harrison biggins

[Bessie Red]

See how he does but hardly an inspiring signing.

Who in your opinion would be an inspiring signing that we could possibly afford with us being a league 2 club?

[colincramb]

See how he does but hardly an inspiring signing.

Who in your opinion would be an inspiring signing that we could possibly afford with us being a league 2 club?

Possibly a striker capable of scoring some goals at the level? Or a central defender capable of preventing them.

[turnbull for england]

Well yes a probably a fast tricky winger and Goalie  who only concedes  once a month. That's the easy bit , now find a name , price and see if they want to play for us

[Bessie Red]

See how he does but hardly an inspiring signing.

Who in your opinion would be an inspiring signing that we could possibly afford with us being a league 2 club?

Possibly a striker capable of scoring some goals at the level? Or a central defender capable of preventing them.


[/quote
How do you know that we are not already targeting those. Biggins is a good solid midfielder who has spent virtually his entire career at Lg 1 level so I am sure he can make an impact in Lg 2.

[phil old leake]

I’m sorry Upton but how is 8 in 110 appearances a good return

I’m not knocking him as a signing I’ve never heard of him. I hope he does well and Ali g with other signings becomes part of a strong team

[steve@dcfd]

See how he does but hardly an inspiring signing.

Who in your opinion would be an inspiring signing that we could possibly afford with us being a league 2 club?

The playing budget has hardly altered so being a league 2 club and affording a player should be ok. It’s whether players of quality want to come to league 2. Looking at the playoff games in league 2 we need hard working physical players firstly a strong aggressive left back, left sided wide midfield player who can cross balls and take tackles plus a good striker who can score goals. They are the minimums to our existing squad. Dependent who stays and who goes.aswell.

[Reg of the Rovers]

I’m sorry Upton but how is 8 in 110 appearances a good return

I’m not knocking him as a signing I’ve never heard of him. I hope he does well and Ali g with other signings becomes part of a strong team

They'll need to sign 'mi Julie' as well though.

[ForsolongaRover]

I would like to see some up-and-coming players like Fergie used to sign, but non league clubs haven't entirely finished their programmes yet. Hoping to get more out of League club cast-offs seems to demand something of a transformation rather than "development".

[elmsallrover]

Why would an decent non league player come to us with his working and playing wage  it would be more than rovers could offer

[curley]

Most decent non league players are
now full time.

[scawsby steve]

Why would an decent non league player come to us with his working and playing wage  it would be more than rovers could offer

It depends what you class as a decent non-league player. Personally, I'd regard it as a player in the National Premier League, and they're all full time professionals.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Also you'd hope any non league player has age on their side. Their personal career outside football might not be so developed that it means that much for them to give a full time gig a go. Look at Alfie May, he took a chance and now is living the dream as a pro player. Ok not going to be set for life but it's better than a 9-5!

[danumdon]

Sounds like a sound prospect to add to the squad, good age, if he's a box to box player who's started to get in front of the strikers and score the odd goal then he sounds like a good upgrade from Smith,who had the engine but very rarely got in front of the strikers, never looked like scoring and had a shot on him which could only be described as something your dog would not be too worried about!

Note, no dogs ever got kicked or is likely to get kicked by me, before someone asks!

[roversdude]

Steve Eyre obviously knows all about him so should be a good fit

[Arsenal Of The North]

See how he does but hardly an inspiring signing.

Who in your opinion would be an inspiring signing that we could possibly afford with us being a league 2 club?

Possibly a striker capable of scoring some goals at the level? Or a central defender capable of preventing them.

Any such player will be touted by any league team above, that’s how it works in lower leagues, we either get someone at the end of their life or take punts on players who have been doing the business at conference or lower.

To think we’re going to pull in a 20 goal a season league 2 striker is ludicrous

[since-1969]

signed 2 year contract

So…how many more do we still need ?

[tyke1962]

Don't know too much about the lad other than he's the son of our former striker Wayne Biggins .

His dad certainly knew where the net was and hopefully Harrison can get amongst the goals next season .

[roversdude]

Didn’t realise he was Fleetwood captain when we played them

[Branton Rover]

Happy now with our new look midfield - Clayton, Rowe, Close and now Biggins who is effectively a replacement for Matt Smith another box to box midfielder but Biggins scores goals too.

[mushRTID]

If Biggins got 5 goals in a struggling league 1 team I would hope he would be pushing for 10 in a stronger (hopefully) league 2 team.

We’ve badly missed that.

