Shaun Derry: The Magpie Circle - The Great Escape double episode feature

It's a fantastic episode, Paul always does a great job with flowing from subject to subject whilst allowing the guest to speak openly about their time at the club. This double episode with Shaun Derry is an excellent podcast, I loved hearing about Steve Finnan and the old cow shed area where the players used to train.

The first is very good, I need to find time for the second but I will probably listen to it tomorrow now.

I've listened to the 2nd one first..... again a really good insightful interview by @TheMagpieCircle

Here is my take, reading between the lines:

1) Recruitment: Brano's appointment an absolute disaster waiting to happen ( had he been a head of recruitment elsewhere?..no, I think is the answer)

2) Recruitment : Derry seemingly signed players on "other peoples" recommendations, without ever seeing them play. Jimmy Sirrel did the leg work, travelling up to Scotland midweek to see games... I never got that impression that Shaun put in the miles? he mentioned Greg Abbotts in depth knowledge of L1, L2, Conference...so why did we end up signing the likes of Hayhurst, Wroe, Santos on loan....  It just doesn't hang well together. Bajner being a case on point, signed up on the basis of a call from his agent

3) Budget cuts.... I think people are missing the flip side to this equation. The Trews, probably still had the financial legacy of the Munto fiasco to continually to sort out. Also, maybe, writing without any knowledge...did the Trews have the necessary "dosh" coming in to finance the budgets...hence the cuts being made. I recall Chris Kiwomya saying his budget had been cut by a third...so this was ongoing...

I think Derry deserved better but the club was moving towards league two by every season.