Clearly they aren’t playing competently though that’s why we’re continually moaning about the same mistakes week in week out and we’ve lost as many games as we’ve won. This isn’t a dig at you mate just piggybacking it onto the comment because I can’t be arsed to start again;; I’m at a loss as to how some of our fans see us. Apparently got the best owner in football, everyone’s doing it wrong apart from us we won’t have debt and they will, all the best youth potential in the EFL, Ballard/Neil/Clarke apparently best in the league for their position. O’nien apparently the best defender on the ball (LOL), Hume one of the best right backs…. yet we’ve lost 14 games already this season which is more than we lost all of last season. So how do we improve if people think we have the best of everything already? Think a reality check is needed.
No one, over the age of twelve, thinks that. Even if they did how would 'a reality check' make any difference?
I'm the same, love the club and can't wait for Saturday ... ... but I'm a realist, we're out of the top 6 without a manager. I'd still take two fluke semi-finals and a trip to Wembley, it's football and strange things happen.
And poor managers can succeed ... ... Crosby took us to an FA Cup final, Ranieri won the title and that bloke at Wigan won the Cup. The only thing with a better than average chance is a combination of top manager with loads of money, like Man City or Liverpool.
I think there is a lot of fees with incentives included here mind. I know we have invested. Not suggesting that, just feel the 10m fee , is over inflated due to how we structure deals. Moreover, don't we have the 4 th lowest wage spend in the league ?
I've never seen anyone, on here or real life, say everything is great ... ... even the biggest optimists, who hope we'll improve, are realists. Anyway, let me reverse your main question back to you, 'So how do we improve if people don't think we have the best of everything already?' How does what you think improve things?
The base fees are still going to be decent, especially ones like Mundle because of Liege being in financial disarray. Wages I have no idea, I suspect we'll be near the bottom end but the longer we spend in the division that will naturally increase. Our wage structure is clearly decent though considering the who has signed new deals and players like Pembele signing from PSG, doubt he was on peanuts there. Selling a player for big money will transform what the club is trying to do though and I look forward to the summer
No worries mate, didn't take it as one. From my point of view, I don't think we've got the best of anything. I do think KLD is the best owner/chairman we've had since Bob Murray and, to some extent, might be better than him. We were so badly ran that I think we were crying out for some continuity and the DoF/Head Coach model is designed to give us that. So that's a big improvement on what we had previously. I think the sustainability policy is good because it makes it less likely that the club's existence will be put in jeopardy. I think the policy of signing young players and developing them is much more exciting than signing overrated, overpriced mercenaries. I just find the whole thing more interesting and more appealing than what went before. And ultimately, we've been mostly rubbish since the 1950s and haven't won anything regularly since the 1930s, so trying a different approach might be worth a go.
I think you're right in a way but fanbases up and down the country all participate in hyperbole over their players. I think we have a squad good enough to be competing for top 6. Where I think we go wrong though is that we seem to have a bit of a disconnect between recruitment staff and coaching staff as we seem to allocate pretty decent money on players for positions that are already filled and then don't give them players sufficient minutes, while ignoring some blatant gaps in the squad leading to a pretty imbalanced squad. We have very talented players like Seelt and Aouchiche warming the bench while in other positions we have players playing out of position. We'll be fine I just want a more efficient and slightly more proactive recruitment strategy.
We don’t waste millions of pounds on players who aren’t ready, sit on the bench then get loaned out whilst we sign more young lads to replace them in the squad - we sign players who improve us now. Plenty of players who’ve signed for teams for pennies who’d improve us now. The transfer fees wasted on lads who are competing with 2/3 other lads for a position could’ve been spent on wages.
Totally agree mate. It’s not massive changes needed at all but we need some know-how in the team. Some solid players who can drag the young lads through tough games and stop their heads going as soon as we’re on the back foot.
I think the thing is, if you're going to operate this kind of policy, you have to anticipate a certain amount of churn. There will be players who come in, don't make much impact, and leave again. As long we don't make a huge loss on them, its not a problem. I also think, with this approach you have to be all in on it. At least until its working in full. Deviating from your own parameters probably renders the policy useless.
Sorry, I didn't explain myself properly. I agree that we need improvements in our squad, etc. What I was asking is how 'a reality check' changes anything or how what people think improves things.
I'd like to think the summer appointment will be the correct one in every sense of the word after this last saga. I am hoping we manage to get a manager that has managed at a fairly higher level than the championship and he is allowed to bring his own staff with him.
