What quality did we have last summer on the trip , Jacob apart? Just wondering Can’t remember but seem to recall dull pass it a lot games .
Birmingham lost 5-0 in a friendly. Again doesn’t mean anything but if I was a Birmingham fan, I’d at least raise my eyebrow.
It's not really. Acun has done a fantastic job repairing relationship with fans and I don't think anyone is criticising him for that. Indeed (apart from the LR outburst) he's been a shining example of a perfect owner. It's just the financial side. Lots of teams utilising a more cautious slow build (with investment) and will start the new season with both a good foundation and reasonable finance and some (Ipswich) playing a much more risky strategy. I think we've gone the Ipswich route but it failed. Having sold G and P the finances are not devastating and may allow some manoeuvre but the team is decimated. That's got to put us at a disadvantage to other teams and hoping that we have found an excellent manager and can pull off another few excellent signings. 1 or 2 loans to supplement the squad and add quality is fine ... but 5? We get no benefit from improving their value ( unlike JP where we ultimately shared it with AV and got 2/3s of it), it denies playing time to our players who would increase in experience and value and often come with high salaries. I just don't feel optimistic and think the current strategy is misplaced. We do have a knack of finding rough gems to polish, but we need to do this every single year just to stand still. If JP hadn't been so brilliant this year the situation would be quite bleak
I'm all for taking advantage of the loan market for a couple of quality players that we'd have no chance of signing permanently. But we definitely need to sign more players permanently than last year. Otherwise we'll be in a much worse position next season if we don't go up with not many assets left to sell.
Totally agree on missing out on Moore. He'll be 32 before season starts, will command a high salary over 3 years and also a fee to Bournemouth? He'll have no resale value towards end of contract. He had a great start at Ipswich but tailed off over last 2/3s of loan and their style of peppering opposition with crosses suits him. No idea what our new style will be but think this is a bullet dodged
I genuinely don't see how it's an exciting time to be a fan and I've heard this from most the Acun era and I think it's garbage. He's repaired the relationship fantastically well but what we've been served up on the pitch during his tenure certainly hasn't been exciting. We had the chaos of Shota where the football was horrendous and LR's boring style. We've never looked like getting promotion, so I don't see what there's to be excited about. Yes, we signed a lot of players but we did under the Allams too and I didn't find the latter stage of their ownership to be 'exciting' either. I think this summer is farcical and just down to poor planning, I don't find it exciting at all.
We probably need the ‘exciting times’ debate once the squad has been assembled. We have moved players out before bringing them in so people naturally feel a bit more pessimistic
I would agree financial disaster probably overstates it but it's debatable. I'd argue substantially far from perfect and may lead to disaster if we continue along same route and don't get promoted or have more crown jewels to sell off. That A has done a fantastic job fan wise is not debatable. So I don't think it's a reasonable comparison between the two at all tbh
On football things, I don't think I agree with Acun on anything, I think he's clueless and when he gets excited he makes **** loads of mistakes. It's not a short term thing. The footballing side under Acun hasn't been good at all. The only exciting thing of Acun's tenure was losing the Allams, the rest has been dour and I don't think anyone could argue with that either.
The outcome has been dour (Shota) and boring (Rosenior) but the lead upto that was exciting, suppose it’s easy to create excitement considering the current summer was the norm under the Allams. Masses would be released then we’d have to replace the full squad every summer with lesser quality. We know that’s not the case now just how long these players are joining us for is where there is uncertainty
I’m sorry but anyone who thinks it’s an exciting time to be a city fan right now I’d love to know what they’re drinking. We’ve made 1 signing and supposedly he’s out the door as well. We are going to be a team again relying on loans in our starting XI which means we will be back here next summer: It is piss poor management from the transfer side exemplified by the fact we are still trying to make Sinik work when the lad would’ve been so far gone in any other team. If he’s the last player left from that ****e 2022 window then it’s proof of awful transfer policies.
So we're a week closer to the season and still no incomings.. Where's this RB? What about other positions we need?
