The thing I like best is that Mick and Terry have built a proper squad over a period of time and it has evolved rather than making quick fire wholesale changes. The foundations have now been built and we are now seeing the kind of football that we all want to see. The steady progress we have made under Mick has been difficult at times but we are now reaping the rewards for being patient. Let's get behind the boys this season and I for one really do believe that this is going to be our year.
Some of us were patient....................and I personally like that we have built a team without throwing millions at it...............
But had you done so, and got promoted off the back of it, you would not have been complaining I guess?
I would rather earn promotion than buy it........but that said even spending millions you cannot guarentee anything as we've seen with a few teams.......... ...that said I probably wouldn't have complained had we gained promotion off the back of it .......I don't often complain anyway.
So, your point being?? I'm also happy that Mick has proven that you can make a successful team without spending oodles of cash. I'm also happy that, as he's added better players, our style of play has improved. Last year wasn't pretty at times but he had to utilise the players he had in a way that worked and that was enough to get us to the play offs. This year we have better wide players and you can see that reflected in our play now.
I'm happy with how we are doing, plus Mick is always upfront when perhaps we didn't deserve the full three points and give other teams credit, unlike some other managers and fans who hide behind excuses.
SD - I never said I had a point, just seeing if Mr Plum was truly fussy about how promotion was achieved. In principle I agree with the sentiment but on the other side of the coin, neither route is a guaranteed route. A club can build a team over 5-6 years and eventually go up but that does not necessarily make it a team that is going to make a decent go of the next level up. The likes of yourselves, Us, Forest, Leeds, Derby, Middlesbrough will eventually, by the law of averages, make a return to the top flight at one time or another, almost regardless of how it is done (or so it seems). It's staying their that is there that is really tricky bit I would have said that if the money is there, and the right players are bought, then success can be had (Portsmouth) for at least the short term, and such a side is likely to be better equipped to survive (perhaps).
I agree that there are many ways to achieve promotion, including adopting a variety of playing styles and differing team structures. The likes of West Ham, Newcastle, and Norwich all engineered swift returns to the Premier League by retaining the majority of their Premier League-class players. There are also sides like Portsmouth, as you mentioned, who arguably 'bought' success (as well as sides like Cardiff, QPR, and Reading). Then you have the dark horses who achieved promotion through a combination of charismatic managers, unique playing styles, and/or an outsider status that surprised people (think Blackpool, Wigan, and, most recently, Bournemouth). Of course those clubs also benefited from spending a bit of cash. In fact, there was a debate on this before on here. I'd looked into all the promoted sides of the past several seasons and the main correlation was that clubs spent a bit of money to achieve promotion, from £500,000 (Burnley) to several million. I don't think a side has actually gone up without spending anything on transfers in the past several years. But of course it's a fallacious argument because if you have the right set-up, a good management, and are able to bring in quality on the cheap or through the academy (all of which I think we have right now), then promotion should not be impossible or illogical to achieve. After all, we've been guilty of throwing money to get promotion and failed (as have several other clubs including Forest and Leeds, who you have mentioned). Anyway, the point is redundant because we have been spending money and, I like to think, McCarthy has been able to bring in the players that he wants, particularly after the £8m sale of Mings. If he doesn't want a player who costs big money, then fair enough, but I think it's important that we have the potential to pay that sort of money for a target, should they become available. I think the big-money sales of some of our best players over the past few years should enable us to have that spending power, should McCarthy require it.
Cracking result that. Very happy, would have taken a draw but that's a mini intent. Say we are top of the league. Regarding the above - you take promotion however you get it, in my opinion there is no right / wrong way. We tried the quick fix ££££ way and it didn't work, now we're having to try a different way. Fair play to Norwich for bouncing straight back, a very difficult thing to do due to the disparity of wages from Premier League to the championship. Think I'm right in saying Norwich cleverly like Sunderland have a dramatic wage reduction inplace for all players - smart this. We could have done with this re Counago/ George/ Sereni in the past. Lesson learned hopefully. Norwich certainly have a lot right off the pitch, we could learn a lot from them up the road in this regard. ALWAYS backed McCarthy as you all know. Myself / Warky have certainly backed him to the hilt since day one, man with a plan is Mick. He has a vision and with the addition of two wingers in the mold he wants/ the four strikers he wants Mick has built a Wolves like team from whenever they won the league. We have a real chance this season. Fantastic start anyway! Love the fact we can rotate tomorrow - Alibi is in the squad, Emmanuel should get 90, the left back from last cup game the same, Tabb, Coke, Toure, and we can rest who we need to. We've also been without Bishop all season, Bru for the last few, Parr, and Murphy was also missing last game and we still won away. How Mick flogged Tyrone for that fee, plus a free + a season long loan chucked in is beyond me. I've said it on many occasions but Mings has to be about the most overrated player I've ever seen in a blue shirt. I wish him well and he has his good games, but boy he's a liability for shape / solo errors other times. Not seen Knudsen play at all but sounds like he's been playing well and has a long throw which is a handy weapon to have! Further to this, we host Brighton Saturday in a top of the table clash! When was our last top of the table clash?!
Agreed with most of this, but I disagree completely regarding the Mings point. Was he overrated? Yes. But he wasn't, or isn't, a bad player. He took over from Aaron Cresswell in the side, no easy feat, and delivered consistent performances for the first half of the season. For me, he was a crucial component in our progression up the table. I think we all realise that his head was turned by the mounting transfer speculation during January, when he was linked to clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea, and that was reflected in parts of his second-half season form, but then I thought most of our players' form dipped from January onwards to certain extents. In the second half of the season, Mings was given a lot more of the ball. Why? Because his distribution was generally better than Chambers and Smith. He was also a threat down that left flank and his attacking outlet was better than what we had on our right. Yes, he was guilty of making a few mistakes, particularly in the play semi-final, second leg against Norwich (he had a good game in the first), but then pick out a few players who actually impressed in that collapse? Regarding Knudsen, I've seen him play a couple of times and it looks like McCarthy has unearthed another promising player. His throw is notorious but he looks composed in possession and while his passing was inconsistent against Sheffield Wednesday, we have to give him time to adapt. It looks like we have had three talented left-backs in succession at this club, you don't get that kind of luck often.
Westy, I think you can take sole "credit" for being the only person to stick up for MM 100%-I seem to remember JWM threatening never to watch the Town again after we were dumped out of the hokey cokey cup last season! Knudssen seems to be a decent replacement for Mings, let's hope he keeps consistent .As for Mings being the most overrated player to wear the shirt-well thats your opinion,not shared by many though. In an ideal world we'll keep playing the way we are and stay in the automatic promotion spots,but if our form does dip (as it's bound to at some stage in the season) I hope MM sticks with our present more attacking set up and doesn't revert back to just trying not to lose games/hoofball.I'd rather we played entertaining football and finish 7th than go into our shell again and scrape into the playoffs by the skin of our teeth with no hope of progressing.
Really Bigal? I would much rather finish 6th again. Once you're in those play off games you can forget about playing for points as Mick does sometimes and there's no way I would think we wouldn't have a chance if we finished sixth.
Yes ,really San Diego.As a season ticket holder I pay a lot of money to be entertained and I'd rather we stuck to the more attacking,ground based football we are presently enjoying.It worked for us up to Xmas last season when for some inextricable reason MM reverted to Hoofball for the rest of the season.
I think last season we played a more direct game due to what resources Mick had at his disposal, I think he wanted to utilise wingers but neither Stewart or Henshall proved to be good enough so Mick rather than be pig headed he altered his tactics to suit the players he could rely on.
