We'd be a pretty awful team without Jack Clarke

After speakmans last few windows i'd not be massively confident the clarke money would be spent well tbh or problem positions would be addressed.
 


Sea to Shining Sea said:
Everything happens through him. Once he’s gone, we’ll become very, very ordinary.
Click to expand...
The new boy from Belgium might prove to be good. People view it as a negative but its mint that we've someone as good as Clarke and rely so heavily on him. Just enjoy him, why shouldnt we just give him the ball. He came here at a low ebb and has flourished. It shows its a good environment for young players.
 
sofatester said:
Things normally only happen when he's involved. Roberts gets us up the pitch but that's it there's never an end product from him.

Last season we had diallo and Clarke and they were the difference. This season it's just Clark. Next season I fear without jack we will struggle as I have no faith in kld investing much of the money we receive on new players
Click to expand...

We are a pretty awful team with Jack Clarke but we'd be so much more more if we kept Clarky, bought a with a centre-forward, a midfielder who could put his foot in & spray the ball about and had a manager like Farke.​

 
Perryqhill said:
Because none of them look like doing that?We're still waiting for impact from many of those signed last summer.

In fact it's questionable how much progress the lads signed the January before that or even one or two summer 2022 have made - obviously the better players like Clarke and Ballard took little time to adapt, we're finally seeing things from Ba but it's inconsistent and Ekwah's form is allover.

The idea we can somehow bridge sales of the level of Clarke by buying bargain basement is yet unfounded and that would leave us in extremely tricky waters.
Click to expand...
In summer 2022 we have 5 here who were signed then (permanently) and of those only Bennette hasn't really made an impact (Although he was involved a lot more last season) and he's still just 19.
Ekwah is the only one here who we signed last January, and he is a first team regular even if his form is inconsistent.

I don't think you can really judge lads signed 6 or 7 month ago yet tbh, although Seelt, Rusyn and especially Bellingham have made an impact on the first team.

Heldje only just signed was put straight in the team, and showed enough that once he settles in properly could be a good signing immediately.

It's not all doom and gloom surely!?
 
HitchBerg said:
In summer 2022 we have 5 here who were signed then (permanently) and of those only Bennette hasn't really made an impact (Although he was involved a lot more last season) and he's still just 19.
Ekwah is the only one here who we signed last January, and he is a first team regular even if his form is inconsistent.

I don't think you can really judge lads signed 6 or 7 month ago yet tbh, although Seelt, Rusyn and especially Bellingham have made an impact on the first team.

Heldje only just signed was put straight in the team, and showed enough that once he settles in properly could be a good signing immediately.

It's not all doom and gloom surely!?
Click to expand...
Will be when Clarke goes though,the grifters in charge of our great club will have us in a relegation battle next season.Sounds melodramatic but ask yourself do you have confidence that the money raised from sales would be invested,or used to pay everyday costs.
 
One thing that goes relatively unmentioned with him is his fitness and toughness. The lad gets booted regularly but plays 90 minutes every league game. Brilliant player and will be sad to see him go, especially given I doubt he’ll be adequately replaced.
 
HitchBerg said:
In summer 2022 we have 5 here who were signed then (permanently) and of those only Bennette hasn't really made an impact (Although he was involved a lot more last season) and he's still just 19.
Ekwah is the only one here who we signed last January, and he is a first team regular even if his form is inconsistent.

I don't think you can really judge lads signed 6 or 7 month ago yet tbh, although Seelt, Rusyn and especially Bellingham have made an impact on the first team.

Heldje only just signed was put straight in the team, and showed enough that once he settles in properly could be a good signing immediately.

It's not all doom and gloom surely!?
Click to expand...

Bennette hasn't and its arguable that Ba has really, hes just so hit and miss. He's made recent improvements and made an impact on occasions this season but in terms of decision making and being competent in general play when not affecting the game in an attacking sense he's still some way off - ill accept he's one who can contribute though.

Ekwah made an initial impact and has gone backwards. Anderson is out on loan, Lihadji didn't look like making an impact and was sold for an apparent profit which we were told was going to allow us to make 'inroads into the transfer market' and it didnt.

You don't think its a negative that lads signed 6 or 7 months ago are barely making an impact or there are still large question marks over, that's fine. But thats kinda the main grumble here. No one would give a flying one about question marks over these lads and these type of signings if it wasn't currently the only type of signing we we're making.

Hence if this continues and as is likely one or two of our better players are to be sold, there aren't really players giving us confidence they can step in and step up. We're being told that the older players become the experienced ones and that we want to develop this bunch together - that simply won't happen as we are going to gradually lose the better ones given we're taking such a long term approach.

No one said its all doom and gloom, but the club and Speakman especially are talking about doing better than last season, talking up promotion with silly comments, then aren't really backing that up and even the new guy, a supposed 'head coach' comes in and he again points out a lack of experience and things were lacking. Just like the last guy and the guy before him had issues with.
stevo said:
Think The Truth poster a few up has hit the nail on the head
Click to expand...

