Ambitious Club or Nursery?

Sparkster. I understand your desire for inter club banter but this post was intended to be a serious question that can only be answered by those with an in-depth knowledge of OUR football club. Are you a closet Robin with a genuine opinion or just a serial wind up merchant who is only interested in coming onto our board and throwing childish insults like the cheap shot and personally aggressive comments you made towards ROD above. I genuinely wish to offer you congratulations on your promotion to the PL but this thread isn't for you unless you have something positive to offer. Please do us all a favour and worry about your own 18/19 season because its going to be a very rough and at times unpleasant ride for you.

 

Nice thread ClevedonRobin and you opened up our annual Pandora`s box which begs the usual questions as to whether we are in any way prepared for the supposed fight we will offer this season. My answer based on the latest comings and goings is no but I am willing to wait another couple of weeks before I make an informed opinion. Welcome aboard the lad from Clevedon and have a moose on me.

 

Redprintt - I didn't say anything specifically about this coming season and your squad - you misunderstood my point. It was a genuine opinion about the best way to get a club together and ultimately promoted. I understand there is plenty of time left this summer to do that. I also did not say your squad didn't believe in Johnson - I have no idea about that other than what I glean from here and elsewhere.

Serious good luck for next season because something went wrong last time - and from memory, even the season before that?

 

Look Clevedon, I realise you're fairly new to this forum, but me and that arsehole ROD go back a fair way - we often like to exchange words.

I am certainly no "closet Robin" but am interested in other club's football rather than just my own. That may seem strange to you but there you go.

It is quite common for some posters over here to believe I am habitually on the windup, but that is not the case. Now please read my first comment on your thread once again and read it without the prejudice that ROD's jokey answering comment seems to have instilled.

 

What luck am I pushing now Wiz? Decent thread from Clevedon and an on topic first post from me on its' subject matter.

ROD came on with a good natured tongue in cheek dig about past history and I bit and gave him both barrels back - what FFS is wrong with that?

You're right about being here before - your threats to delete my posts for joining in discussions on this forum have become a bit of a joke.

Clevedon - like he said, please keep your interest going but be prepared for alternative points of view now and again.

 

We are ambitious when it comes to the usual rhetoric spewing from the lips of the 3 wise monkeys - Ashton, Johnson and Lansdown

But we've all seen that when opportunities arise to get to the Premiership when very well placed, we recruit second rate players to prove we don't really want it.

 

I think all clubs have ambitions. The problem is that it's getting more and more expensive to have that ambition. Average or untested players going for silly money. How many £10-15M pound players were in the championship last year. And that's before agents fees and salaries. Most owners will struggle in that environment.
A few clubs have got up relatively cheaply with a bright young manager with a plan and conviction. Others have got up with wiley old heads. Others have chucked **** loads at the problem and failed.
Not saying it's right in your circumstance but owners are on a hiding to nothing mostly.
Not everyone can win promotion and someone has to get relegated.
The odds are always stacked against you.

 

Other clubs of our size and resources (or less) have taken the plunge and have been successful. Fulham, Bournemouth, Stoke, West Brom, Swansea, Cardiff etc etc

For me it's still down to having real ambition and determination.

Cardiff have been ambitious, employed the right guy and you will reap the rewards next year, if only in terms of prestige and financials

 

Don't know enough about the "behind the scenes" stuff at your club AN16, but looking in, I'd say you could be on the money there.

No one has a devine right to play at the top level but it helps if you have committment at the club - that's owners, manager and players. The major thing being they all have to be on the same page to generate success over a period of time, not just half a season here and there.

From the outside it seems you have a wealthy owner who isn't exactly bothered one way or the other, a manager who despite what you're led to believe has little input into sale/purchase policy, and a squad that doesn't particularly want to be there.

 

Not sure what plunge was taken.
Swans did it in a shoe string and got into difficulties when they spent money.
Bournemouth achieved it with a modest spend.
Fulham spent quite a bit and only just made it.
We spent the same as you last year so same ambition.
Wolves spent a load and walked it.
Villa, Middlesbrough and derby spent a load more than we did and failed. They're paying the price with derby offloading players.
It's why I said the odds are stacked against you.
What would happen if your board stumped up the cash and failed to get promotion then had a fire sale to balance the books.
It's an expensive business when it goes right. It's an even more expensive business when it goes wrong.

 

I’ve given up on defending the owners and manager. Some people just don’t like them and will go on and on about it. And in the same breath say L.J is spending more money than anyone else at the club.
But I agree with you 100%

 

This is a really good example. I think what it shows is that there's no 'formula'. You play to your strengths and try to outwit the teams around you. You can spend; either do a Villa and employ the right individuals but have no team ethic, or do a Wolves and spend but get good cohesion. Or you can spend less and still get results - England hopefully will be a good example of this over the coming week if they can get results with modest talent.

 

That's the beauty of it Rob. Everyone is in with a chance as there are lots of ways to be successful.
The big thing for me is having a style and the courage to follow it. Then having the players to follow that style so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A plan B helps if you can get it. Then you need the togetherness and the trust in and of those around you.
Easy to say, not so easy to do.
It's not all about the money, though there is no doubt that it helps.

 

Clearly teams there had a bigger picture. Swansea planned long term and adhered to a playing philosophy. Bournemouth clearly recruited players to fit in with a style of play which is ingrained within the club. Fulham are all about shape and style and its parts moving in harmony to fit that style, each players aptitude was recruited for that style.

Bristol City recruit players for plan A, B, C clubs in the bag instead of a squad that supports a defined playing style - Plan A.