El Capitano

[Rosencrantz]

Matt Taylor said that he was happy to play Jack at left wing-back not left back which is where he's played in the pre-season friendlies. It therefore looks like we are going to mostly be playing with 3 at the back but now have two options to play at left back if we want to revert to a 4.

And cover for Hartridge at LCB also.

I don't think Matt "promised" anything with regard to the Captain being a new player. Just said that it could well be the case.

 

[MerleyRed]

But will the audience get straight answers MerleyRed ?

.....and will anybody have the balls to ask the appropriate questions, when a couple of the new signings will be sat either side of MT !

 

[Sexton Blake]

Delighted for MJ a well deserved honour which leaves his earlier detractors on here with even more egg on their faces.

As this topic is in celebration of Matt"s recognition of MJ's value to the Club let's not go off topic but rather keep it that way by commenting and showing how much we as supporters value him and wish him all the best in his new role as his career at the Club continues to progress.

 

[stoneroses_1989]

Thank God For MJ

 

[grecIAN Harris]

There's your captain for the next seven years so long as the manager is 'one of our own'.

 

[Snoop Fog]

I really like MJ; intelligent guy & player. However, this contradicts what MT was saying back in the close season about a captain coming from one of our new signings.
Obviously we've missed out on George Friend too..

Tbf MT has contradicted himself and talked a lot of BS in recent times.

If, instead of the article bigging up our transfer budget and signing players of a different calibre to what we've been used to, he stated that it was going to be a tough transfer window and how difficult it is to attract players to this part of the country then we might all be here today with a different mindset. One where we're thinking 'well this isn't turning out to be so bad after all.'

He's raised expectations massively and then simply hasn't delivered, and to be honest he's made himself look a bit of a tit in the process of doing so.

 

[Rosencrantz]

Tbf MT has contradicted himself and talked a lot of BS in recent times.

If, instead of the article bigging up our transfer budget and signing players of a different calibre to what we've been used to, he stated that it was going to be a tough transfer window and how difficult it is to attract players to this part of the country then we might all be here today with a different mindset. One where we're thinking 'well this isn't turning out to be so bad after all.'

He's raised expectations massively and then simply hasn't delivered, and to be honest he's made himself look a bit of a tit in the process of doing so.

On the other hand, if Matt had have said that there would have a load of moaning about lack of ambition and the same old excuses. It'd all hindsight.

Every transfer window is a tough one for lower league clubs, that's a given. Matt has always given an honest view. We have more money in the budget than before. He wanted to sign "serious" players that make a difference. So far it seems it has been a very tough window.

I very much doubt though that Matt is going to mope about out the C&F bemoaning his luck. He will continue to do the best he can to get players in and attack the season with what we have been able to get in.

Blaming Matt for getting our hopes up is not his problem. It's ourselves. We can hope the transfers come in to our liking but it seems that many were fully expecting it. You can't expect anything in football. If you do it has the habit of biting you.

 

[MerleyRed]

Blaming Matt for getting our hopes up is not his problem. It's ourselves. We can hope the transfers come in to our liking but it seems that many were fully expecting it. You can't expect anything in football. If you do it has the habit of biting you.

Regarding "You can't expect anything in football. If you do it has the habit of biting you.", You would have hoped that our manager would have considered this before talking to the press and I am afraid I don't buy the, its our fault for believing that MT's comments were credible.

No offence intended by the way, yours is one of the opinions that I respect most on this forum.

 

[Rosencrantz]

Regarding "You can't expect anything in football. If you do it has the habit of biting you.", You would have hoped that our manager would have considered this before talking to the press and I am afraid I don't buy the, its our fault for believing that MT's comments were credible.

No offence intended by the way, yours is one of the opinions that I respect most on this forum.

No offence taken

I know Matt went strong with his initial quotes for the transfer window.

22nd April 2021

"We'll be in a much stronger position to recruit a serious amount of players, and players of a serious stature and a serious standard,"

"Next season will be a season where we're going to go strong, and go as strong as we possibly can and spend as much money as we can possibly afford, possibly money we've saved this season,"

The first statement is factual. We are in a stronger position to recruit. Without knowing who we have put contracts in front of, we cannot say how "serious" those players are or why they might have chosen to go elsewhere.

The next statement was a statement of intent. It is bullish, but also qualified with the "as we possibly can...as much money as we can possibly afford". We can only offer the contracts, we cannot make the targets sign them. But it is not a promise, it is an intention.

As for the marquee statements from 14th June we have...

“We have a basis to build on and finally, we are in a position to offer contracts to that type of player. Whether they come here remains to be seen because you know as well as I do how difficult it is to uproot your family and support network to move to the other end of the country, but we should be competitive...I would love to sign all four of them straight away, but to get a player of that ilk and a player of that standard, they will wait until the last possible minute because it won’t only be Exeter City and myself that are courting them, there will be another five teams in League Two and ten teams in League One - and they will wait for the best deal and wait as long as they possibly can...So we are in a different position to what I have been used to and I am excited by that. It is something I have not really been able to do as a manager. We did it to a certain extent with Nicky Law and got the benefits of that, so let’s aim to sign players of that quality. But there are no guarantees. We are in a competitive world and there are probably 22, 23 different managers at our level saying the same thing and a lot can still pay more than we can, so let’s put it into context. But we are finally in a position where we can compete in trying to get players here.”

...so a certain tempering of language but still stating the intent. But it is really something we should all have known to be the case anyway. If we get carried away by Matt's original comments which did have some qualification, we really should have tempered them with the second interview. No promises, just a desire. I guess one of those players was Sam Nombe.

Anyway, back on topic (!). I think MJ will start where Jake left off in style of Captain. Whilst not a demonstrative presence he has the respect of the dressing room and will do a good job on and off the pitch.

 

[fred binneys head]

“Let’s aim to sign players of that quality. But there are no guarantees”.

There you go.

I trust in KMT, bring it on.