They're obviously not pointless, seeing as every professional football club around the world has them.
I think he meant pointless for us at this current time as probably half of the players involved yesterday won’t be here in 7 weeks time
Okay fair. But when are we supposed to have them? And what guarantee do we have that half the squad or more won't be here? What about the half that will still be here?
Oh yeah I’m not saying we shouldn’t have them, but this pre season is going to be a mess because of the squad overhaul that is most likely going to happen. It is clear that JWP and Lavia aren’t close to moves yet as otherwise they would’ve been left at home like Diallo, so we are left in a bit of a **** situation. Either you play them knowing they most likely won’t be here and then aren’t giving minutes/fitness to someone who will be here. Or you don’t play them and if nobody matches our valuation then they won’t be fit for the start of the season.
Yep, that's pretty much how it is. It sucks but that's just part and parcel of relegation unfortunately. But anyone calling for friendlies to be cancelled or players to be told to stay at home, needs to be realistic. Anything extreme like that would just cause an unnecessary negative atmosphere at the club.
Glad I started a civilised debate. I actually agree with all the points made and understand them. I wouldn't expect the club not to play friendlies or anything and have to include players that won't be here. From a long-time fans point of view I just look at it and go 'This means nothing to me, it is literally pointless' Also so far I am not a big fan of passing it around in the penalty area so hopefully any new defenders will be confident and used to this so they can hit the ground running - as they won't have played in any friendlies probably.
What are you about.....Oh Vienna To be honest, these puns/jokes should really be greeted with a cool empty silence...
It’s going to be a false start of a season this year Won’t have the team sorted till end-Aug and then there’s adjusting to RMs tactics and ensuring we have players that suit them
Exactly this, anyone that sees this season as anything other than a transitional one is kidding themselves. It is possible that everything clicks early on but more likely that results will be mixed IMO. I'm not saying that we shouldn't target promotion but fans will have to be a bit patient because of the huge amount of changes at the club recently.
Pfft I don’t know what the squad will look like come the end of August, but we’re guaranteed to have a core group of players who are premier league quality. The expectations are clear from Wilcox and Martin that anything less than promotion is a failure. Sure August and September will bring mixed results, but anything below play offs and Martin will be gone. A newly relegated squad without financial issues should not struggle in this league.
Looks like Larios and Perraud have joined up with pre season now too. Is it just ABK that's absent now? I wonder if we extended the changing rooms when they were on holiday.
Nah, anything less than promotion is a complete failure. We've still got a lot of talent in the squad. Some of which will leave, I accept that but I struggle to see how we can sell all the players we would like to keep TBH. Lavia is the only one so far who I would deem quite close to leaving. It simply requires the big clubs to stop dicking around and pay the asking price.
It seems like every season is a transition season. But actually most good Championship teams lose their star players every summer; look at Coventry right now. Middlesborough have lost half a dozen first teamers, simply because they were all loan signings. A lot of teams are arguably in perpetual transition. The Championship is different from the Prem. Far more room for error. An average team with two or three Prem-quality players should make the playoffs. In the Prem just having one or two Champ level players will likely see you relegated. If we can keep say, Alcaraz, Tino, Sulemana, Adams, then that is more than enough talent for us to be expecting playoffs, bare minimum. It really comes down to whether Martin is as good as SR think he is.
We have talent, but we also currently have odds of about 1 in 3 to get promoted, which seems about right...it would be nice to get promoted, and we certainly have a solid chance, but we shouldn't expect it.
Inordinately high levels of expectation and hope are the default settings for most footy fans. This leads to dismay, despair, anger and vitriolic condemnation of everyone from the tea lady to the CEO when failure is perceived probably before the whistle blows for the start of the first game of the season.
