difficult to say whether my view is too far away or ptc's is too close but i have to say that team you've suggested as being strong looks very weak to me. warky is right - your spine is non-existent other than up front with chopra - even then he's not exactly been a raving success though at least he has the potential to do well. new keeper, probably two required, i'd say you need two new centre backs, probably a right back, probably two centre midfielders too. hyam and drury are promising but you'd need much better than those two. out wide you have two potentially good players who are so hit and miss its unreal. up front you look a bit stronger but you would need to add to chopra and scotland. how can anyone possibly suggest you have a pretty good spine?! but as i said at the start, maybe i'm too far away from it and all the above players are miles better than when i've seen them play.
It just goes to show the state of our club when fans think we have a good side, jeez!! You are saying Edwards should keep his place because although he is poor in defence he is great as an attacking defender, there is a clue as to where he should be at his best and it is in his positions name '****ING DEFENCE' Its no good having a defender that may create a few chances each game but makes mistakes that leads to us conceeding a couple each game!! How you can say ALB would be good back up is beyond me, you say his not good enough for the first team, so therefore he is not good enough as backup. If our first choice gets badly injured we need someone reliable to come in and aLB is not reliable enough!! Delaney is and always will be a donkey and i'm still not convinced by Smith, i think we need 2 steady CB's. Midfield is fine but i would still like someone like Jacobs brought in. Up front i'm not convinced by Chopra at the moment but hopefully he will have got over his problems and come back raring to go, he has undoubted talent, just needs to be more consistant. Scotland is ok as cover but no more, i would like a target man brought in and think thats quite important. All in all i think we need 2 GK's, 1 RB, 2CB's and a striker, any other young and hungry prospects are welcome!!
Tbh I think we are all barking up the same tree on this, we have some decent players (mainly attacking) but we lack good defenders and depth! I geuss its if the glass is half full or half empty thing!!
If we think we have a decent squad to compete at this level, let’s have a look at the last time we had one that definitely could because it finished third in BFJ’s second season here: GK: Then – Kelvin Davis, Lewis Price, Shane Supple. Now – ALB (not even backup-worthy if you want to be a team challenging for promotion). Right Back: Then – Fabian Wilnis Now – We ain’t got one despite this complacent warbling about how great Edwards is going forward. Left Back: Then – Unsworth, Richards, Barron. Now – Cressy Central Defence: Then – De Vos, Naylor, Diallo, I think I’ve forgotten one. Now – Delaney (not good enough), Smith Midfield: Then – Magilton, Miller, Westlake, Currie, Horlock, Garvan. Now – Drury (he’s 28 by the way. A lot of people seem to think he’s a young ‘un.), Hyam, Stevenson, JET, Martin, Peters, and let’s hope PJ gives Lawrence a chance. Forwards: Then – Bent, Kuqi, Counago, Bowditch, Scowcroft. Now – Chopra, Scotland. People will have their own views about how many miles our current squad is from that one (many, imo, including the quality of the leadership), how much deadwood needs clearing and how many players need to come in. I’ve ignored some of our “up and coming” players partly due to the following that I read on the EADT site, posted under an article by someone called “I am Sparticus”: << “'Club produced players at clubs who established themselves under Jewell: Bradford City - None. Sheffield Wednesday - Matthew Hamshaw. Wigan Athletic - Leighton Baines, Paul Mitchell (when he left Wigan in 2007, there were just two Academy graduates with squad numbers - Baines and David Owens). Derby County - Miles Addison. Dismal reading, and more than likely the reason why he won't give our youths a chance. He seems to have a blank where managers understand that to have a youth player really progress, they need to have match time.” >> I haven’t checked out the accuracy of that, but if its right then it’s a good job I have hair of Samsonian magnificence otherwise it’d be falling out.
Dont rely on Chopra, he signed a friend of mines shirt after the match at Donny and said " I cant wait to get away from this f***ing club". It might have been heat of the moment having been subbed yet again after running miles and hardly ever receiving the ball, but we shall have to wait and see.
Ill concede that maybe my use of the term 'squad' was misplaced as especially in defense it is paper thin, what the point of the thread was, was to challenge the idea that without major additions we would be relegation fodder To Superman - I read your posts and think did anyone believe that any of your squads since promotion from league one a top side, with top players. My arguement has come from the abilty that this squad has shown since janurary (i mention again joint 6th in the 2012 table). I also agree that this current squad wouldnt and shouldnt be expected to be winning the league, but we do have the basis of the team that can now slowly evolve just like the team magilton had was doing and it looked like we could be building something. Remember we just needed minor additions to the squad in Keanes first summer. A real effort should be focused on defence this summer, which should allow us to be easily in and around 6th the play-offs for any revisions needed in Janurary. As i have previously mentioned in another thread i would be expecting Jewell to be shown out if we are failing to challenge for 6th throughout the first half of next season.
i take your comment on board mike, and feel free to ignore my input (i'm sure many do ), but i'm sure warky or yorkie will back me up on this. i said when norwich were in league one that the top 7 clubs in league one that year were ALL good enough to finish top 10 in the championship. when you consider how well norwich, saints, leeds, millwall, brighton etc all did in their first year up, it shows that we all in fact DID have quality throughout our teams, norwich and saints were especially strong squads on paper. so the difference being, some people hadn't taken the time to check out just how good some of those players were. check out charlton's squad - they too are very strong and i fully expect them to challenge near the top next season with two or three clever additions. its always difficult to judge a team on paper because its just a list of names - you probably felt you had a strong squad last summer - but the balance was always wrong and it still is. i fully expect you'll add 6 or 7 new players and i very much doubt you'll be relegation fodder next season, but i would say you need those 6 or 7 to stay away from trouble rather than attack the top six (depending on how good those brought in are, of course) i reckon you'll do well to finish top ten when combined with your current players listed above. without any new signings at all the above team would struggle, therefore it doesn't look a strong squad, nor does it have a spine.
Ok i also recognize that my no new additions comment at the end of the OP was stupid, its obvious we do need some in particular a GK and a CB, but beyond that i believe its only depth and competition that the new signings would add. I also agree that we need the depth one group of 11 players cant be expected to play all the seasons games, but the 11 we (would) have (with a new GK and CB) could walk on to the pitch as favorites or equals to anyone in this league. I know we'd all like to be the team to fear but i think were on the right track now without the need for major upheaval, and if were, as i expect us to be, on the right side of 10th by january we can easier assess where we need to make improvements, so the squad keeps evolving. Mass summer buying has got us nowhere in the past few seasons, and now we no longer need to.
I would still say we need alot of upheaval really this summer because we need quite a few players in but we finally have some promising players who have started to form the core of a decent team, it needs adding to but for the first time in a while we have good some quality players showing good form with something to prove. I think for the first time in a while we are evolving as a team, it's just a shame really that this didn't happen 3 years ago rather than now when things are harder in terms of money and wages and also attracting to come to the club.
New Keeper. Edwards. New CB. New CB. Cresswell. Drury. Hyam. JET. Martin. Gallagher. New Striker. I think this is the sort of formation we will be looking at next season, must admit I miss the good old days of having two in form strikers smashing goals in and linking up well. We just don't have that right now. Right back as ever, Edwards can do a job but we need an actual right back - Lowton the much mentioned name. CB's - Smith getting better but still need two decent new central defenders for me. I think Drury and Hyam can form a solid partnership in the centre there for the front 4 to push on from. I've put Gallagher in only really because he has been linked, a good player though. I really like Scotland and appreciate his work rate, but still feel we need someone that will score 20+ and be a first name on the sheet.
