HarryBosch

He's played pretty well there previously in the league above. Good age, upward trajectory, not 30+ & here for a payday AND one of our own - play him and let him settle in & grow.

Worse than that the poor lad looked shell shocked at times last season. He could ruin a promising career if he's seriously thinking of playing him there again.

Will lying ever regain the stigma it once carried or are we too far gone?

I keep reading similar to this but I don't get it. We've added two midfielders from our own league who don't look like they'll add any significant quality, Hobson (a move that was possibly forced due to Yarney leaving) and an exciting, but very obvious, striker from the league below and are still without a right back and look very thin on the ground in defence generally. Other than being done quite early by the standards we're used to how does that represent "a lot more structure than previous seasons"....?

They don't need to be "names" and they don't need to have their best days down in this league. But we need a few of them. Not many would dispute a mixture of young lads on the up complemented by experienced players with something still to offer on the pitch (and just as much, if not more off it) is a tried & tested route to success.

Oh. It seemed like he was out more often, but also not often enough

I get the impression though (hopefully wrongly) that we're pretty much done once we've got a right back.....

I hope they're really good but I don't see how/why Lundstram & Ward will be any better than what we've got/what they're replacing. Shelton & Sheron are both better players on paper and look how bad they've been on grass (Sheron did come on a bit to be fair). They all look like cheap gambles and we've gone from signing Conference players who'd previously had success in the league (which didn't work) to Conference players who haven't had success in this league. I don't follow the logic in why that would result in us doing better. I like the signing of Willoughby. Someone who could be a goalscorer & hero is a gamble that's always worth taking but, again - he is a gamble. If Hobson isn't any good we'll be very short in defence. Especially if Hogan continues to be injured as often as last season. We still need the 3 or 4 known quantities we needed back in August for me to go into the season with genuine optimism rather than just blind hope. Or directions to where I can get some of the Kool-Aid a lot seem to be drinking. This season is a huge opportunity to get promoted from what currently looks a weak league (it might not be next season, or the season after that) and, you can never guarantee it but, we're not showing anything like the intent I thought we would to give ourselves the best possible chance.

I hope this isn't true - if so, who's going to unearth the next Bas Sambou?

I'm in.......

Can someone explain to me again this weird fetish for wanting to sign players from this terrible league and the even worse ones below rather than proper EFL players? Surely we can compete with, eg, Accrington/Barrow in terms of wages & what a buzz it would be to play in front of 5k to 7k at BP pushing for promotion...?

Sumner in as Manager, Hooky his assistant - would it be any worse?

When not engaged in Poundshop Machievellianism Barry Owen was probably a competent football administrator.

I thought he was terrible last season but Shrek is correct - this season he was, somehow, our least worst player prior to getting twatted.

Also, interesting how whilst he made all those appearances when he wasn't being picked, it was "experienced managers" Keith Curle & John Sheridan who weren't picking him with never a mention that he played almost all of those 40 times on Mo Lemsagam's watch.

But they did. He played 40 times for us. Harry Vaughan has become to never being picked what Jonathan Forte was to always being injured.

He was in those League Two games where he played really well. If Curle, Shez & Unsworth had played him in most of the games since he made his first team debut we'd probably be in a far better position than we are now. Or have sold him for a much higher fee.

Hogan, Porter - I'm struggling with the last one......?

Let's hope it stays that way

He's a bit Scholes-like to me in that, whilst at Everton and after getting sacked, he didn't seem to be busting a gut to follow a dream of football management. Apart from maybe the Everton job itself. That never sat right with me from the off. Almost as if he's doing a favour for Joe....

Recent results are ok. "Form" is still shocking. Maybe he's turning into a lucky manager rather than just a bad one....

Would a better manager have been less scatter gun with signings and placed more emphasis on coaching, improving & organising what he already had though?

Why? He was an integral part of Scunthorpe being one of the few teams worse than ours.....