, Hamilton and Smith should all be nearer the first team. If they can't get into the team in the Championship, what chance is there next season if we go up.

 

This is all horribly familiar. Feels like when I've accidentally put a song on repeat on Spotify.

[Jamhammer]

2 hours ago, Sarah O said:

JaSoN CuMmInGs 

 

KyLe LaFfErTy

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget LaWrenCe ShAnkLand and GEnnaRo ZeeFuIk

[johnthomas]

All (or much of) the above true but now history .

Football doesn't work logically .

Who are we we looking to sign ?

[Rick Sanchez]

7 minutes ago, Rogue Daddy said:

 

...and they'll get better. Frear and Roberts are at their peak (or beyond it?)

 

No idea mate. They look like they'd rather be somewhere else when I'm watching them play.

 

And JJ said we'd be targeting players for not only this season, but an immediate return to the top six. Only place we'd be heading is an immediate return to the bottom 3.

[soonbe110]

1 hour ago, Pasquale for King said:

Definitely, I did think he would play experienced players over youngsters to get us over the line. I’m not sure if he can even do that with this squad of around 26 players with only a couple of injuries. 

Smith, Halkett, Ginelly, Frear, Robert’s, Soutar, Berra all carrying knocks/injuries at present. Add in Halliday not fully fit after 6 months out. 

[soonbe110]

39 minutes ago, Pasquale for King said:

Absolutely, there’s just something not right at the club from top to bottom and it needs to change. 
Considering what we’ve done, continue to do and what we’ve had to suffer we deserve much better. 

There’s that old Hibs and Celtic entitlement coming through again - “ we deserve better”. 

[soonbe110]

23 minutes ago, Madjambo21 said:

A lot of negativity on this thread.

Robbie inherited one of the worst Hearts teams in recent history.

 

Needed a keeper so he brought in Gordon.

Kingsley at left back also.

Not impressed with popescu.

 

On paper Frear and Robert's should have been good at this level.

 

He had to do this during lockdown in this pandemic which I'd imagine was not easy to bring players to a team that were demoted to the championship.

 

Defeat to Dunfermline was a shock and the Alloa result terrible but Robbie has to try get the best out a team that have been serial losers for the best part of 2 seasons.

 

I'm confident Robbie will get it right.

Let's not judge till he has a window and promotion.

 

HHGH👍

Probably most realistic post on this thread. 

[DH1986]

Get a couple of decent forward thinking players in on loan so we win the league and then concentrate on a summer rebuild

 

We will have access to better players once promotion is assured.

 

In the summer we’ll need first choice RB, 2 CH’s, an attacking midfielder, a couple of wide midfielders and a couple of strikers.

 

We’ll lose Smith, Berra, Lee, Wighton, White, Damour, Walker, Frear and Roberts....maybe a few others too.

 

We need to focus on getting in quality and stop ****ing about with pish from Forrest Green an such like. Scottish football is on its arse and we should be in a better position to take advantage of some clubs who will still be struggling.

 

Aberdeen and Hibs are picking up the best of the rest which is why they are in 3rd and 4th position in the top league. It’s time we stop complicating things and focused on what’s on our doorstep. 
 

We have wasted too much money over too long a period for it to be acceptable any longer.

 

 

[i8hibsh]

22 minutes ago, Madjambo21 said:

 

 

On paper Frear and Robert's should have been good at this level.

 

 

 

I like your post man but the above snipet to me needs highlighted. It is very true what you say but this is our huge issue.

 

We seem to be buying players based on how good they are on paper with no thought to how they will fit in to the team and the dressing room, injury history and actual scouted experience. We are recruiting passengers with the hearts of goldfish. 

[Francis Albert]

Leaving aside the content of what Robbie says what exactly is the point of giving this interview? 

[Bull's-eye]

A positive story kyboshed.

 

 

[gordiegords]

Fast losing faith in the club to sign any quality nowadays, yet another clear out needed, Roberts and frear never good enough, frear looks petrified. 
 

have we had the same recruitment guy for years now? Should surely be questioned on why more than half the players we sign are utter gash. 

[TexasAndy]

3 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

I like your post man but the above snipet to me needs highlighted. It is very true what you say but this is our huge issue.

 

We seem to be buying players based on how good they are on paper with no thought to how they will fit in to the team and the dressing room, injury history and actual scouted experience. We are recruiting passengers with the hearts of goldfish. 

Wingers were brought in because we need wingers, that's how they fit in.  It's obvious unless you are looking, as usual, you brown nose every single thread.

[Jim Panzee]

7 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

There’s that old Hibs and Celtic entitlement coming through again - “ we deserve better”. 

sure if that's strictly true. perhaps we've expected better rather than deserve. our front four (Boyce, Naismith, Walker and one from Roberts, Frear, Ginelley) on paper should be standouts in this league almost every game.

 

Perhaps Frear and Roberts are still adjusting to this league and scottish football. If so - why not play someone like Moore who in his last spell was holding his own in the league above.

