Yeah. I don't disagree with this. We are all rightly ambitious to be back in the PL. I just think all the off field stuff is all ifs and buts. I'm just judging by what's happening on the pitch and I like it. I'd be surprised if others don't and its the only real known quantity and all we are really after at the end of the day.
The striker thing is glaring and a real blind spot. I wonder if it is due to scars from some of our epic failures in this area Not meaning to be picky but in what way can ambition come across as negative? Do you mean frustration with the sales squad when the hope is for top two and sales might prevent that? Can’t get my head around it but probably didn’t get enough sleep. I think we should be there or thereabouts. Automatic might be a stretch. But looking at some of the challenges from last season - they have had key players ripped from them too. So it isn’t just us. Look at Boro, Coventry and Bristol City. Have many clubs that were in the championship last season and still there this actually improved their squads (on paper) ? I guess that is the real humbling lesson from all this. It keeps going on…
How much of a disaster would depend on the replacement. None at all - definitely a disaster. No argument there
The lesson there is every year you are here you get worse. That is the nature of this league. The best champ teams are yoyos who go back up every year or two.
Bah. We are ****ing this window up IMO. Too many first team starters leaving when we were set for a solid, maybe even spectacular season, once again some of us are praising the club for getting a good price like we get to watch people rolling in a pile of cash on saturdays. Every new player at this point to replace a player in a winning team erodes the chances of the winning run extending. Neither Fraser or Holgate have anything that says they will settle and succeed. Reckon they will be more like AMN. They blew it last season failing to get a striker, they haven’t fixed that and now they are getting rid of the best goal scorer in the squad currently. Not impressed.
If we manage to keep hold of Alcaraz and KWP, who are actually premier league level players, I'd say we've done pretty well. The bit I am struggling with, the vast majority of us here (myself included) would have driven Adarma wherever he wanted to go on a free before the season had started. And he's been far, far more prolific in this league than Lionel Tella. He's also looked as good (if not better) than Tella so far this season. Point being, you don't need to be a PL level player to be successful in the Championship. What you don't really want though, is to be lumbered with a whole bunch of Championship level players when you go up, necessitating a massive, expensive rebuild (hence why loaning Championship capable players for the year is a sensible move). It's a shame we lost Tella, but if we keep KWP and Alcaraz, it's not the disaster people seem to be making out. A lot of our more limited players will thrive in this league, much as Tella (who is very limited, and not a PL level player for me) did. We'll also have the opportunity to see the emergence of talents like Ballard and SAA in the Championship too. We're in a pretty good position, and I don't think we're done with signings either. This was always going to be a slightly rocky period, and there's just no need to panic right now.
This is a good point. I think we have 2 chances to get promotion as I think the teams who get relegated from the prem this season will be the financially week ones, ie Luton, Sheff Utd, and with us putting in the groundwork this season it will make us just as strong financially next season. Also if you go back and listen to an earlier Wilcox interview he said that the club doesn’t just want to get promoted and then have to rebuild again and fight at the bottom. The plan is to get premier league ready so that we can realistically fight in the mid table region and build from there. And let’s be honest, every player we have sold this summer excluding Tella, did a pretty **** job of that last season, hence why a rebuild is required.
What about Che? We don’t have a forward! Please don’t say Arma as he has been good anywhere but up front. Mara is awful.
Well we need to wait until 2pm today to be able to make a comment on that, and if Che is gone, we do need to replace him, yes.
Well we know he was training in the other group. The group not penned to play. So I won’t hold my breath.
Its absolutely not a good window by any measure if you ask me. Trying to belittle Tella who is an excellent player and has started very well for us doesn’t make us stronger either. He was one of the top scorers in the winning team last season and off to great start for us. You may not think he is Messi but I will guarantee Martin is gutted to lose him. Every player coming in has been an underwhelming move that has weakened us. If we stop winning games it will have been a disaster and if we lose KWP, Adams, Alcaraz, Sulemana, we will be back to preseason.
I’ve already said it’s a shame to lose Tella. I just don’t see it as the disaster others are making it out to be. It’s far too early to be making statements like “every player that has come in has weakened us” too. Far, far too early.
We also haven’t lost the players you mention. Of course, were we to do so, and not replace them, it would be a disaster. But that hasn’t happened…
Were you not around in 2009? You know, when we all woke up every day wondering if we still had a club to support?
PS - I’m not trying to belittle Tella, I just don’t think he’s more than a decent Championship level player. Much like Adarma, or Smallbone. He’s had one good season in a team that isn’t ours. Much like those two.
I’ll be fascinated to see how he gets on in Germany. Sancho tore that league up and has looked hopeless in the premier league
I think it’s pretty fair. I doubt you could show me an incoming player that is an upgrade on the player we have sold. My biggest issue is that we have a squad of not quite premier league level players and we are selling the best of them and replacing them with worse not quite premier league level players.
I'm not fussed at all about the outgoings. (But it's a shame that we still currently have Lyanco, McCarthy, Aribo and Djenepo.) For me, it's the incomings. Two free transfers, three loans, and one purchase. It hardly screams ambition. Getting out of this league at the first attempt will not be easy. But we do still have one week left. I don't have a huge amount of faith (they haven't earnt that with me yet), but we shall see. It'll only take a couple of important acquisitions, and things will look very rosy again.