I don't know. I think theres enough not to but you could easily get drawn in.

You can't keep letting experience and quality go and then replacing it with mostly 20 year olds though. It's a recipe for regression and moving on head coaches/managers season after season and that isn't 'stability'.

I predicted Mowbray wouldn't last when looking at the summer signings, just so obvious and Beale comes in to replace him and has to make us a bit more pragmatic and bit more direct and he still doesn't have the functional centre forward or experienced head in midfield to help him do that.
 
Last edited:
stevo said:
Will be when Clarke goes though,the grifters in charge of our great club will have us in a relegation battle next season.Sounds melodramatic but ask yourself do you have confidence that the money raised from sales would be invested,or used to pay everyday costs.
Click to expand...
The short answer is i don't know, time will tell. You would hope all extra monies made will go on recruitment. I heard a fee of £2m bandied about for Hjelde.
 
Hard to disagree with you there. It’ll be a sickener when he’s away in the summer. What a player he’s been for us.
 
Perryqhill said:
Bennette hasn't and its arguable that Ba has really, hes just so hit and miss. He's made recent improvements and made an impact on occasions this season but in terms of decision making and being competent in general play when not affecting the game in an attacking sense he's still some way off - ill accept he's one who can contribute though.

Ekwah made an initial impact and has gone backwards. Anderson is out on loan, Lihadji didn't look like making an impact and was sold for an apparent profit which we were told was going to allow us to make 'inroads into the transfer market' and it didnt.

You don't think its a negative that lads signed 6 or 7 months ago are barely making an impact or there are still large question marks over, that's fine. But thats kinda the main grumble here. No one would give a flying one about question marks over these lads and these type of signings if it wasn't currently the only type of signing we we're making.

Hence if this continues and as is likely one or two of our better players are to be sold, there aren't really players giving us confidence they can step in and step up. We're being told that the older players become the experienced ones and that we want to develop this bunch together - that simply won't happen as we are going to gradually lose the better ones given we're taking such a long term approach.

No one said its all doom and gloom, but the club and Speakman especially are talking about doing better than last season, talking up promotion with silly comments, then aren't really backing that up and even the new guy, a supposed 'head coach' comes in and he again points out a lack of experience and things were lacking. Just like the last guy and the guy before him had issues with.


I don't know. I think theres enough not to but you could easily get drawn in.

You can't keep letting experience and quality go and then replacing it with mostly 20 year olds though. It's a recipe for regression and moving on head coaches/managers season after season and that isn't 'stability'.

I predicted Mowbray wouldn't last when looking at the summer signings, just so obvious and Beale comes in to replace him and has to make us a bit more pragmatic and bit more direct and he still doesn't have the functional centre forward or experienced head in midfield to help him do that.
Click to expand...
I understand the fears of a lot of fans, but the way we are doing things has already thrown up some players who are now regulars and actually good players at this level.

Some will need more time, but believe me if i got the impression that the club weren't doing everything they could to improve things (given the financial restrictions as well) i'll be making my voice heard, but there's not enough evidence of that yet for me.
 
Banks said:
You could say that about any team at this level though. Boro are shite when hackney doesn't play
Click to expand...
They were shite yesterday and he did play, tbf the lad wasn't in his usual position , just glad Jones was out injured. Aside from Clarke and Rusyn I was really impressed with Hjelde , the lad looked comfortable wherever he received the ball, constantly looked for the ball and got some vital interceptions in. FTM
 
This is brought up on a new thread every day ! He’s ours for now so let’s maximise that until he does go ?! Just wish Roberts would get his finger out and contribute more, he’s just going through the motions this season and should be capable of much more
 
He is a very good player.
Players of his type you have to admire because for all their flair and ability to go past players so many times it might not come off.
However they are willing to try again.

A player that can get fans off their seat. What else can you ask for.
 
Marko said:
They were shite yesterday and he did play, tbf the lad wasn't in his usual position , just glad Jones was out injured. Aside from Clarke and Rusyn I was really impressed with Hjelde , the lad looked comfortable wherever he received the ball, constantly looked for the ball and got some vital interceptions in. FTM
Click to expand...
The relative strength of both sides on Sunday is an interesting one and something I haven’t seen discussed much when considering the value of the point gained.

I think Boro were missing three at least first team regulars in key positions (Jones, Roger’s, Latte Lath) while we were arguably at almost full strength (either Cirkin or Alese would probably have played at left back) but I can’t think of anyone else missing.

With that in mind I think it’s a missed opportunity and a further illustration of where we are as a side.
 
HitchBerg said:
Football is constantly moving, Clarke might not be here come August but other players will be and just maybe one or two of them will outshine Clarke, or maybe even one or two of the lads already here.

Why is there so much doom and fkn gloom on this site :(
Click to expand...
i call it doom narcissism. So many people trying to out-do each other in the misery stakes
 
Where would Jack Clarke be without SAFC? He had to drop down to L1 to kickstart his career after a few failed loans.
 

Back
Top