 

Or....try different tactics - the 4-4-2 as some folk are suggesting. 

[i8hibsh]

3 minutes ago, TexasAndy said:

Wingers were brought in because we need wingers, that's how they fit in.  It's obvious unless you are looking, as usual, you brown nose every single thread.

 

 

Poppycock. You don't just employ someone based on the position they play and think by default it will work.

 

 

And I am hardly a brown nose.

Edited December 4, 2020 by i8hibsh

[joondalupjambo]

The best signing, and probably the only one we really need is for Kingsley to get on board for 2 to 3 years.   Apart from that bit of business this squad should be more than enough to get us out of the Championship.  

 

IMO the club should keep back some cash and not commit, move on some of the dross in January and the summer windows and then buy the right calibre of player when we have know we have secured promotion.  By all means find, talk (we know it goes on) to them or their agents in preparation for the summer signing and line up our ducks.

[Nookie Bear]

11 minutes ago, Francis Albert said:

Leaving aside the content of what Robbie says what exactly is the point of giving this interview? 

Funny you mention that. I don’t really follow what other managers say in the press but we do seem to be keen to speak to the press about our transfer plans in detail. 
 

It’s very odd. 

[TexasAndy]

13 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

Poppycock. You don't just employ someone based on the position they play and think by default it will work.

 

 

And I am hardly a brown nose.

You are contradicting your own thread.  

[Boris]

Maybe by mentioning bringing in new players RN is in an oblique way trying to motivate those in the current squad?

 

Maybe not though, just a thought.

[Deevers]

Get a half decent striker in who can find a bit of space in the penalty box and knows how to hit the back of the net and we’ll be fine.

[kingantti1874]

I think people look at our squad on paper and say it’s a good squad!!  And on paper it is. 
 

It really isn’t.. no pace, no power, old slow unmotivated players who are at the end of careers rather than young hungry ones who are ecstatic to be here, who play with enthusiasm and energy, who don’t get injured every 2 weeks, we have no game breakers in the team, no one with a bit of magic, no one with the power to really trouble defences..

 

that is not Robbie neilson’s fault.. he has tried to address some of it, but in the market we operate there is a gamble on every signing.

 

sure we will win most weeks but are we  a certainty for promotion? Not for me. 

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2020 by kingantti1874

[wavydavy]

4 hours ago, Cut The Crap said:

I’d like to see Robbie stop signing and start coaching.

 

How can you coach slow players to speed up?

[braveheart]

4 hours ago, copa-mundial said:

Who really was the last winger we had with pace. I mean real blistering pace? One that could skip by his man easily, and cross.

 

In all honesty. My thinking takes me way back to Neil McCann. 

 

Sam Nicholson, may be another. This apart. I really struggle to think. 

 

 

The Bosnian bullet?

[Jcy110715]

39 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

Funny you mention that. I don’t really follow what other managers say in the press but we do seem to be keen to speak to the press about our transfer plans in detail. 
 

It’s very odd. 

I would guess it’s to try and keep us moaning negative fans informed, only my opinion tho

[Sertse]

2 hours ago, Ainsley Harriott said:

You being serious about Halliday? The guy is absolutely honking. He was that good at Rangers the celtic fans sang his name.

What was the song?

He's been very much good or shite with no inbetween. Would I keep him the rest of the season? Yes. Beyond that? Definitely not.

[JamboAl]

6 minutes ago, wavydavy said:

 

How can you coach slow players to speed up?

The answer its that you probably can't but you can coach them better ball control etc and that often buys important time.  Players like Jim Baxter and Jan Molby were no speed merchants but extremely clever and highly effective. 

[JamboAl]

7 minutes ago, braveheart said:

The Bosnian bullet?

I remember that one cross he made.

[hmfc_liam06]

Yes, lets never sign another player again because Neilson didn't get it 100% right in the summer.

[Robbo-Jambo]

5 hours ago, Nookie Bear said:

Don’t trust him to buy any better tbh 

After Frear and Roberts neither do I tbh. 😏 

[Sertse]

2 hours ago, The Natural Order said:

As the Who once sang. Meet the new boss same as the old boss.

 

Sadly Budge has been fooled again.

I don't think she's been fooled again, she was probably told by CL to appoint him. Stendel was too much of a shock to the system. Keep in mind she was in contact with RN before Stendel was sacked and appointed RN without even telling him.

She wants a nice safe yes man who'll play boring football and try to change absolutely nothing.

[olivialinnell]

Didn't rate Robbie first time around albeit he left us in a ''healthy'' league position. His big game record, was brutal. Our signing policy under him some-what mediocre. He was able to bring the players back early, we should be miles clear in terms of fitness given we are a full-time side.

 

But what I cannot understand, why 'waste' money when there are apparently perfectly able youth players at the club able to step up. Part of their development is they are given first team games at some stage and what better opportunity to do it against part time sides in the championship. It makes absolutely zero sense to me loaning players on the cusp of the first team to teams in our league or the league below.

