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CONFIRMED New Signing. Robbie Brady - One Year Deal.

Aragorn said:
To be fair, the two players that have signed have the potential quality but are they of the required robustness coupled with quality that we have come to expect us to be signing due to Lowe's and PR's comments? 1 year deals say no to me.

The reason for the putting up or shutting up comment is we have been in negotiations with certain players like I have mentioned for a while, this week I personally wanted the club to get one of them over the line because Woodburn and Brady don't suit the criteria mentioned for me.

Gray as mentioned was all but agreed but when the Greek side came to the table we were blown out of the water on wages.
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Brady (definitely) and Woodburn (less so) are not of the required robustness imo. In terms of Brady many of us have explained that with stats. Much like how Odubajo was blatantly not robust on any metric.

I think the key problem is Lowe has used the term "robust" both here and at Plymouth far too much. And he clearly believes you can actually "make" someone robust or learn to play in a robust manner. He overuses the word. And we've all put too much emphasis on its meaning.

One year deals suit our current club position of not wanting to push the boat out which so far looks unlikely to change. This is the problem when we have a strict budget for the year. And no obvious long term strategic plan in terms of recruitment succession or youth development.

Any money we spend on the academy or maintenance or new corporate areas or fan-zones or whatever seemingly affects the cash budget available for players. I don't think we should be operating like that. Improving infrastructure is vital for long term growth. And an owner should be willing to stump up that cash knowing it doesn't affect FFP.

It's the whole "do you want a 10m striker or a training ground" argument repeated. If we had players coming through every season we could generate income to reinvest. But look at the squad and we have Riis who I think is the only one in the £5m-£10m bracket.

If this current crop of youngsters don't end up in having an impact on the match-day squad in 12-18 months, I think our entire youth academy approach will have been a total bust for nearly a decade. But much like with Brady's legs, we live in hope that they come good.
 
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Dreyfuss said:
I think the key problem is Lowe has used the term "robust" both here and at Plymouth far too much. And he clearly believes you can actually "make" someone robust or learn to play in a robust manner. He overuses the word. And we've all put too much emphasis on its meaning.
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Agree on this. Listened to him on the podcast and he used the word "galvanize" about 15 times, without ever quite using it in the correct context.

I think he just likes to say a lot of things. The Brady signings, as much as I think he is a decent pick-up, is a testament to the fact that 'robust' might just be another one of his buzzwords
 
Brady is not a promotion push signing, and that's the top and bottom of it. And neither is Woodburn imo. I am definitely not moaning and genuinely hope I'm wrong, but on paper the two are not exciting signings and anyone who argues that they are must only be trying to convince themselves. Let's see what the next few weeks brings but currently I am less than impressed.
 
So the million dollar question, how many games can we get out of him this season?

Think he’s been managed well so far but with a hectic schedule we need to be careful with him

Absolute class delivery today , trying not to get too carried away as it is still August and his record has been poor in recent seasons

But if we can get 30 games from him I’d be delighted
 
Till he gets injured i agree btw he’s been good but not as good as Alvaro Fernandez but that’s my Iberian bias I guess
 
Pennyhome said:
So the million dollar question, how many games can we get out of him this season?

Think he’s been managed well so far but with a hectic schedule we need to be careful with him

Absolute class delivery today , trying not to get too carried away as it is still August and his record has been poor in recent seasons

But if we can get 30 games from him I’d be delighted
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Here's hoping, but it's a tall order considering he's averaged less than 15 league games for the past 6 seasons and hasn't played more than 30 since 2015/16.
 
PNEJack said:
Essential to the system, all our play goes through him and the fact people were all for Wickham but slating Brady after signing him was a joke
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If he can stay injury free , he will turn out to be a cracking signing…..

Brady, Woodman, Fernandez, Woodburn and Parrot all looking like good signings, we just need a couple more.
 
One definition of a good signing would be the give you something extra and make a difference

Brady on the ball, first touch, shifting it and finding players short or long is better than anyone we have
 
Hopefully as time goes on he will be less likely to get injured a run of games will get him properly match fit, I heard Tony Pulis on R5 saying players need 4 games to me match fit, RB probably hasn’t had that for a few seasons
 
Dreyfuss said:
Brady (definitely) and Woodburn (less so) are not of the required robustness imo. In terms of Brady many of us have explained that with stats. Much like how Odubajo was blatantly not robust on any metric.

I think the key problem is Lowe has used the term "robust" both here and at Plymouth far too much. And he clearly believes you can actually "make" someone robust or learn to play in a robust manner. He overuses the word. And we've all put too much emphasis on its meaning.

One year deals suit our current club position of not wanting to push the boat out which so far looks unlikely to change. This is the problem when we have a strict budget for the year. And no obvious long term strategic plan in terms of recruitment succession or youth development.

Any money we spend on the academy or maintenance or new corporate areas or fan-zones or whatever seemingly affects the cash budget available for players. I don't think we should be operating like that. Improving infrastructure is vital for long term growth. And an owner should be willing to stump up that cash knowing it doesn't affect FFP.

It's the whole "do you want a 10m striker or a training ground" argument repeated. If we had players coming through every season we could generate income to reinvest. But look at the squad and we have Riis who I think is the only one in the £5m-£10m bracket.

If this current crop of youngsters don't end up in having an impact on the match-day squad in 12-18 months, I think our entire youth academy approach will have been a total bust for nearly a decade. But much like with Brady's legs, we live in hope that they come good.
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Do you honestly believe that or is it just wishful thinking?
 
What is very different this year and will benefit Brady, is the rotation and good quality back-up we have for positions.

Early last season we saw Ched carrying an injury but being flogged up front until he kept breaking down under Frankie and it kept him out for months. That was my fear with Brady, as he was our only signing for the left wing. We can already see Brady is having his minutes carefully managed by Lowe, given time off, and a number of players can play LWB well so there's no pressure to keep on playing him.

No doubt he will pick up injuries, as all footballers will do, but it seems like we're giving him the best possible chance to avoid them.
 
pneveg said:
Class players like Brady make the difference and bring the best out of the other players in the squad. Brian O'neill and Aiden McGeady had this quality
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Fully agree.

I’ve no doubt he’ll have a few niggles throughout the season but we have options to cover now.

No one else in a white shirt puts that ball in yesterday and for moments like that throughout the season, that bit of quality, he’ll be worth his weight in gold.
 
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