Richie interview

[DrWindy]

Richie Wellens was very happy after he signed Pigott 10 months ago: "He's a focal point in terms of his size, but he's certainly not a target man. He's great with his back to goal and a really clever footballer. In terms of goals, he had a wonderful spell at Wimbledon which got him a great move to Ipswich and subsequently a loan at Portsmouth. He can play centre forward, but he can also play wide, so his versatility is something that could be really important for us. I think he needs to find a home and someone who trusts him to get back to his goalscoring form, but he offers an awful lot of qualities. He can score headers, tap-ins and free-kicks, he's technically a really good player and we think his qualities will really help us this season."

Interesting comments. I don’t recall RW ever trying him out wide.

[RedDwarf 1881]

Richie Wellens was very happy after he signed Pigott 10 months ago: "He's a focal point in terms of his size, but he's certainly not a target man. He's great with his back to goal and a really clever footballer. In terms of goals, he had a wonderful spell at Wimbledon which got him a great move to Ipswich and subsequently a loan at Portsmouth. He can play centre forward, but he can also play wide, so his versatility is something that could be really important for us. I think he needs to find a home and someone who trusts him to get back to his goalscoring form, but he offers an awful lot of qualities. He can score headers, tap-ins and free-kicks, he's technically a really good player and we think his qualities will really help us this season."

Interesting comments. I don’t recall RW ever trying him out wide.

Yes , that's what I was thinking . Anyway Pigott needs to move on and start afresh somewhere else . He just doesn't suit our style of play . I think he will be a lot better playing for a team whose style of play suits him better . Thing is though he will probably need to drop down to League Two . He should try going back to Wimbledon .

[Hoover Attack]

Richie Wellens was very happy after he signed Pigott 10 months ago: "He's a focal point in terms of his size, but he's certainly not a target man. He's great with his back to goal and a really clever footballer. In terms of goals, he had a wonderful spell at Wimbledon which got him a great move to Ipswich and subsequently a loan at Portsmouth. He can play centre forward, but he can also play wide, so his versatility is something that could be really important for us. I think he needs to find a home and someone who trusts him to get back to his goalscoring form, but he offers an awful lot of qualities. He can score headers, tap-ins and free-kicks, he's technically a really good player and we think his qualities will really help us this season."

Interesting comments. I don’t recall RW ever trying him out wide.

He definitely played behind a front man at times (at Blackpool, him and Moncur were both 10s behind Ruel, I'm sure). He wasn't any better there.

[RedDwarf 1881]

He peaked at Wimbledon but is now on his way back down .

[Jeremy Bentham]

Considering everything Richie said and how tough League One is going to be next season our Summer transfer business has to be spot on . IMO, It's going to be one of our most important Summers for transfer business . Get it wrong and we could be facing a relegation battle next season so fingers crossed we pretty much get who we want .

I don't see how it's going to be tougher next season with two (possibly three) former Premier League clubs going out of the division.

[OyinbO]

Richie Wellens was very happy after he signed Pigott 10 months ago: "He's a focal point in terms of his size, but he's certainly not a target man. He's great with his back to goal and a really clever footballer. In terms of goals, he had a wonderful spell at Wimbledon which got him a great move to Ipswich and subsequently a loan at Portsmouth. He can play centre forward, but he can also play wide, so his versatility is something that could be really important for us. I think he needs to find a home and someone who trusts him to get back to his goalscoring form, but he offers an awful lot of qualities. He can score headers, tap-ins and free-kicks, he's technically a really good player and we think his qualities will really help us this season."

Interesting comments. I don’t recall RW ever trying him out wide.

He definitely played behind a front man at times (at Blackpool, him and Moncur were both 10s behind Ruel, I'm sure). He wasn't any better there.

Blackpool was when I first clocked that he had nothing to offer us. Although it was early in the season, so still hoping he would improve and find his groove. Sadly, it never really happened, in spite of one tidy finish a few weeks later.

[Hoover Attack]

Blackpool was about as good as it got - it was still early days so we were pinning his lack of mobility and pressing on missing pre-season and being unfit, not a permanent state of affairs. He also went close to scoring as I recall, maybe hitting the woodwork or forcing a really good save.

[Mistadobalina]

Considering everything Richie said and how tough League One is going to be next season our Summer transfer business has to be spot on . IMO, It's going to be one of our most important Summers for transfer business . Get it wrong and we could be facing a relegation battle next season so fingers crossed we pretty much get who we want .

I don't see how it's going to be tougher next season with two (possibly three) former Premier League clubs going out of the division.

I'm guessing Charlton and Wigan will be in much stronger positions next season. Birmingham are a similar sized club to Portsmouth or Derby. Promoted clubs in theory should all be a lot better than the teams we came up with.

It felt like quite a bad league 1 this season, in that noone we played were that impressive, and there were a lot of average to outright awful teams. Some of the bigger clubs really underperformed as well.

[Hoover Attack]

Promoted clubs in theory should all be a lot better than the teams we came up with.

Why?

