The club could do with sticking with the manager next season even in the tough times which will likely come along. Ironically there will need to be a fair number of additions in the squad at the same time which is the opposite of stability but unavoidable. If it's a relegation the club needs to be in the strongest possible position to bounce back stronger again - it's a real challenge for the recruitment team. Interesting and positive times for us though. Come a long way from the Parkinson tenure.
The change and the rate of change has been nothing short of remarkable in my opinion. So impressive and those responsible are not given nearly the credit they deserve for me. Agreed on the stability point. Mainly in terms of not wavering in our approach, philosophy around how we differentiate ourselves to get a competitive advantage (mainly through offering that pathway to young players) and intent to remain sustainable. Personnel will come and go within that, it's just the nature of football but for me, as tempting as it will be, the 'model' needs to remain if we want any sort of long term 'success'.
On this theme, you’d expect us to expand our back room staff, we’re pretty light by Prem standards aren’t we? Maybe another coach in…
Fully agree with both posts. The model is the stability, not the people (outside of KLD and maybe Speakman, but I assume a new DoF would be brought in to do a similar role, if required). I hope we pour a lot of our money into scouting, data and that side of things. While also going big on injury prevention and rehabilitation.
I nearly went on a bit of a diatribe about the injury prevention/rehabilitation side of things (not necessarily about us but across football in general) but basically yeah, I couldn’t agree more, I’d be investing heavily there. Could enable us to carry a shallower squad but with more quality from much the same investment. Such a false economy to ignore or neglect this side of things.
agree, the only way forward is keep following the same path, unfortunately i can already hear the usual feckwits screaming about 'lack of money spent' and 'kids are ok to get promoted with but now we need a squad full of 30 year olds for the experience' as well as the rest. anyone thinking that now we are back in the big league we are going to start throwing silly money around is in the wrong sport, it simply will not happen (just look at the mags, expecting several 100 million players walking in the door) we most certainly will find it tough and we will get days we don't want to see...but all that really counts is that this club makes a fight of it, we can ask no more than that really. i think we all saw how the team changed through the season, i guess that was partly down to injuries but also down to some tactical work just like those last few games, RLB has shown he can change things to suit and we know he will get backed (as much as possible) with players. EDIT: that wont stop me getting a wee bit rattled when i feel there should be more movement in the market
We need to accept that reality I think. Most people will as we are coming back from the league one day's and Donald/Mephan etc is still recent enough that there will be more patience than is usual - next season is almost a free hit and stating up will be a massive unexpected bonus.
I was really hoping Wycombe would sack Dodds and he’d come back. I know many don’t rate him but personally I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our form nosedived after he left
I think we should be aiming for that next level of coach now. I'd love a coach to come in with PL experience, RLB kept saying at the start how important Dodds and Proctor were in helping him understanding the league
It's where I would be spending some serious money. It's behind the curve these days. Especially in the PL
I reckon this is what will happen. With KLD all about sustainability I can see a “levelling up” of many things. Similar to how he’s levelled up the academy, stadium and scouting, it feels like medical dept is next. Can understand why it wasn’t all possible in the last few years but there’s kinda no reason not to now. I might get accused of negativity but this coming season is all about setting the team and club up to be continual premier league candidates. Even if we do get relegated, which is probable, we should be set up ready to get promoted automatically the next season and then stay up for good. That’s not to say we should accept relegation and give up now. We should and definitely will give it a good go and we’re absolutely capable of recruiting the right way to make it happen.
