The biggest shame is that the team we finished last season with was probably two players away from promotion this year. Gradel, Snodgrass, Howson, Johnson, Clayton, Becchio, McCormack - We just needed two decent defenders.... We did good business with Lonergan and Kasper, we signed Brown on a free such a shame that this year the top 8 or so teams seem adamant to screw it up each week. The way we have played and the lost points since January it is remarkable we were only within 3-4 points off a play off for such a long period of time.
Even more annoying in my opinion is that we had a young squad all progressing together up the football ladder. Kasper Schmeichel (25), Bradley Johnson (24), Neil Kilkenny (26), Jonny Howson (23), Robert Snodgrass (24), Max Gradel (24) and Becchio (28). All them players are fairly young and inexperienced at championship level. Bates should have fought much harder to keep this group together. Add in Clayton (23), Lees (21) and White (20) and fringe players (at the time) Somma, McCormack and Nunez and you've got a great group of lads just lacking experience. This is where the signing of Brown came in. A couple of quality defenders and we would have been ready to challenge with no protests. We are now a million miles away from achieving promotion and the noises coming from Batesy do not sound in the slightest positive. Why? Bates refuses to see himself as the problem. Instead he'd rather blame Grayson, the players for not showing the right effort and agents for living in cloud cuckoo. Bates is the one living in dreamland if he thinks Warnock will miraculously win promotion with the same strategy as this season.
Kisnorbo O'Brien Connolly McCartney Lichaj all defenders with top pedigree and experience. These should have been able to provide a good defence.
I wouldn't have minded letting him play out his final year and then going for nothing, because you can't tell me the fee received as in anyway benefited the football side of the club this season. The Pugh transfer fee of £500k was covered with the Kasper sale so all we have gained is saving paying for Gradel's wages in a swap for paying Pugh. We eventually acted by bringing in Townsend, months too late and not the finished article. Now Rogers has arrived, but chances are he will be a squad player, when/if Sam leaves. We would have certainly have had a better chance of the playoffs this season, meaning the season wouldn't have been a write off from the start. It would have certainly been more entertaining seeing Gradel play, than some of the average players that have been tried there since including Nunez, Pugh, Sam, Townsend and White.
And going back to the end of last season I would have preferred Johnson in the team than Pugh - Johnson just wanted a wage that was on par with the other players... Realistically, say we gave the best 5 players an extra £2k a week over budget, it is only £520k a year, not even the profit we made on Kasper. It will be interesting to see if we start next season with a smaller but better quality higher paid squad under Warnock - I have said it before, a squad of 18 GOOD quality players 4 fringe players and a few youth team ones thrown in from time to time for the experience. A youth team keeper on the bench and if Lonergan gets injured we loan someone in. For this division two quality keepers is not needed, it is a luxury, so one saving straight away...
