Should point out that when we went down to League One last time, we did have something resembling a squad, Ehab provided enough for McCann to make some very good signings at that level and Lewis-Potter and Greaves were given opportunities but not relied upon. Lewis-Potter didn’t play for a bit because of his contract renewal standoff and we had Adelakun and Whyte at various points too. We started that season in League One with Burke and de Wijs as our centre-back pairing and Greaves gradually displaced de Wijs. If we go down now, the squad will be gutted. The likes of Stan Ashbee and Rocco Coyle would be thrown into the deep end and not eased in like KLP and Greaves.
It's OK, Sellars-Fleming has had a decidedly average loan in the National League. He'll be fine in L1.
It's controversial to say and some saw it as asset stripping but the Allam's did actually run us very well from a financial perspective. Unfortunately in this football climate being well run isn't what fans want, they want to win transfer windows.
Exactly. Off the top of my head, we've got: GK: TLT/Cartwright/Callister DF: Ashbee, Smith, Furlong, Jacob (bit old now), Fleming (he has a year's option), Revill, Iggulden, Alfie Taylor and the kid from Ireland, McCarthy is it? MF: Rocco Coyle, Tinsdale, Vaughan, Brown ST: Parker, TSF I mean...where exactly is the League One quality? The defence might be okay, but the rest of it would get battered.
Sorry mate I'm not saying build a squad from them, I'm saying replace the players we sell. I'm making the assumption we aren't selling the entire senior squad.... And hey, if we are that solves our wage bill issue. Last time we went down a youthful Greaves and Dan Batty stepped up pretty well.
Yeah, but the word depth there is doing a lot of heavy lifting. We'll need first team players who can actually help us be competitive, a few kids with a smattering of league appearances between them isn't going to cut the mustard. TSF looked miles off when he came on as a sub, no disrespect to the lad as he's only 19, but the likes of him, Tinsdale and Coyle are nowhere near ready to be first team players.
He was one of Donnys best in league two and if we stay up I have no doubt they'd come sniffing about getting him for their league one campaign. Again, I'm working on the assumption all 30 of our senior players won't be sold. The players I listed could very well be integrated as squad members. I mean if we're selling Mehlem, racioppi, omur etc as a start they literally aren't even in our current squad so your question of replacing them with who is simple, no one! Edit: sorry misread tsf as TLT. Too many acronyms.
Aye but Greaves has gone on to be a Premier League player and we knew he was going to be a first team player, I can't say the same about any of our current lot outside of maybe Smith and Ashbee. TLT would be fine, but I think people generally see the name Coyle and think "ohhh", but he's barely played a competitive game. These are the kinds of players you want to slowly introduce across a season, chucking them into a scenario where they've got better players dunking on them every game is just going to wreck their development.
We will be a big fish in L1, and despite the state of our finances, if we’re making any moves for being a promotion outfit we will probably have pick of the loans and freebies at that level. It will still be possible for us to have a strong squad on a budget. A lot easier than it would for say Mansfield or Burton anyhow.
If we go down the main priority is getting high wage earners off the wage bill as even with clauses in contracts they'd still be on a wedge. Incomings wouldn't be too much of a concern. We signed Smallwood and Adelakun last time and they ran the division.
Okay, we don't replace them. Then we've still got a squad that wasn't good enough for the Championship, which will probably play a similar way under the same manager. If we go down we'd have to either replace the players or the manager because just lowering the quality of opposition slightly probably won't make much difference. I mean look how crap Derby were and we couldn't beat them.
Last time we went down we had the all time worst end to a championship season and with just a few adjustments won league one. Let's calm down a little about the state of the squad. Our squad is by and large good enough for the championship, particularly our defence. We also have a number of players out injured. I don't think it's as simple as saying if we go down by the odd result we're not good enough for the championship but if, say, Preston stay up their squad is good enough.
Think it's a bit naive too that we can just move high earners on - even if we don't get fees how many of them will find a club where the contract matches theirs here, and we don't end up paying them off the difference? And at least 3 won't be going anywhere til January. As soon as a club is in financial distress and forced into sales, the wolves start circling. Yeah, great when Leeds are effectively paying Barmby to play for us. Not so great the other way around. Oh, and Syd's still not grasping it is he?
The problem with the latter Allam period wasn’t so much the way they structured squads (well, except our Championship relegation season), it was that they lacked any understanding of long term planning/vision and the fact speculating to accumulate is key to a club like ours. Aside from the odd academy graduate once the PL players departed we barely sold anyone for a profit. That wasn’t helped by the fact they refused to lengthen contracts in order to sell for money. It didn’t help the malaise around the club from the fans to see no projects ongoing on or off the pitch. If we could get a bit of Allam being sensible with money, a bit of Acun’s showbiz and a bit of Bruce’s player spotting/development for a profit skills we’d have some very good owners.
Well, we signed eight players and let go of Dicko, Henriksen, Irvine, Kingsley, Lichaj, Stewart, McDonald, Toral, Tafazolli and Lopes. We also let go of De Wijs and Batty in January. So across the season we had a pretty big turnover. In fact, only six of that relegation team played in more than half the games in League One; Wilks, Magennis, Honeyman, Burke, KLP and Elder.
