I think a prediction of 1st this season is probably a little over optimistic. The piece makes some very valid points. The main one being that all of the young players that we've signed are maturing and developing all the time. That's the funny thing about young players, if you give them game time and wait a little while, they become experienced players. They may not be good enough to finish first this season, or even in the playoffs (though I wouldn't bet against it) but with careful maintenance of the squad, selling players occasionally and adding some here and there, we'll have a team that has developed together and may well achieve their potential together, resulting in promotion in a year or two's time. Everyone is clamouring for 'experience' because you all want promotion immediately; success right now. Your choice I suppose. Personally, I think it would be more gratifying to watch our young players develop together and achieve promotion (and maybe more) when they reach the level to do so.
Getting into the play offs would be an hell of an achievement without an experienced striker, on the other hand if we get a good capable striker without any of our best players leaving, I'd expect top 6 at least.
It’s a big week ahead Feel we really need that centre forward in before Cardiff. Mayenda just isn’t up to it yet imo and the thought of Jobe leading the line knocks me ill.
I mean, we did? And while Amad was a superb talent, he only really showed that in the second half of the season. And as that article suggests, the rest of our squad has 2 more years of experience now. The prediction is pretty wild, but it relies on something that is true. We've got a squad that has a hell of a lot of potential. That doesn't mean that they'll all come to fruition at the same point, but it's not outside the realms of possibility that we have the season next season that we were expected by virtually all smart commentators to have last season. Saying our squad is 'nowhere near' is something that is wick with recency bias and doesn't acknowledge the circumstances that led to the 16th place finish (which wasn't really all that much down to the quality of the playing squad).
Okay, we’ll see this season then eh? Fingers crossed you’re correct. It’s more hope than expectation for me though. I think top 6 would be a cracking achievement, never mind automatic. This squad is nowhere near challenging for promotion - just my opinion.
I think a lot will depend on how Poveda performs Let’s hope he Turns out to be a sess type player and hits the ground running as they say
It all boils down to his fitness. He’s clearly got the talent, just doesn’t play anywhere near enough games.
Whatever you think about this, our squad is, by my reckoning, worth at least £100 million more than when KLD first took over. That’s success and for all our complaining there’s a lot of truths in the article. To be honest, would you swap our squad for any other in the Championship? The potential really is there and once we get the final one or two in I can see us in the Premier League within 3, possibly 2 years.
When it's largely the same squad that got to the playoffs two years ago it's difficult to understand where the judgement of 'nowhere near' comes from with any kind of objectivity. That's not saying that we will (just in case you're itching to bookmark). Truth is that our logical ceiling is 5th place due to the parachute payments skewing things so wildly. However, there is absolutely no reason why this squad of players can't be in the pack that will challenge for the playoffs once we get our business done. Christ, we were in the theoretical playoff pack into the last quarter of last season despite the fact that we basically wrote the season off once we acknowledged the error with Beale. As ever, we'll need a bit of form and the ball to bounce our way on injuries a bit. But there's little you can draw from looking at the talent in the squad that points to us being miles out of the picture (once we get that striker done).
It wasn’t just Amad though we had Simms or Stewart fit for half the season, Pritchard and Evans were both important too. We’ve gone from having a well oiled midfield to having chucking anyone in anywhere and hoping it worked last season. We made play offs with the worst ever point tally for 6th in the championship so you could argue it was down to a poor division and Preston not giving a ****e on the final day of the season. Barnsley and Huddersfield both made play offs a season or two before being relegated to L1. Doesn’t really mean much now. I agree we have a talented squad but it’s not all about having loads of potential in every position need the players to do the dirty work and knit it all together and we had none of that last season nor did we have a leader on the pitch.
The whole issue with experience Vs a young talented team was always going to be an issue at some point with the “model “. Last season was always going to be the point at which we would have the youngest squad in the transition from signing older players with experience of winning in the league we were playing, which was the way we did things until three years ago. We were always going to introduce and develop young kids into the first team and stand by them, to develop their game and value and the team. At times I think we might have taken it too far, Jobe was over used for his age, a 17/18 year old should have been given a rest at some point. The issue with very young teams is, yes if they are very talented they can explode onto the scene and play some really attractive fear free football, but if it starts to go wrong, as it did from the appointment of Beale, they can also implode as they don’t have the experience to change things. Implode is what we did after the Leeds home game, when we were still on with a chance of automatic promotion we lost our shape and confidence and the kids didn’t have the guidance of experienced players on the pitch to pull things around. Looking at the new season however we now have a young team, but one with a lot more experience than at this stage last season, we appear to be holding on to players we thought might go, I still think Clarke will go, but no one else who is integral to the development of the team. So rather than buy experience we are growing experience. We are still two years away from the point at which we will have grown enough in house experience, which is why a a couple of experienced heads of the sort we have been linked with or already brought in, Browne for example, are still needed this year. The next stage with the “model”, will be improving the quality of recruitment at youth levels. Having a team as young as we do will block the progress of players in the under 21’s, as there will not be the space created by older players retiring or dropping down the leagues we had in League 1. So we will need to look at two areas, first we need to be looking at developing good links with a number of clubs both here and in Europe who have a good culture and would give the next crop of talented kids game time in adult football, the second is to be even more ambitious in the kids we sign, knowing that they must have the potential to be better than the players already in the first team. If we do this then I think we have a bright future, the problem is we need to be patient and as football fans that is one thing we are not!
I think this but also players who give us the ability to change the system and a coach who can spot things early and change it. We were too one dimensional last year, some of that was a lack of quality, ie we only had a plan A because it was our only threat. Le Bris seems to have spotted that, hopefully Poveda give us a right sided version and a better performing 10/AM and a couple of functional striker options give us more threat.
It's not as mental as it seems IF we sign a striker or two and play a proper CDM (not sure if Browne can play there). Defensively we were pretty solid despite how people feel about O'Nein, 5th best defensive record in the league last season speaks for itself. The defence really do need some cover if only to allow them to play out from the back more comfortably. We really have absolutely massive potential and on our day can outplay anyone...outscoring is by far the biggest issue.
Honestly no, one or two positions but overall definitely not considering potential and how low the wage bill is also. We have arguably some of the best players in the league in certain positions with Ballard, Neil, Patterson, Hume and Clarke. There also won't be a better teenage player than Rigg this season. We are in a very good position to kick on and I can't wait for the season to start.
Absolutely Leeds, Burnley and Sheff United have comfortably better squads at this level - just look at their forward options. That’s just off the top of my head too. To claim we have the best squad in the league is utter madness imo.
That’s very optimistic. We’d need a top quality striker, CDM & CB to even be in with a shout of finishing top imo. Not to mention we’d have to have them avoid injuries for 95% of the campaign. I’d be happy with top 6 personally.
Apart from a couple of games last season, Boro (10 men) Jimmy Hill FC and I think Plymouth away we were only 1 goal away from picking up a point or all 3 with a goal either way. It's not a huge gap to improve. However a goalscorer is an absolute necessity.
