Dean Smalley signs a 2 year deal

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Sheridan obviously knows all about him so this has to be a positive.

Good news.

Hopefully it means Morgan's on his way out rather than this being Reubs' replacement.

What is Smalley's game about then? Looks too skinny to be a hold up player, and his goal record is a bit on the shy side.

And yet plenty of reasonably sized clubs have given him first team appearances.

His goalscoring record is dire. I hope he can hold the ball up.

Pretty worried about this one. His youtube 'highlights' consist of tap ins and penalties, meanwhile his goal record is about the same as Luke Young's.

And 2 years? We were lucky Boco was only on a 1 year deal. As with Morgan and Chadwick before him, players can be quite hard to shift mid contract if they are not in scoring form. And we have just given a 2 year deal to a 9 a season striker.

On the one hand Sheridan knows him, and personally masterminded his best form. It is the Lewis Alessandra situation, a favoured ex player with an average set of career stats who has turned out to be a real asset for Argyle. On the other hand Sheridan has signed some really ordinary players, such as Reckord, Blackman, Bencherif, Boco, Hayes, Obadeyi and Showumni. He is yet to make the Marvin Morgan signing work, meanwhile his other best players have been Reid and Lavery on loan deals.

So I am not entirely convinced Sheridan has nailed it offering two years with this one. It's a bit of a risk, but at least not a blind one.

Give Reuben what he wants or nine a season strikers will be all were signing, good player for league 2 FFS!

Sheridan seems confident in him and has worked with him before, so while it is a bit underwhelming I will trust his judgment. He'd worked with Reid before and he hadn't a good goalscoring record but he obviously had seen something in him to put such belief in him. He got a good amount of goals out of him at Chesterfield, so may be there can be some optimism in this one.

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Tbf the nine goals came from 25 starts and he had 12 in 22 I think for latics which is better than nine from forty six however he was niggled with injury, we wil see.

Reid had hit 20 with Rotherham, gained promotions and played as high as the Championship previously.

Coming back down to League Two as a 24 year old who had achieved so much so soon, wasn't really a risk like this.

I honestly see this signing more like the Alessandra one. Alessandra had a shite goal record for a striker - however his pace and tireless industry make him a nuisance winger. He is good up front when needed too, but his career history never told that story.

I am just wondering what Smalley's story is. 4 good performances all season, no contract offer and 'glad to see the back of him' is no glowing recommendation. Morecambe fans were gutted when Alessandra left.

Hmmmm.

He's not a goalscorer, he isn't really hyped as any kind of excellent technical player. Sounds like he's got a lot of industry but not much product.

For me, whether this is a good signing or not all boils down to who else we sign. If Smalley compliments Reid then all well and good. If he replaces Reid and plays alongside Morgan, then that really isn't good.

Squad player. Will probably do a job for the team when needed.

ejh wrote:

Pretty worried about this one. His youtube 'highlights' consist of tap ins and penalties, meanwhile his goal record is about the same as Luke Young's.

And 2 years? We were lucky Boco was only on a 1 year deal. As with Morgan and Chadwick before him, players can be quite hard to shift mid contract if they are not in scoring form. And we have just given a 2 year deal to a 9 a season striker.

On the one hand Sheridan knows him, and personally masterminded his best form. It is the Lewis Alessandra situation, a favoured ex player with an average set of career stats who has turned out to be a real asset for Argyle. On the other hand Sheridan has signed some really ordinary players, such as Reckord, Blackman, Bencherif, Boco, Hayes, Obadeyi and Showumni. He is yet to make the Marvin Morgan signing work, meanwhile his other best players have been Reid and Lavery on loan deals.

So I am not entirely convinced Sheridan has nailed it offering two years with this one. It's a bit of a risk, but at least not a blind one.

Mentioning all those short term contracts and loans negatively misses the crucial context, they were short term contracts and loans. A chance to shine and earn a longer deal but no great dramas if they don't work out. They didn't work out in the main so we parted company, no harm no foul. The time to question Sheridan's judgement is if he gives a longer contract to a poor performer, not the cards he shuffles quickly.

Is Smalley such a case? Well he knows him well and he's done well for him in the past, so no. Like Allesandra, Luke and Lee Cox he's reserved longer contracts for players he knows perform. The length of contract should be reassuring, not alarming.

As for goals v games, don't get me started on that one! Horses for courses covers that one, if he's more of a provider then so be it, it's the Argyle 'goals for' that count, not individual one's. Please don't let the ignorance on PASOTI on this point infect ATD too.

We'll see how he plays, we'll see how the team goals stack up as a result of his assists or not. For now though I'm content to trust Sheridan's eye for the players he considers 'keepers', the 'gambles' have no bearing on that.

Neither do the thoughts of Oxford fans, if you'd listened to Argyle fans Mackie was a headless chicken, Barnes was useless and SEB was fat and lazy!!

Nice he's getting business done early too.

Not much to shout about from his past record, barring a pretty decent loan spell at Chesterfield.

This does seem to suggest that Reuben Reid won't be coming back, as Smalley is now the 5th striker on our books.

Quote :

nine goals came from 25 starts and he had 12 in 22

That's 21 over a season.

Why are we criticising his goal scoring record? It looks better than adequate to me.

I wouldn't take much notice of the Oxford fans either. Do you remember what Bristol Rovers fans thought of Trigger?

I'm sure the fact that he has left and walked straight into a contract with a manager who has used him more than once before hasn't coloured their opinions at all.

I can't see anything to be unhappy about.

