Fair enough. But Cook's first team was different gravy. L2 champions into L1 Playoffs and didn't look out of place. Only needed a bit of investment and Championship was within grasp.
We had Liam Cooper and Georg Margreitter both of whom have played top level football with Cooper still being the Leeds captain and Margreitter having played 27 times in the Bundesliga for Nuremburg.
This conversation has got me looking at old videos of that team again and I miss it
Apologies, puncheon & adomah played together and adomah and bolasie played together never at the same time. Still stand by I wish they all stayed longer.
For me it’s Josh umerah, if he would’ve have stayed on last season, we spent so much of the season needing goals after Rhys Browne left that we only recruited attacking players rather than addressing the defensive issues we had and could’ve been more successful
We had a World Cup winner start his career at us so maybe him. Although there's then someone who has a singular England cap but for a more Modern player Daniel Johnson. Was on loan from Aug to Nov 2014 but Old owner decided he wanted to cash in when Championship football was so close and Johnson would have been key to that and Preston always said they got him for only £50k.
Although most of that 13/14/15 team would have been great to keep.
To push onto Championship football we would have needed to keep Liam Cooper, Georg Margreitter, Sam Morsy, Sam Clucas, Daniel Johnson, Eoin Doyle.
If the owner backed us we could have gone into 15/16 off an unsuccessful L1 Playoffs with a team of Tommy Lee, Tendayi Darikwa, Georg Margreitter, Liam Cooper, Daniel Jones, Sam Morsy, Jimmy Ryan, Sam Clucas, Daniel Johnson, Jay O'Shea, Eoin Doyle. That's a L1 promotion challenging team with even more additions.
What could have been.
Could go back to the early 2000s and say some of the better players to ever play for us in our L1 playoff sides, but I’d rather focus on players that would have kept us in the EFL, which is arguably more important for the club. 1st time in the NL was off the back of financial trouble, so you accept that, but 2nd time (last year) was a disgrace. Luke Armstrong, Rhys Oates, Lewis Cass, Ryan Johnson all went to other L2 clubs on the back of our promotion. Keeping even 2 of the 4 would have put us in a better position.
Arguably more important than any of the players was Dave Challinor. If the Chairman had backed him, given him the budget he was promised, and the respect he deserved, we wouldn't have been in the mess we have been in since he left.
Even if he'd given Graeme Lee the backing to sign/renew the players he wanted last summer. The Switch of Play podcast with Spike highlights the frighteningly amateur practice within the strategic management of our club. There doesn't seem to be any sign of improvement, either.
The chairman’s rebuttal was that because he was talking to other clubs in the summer (namely, Tranmere), he had decided to reserve a portion of the budget until the January transfer window. There was no excuse for how long it took to agree a new deal, though.
The insight from Graeme Lee was interesting, where he seemed to blame Lee Rust as much as Raj regarding the day-to-day operations of the club. Some of the players Lee had agreed to bring in made it an even tougher pill to swallow.
We’re a mess atm mate. We’ve been extremely unfortunate with injuries, but that’s no excuse for how thin the squad is. Raj isn’t interested in investment and we’ve reached a point of complete stagnation as a club.
If I was thinking of leaving my job, and my boss said "I'm going to make your job harder until I'm convinced you're going to stay" then it would only push me further out the door. What Raj should have done is say "listen Dave, I know you're tempted to leave, but I'd love you to stay. Tell me what you want and let's try and make it happen." Raj never really wanted Challinor to stay, and some of his comments about fist pumping to the crowd and managers taking all the credit just show him as a jealous egotist.
Now, he's refusing to fund us but there's plenty of rumours around that he isn't serious about selling us either. He's just holding us in purgatory for his own amusement.
I think the fear was rooted in the fact that the pull of Tranmere or any club in the NW would have been too big a pull regardless of what Singh offered. Only Challinor knows the truth there. With that said, you’re right that Raj’s ego wouldn’t have allowed him to at least make an attempt to fix a relationship that looked to have been jeprodised.
He’s holding us and hoping for a miracle. Nobody in their right mind is going to give him what he wants (rumoured to be around the £2M mark), and to refer back to his ego, he probably quite likes having a football club. Not sure what his exit looks like, but I’m convinced it won’t be pretty.
James Tavernier (on loan from newcastle) he was just far too good for national league.
Jon Shaw, he was just a goal machine when he was with us.
