..has also now left, which leaves us with just delaney and smith as CB's. Seriously, PJ really needs to get his finger out with so many of our players leaving for nothing. Can we really attract top qualit players to PR? We now probably 3 defenders, a couple of midfielders and a striker or two. Have we got the money for all these players that will get us promoted?
Not this season stretchy. The problem is the club are taking a gamble. They can't guarantee we will be able to bring in anyone of quality. More worrying is that players like Brown, Eastman, Norris, McAuley and numerous others don't want to be at the club. That sends out quite a strong signal that they don't believe in either Paul Jewell or Simon Clegg. Personally I suspect it's the latter.
YITL Don't agree mate, the fact that the mentioned players left, does not say that they have no faith in PJ or Clegg but that they wanted longer contracts/their futures sorted out. Some of the mentioned players were only offered 6 month - 1 year contracts and they would rather have 2 or 3 year contracts elsewhere. TBH i don't think any of the above will be missed and PJ/ME are not stupid, they will bring in the necessary players. Do you honestly think that they will leave us with just 7 or 8 senior players? Come on, get a grip and lets just wait to see what happens!! Remember, THE TRANSFER WINDOW ISN'T EVEN OPEN YET!!!!!
Spanish - the window has just opened i believe. I just think that we will panic buy and not get the quality in that we need. I think the PJ's plan is similar to keanes...2-3 years to get in the prem. Wheras kean thought he could do it with the same sunderland players, pj will slowly build the team with youngsters and a handful of seasoned pro's. Im not expectig much this season coming, just a top half finish will do for me, and then the following season push on for promotion.
I think we will be left signing whoever we can get in. We might sign one or two quality players, we might nail Chopra and Sharp even, but I can't see us having a squad good enough to challenge for the play offs next season.
Spanish is absolutely right. The time to panic is if we get to August and we havent signed anybody, in which case we'll all be given squad numbers!!
The one thing i would say is for many seasons now a lot of 606ers have been saying we need a clearout of the 'deadwood' and now its happening people are complaining. PJ now has a 'blank canvas' to work on and hopefully he can create a masterpiece (three cheers for cheesy lines!! )
Mike - nothing wrong with a clearout, but we could end up relying on last ditch deals and loan signings to put a side out. We would've been better to offer these youngsters short-term deals on the same money they were on just for a bit of stability instead of insulting them with reduced wages. It's a very dangerous game we're playing to let everyone go before anyone comes in and if it backfires we will be lucky to stay in the division. If you don't believe it's possible to have a player crisis just ask Scunthorpe last season or Southend a couple of years ago.
I've just read that Southend still haven't got their squad together: This was Paul Sturrock in March: "OUR injury situation has worsened and we are woefully short of players right now. When Johnny Herd got injured against Hereford United last Friday I think that left us with 13 fit players. But we’ve suffered three further blows since then with two of the lads picking up a sickness bug and another one limping off the training ground on Tuesday."
Much as I have been a voice of doom and gloom, we do have more pulling power than Southend...dont we?
I would imagine so, even now. My point was that we are playing a very dangerous game. Just think of the start of last season. I can't remember who was out but it was at least half a dozen players including Wickham, O'Connor, Civelli, Delaney.
Sorry but i don't get the 'playing a dangerous game' thing. Nobody knows what is going on behind closed doors and we could have several players ready to sign for us. PJ is not a fool and neither is ME, they know we need players and that we need them in asap, i should imagine you will see a few new faces within the next week or so. You have to take into account that the season only finished on Monday, players etc have either just been on or are on their holidays. I can't see there being any panic buys and i'm sure all will be fine and you will all be getting excited, at the new signings, very soon!!!
I appreciate its a risky game. Ive always been optimistic but maybe this situation is exactly what ME's money has been calling for. An experienced manager in place who is building on a team of youngsters, therefore limited wage constrictions, to build a team from scratch and not fill in the gaps. the reasons i dont see us getting into a player crisis. good manager, decent league, not in free fall, financially stable.
If people don't want to play for us then I'd rather they leave anyway. We will not be short on numbers come the start of the season but it remains to be seen who we can get. One decent signing could be the catalyst for others to follow. I'm more interested in building a strong team over the next couple years than making one that can get us promoted next year. If we use our youngsters next year, give them all valuable match time and experience and avoid the drop it will be a job well done.
I agree that perhaps PJ hasn't helped himself by stating that a few signing were imminent, but it is still too early to really be complaining. This year we are being linked with every player possible, but I find that exciting! Admittedly, we won't sign hardly any of them, if any! But I'd be much more worried if we weren't being linked. Of course Clegg isn't sitting behind closed doors, drinking tea! I personally think he is doing a good job! I would not want any player, no matter how 'big' they are, to come in, demanding extortionate wages and we to say yes. We must not break our wage structure. Look at the success of say Norwich and Blackpool (last year) who kept to a solid wage structure and had everyone playing for the team, rather that for themselves, or thinking they were 'better' than the team! People leave. Fact. It is very unlikely to be because of Clegg. If another company offered you more money than your were currently getting, you would probably take it, and it's the same with these. Yes I know many were offered reduced contracts, but to be honest, non of the players have done anything that suggests they deserve to get a wage increase or even stay on the same wage! Some supporters just need to calm down, and enjoy the ride. We were NEVER going to sign a few high profile players in the last couple of weeks, before the transfer window is even open! Clubs and players alike like to hold on for the best deal. We won't see any signings for quite a while and it is not Clegg's, PJ's or ME's fault. It's the sorry state of football at the moment, where money rules above all. Rant over.
I don't think anyone is really complaining at this point Cinnamon, more a case of expressing our fears - well in my case anyway. I don't think that many would argue that what we have in the squad, at the present time, is not going to get us too far next season and that there is a definite need to add additional strength, experience and quality. I do agree with you about the influence money has on players - having a player show club loyalty over a better deal is rare these days - but it is understandable. If we accept that this is the case though, then this does mean that the club will need to invest, in the true sense of the word, if they want to attract the players that PJ believes we need to be successful. My concern however, is the possible difference between the supporters view of success and that of ME and Clegg. Personally, and being realistic, I would say that a top six finish with an ever improving side ready for 2012/13 would be a success. ME/Clegg may view a successful season as one where we stay up and do not get into a relegation battle. The associated investment required for each of these varies immensley and the latter, the cheaper option, is one that I fear may be taken by the club.
Seems like to me that Clegg and ME were convinced by Keane that he would have won promotion by now and as such it wasn't worth while renewing contracts of Norris, McAuley etc as we could attract a better calibre of players. I'm only speculating but if this was the case it's extremely naive by Clegg and ME and I think a valuable lesson has been learnt. There are no guarantees in football and we must safeguard our assets. Before the season starts I expect PJ to make one big siging (the 20 goal a season granny pusher), a couple of frees (Dyer and Ingimarsson?), a couple of other £1M-ish signings and a few hungry lower league players a la Drury. If there are still gaps in the squad we'll get a couple of loans. No panic.
here here Sven dust, like your confidence and agree with everything apart from Dyer, Jewell is no mug, he's got out of this league twice! We just need a bit of patience, we gave Keane way too much so lets give Jewell half of that time to get us moving in the right direction!