5th striker ? didnt know we had ANY !

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Quote :

nine goals came from 25 starts and he had 12 in 22

That's 21 over a season.

Why are we criticising his goal scoring record? It looks better than adequate to me.

I wouldn't take much notice of the Oxford fans either. Do you remember what Bristol Rovers fans thought of Trigger?

I'm sure the fact that he has left and walked straight into a contract with a manager who has used him more than once before hasn't coloured their opinions at all.

I can't see anything to be unhappy about.

Bristol Rovers fans said Blizzard was a poor player for them as well. Another of our players with a 2 year deal and an impressive CV, who was benched with Boco within 5 starts. Were they ignorant in their assessment that we could do better, or tactically naive dimwits who don't understand the game? If Sheridan didn't agree with them at the start of the season, he seemed to agree with them by the end.


As for selecting a striker's two best scoring periods and creating a hypothetical 20 + goal striker, can we do the same for Morgan and speculate on a better free scoring lanky targetman for next season. Then we might have 3 with the potential to hit 20 in our forward line!! (If only one who has actually achieved it).

I just quoted Iggy's figures and haven't looked anything up at all but it seems as though he's been injured a few times and so he's always on his way back before getting sidelined again. That's not going to help anybody to shine and can skew his stats horribly.

Sheridan's had him twice in the past so he knows exactly what he can do and that'll do me until I've actually seen him play.

Both Morgan and Blizzard have been injured for most of their time here too. Admittedly neither of them have impressed but I don't think we've seen the best of either - and Morgan was Mr Popular at Shrewsbury...

Nope. Can't buy into the doom and gloom on this one at all and I think that both Morgan and Blizzard can come good.

It's getting, and then keeping them, fit that will make or break all three.

Best bit is that deals are being now.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I just quoted Iggy's figures and haven't looked anything up at all but it seems as though he's been injured a few times and so he's always on his way back before getting sidelined again. That's not going to help anybody to shine and can skew his stats horribly.

Sheridan's had him twice in the past so he knows exactly what he can do and that'll do me until I've actually seen him play.

Both Morgan and Blizzard have been injured for most of their time here too. Admittedly neither of them have impressed but I don't think we've seen the best of either - and Morgan was Mr Popular at Shrewsbury...

Nope. Can't buy into the doom and gloom on this one at all and I think that both Morgan and Blizzard can come good.

It's getting, and then keeping them, fit that will make or break all three.

I am not so much doom and gloom as underwhelmed. And my main point is that if Oxford fans have watched him the last 2 - 3 seasons, who better to listen to as to this player's strengths and weaknesses? If they say he has more weaknesses than strengths, had 4 good games this season etc. and are glad to finally be rid, then we can ignore the ridicule as with Blizzard, but it will remain the elephant in the room.

Our own supporters always bring up stupid comments said about our own players as reasons not to listen to a supporter - SEB 'fat and lazy', Mackie 'headless chicken', BWP 'selfish' etc. Those players were by and large well loved and sorely missed. No supporter thought £500k for Mackie was good business,  and £1.5m for SEB was daylight robbery. They had 1 or 2 piss taking comments, but no supporter in their right mind advised Wolves fans they had signed a fat arsed waste of space. SEB was well loved here alright, certainly not released to a chorus of 'thank goodness'.

Well that's Reid not returning.
so heres the cheaper option.....

Dougie wrote:

Best bit is that deals are being now.  

Foreshore. It's a bit of a novelty getting in early for players as opposed to years gone by when the official line was that there was "no rush".

Deane Smalley it seems has worked twice before with Sheridan at Oldham and Chesterfield.

At Oldham he was given his first break by Sheridan.

At Chesterfield he was part of the team that Sheridan won promotion with.

If you look at Smalley's goals to matches played record...it comes over as very ordinary.

But he sees those two times under Sheridan has his most successful periods.

Obviously Sheridan feels he can get Smalley playing well for him and can see a future for him at Argyle.

Lets hope that this isn't linked with Reid exiting Argyle to go elsewhere.

Maybe Sheridan feels that Smalley can provide the goal chances that Reid and Alessandra need.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I just quoted Iggy's figures and haven't looked anything up at all but it seems as though he's been injured a few times and so he's always on his way back before getting sidelined again. That's not going to help anybody to shine and can skew his stats horribly.

Sheridan's had him twice in the past so he knows exactly what he can do and that'll do me until I've actually seen him play.

Both Morgan and Blizzard have been injured for most of their time here too. Admittedly neither of them have impressed but I don't think we've seen the best of either - and Morgan was Mr Popular at Shrewsbury...

Nope. Can't buy into the doom and gloom on this one at all and I think that both Morgan and Blizzard can come good.

It's getting, and then keeping them, fit that will make or break all three.

  

I think that on the face of it Smalley would be a good squad addition, UNLESS he is a replacement for Reid, if he is then Meh.

zyph wrote:

Deane Smalley it seems has worked twice before with Sheridan at Oldham and Chesterfield.

At Oldham he was given his first break by Sheridan.

At Chesterfield he was part of the team that Sheridan won promotion with.

If you look at Smalley's goals to matches played record...it comes over as very ordinary.

But he sees those two times under Sheridan has his most successful periods.

Obviously Sheridan feels he can get Smalley playing well for him and can see a future for him at Argyle.

Lets hope that this isn't linked with Reid exiting Argyle to go elsewhere.

Maybe Sheridan feels that Smalley can provide the goal chances that Reid and Alessandra need.

That makes sense to me.