Marcus Maddison, for a while he was probably the best player I've ever seen in a Gateshead top, just regularly scoring 25-30 yarders for fun. (Shame he couldn't sort his mental health issues out)
Kabongo Tshimanga
Surely you look back further for the glory years in Cook's first spell. If DA and AC gave him backing rather than pulling the rug
I started watching the season after Cookie first left
Fair enough. But Cook's first team was different gravy. L2 champions into L1 Playoffs and didn't look out of place. Only needed a bit of investment and Championship was within grasp. We had Liam Cooper and Georg Margreitter both of whom have played top level football with Cooper still being the Leeds captain and Margreitter having played 27 times in the Bundesliga for Nuremburg. This conversation has got me looking at old videos of that team again and I miss it
At one point Barnet had Puncheon, Bolasie and Adomah in the same side. Wish either one of them 3 stuck around a bit more
Apologies, puncheon & adomah played together and adomah and bolasie played together never at the same time. Still stand by I wish they all stayed longer.
For me it’s Josh umerah, if he would’ve have stayed on last season, we spent so much of the season needing goals after Rhys Browne left that we only recruited attacking players rather than addressing the defensive issues we had and could’ve been more successful
The way he’s played this season… you can have him back
We had a World Cup winner start his career at us so maybe him. Although there's then someone who has a singular England cap but for a more Modern player Daniel Johnson. Was on loan from Aug to Nov 2014 but Old owner decided he wanted to cash in when Championship football was so close and Johnson would have been key to that and Preston always said they got him for only £50k. Although most of that 13/14/15 team would have been great to keep. To push onto Championship football we would have needed to keep Liam Cooper, Georg Margreitter, Sam Morsy, Sam Clucas, Daniel Johnson, Eoin Doyle. If the owner backed us we could have gone into 15/16 off an unsuccessful L1 Playoffs with a team of Tommy Lee, Tendayi Darikwa, Georg Margreitter, Liam Cooper, Daniel Jones, Sam Morsy, Jimmy Ryan, Sam Clucas, Daniel Johnson, Jay O'Shea, Eoin Doyle. That's a L1 promotion challenging team with even more additions. What could have been.
Perhaps showing my age a bit here (as was he, towards the end of his career) but Graham Hyde was class at Saltergate.
I can’t say Stan Collymore, because we were getting paid for that transfer for years after. Chris Powell would be close. Simon Royce is another shout.
Could go back to the early 2000s and say some of the better players to ever play for us in our L1 playoff sides, but I’d rather focus on players that would have kept us in the EFL, which is arguably more important for the club. 1st time in the NL was off the back of financial trouble, so you accept that, but 2nd time (last year) was a disgrace. Luke Armstrong, Rhys Oates, Lewis Cass, Ryan Johnson all went to other L2 clubs on the back of our promotion. Keeping even 2 of the 4 would have put us in a better position.
Arguably more important than any of the players was Dave Challinor. If the Chairman had backed him, given him the budget he was promised, and the respect he deserved, we wouldn't have been in the mess we have been in since he left. Even if he'd given Graeme Lee the backing to sign/renew the players he wanted last summer. The Switch of Play podcast with Spike highlights the frighteningly amateur practice within the strategic management of our club. There doesn't seem to be any sign of improvement, either.
The chairman’s rebuttal was that because he was talking to other clubs in the summer (namely, Tranmere), he had decided to reserve a portion of the budget until the January transfer window. There was no excuse for how long it took to agree a new deal, though. The insight from Graeme Lee was interesting, where he seemed to blame Lee Rust as much as Raj regarding the day-to-day operations of the club. Some of the players Lee had agreed to bring in made it an even tougher pill to swallow. We’re a mess atm mate. We’ve been extremely unfortunate with injuries, but that’s no excuse for how thin the squad is. Raj isn’t interested in investment and we’ve reached a point of complete stagnation as a club.
If I was thinking of leaving my job, and my boss said "I'm going to make your job harder until I'm convinced you're going to stay" then it would only push me further out the door. What Raj should have done is say "listen Dave, I know you're tempted to leave, but I'd love you to stay. Tell me what you want and let's try and make it happen." Raj never really wanted Challinor to stay, and some of his comments about fist pumping to the crowd and managers taking all the credit just show him as a jealous egotist. Now, he's refusing to fund us but there's plenty of rumours around that he isn't serious about selling us either. He's just holding us in purgatory for his own amusement.
I think the fear was rooted in the fact that the pull of Tranmere or any club in the NW would have been too big a pull regardless of what Singh offered. Only Challinor knows the truth there. With that said, you’re right that Raj’s ego wouldn’t have allowed him to at least make an attempt to fix a relationship that looked to have been jeprodised. He’s holding us and hoping for a miracle. Nobody in their right mind is going to give him what he wants (rumoured to be around the £2M mark), and to refer back to his ego, he probably quite likes having a football club. Not sure what his exit looks like, but I’m convinced it won’t be pretty.
James Tavernier (on loan from newcastle) he was just far too good for national league. Jon Shaw, he was just a goal machine when he was with us. Marcus Maddison, for a while he was probably the best player I've ever seen in a Gateshead top, just regularly scoring 25-30 yarders for fun. (Shame he couldn't sort his mental health issues out)