The other thing is, we can be as 'tough' as we like but for some of those players the decision is not really ours to make. It's entirely dependent on another club wanting them, them being willing to go and that club being willing to pay the wages they're on. That's tricky.
I think the signing on its own is exciting but we've seen more than 12 months of 'exciting signings' and a lot of them haven't really worked out. I'm absolutely thrilled if he's good and establishes himself but there's a string of players who on paper are exciting and have pedigree who haven't actually done as well as the McPhillips side did in the first season back yet.
I'm not calling for anyone to be fired or owt, - it's a fact of life that some signings don't work (pick a random season and look at the squad, there's always 3 or 4 at least where you go 'shit, I forgot we'd ever bought him!' but I think if Stewart had been a left winger, we'd all have gone - aye, fair enough, seems like we need one of them. It's just confusing sometimes as you say as the action doesn't match the stated intentions and I do think sometimes, if Critch talked a bit more openly (I've written a long piece about this) then we'd feel a bit more secure.
Like if he said 'Look, we've got a lot of skill but we're not imposing ourselves on games, we seem to only play genuinely well when given space on the break, so I've got Kevin in to add steel. I'm hoping to add a bit more pace as well to exploit the possession he should give us and the quick turnovers that should result from having him and Kenny on the pitch together. I know neither of them are Maradona, but they can both pass and if we can get it to pacy players quickly that should see us ask more questions of more teams'
I'd go - 'reet, that sounds a plan' but he talks opaquely a lot. He's good and honest after a game, not dissing that, but it's the bigger picture that he doesn't really address. It's a fair point I think, we're getting close to a year in and to really talk about where we're going and how his vision has developed wouldn't be unreasonable. I know all about the club's vision as a whole, it's amazing and it's a grand time to be alive, but what I do wonder is 'what sort of team does Critch want to deliver? What's the end game for HIM?' - He talked up an attacking style but actually, we're pretty cagey a lot of the time. His best achievement is putting together a really good defence. If he says 'look, what I'm trying to do is make us really solid and we'll add to that when we see the right players' Solid is yr 1, flair needs a foundation etc - fine, he's on his way if that's the goal.
It's also a year since I wrote a piece asking 'does Larry really have a plan?' (
https://mclfoot.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-jigsaw-with-no-picture.html) and whilst I think we're actually much better served now in terms of players, structure, coaching set up etc, I do have some questions about whether Critch really knows his plan for the long term. I thought of this piece cos I used the 'lots of pieces but not certain we've got the picture' jigsaw metaphor in a post the other day and whilst I don't agree with some who say 'it's just like the last days of Larry' - it's not, but I do think some of the same concerns are evident - dependant on one or two key players, lacking creativity down one flank, not really playing down the middle much and struggling to break down stubborn teams with some players not really in positions that gets the best of them sometimes.
I think if everyone was fit and we played Brighton, we'd have had a very good chance of winning. When we're good, we look a lot better than Larry's team but when we're not, we don't look all that different and we struggle with some of the same issues.