Speakman gets a lot of criticism but nobody knows the parameters he's working under and what his remit is. If he's got f all money to play with and we're sitting just outside play offs with a low wage bill then you could say he's doing well? Then you look at the ownership and those with the money and whether they have the resources to run a club of our size. But people seem.to forget the ****show they inherited and the parachute money other relegated clubs have that we.dont.
All I could say if they Still might get more out of the French lads due to him knowing the language and culture.
We sold Stewart for £10m in August and….. Give over man Speakman clearly said that they weren't happy with the play offs, obsession with progression etc. He had now supposed to have said play off are what we are aiming for. Now you can twist words as much as you want but my post still stands, he has lowered his aims and I fail to see the argument against it. He has lowered his aims as did Keane in your recount
Could well be the case. And maybe our financial constraints are such after years of mismanagement we are in need of caution. I am all for that. But lets not have expectations of coaches that are beyond the ability of the players we are able to afford.
Not sure Speakman has necessarily “lowered his expectations”. More just updated them based on our current standing. He’s hardly going to say the expectation as of now is promotion, so saying the expectation is play offs is fair enough.
Which is true, but All I have said is he's lowered his aims, which he has. You and others have said he's amended them. Great I'll accept that then and move on, he's amended them down.
Which equates to lowering them, it's not difficult is it . He's amended them down, how's that work for you? If he wanted top 2 but now is settling for play offs he's lowered them. Jesus . Let's hope we make the play offs otherwise he might have to erm amend them again
Imagine he'd said in August that top two-way unlikely due to the finances of soton, Leeds, Leicester but we'd be happy with play off. He'd have been crucified
it’s about language and connotation though. By your logic, every team in the division is lowering their expectations. “lowering expectations” in the context of being a stick to hit Speakman with isn’t really fair. You set yourself a high goal and you adjust as you go. That’s every sporting team ever.
For me yes. We arent a top 6 squad in my humble opinion. We are on a good trajectory though. Folk on here said making top 6 last year was creating a rod for our back. I wasnt so sure, but they have been proved right. So many things clicked last year - Amad, Clark and Roberts, Stewart early doors, Neil was a glue even I couldnt predict. We were the great unknowns. Mowbray was such a great fit and just let them loose and gifted them so much belief and confidence. The squad isnt as good, opposition players and coaches have had a look at us, and we have tried to be a bit different. Just my opinion but we are still better than the sum of our parts.
Which of course is a different argument. There is no harm in him lowering the expectations, I don't see why people are so quick to defend it
it’s because of the connotation that him adjusting his expectations is somehow a lowering of standards. You may not mean that, but it’s how your initial post came across
In hindsight what we achieved last year was an amazing achievement especially with the injuries we suffered. Trouble I see is that beautiful fast football has gone and we are slow and ponderous in possession which isn't helping the mood
completely agree with this. something I think has been massively overlooked is that the standard in the championship last year was awful. It’s upped itself quite significantly this year, in my opinion
