Coughlan's signings

[NorthLondonStag]

It's been said elsewhere but to be fair to GC there's some good players that he's signed that now seem to be key to the team, particularly (I think):

Lapslie
Maris
Clarke
Charsley
Bowery
Perch
Rawson

Stech, O'Driscoll, O'Keeffe, Reid and McLaughlin have potential as well or haven't shown it fully yet. Reid seems to be coming through more recently with NC showing him confidence by playing him every week.

It hasn't worked out for Menayese (yet) and Riley got injured early on.

Might have got some GC and JD signings mixed up here though, which people can correct.

[victor A block]

Did he sign great players and use them incorrectly or has Clough made average players better players ?

[ParisStag]

Did he sign great players and use them incorrectly or has Clough made average players better players ?

A bit of both. I think there are some good ones in there and some not so good. Clough is getting more out of all of them than Coughlan did.

[Bradders]

I think that we weren't ever unhappy with the squad, but Coughlan just didn't seem to be able to get them to play anywhere near their potential.
The poor pre-season turned out to be a warning of what was to follow, and Clough's success has emphasised that they're a decent set of players. Probably they can be regarded as the best in League 2, even though in October they looked like the worst shower in the professional leagues.

[Captain Cunno]

I was surprised we managed to sign Maris as that boy was destined for the championship a few short seasons ago. Having started slowly hes now showing his potential and is turning into a real gem for us.

[gazza1988]

Did he sign great players and use them incorrectly or has Clough made average players better players ?

Definitely both.

Don't forget Cooper took over for a short while and we were clearly much improved under him, even securing our first victory of the season after 15 attempts! Clough came in and we carried on with the improvement to where we are now on a 4 game league win streak. That's the clough improvement but we also improved under a rookie. It's clear as day that GC was the issue. The players are the same players just the management team has changed.

[Spiritater]

Did he sign great players and use them incorrectly or has Clough made average players better players ?

Pushing it a bit far with the 'great players' tag.

[bobbystagsfan]

Did he sign great players and use them incorrectly or has Clough made average players better players ?

Pushing it a bit far with the 'great players' tag.

Would you not say Clarke, Perch, Lapslie have been great players? Most were dumpster fire at the start of the season and most have turned it around. I'd say they've been players we've been missing for ages especially Clarke, Lapslie, Charsley.

[Spiritater]

They're ok players and have potential as a team, but 'great'... no. If they get us up the tag 'great' will be more apt.

[bobbystagsfan]

They're ok players and have potential as a team, but 'great'... no. If they get us up the tag 'great' will be more apt.

Maybe I think they're great because of what we had to endure at the end of the Flitcroft era, the Dempster era and Coughlan era. A very rough time for the club and fans, now we're looking back up again maybe I'm being too generous but recently they're still been better than just OK

[MutinyOnTheCounty]

They're ok players and have potential as a team, but 'great'... no. If they get us up the tag 'great' will be more apt.

Not often I agree with you, Tater........ so I won't try to now!

But yeah, the 'greats' implies they have a history with us of accolades and achievement. There are some very decent players, I'll give GC that. But as mentioned, Cloughie has elevated their potential imo

[gazza1988]

Depends on the scale and context. Better adjectives than great could be 'superb' 'excellent' and 'exquisite'

So on that scale I'd say we have some great players. In context of league 2 we do have some great players. In the context of out of all players in the world then ne we don't have great players. In the context of this season and last then we have some exceptional players right now.

You don't go on a run like we have recently without great players.

Also you say only great players achieve anything at our club. We won a league title 8 years ago. We had some great players to do that. However would you swap Ollie Clarke now with Anthony Howell from back then? Or Lee Stevenson with George Lapslie? I wouldn't. Doesn't mean they weren't great player though.

[HitchcocksShins]

History will not rember GC kindly, but for me he did assemble a very good squad. On paper at absolute least, but we've not exactly been easy to beat all season, look at the table, we have less losses than league leaders Cambridge. Amount of draws we've had is daft so we've been lacking in confidence and killer edge.
GC was just very very stubborn and as a result seemed to lose the dressing room in record time.