The way the club is being run is poor, the lack of forward planning is not helping the situation, change is needed on and off the pitch.
The change required to solve a specific problem, may have been made months ago whilst the problem is still most apparent.
Recruitment involved the contracting of youth players four midfielders and a striker. It then went into this spin to win tactic of picking up released youth players from further up the pyramid, two more midfielders and a centre half. Add to them the legacy of previous similar strategies a keeper who took a circuitous route from Everton, and Jolley.
Burton is now 22 the only home bred survivor and it is still arguable he will even make it in a professional career, given his predecessors of recent seasons, this bodes badly for the five players who remained out on loan when the bench became unoccupied.
The four speculative signings, excluding the success of Bristow, also remained out on loan with just Hughes being recalled eventually. The defender has stayed out when cover for his position has been bare boned for weeks.
The summer saw a popular full back, a journeyman midfielder, and a resolutely accomplished centre half arrive- nothing else of much use.
The secondary tactic of signing broken people has been underwhelming in the shape of Jamieson, Nolan, Mumbungo and has added next to nothing. As have the endless loans except the Soton guy who got promoted up. In fact apart from loans with a view to signing, O'Connor, Doohan and Hawkes- the tactic has been an epic fail over many seasons.
Finally a speculative signing of promise, Nevitt failed possibly through over exposure due to circumstances and has just been replaced with Saunders who is quicker at producing very little.
Looking purely internally Tranmere need a second team as Crewe have two, so players are near to hand. The midfield four are bar one all turning twenty, clearly this is another example of hoarding. History shows just one making it would buck the trend.
Tranmere are mid-table, the above reeks of mid-table at best. I honestly think Mellon has done well to achieve as much as he has done this year. The current side is clearly struggling due to circumstances, although some would say they could be predicted due to players' injury records- let's not go deeper.
Under the current circumstances you probably need a bit of luck to mount a promotion challenge, Tranmere are in no position to sign a robust squad capable of getting promotion. However it seems plans cooked up above Mellon were badly conceived and lacking in any kind of focus. Signing players on two years to loan them out for the first year in semi-pro world cannot be any kind of plan.
