Hoop Blah
You can never put too much weight on what footballer and their managers say in public, but denying the existance of the hangover at the time was pretty obviously a bit of spin to try and paper over the cracks.
That they've sinced admitted that there was one probably means that they felt it and tried to address it at the time.
How much effect it had I don't think you can guess. I think the loss of certain players and leaving the incoming transfers so late in the day, thus wasting the majority of pre-season, was probably a bigger factor.
Can't disagree with that final point Hoop but it's interesting that the two big fails of McD's transfer dealings were probably Williams and Khumalo. Both of whom were brought into the club in the close season,both were bought to be 1st team starters yet both were deemed so poor that they were effectively replaced by signings made at the end of the same window who went on to make a huge contribution to our success.
I think it also goes back to a point you made on another thread about the players we've been most strongly linked with so far,mainly Marriappa and MacLeary, not fulfilling a need we might have for players of Premiership experience. I think it's more likely that it needs a couple of moves within the Premiership transfer merry-go-round before we'll be able to get those type of players here. Of course being in the top tier now makes our job a little easier but it's still a fair bet that to get the players that might be at the top of our shopping list we may have to be a little more patient and the Premiership season still hasn't finished yet.
Also the set up and ethos set up around the club means that experienced players seem to able to settle in pretty seemlessly. Certainly Gorkss,Roberts and Connolly all hit the ground running.
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