Joe Taylor
Joe sparks the debate, really. His impact last season — ten goals from 19 starts — was suddenly the benchmark for impact signings. He earned comparison to Davide Somma, who helped keep us up in 2010, but instead, he helped fire us into the top six, briefly.
However, there are cons. He wasn’t our player, and the hole he left wasn’t easy to fill. He scored nine of his ten goals in a nine-game period, with six coming in a single week, and he was goalless in 12 matches.
I’m not saying he was a bad signing — he wasn’t; he did excellently for us. He had an air of cockiness, socks rolled down with the aura of a throwback from yesteryear, and fans loved that. However, we must not forget that of his ten goals, only one was a winner (Exeter), and only one other directly affected the outcome of the game (Cheltenham, draw to a win). The others all came in games we would have won anyway (Port Vale 2-0, Barnsley 5-1, Cambridge 6-0, Bristol Rovers 5-0, and Carlisle 3-1). He did get two assists, against Shrewsbury (won 3-0) and Carlisle (3-1).
Only playing Devil’s Advocate here, but technically, his goals and assists earned us seven points (two from Carlisle and Cheltenham and three from Exeter).