Confimred - Matt Ritchie

[West F]

He fits the ‘spectacular and exciting’ transfer window. You know, the one where all you can see is Jacobson’s and Couhig’s legs sticking out of other club’s skips while they rummage around.

“Look!! Found one!!”

I don’t think that’s a narrative that sticks tbh. We’ve made some fairly ambitious signings, and got some highly rated loans in

Tbh I don’t agree with all the transfers or rate them all but it’s a squad we should be challenging with

I know you have shown yourself in the past to be very optimistic when it comes to our club and players.
I'm afraid I am with West F in being underwhelmed by the signings we have made which seem so much more to be about "getting bodies in" to use the saying often used by our manager but there doesn't seem to have been a great structure and none of them appear to me to be "spectacular and exciting".

This squad now looks like one being created to stay in this division rather than what you say "should be challenging".
Our best 3 players IMHO are the 3 that were already here in Pereira, Wing and Elliott and so far (yes, very early days but we are near the bottom of the division)none of the newbies have made a great impression on me.

I am always a pessimist when it comes to RFC and I would really love to agree with you and your optimism but as of today I don't think this is a great bunch and despite big spenders like Brum and Wrexham no longer being in the division I will be pleasantly surprised if we reach the heights of last season.
Signing a player who will be 36 in a couple of weeks time doesn't strike me as ambitious and as for a" manager on the pitch" don't we already have our best player already doing that as captain and Pereira comes across as a leader as well?

I want the window over. More worried over who we will lose than get in now.

[Hound]

He fits the ‘spectacular and exciting’ transfer window. You know, the one where all you can see is Jacobson’s and Couhig’s legs sticking out of other club’s skips while they rummage around.

“Look!! Found one!!”

I don’t think that’s a narrative that sticks tbh. We’ve made some fairly ambitious signings, and got some highly rated loans in

Tbh I don’t agree with all the transfers or rate them all but it’s a squad we should be challenging with

I know you have shown yourself in the past to be very optimistic when it comes to our club and players.
I'm afraid I am with West F in being underwhelmed by the signings we have made which seem so much more to be about "getting bodies in" to use the saying often used by our manager but there doesn't seem to have been a great structure and none of them appear to me to be "spectacular and exciting".

This squad now looks like one being created to stay in this division rather than what you say "should be challenging".
Our best 3 players IMHO are the 3 that were already here in Pereira, Wing and Elliott and so far (yes, very early days but we are near the bottom of the division)none of the newbies have made a great impression on me.

I am always a pessimist when it comes to RFC and I would really love to agree with you and your optimism but as of today I don't think this is a great bunch and despite big spenders like Brum and Wrexham no longer being in the division I will be pleasantly surprised if we reach the heights of last season.
Signing a player who will be 36 in a couple of weeks time doesn't strike me as ambitious and as for a" manager on the pitch" don't we already have our best player already doing that as captain and Pereira comes across as a leader as well?

Fair enough. I think the players we’ve brought in are strong enough to be top end of the division based on performances last year. Bit happy to disagree and we’ll see where we end up

[Hound]

Did see a comment on Twitter (yes I know) about Ritchie being like a manager on the pitch and organising the press

That encourages me a lot - esp after the shitshow at Bolton which was just about as poor an attempt to press as I’ve seen.

That had more to do with the back four and Fraser, than the front three. We had a press at the top, with only Savage catching pigeons in the middle while Fraser and the back four were so far back that there was forty yards of space for the Bolton midfield to receive the ball, turn and drive. Without pace at the back, we sit too deep to effectively press.
You press teams to limit the space and time they have on the ball. To have your midfield opposition able to amble back and take easy passes from the back, turning and letting them get their heads up is what you should be preventing. You either press, or you don’t. There is no halfway house option.

Half agree there. Fraser as def pressing as part of a 5. But they pressed so badly, literally running round like headless chickens and trying to cover too much of the pitch. Mom especially but the others weren’t far behind

Do agree there was then a huge gap between the front 5 and Wing and the back 4 and that’s something Bolton really targeted

[andrew1957]

He fits the ‘spectacular and exciting’ transfer window. You know, the one where all you can see is Jacobson’s and Couhig’s legs sticking out of other club’s skips while they rummage around.

“Look!! Found one!!”

I don’t think that’s a narrative that sticks tbh. We’ve made some fairly ambitious signings, and got some highly rated loans in

Tbh I don’t agree with all the transfers or rate them all but it’s a squad we should be challenging with

I know you have shown yourself in the past to be very optimistic when it comes to our club and players.
I'm afraid I am with West F in being underwhelmed by the signings we have made which seem so much more to be about "getting bodies in" to use the saying often used by our manager but there doesn't seem to have been a great structure and none of them appear to me to be "spectacular and exciting".

This squad now looks like one being created to stay in this division rather than what you say "should be challenging".
Our best 3 players IMHO are the 3 that were already here in Pereira, Wing and Elliott and so far (yes, very early days but we are near the bottom of the division)none of the newbies have made a great impression on me.

I am always a pessimist when it comes to RFC and I would really love to agree with you and your optimism but as of today I don't think this is a great bunch and despite big spenders like Brum and Wrexham no longer being in the division I will be pleasantly surprised if we reach the heights of last season.
Signing a player who will be 36 in a couple of weeks time doesn't strike me as ambitious and as for a" manager on the pitch" don't we already have our best player already doing that as captain and Pereira comes across as a leader as well?

It does feel that there has been a bit of panic about some of the signings this summer. However we could have said the same about summer 2023 but many of the acquisitions then turned out to be excellent. Only time will tell how the class of 2025 turn out. I still think we will end up mid table - which will be excellent considering we were worrying about whether we would even have a club to support a few months back.

As far as I am concerned the owners have done a great job saving the club and as long as we don’t get relegated, I will be happy and next season we can build again.

[Snowflake Royal]

And on SSN

We’re getting a chunky squad now. After all the nonsense about having 5 players to start the season we’re now looking at the likes of Ryan, Stickland, Rushesha, JOP, Sackey, Osho, Spencer not getting a look in at all

Ritchie is a good player but I’m confused as to where he fits in.

He fits the ‘spectacular and exciting’ transfer window. You know, the one where all you can see is Jacobson’s and Couhig’s legs sticking out of other club’s skips while they rummage around.

“Look!! Found one!!”

I don’t think that’s a narrative that sticks tbh. We’ve made some fairly ambitious signings, and got some highly rated loans in

Tbh I don’t agree with all the transfers or rate them all but it’s a squad we should be challenging with

He's trying desperately to make it stick despite everyone ignoring him

[72 bus]

He fits the ‘spectacular and exciting’ transfer window. You know, the one where all you can see is Jacobson’s and Couhig’s legs sticking out of other club’s skips while they rummage around.

“Look!! Found one!!”

I don’t think that’s a narrative that sticks tbh. We’ve made some fairly ambitious signings, and got some highly rated loans in

Tbh I don’t agree with all the transfers or rate them all but it’s a squad we should be challenging with

He's trying desperately to make it stick despite everyone ignoring him

You've been there yourself Ian

[Jackson Corner]

:shock: Brilliant move for the club, a decent bit of playing experience but should be a terrific gain for the coaching and mentoring side of things.

Still rather have Lionel though….

If that happened l would be dancing on the ceiling