[roversdude]

Can’t believe how shot shy we were last season from midfield. Wasn’t that something that McCann brought to his interview how few shots we had

[Plumbster]

I forgot about Close who might just bring the quality we need.  We all know where the problems are in defence but we also need to come up with an effective offensive strategy, a system that creates chances on a regular basis because I don’t see last year’s efforts being very effective in L2.  Straight balls to immobile strikers create nothing; we have decent passers in central midfield but when space is created on the right hand side Smith and Barlow created very little, on the left Mitchell was much better but we have lost him; Tommy was effective but often needed to shore things up elsewhere. The full backs got forward sporadically but their crossing percentages were dire.  I think Rio could be a gem but he needs to be getting the ball in space so whoever replaces Mitchell and Smith are key for me in how good a season we will have, and perhaps Harrison and Close are a big part of the answer.  Anyway welcome Harrison and good luck.

[Chris Black come back]

We didn't really see much of Close last season and what we did, it was in a dreadful midfield.

What worries me about him though is his ability to have the stamina and resilience to become a mainstay in a midfield that has Rowe (33) and Clayton (33) as the other nailed on starters.

This is his career record so far in terms of completing the full 90 minutes in league games:

2021/22 - 12 times
2020/21 - 2 times
2019/20 - 25 times
2018/19 - 19 times
2017/18 - 34 times
2016/17 - 4 times
2015/16 - 4 times
2014/15 - 1 times

Only once has he completed more than half of the season in terms of full league games, and that was five seasons ago.

Just as a comparison, last season Tommy Rowe completed 90 minutes in league games on 37 occasions. That is more or less what Close has managed in the last three seasons.

[roversdude]

I forgot about Close who might just bring the quality we need.  We all know where the problems are in defence but we also need to come up with an effective offensive strategy, a system that creates chances on a regular basis because I don’t see last year’s efforts being very effective in L2.  Straight balls to immobile strikers create nothing; we have decent passers in central midfield but when space is created on the right hand side Smith and Barlow created very little, on the left Mitchell was much better but we have lost him; Tommy was effective but often needed to shore things up elsewhere. The full backs got forward sporadically but their crossing percentages were dire.  I think Rio could be a gem but he needs to be getting the ball in space so whoever replaces Mitchell and Smith are key for me in how good a season we will have, and perhaps Harrison and Close are a big part of the answer.  Anyway welcome Harrison and good luck.

Errr we still have Mitchell and really hoping he’s not out on the left too much lol

[Plumbster]

Oh yeah sorry I meant Martin.

[GazLaz]

We didn't really see much of Close last season and what we did, it was in a dreadful midfield.

What worries me about him though is his ability to have the stamina and resilience to become a mainstay in a midfield that has Rowe (33) and Clayton (33) as the other nailed on starters.

This is his career record so far in terms of completing the full 90 minutes in league games:

2021/22 - 12 times
2020/21 - 2 times
2019/20 - 25 times
2018/19 - 19 times
2017/18 - 34 times
2016/17 - 4 times
2015/16 - 4 times
2014/15 - 1 times

Only once has he completed more than half of the season in terms of full league games, and that was five seasons ago.

Just as a comparison, last season Tommy Rowe completed 90 minutes in league games on 37 occasions. That is more or less what Close has managed in the last three seasons.

A lot of that wasn’t due to not being available though was it.

[ravenrover]

Happy now with our new look midfield - Clayton, Rowe, Close and now Biggins who is effectively a replacement for Matt Smith another box to box midfielder but Biggins scores goals too.

So Bostock doesn't figure in your 1st choice midfield, assuming he signs on again?

[Chris Black come back]

We didn't really see much of Close last season and what we did, it was in a dreadful midfield.

What worries me about him though is his ability to have the stamina and resilience to become a mainstay in a midfield that has Rowe (33) and Clayton (33) as the other nailed on starters.

This is his career record so far in terms of completing the full 90 minutes in league games:

2021/22 - 12 times
2020/21 - 2 times
2019/20 - 25 times
2018/19 - 19 times
2017/18 - 34 times
2016/17 - 4 times
2015/16 - 4 times
2014/15 - 1 times

Only once has he completed more than half of the season in terms of full league games, and that was five seasons ago.

Just as a comparison, last season Tommy Rowe completed 90 minutes in league games on 37 occasions. That is more or less what Close has managed in the last three seasons.

A lot of that wasn’t due to not being available though was it.

That’s true, but the point was more that he hasn’t completed anything like a full season really in his career, and he is in a midfield with two guys in their mid-30s and he is on the big bucks, so we need this guy to be doing 35 or 40 games in full. Whether he was out of favour, out of form or in the treatment room, he’s not someone who has proved he can last a full season. He may be able to and I hope he can, but he never has other than one single season where he managed a little less than 3/4 of games.

[DonnyOsmond]

Close, Bostock and Clayton is our best 3 in midfield.

[5minstogo]

Bostock isn't under contract.