Lappin to finally get game time!

At League one Sheffield United, if reports from sky sports of an imminent loan deal are confirmed.

A lot of fuss has been made of Malky's transfer window activity - Medel, Caulker, Catherine, Kim and Campbell are just a few stars that Malky has collected in two years, all of which deserve praise. I still find it unusual however that his wastage has not come under a little more scrutiny. Velikonja was a 7 figure signing with a promising future, but his career is being crippled under Malky's regime. John Brayford, a player Malky has been chasing for at least the last two seasons, but now is lucky to even make the bench. Again, he was a shining light of the championship playing every week - now his career is looking gloomier by the day. And now Simon Lappin, the cover that Malky was so excited to get but had such little confidence he'd rather play an unproven youth player. He dropped a division in return for playtime, and now faces dropping two again just to get a game.

It's a lot of wastage in only two seasons. Malky definetely has a Jekyll and Hyde personality when it comes to transfers, fluctuating from brilliance to head scratching inconsistency at the drop of a hat.

That's the problem when you outsource your team recruitment... I agree, Malky had for with his poor and unprofessional management of young Etienne.

Although i agree with you general point about there being a number of 'confusing' signings i will repeat what i have always believed about Lappin. He was brought in purely as cover for the back end of last season and Malky never had any intention of using him at Prem level if we succeeded in getting promotion. If Malky could have signed him on a few month contract just to the end of last season i think he would have. However with talk of some Scottish clubs looking to sign Lappin as well he was never likely to sign for any less than the 18 month contract he did.

This may, in your eyes, confirm your point about wastefulness but, in this case, i think the insurance policy of another left back for the closing months of the season was worth doing (depite him not really being needed much with the benefit of hindsight).

Two far more confusing signings to me were Kiss, who Malky actully had a chance to see on loan before signing him then almost instantly making him surplus to requirements - and McNaughton whose 1 year contract looks little more than a thank you for his previous service without much realistic prospect of Prem game time.

I suspect that if we took a close enough look at other teams and managers signings we would see the same kind of thing though. Expensive mistakes are not the sole preserve of Malky and i suspect the reason so little spotlight has fallen on them is the success that the team has been having under him.

Hopefully results will remain positive enough that his confusing mistakes will remain little more than footnotes.

Agreed Lappin was cover, he seemed ideal for the role with his expansive experience. But when the time when cover was needed emerged, mainly Taylor missing the first game of the season, he played John instead. What point was paying out the wages for so long?

Red614 wrote:Agreed Lappin was cover, he seemed ideal for the role with his expansive experience. But when the time when cover was needed emerged, mainly Taylor missing the first game of the season, he played John instead. What point was paying out the wages for so long?

I just think he took the oppertunity to play John because he knew already Lappin would not be part of the 25 man squad and preferred to give John some experience instead (he obviously trusts him to some extent though i suspect Catherine might switch flanks in the case of an injury or suspension to Taylor).

Even knowing Lappin would not be part of his plans for this season at Prem level i think Malky still felt it worth the insurance for the back end of last season - something i would agree with.

What wouldn't make sense if Malky WAS sure Lappin wouldn't feature in his plans this season though is not trying to move him on to another club inside the transfer window. I suppose he might have tried but Malky did state that no one would be going out before the window shut which turned out to be the case.

Still infinitely better in the market than Jones though