'THe division is going to be tougher next year' is pretty standard trope wheeled out every end of season.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Yeah this division is always hard. There was massive teams this year who underperformed and it will be the same next season.

[Max B Gold]

Yeah this division is always hard. There was massive teams this year who underperformed and it will be the same next season.

Agreed. We are staring relegation straight in the face, especially if we don't get out of the traps early doors and hit the ground running .

It could be a long season. I hesitate to say we are doomed but the pressure is on Ling to get the right players in.

[Max B Gold]

Richie Wellens was very happy after he signed Pigott 10 months ago: "He's a focal point in terms of his size, but he's certainly not a target man. He's great with his back to goal and a really clever footballer. In terms of goals, he had a wonderful spell at Wimbledon which got him a great move to Ipswich and subsequently a loan at Portsmouth. He can play centre forward, but he can also play wide, so his versatility is something that could be really important for us. I think he needs to find a home and someone who trusts him to get back to his goalscoring form, but he offers an awful lot of qualities. He can score headers, tap-ins and free-kicks, he's technically a really good player and we think his qualities will really help us this season."

Interesting comments. I don’t recall RW ever trying him out wide.

Yes , that's what I was thinking . Anyway Pigott needs to move on and start afresh somewhere else . He just doesn't suit our style of play . I think he will be a lot better playing for a team whose style of play suits him better . Thing is though he will probably need to drop down to League Two . He should try going back to Wimbledon .

I saw Piggie at Carlisle and thought he had scored. At the back of my mind I was thinking to myself I hope this isn't the Cureton malaise all over again.

Turns out it was some other geezer who scored and my worst fears were confirmed because even Cureton scored against lowly Carlisle.

I know because I witnessed it with my own eyes. I was there that day or was it a night game. Strangely I can only recall the ball flashing into the old onion bag and thinking well that's the first of many.

[Mistadobalina]

Promoted clubs in theory should all be a lot better than the teams we came up with.

Why?

'THe division is going to be tougher next year' is pretty standard trope wheeled out every end of season.

Wrexham and Stockport will have more money than any of the promoted teams last year. In Wrexham's case a lot more money. They have a higher income than some championship teams. Mansfield will spend comparable amounts to us you'd imagine as they've spent quite big in league 2. Doncaster and Crawley harder to call, the latter are heavily backed by some crypto bros who seem to have figured out how to run a club after botching it previous year.

Wigan will be in with a promotion shout next year, they would've been challenging for a play off place were it not for their points deductions. Am maybe wrongly assuming Charlton can't be as bad again next year, they are a massive club for this division.

Obviously football is a lot less predictable than just looking at budget and extrapolating a league position from that, but feels like there will be more of a crowded middle going for those play off places. I back Wellens to put us in that mix, our performances during January - March were as good as anyone I saw us play against..

[POSHO]

Pigott played in 41 games in all competitions last season, so he had plenty of game time to improve and shine. He scored 4 times including at least 1 penalty

[OyinbO]

"Big" clubs at this level can often get stuck for a while... recent examples include Sunderland, Ipswich, Sheffield United, Leeds, Coventry, Bolton... and tbh Wigan aren't as big as any of those.

The "ex Premier League club" thing is overdone IMHO. Bradford are an ex PL club and they can't get out of the basement. Wigan were non-League within the lifetimes of many people on this board. One or both of the Wimbledons (depending on your POV) are ex-PL. Brentford & Brighton were worse than us in the not-too-distant past... all of this is the beauty of our pyramid, which shouldn't be further Americanised in the slightest, no matter what the biggest Clubs want.

[gshaw]

Considering everything Richie said and how tough League One is going to be next season our Summer transfer business has to be spot on . IMO, It's going to be one of our most important Summers for transfer business . Get it wrong and we could be facing a relegation battle next season so fingers crossed we pretty much get who we want .

I don't see how it's going to be tougher next season with two (possibly three) former Premier League clubs going out of the division.

Well for starters you won't have Wigan starting on minus points and the Reading pantomime that's put -6 on their points total too over the course of the season.

[OyinbO]

Considering everything Richie said and how tough League One is going to be next season our Summer transfer business has to be spot on . IMO, It's going to be one of our most important Summers for transfer business . Get it wrong and we could be facing a relegation battle next season so fingers crossed we pretty much get who we want .

I don't see how it's going to be tougher next season with two (possibly three) former Premier League clubs going out of the division.

Well for starters you won't have Wigan starting on minus points and the Reading pantomime that's put -6 on their points total too over the course of the season.

Or Fleetwood circling the drain because their owner is in the clink.

That said, there's usually a couple of Clubs every season that hit the skids because of iffy ownership. The two previous occasions we were relegated from this division, that was precisely the reason.

[RedDwarf 1881]

Considering everything Richie said and how tough League One is going to be next season our Summer transfer business has to be spot on . IMO, It's going to be one of our most important Summers for transfer business . Get it wrong and we could be facing a relegation battle next season so fingers crossed we pretty much get who we want .

I don't see how it's going to be tougher next season with two (possibly three) former Premier League clubs going out of the division.

Teams with more resources coming up compared to those teams going down to League Two