Tomlinson "surprise"

It's not about scapegoating Tomlinson it's just the way our forward line has been ripped apart. He could have been rotated in a bit better with explanations to fans of reasoning. Instead I get a feeling of 'how dare they question me'.

Bogle is a confidence player and will be shot to bits no doubt. He's only young and clearly got a bit of maturing to do but should have an arm put round him and encouraged. Remember he's uprooted from his family down South which he wasn't keen on the thought of last year.

Amond, get the feeling he far surpassed what Hursty was expecting making him impossible to leave out at the beginning which mucked up Hursts best laid plans somewhat. Podge has defences at sixes and sevens with his movement and tricky interplay and to me it's absolutely criminal he's been dumped -especially at home where the fans want to be entertained to encourage them back in bigger numbers, boosting the coffers along the way of course.

Monkhouse is a great player in my eyes and not a scapegoat again but there is a case to answer for here too. The inequality in the squad of of the undroppables compared to those dropped like a bad habit. Monkhouse threw a wobbler getting subbed early on in the campaign then there was a game where our creativity was lost when he went off. This prompted Hurst to mention this point in the press and since then he has been ever present.

Now I'm not knocking Monkhouse let me repeat again but he's the elder statesman of the squad and most would agree he's gradually gone off the boil a little bit. Surely it makes sense to manage him over the course of a season using the squad available to us. We have done the biz at times in previous seasons without this type of player and say pacey Marshall on the wing instead along with the raw pace of an Arnold or whoever on the other to bombard the opposition into submission -especially at home.

But what a great option Monkhouse is be it to start or mix things up in game and Hurst should weigh up the pros and cons based on who we are playing rather than him being straight on the teamsheet no matter what.

I had some other points but supervisor is here ha ha... c ya  

Quoted from Mendonca1995

Definitely something gone on with bogle and amond with hurst,been told by a very reliable source at the club and more so bogle he's not very happy at all and would you be if you were the club top goalscorer sat on the bench week in week out it's appalling the lad has fantastic ability and can score a goal from nothing yes he needs to learn and is a bit raw at times but how will you learn sat on ur bottom on the bench give him a chance and stop being so defensive !!!

Heard the same and fully agree.

I'd heard that Amond is one to tell managers when he disagrees with them and has done at previous clubs.  No further information than that so you could read that as construcive criticism or being a bit more vocal and less polite. Not heard anything with regards to Town so no idea if the ones mentioned on here are true.

He has again tweeted "come on the lads" as he has done twice previously when he has been on the bench. Whether that's an indicator for his selection tonight or a weird initiation for Townsend I don't know.

When we signed Amond I went on the Morecambe forum and they were all saying they liked him but the manager didn't seem as keen, didn't play him as much as they'd have liked etc

As for the whole loan player/contracted player debate and who should be playing, i think a striker had to be brought in because we only had three and i can see why Hurst is keen to keep Tomlinson with JPP having glass hamstrings. He obviously couldn't get the target man he said he wanted and maybe Tomo was the only player available. He struggled to get someone last year. Whether he should be starting every game is another issue.

There is also the budget to consider. Do you sign 25/26 decent players and have all positions covered, or do you sign 21/22 better players, costing a bit more in wages and then juggle the squad around to cover injuries/suspensions/loss of form, aided with bringing in loans to plug gaps when we don't have enough to cover with contracted players? Most of our players are only on 1 year contracts anyway, so not that much different to a long loan deal. If Townsend and Tomlinson were signed on year long loans or a 1 year contract, would we feel differently about them coming into the side? I have some sympathy for Hurst on this as we can't just have a massive squad like we have at times in the past. He has to use the budget the best way he feels he can.

As for Bogle, he's a long term investment and i don't think he would have started as a regular had we more strikers on the books at the start of the season.

If we're playing the rumours game I heard a whisper that Terry Cooke was poking about with someone's wife...

Quoted from ginnywings

Well, in the spirit of "what we've heard", i was told that Clay was dropped and Robinson brought in because of a certain "dalliance"- allegedly. Don't know if there's any truth to it but would make sense. We don't always know what's happening behind the scenes and why players come in and out of the team. Arnold being a case in point

Robinson was brought in to cover for Clay while he was coping with a bereavement. Nothing untoward or remotely salacious about it and I'm surprised anyone is even still pedalling that rubbish.

Pfft. Wayne Burnett was there earlier and did it better. Allegedly, of course.

It smacks of a behind the scenes spat for sure. Okay Paul you've made your point, you're the boss we know, now let's all kiss and make up and get back to bringing down a reign of destruction upon opposing defences and entertaining the faithful who put their hard earned down in the hope of.

Unfortunately I'm pretty certain Tomlinson will start every game, even if failing to barely register. Hursty's new Shop character no doubt 'he brings so much to the team' etc etc (I was a big Shop fan for the record).

Again, don't want this to be misconstrued -I believe 'Tommo' could be an asset as 'something different' but we all know what was the deadliest option. I pray that option not been blunted to the point of taking a good deal of time to re-sharpen...

It seems as though the loanees HAVE to play, great show of faith to contracted players -I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to see the excellent Tait benched once more (another fallout here methinks).

My source who is always dead on the money said Robinson HAD to play -it was part of the agreement though the likes of the wellninformed Big Chris rubbished such suggestions.

It's the chucking in a player straight in who has no understanding of his team mates as well -and an untried partnership to boot. At least JPP has worked with Podge n Bogle since pre season so could have been a bit of a make between.

The rest of the team to would have just been getting more and more used to the kind of runs and movement the front men tend to do and now it's top all that up and back to the drawing board. Is it any surprise we've suddenly looked a little impotent attacking and have dished out our most u pleasing on the eye performances of late -whatever Hurst says about our 0.6 points per game better off ness of late.

Hurst would I'm sure say he'd happily take drab scrappy 1 nils all season but it's living on the edge if defensive lapses crop back up.

Pro Hurst but very disgruntled... I'd begrudgingly take dour football for one Season if it guaranteed us promotion but to know what we've got in our locker and what we could be capable of if let loose leaves me pulling my hair out!

Quoted from Chrisblor

Robinson was brought in to cover for Clay while he was coping with a bereavement. Nothing untoward or remotely salacious about it and I'm surprised anyone is even still pedalling that rubbish.

Fair enough. Removed the offending part of the post.