Completely agree. I think most people were content with our full back options at the start of the season. Few would have seen Christie drop off quite as much as he has. Vinagre was a risk but we all knew Greaves could go there. It’s become a problem because 2 of the 4 we thought we had haven’t worked.
What’s the current state of the squad next season assuming no loans are extended and contracts are not renewed? Can’t be many players.
A good way to look at it is who would clearly walk into another promotion chasing side? Philogene. Big question mark against Connolly. I don't think Greaves and Jones together as a partnership is good enough. One or other with a more dominating CB perhaps, but it's not a top pairing. Will Seri be up to it next season? And yet, how many players have we signed these past few windows?!?!
This is where lies a bit of an issue for me. You would ideally like the foundation of a team or at least a solid spine and then make use of loans on top of that. But Im not sure we do without another solid CM option, a solid permanent striker. Hopefully the GK situation is sorted now. If the idea is to take loans that see us through to the summer and can get better value for money than fair enough but we do have to keep in mind continuity. Ideally you have a team and are looking for upgrades/improvements, not having to recruit the bones of a 1st 11 every window.
We're clearly being left behind by all the other teams in the Championship who only sign players who are immediately a success. Shameful.
Think sadly the plan will be like you say. Give it a go this year and if it doesn't work a key asset will be sold and rebuild from that. Greaves and Philogene would fetch a decent amount and would allow us to rebuild whilst being FFP compliant
A lot of this comes down to expectation setting. If we're building for the future, it's reasonable to except a couple of seasons of mediocracy as that development takes place. The problem is when the club come out and say one thing (building for the future) and do another (spend most of their transfer windows securing, pretty impressive, loan deals). Adding the likes of Morton, Fabio and Delap to a squad that's not far away from a promotion push is massively different to what we're effectively doing, and that's building a team around them. As it stands, in the summer we'll lose; Fabio, Delap, Morton, Connolly, Vinagre (if he doesn't go back sooner), Traore, Christie, Doc, Sharp, Covil and Jacob. Given that's 7/8 of our typical match day squad and 4 of our first teamers, it's another massive rebuild. We're not building for the future, we're rebuilding every season.
Aside from the loanees who would be a great loss out of those? I'm sure I've read Connolly said he wants to stay here. Having a 1 year contract was his idea to prove himself. But after that - Traore is a luxury player for me Christie - past his best Doc -we are looking to get rid Sharp - might move onto the coaching staff? Covill been injured and not around the 1st team for ages Jacob a good back up LB option Vinagre - waste of time
I'm nervous whenever someone runs at our back four because they seem incapable of stopping a shot at goal - it's alright blaming the keeper but the fault lies mainly with the back four with the worst offenders being Christie and Greaves who never seem to stop any attack
I expect Connolly and Jacob will be offered new deals, I'd be quite happy to keep Traore as well, but I doubt that'll happen. Nobody will care about the others.
We'll always have some loan players, it's rare for clubs to get out of this league without at least some help from loanees, I think QPR are the only Championship club that don't currently have any player on loan.
I think Connolly might find himself with better offers. Do we know yet if it was us or him who wanted to keep it to a 1 year deal?
Connolly's said he wants to extend his deal and Tan's said he's being offered a new deal, so it looks fairly likely something will be agreed.
Fingers crossed. Don’t think I’d want to rely on him as a main centre forward but he’s a ****ing good option and has the knack of finding space behind the defence. I think every club in the division would probably take him on a FAT.
We aren't giving up anymore chances than our stats indicate we are around midtable in terms of chances and xG against. The issue is Allsop is giving up some proper low quality shots