[Last Laff]

10 minutes ago, hmfc_liam06 said:

Yes, lets never sign another player again because Neilson didn't get it 100% right in the summer.

He got 10% right.

[kingantti1874]

1 hour ago, Bull's-eye said:

A positive story kyboshed.

 

 

100% same posters would be crucifying Robbie if he said he didn’t need anyone 😂 

 

There is an core of so called “supporters” desperate for Robbie to fail.  They’ve been waiting all season for a slip up.

 

best ignored.. 

 

robbie will get us promoted or he will leave.. that simple 

[Famous 1874]

Kingsley looks the only good bit of business made by Robbie Neilson this summer, as I believe Gordon was announced before? Ginnelly has played about 3 games so haven’t included him as he impressed against Dundee but looked poor in the other games. 

 

Whoever and how we do our scouting needs emptied and changed. Absolutely woefully bad. 

[Cut The Crap]

30 minutes ago, wavydavy said:

 

How can you coach slow players to speed up?

 

He identified the need for pacy wide men in the summer and signed three of them. Five games in and one is injured and the other two appear to be no longer trusted. I have no faith he'll make a better job of it in January than he did in August.

 

Perhaps Moore and Henderson are worth a try rather than trying to fill round holes with square pegs (Walker, Naismith, Wighton). Perhaps we could devise some alternative tactics to reduce reliance on our fairly one-dimensional current game plan. 

[GavK1012]

Incredible that many have the same gut feeling than myself when we read this...never did I think I would see the day I dreaded a window re adding players...honestly its just another opportunity to spunk hard earned cash away by whomever is in charge...like others, I would rather keep our powder dry and use it next season for real quality, quality that has been thoroughly scouted and analysed. He needs to get more out of the resources we have and add in youngsters to boot. Its soul destroying our record in the market now for so long, the acquisition of players is actually one of the worst if not the worst part of our set up...

 

😕☹😞😖😫😤

[Juho_Makela_Goal_Machine]

2 hours ago, Allowayjambo1874 said:

Irving is out of contract in the summer so if he loans him out he will be gone I reckon. Same as Moore & Henderson. Why these guys are not even in squads when Frear & Roberts are not performing baffles me. 

That's Hearts, the best club for young players in Europe.

[Maroonjam]

2 hours ago, Fraggle said:

All our current central midfielders slow down the play too much when we are attacking. Not sure how Naismith has avoided a thread slating him on here? I know it's not the done thing on here to have a go at him, but I think we are a better team without him (currently), and I wouldn't be upset if we offloaded him to free up some wages. 

Agree other than the hibs game he has looked poor. Lee started well this season but that was with irving beside him when they are both ball players. This haliday/haring/Lee combo does nothing for me as we are still missing someone in the #10 position to link it all together. 

[JamboAl]

Just a thought.  RN is meeting with AB.  Will JJ and Andrew McKinlay be there also?

[wavydavy]

4 minutes ago, Cut The Crap said:

 

He identified the need for pacy wide men in the summer and signed three of them. Five games in and one is injured and the other two appear to be no longer trusted. I have no faith he'll make a better job of it in January than he did in August.

 

Perhaps Moore and Henderson are worth a try rather than trying to fill round holes with square pegs (Walker, Naismith, Wighton). Perhaps we could devise some alternative tactics to reduce reliance on our fairly one-dimensional current game plan. 

 

Don't disagree with your summary but it doesn't answer my point.

 

We need options other than playing wide with more pace and creativity through the central midfield.

 

Teams stifle the wide areas and stop us playing there and that is when we struggle.

 

It seems Robbie doesn't see that which for me is a worry.

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

Honestly, the mind boggles about the shite we’ll turn up in this next window

 

[Ethan Hunt]

2 hours ago, kingantti1874 said:

Looks like he has realised that Roberts  and Frear aren’t good enough..

 

it happens at the lower end of the market.. which we are in.. every signing is a gamble

 

100% Moore and Henderson should be in front of those 2

I’d suggest we’ve gambled far too often in the transfer market over the last few years, lower end of the transfer market or not. In fact I’d suggest we are now operating at the level we are in the transfer market as 99% of the gambles haven’t paid off and we’ve lost millions.

 

Neilson seems to be continuing the same transfer policy of those before him. No doubt some English lower league 28 year old will be the next getting rolled out. I’d have rather seen McDonald, Irving, Cochran’s and Moore all given a chance ahead of some of the utter shite we have signed.

[Last Laff]

9 minutes ago, Cut The Crap said:

 

He identified the need for pacy wide men in the summer and signed three of them. Five games in and one is injured and the other two appear to be no longer trusted. I have no faith he'll make a better job of it in January than he did in August.

 

Perhaps Moore and Henderson are worth a try rather than trying to fill round holes with square pegs (Walker, Naismith, Wighton). Perhaps we could devise some alternative tactics to reduce reliance on our fairly one-dimensional current game plan. 

It’s almost criminal that the young players aren’t getting a sniff.