For anyone who is in any doubt, if we kept hold of our best players and put a stop to the ludicrous merri-go-round, rather than staring down the barrel of three defeats out of four, we could have a Premier League squad. The fact that many of these were let go for nothing or next to nothing and that most of these are not just making up the numbers but are in their sides' XI, just shows what a shambles the club is. Other top players we have had at the club like Dos Santos, Townsend, Campbell, Rhodes, Clarke, Bullard and Bowyer do not even feature. Yup, there are a few loans in there, but players who were all at our disposal, but it highlights the point we've let all these players go, many of whom HAVE proved good enough for promotion. Wright (Man City) Price (Palace) Begovic (Stoke) Stockdale (Fulham) Rosenior (Hull) McAuley (West Brom) Delaney (Palace) Bruce (Hull) Walters (Stoke) Garvan (Palace) Colback (Sunderland) Noble (West Ham) Livermore (Hull) Bent (Fulham) Wickham (Sunderland) For years now we have been crying out for some ambition, for someone to take the bull by the horns, but all I'm hearing from McCarthy this season is the same old resignation that lots of teams want to go up and we're nothing special. We DO have players good enough, we just need a spark! We should have Charlie Austin and Billy Sharp playing for us at this moment in time, but the belief is not there in the boardroom. Norwich are now light years ahead of us. We've got a nice new kit, but our club sucks arse.
Lets put it into perspective... 6 of the 15 you mentioned in your list were not our payers, and were never close to being ours (they were merely youngsters being bloodied by bigger clubs) Our of the others; Price - has played 30 odd games in 6 years in lower leagues (hardly prolific) Wright - we got £6m for, and has gone downhill since he left us McAuley - fair point, should've kept him Delaney & Bruce - They may be in the prem, but they are both awful defenders (smith and chambers are far better) Walters - We got 2.5m, has done extremely well at Stoke, and admittedly a lot of us never thought he would be such a hit in the prem. Garvan - We definitely should not got rid of so early...very underrated in my books Bent - Was way too good for the championship, and we did earn approx £5m out of him Wickham - overrated, has done nothing in his 2 years at Sunderland (scoring one goal i believe) The only player we can feel bitter about not being at our club, is obviously Jordan Rhodes. So, out of the nine players that were ours, we received about £22m. The rest, bar McAuley and Walters have done nothing in the premiership. But i do agree that ME really needs to spend more wisely if he wants to get into the premiership. I'd rather spend big on one or two quality players than peanuts on 7-8 average players.
Delaney and Bruce are not awful defenders?! Delaney was key to them being promoted for heaven's sake! Now this season JET is scoring for fun while we're impotent up front. Hyam, Smith, Cresswell are not going to hang around in the Championship forever. McCarthy did great last season, but he is not talking the talk now. He's even said he has mellowed and doesn't get angry like he did at other clubs. I just pray that if we make a change this season then we do it by October while there's still all to play for. Pretty much in the time we have been in the Championship Swansea and Hull have gone from the very bottom to the very top and Wimbledon have managed to get into the Football League from nowhere at all. With financial fair play coming in, what benefit is a rich owner anyway? Especially when those at the top are so inept at running our football club.
I'm totally with you on most of what you have said...it's just unfortunate that we had two extremely inept managers in Keane and Jewell, and is unfortunate that ME backed them both with a lot of cash, which both spent without a care in the world. This has now led ME to tighten the purse strings, especially with the FFP rules, and our diminishing support. First and foremost, ME is a business man, and he has now resigned to the fact that he can't keep throwing money away. We have to write off the last 3-4 years - including financially - and start all over again. MccArthy has his hands tied, and is trying to make the best of what is available - on a shoestring budget. I belive that MM will gradually get us closer to promotion in 2-3 seasons, when i think MM will eventually splash the cash and bring in the players that are required to get us up (if we havn't done so by then). It's a slow process, and at times will be excruciatingly boring and fruastrating for us supporters, but i believe we will be in the prem in 3-4 seasons. (p.s - In my opinion, delaney and bruce ARE sh!te)
Have to agree in the majority with Stretchy but McAuley - it wasnt our choice - he was out of contract and decided to move the premier league. Cant really hold the club responsible Bent - Sold before the ME era due to our financial turmoil Walters and Garvan I would have loved to keep but RK decided he didnt rate Garvan and fell out with Walters. Wickham we got 9 million quid for and, as yet, hasnt shown he is worth 1/4 of that value or can cut it at the higher level. most people said it was a great deal for the club. He is young so may well come good but no team would have turned down that deal imo. Wright - hasnt played first team football since leaving us as far as I am aware. Begovic, Stockdale, Colback, Livermore, we didnt have a chance of keeping. PS - Bruce and Delaney are possibly the two worst players I have seen in a town shirt in recent years. Both very similar with a wonderful determination but technically are terrible
After the last few years all I am hoping for is that we gradually move in the right direction. As stretchy says, it's not all going to happen overnight and there needs to be some patience with what Mick is trying to do. Money is obviously not going to be as readily available so we will need to build a squad capable of promotion over the course of a few transfer windows. It amazes me that a lot of supporters think we should be top six when we haven't been close to that for a while. Top half finish for me, top ten a bonus. Top six is not out of our reach but I'm not demanding it nor will I say the season is a failure if we don't make it.
Think with the exception of Walters, Garvan and McAuley I think the rest of that squad as others have said haven't either really performed or weren't actually our players, I'm far more annoyed that we weren't able to get the best out of some of the fairly talented players we bought and then got rid of for free and the whole getting rid of Rhodes and even David Wright and some of the youngsters who probably would've done better than the players we bought for millions!! But yes I was annoyed at those 3 I mentioned. Ultimitely I'm not annoyed with Evans for tightening his purse strings currently (although I obviously would like to see us spend a bit of money on a couple of quality players) as I think it needs to be done the more annoying thing for me is that ME came in without a plan and allowed Keane to completely waste over £10 million then allowed PJ lots of wages to spend on older players wanting a final pay day because he didn't want to spend a great deal on transfer fees but still despite a poor squad it was PL at the first opportunity. For me the annoyance comes not from now but the wasted opportunity when Keane was appointed and then the lack of a long term plan to clear up the mess he made, we just tried to paper over the cracks.
As for Delaney I thought was a terrible defender but I actually liked Bruce, thought he was decent just his size meant he would perhaps over compensate by jumping in on players a little over zealously but actually I thought his reading of the game was usually pretty good, we certainly did alot worse getting rid than we would've done keeping him. But agree with JET, personally I would've kept him, particularly as he offers something we don't have upfront or creatively atm but he was never going to be a fit with Mick so I can see why he did get rid even if I didn't agree with the decision.
SD I still think we could be top 6 this season but it'll be along hard slog but certainly a top 10 finish will be seen as good progress
When has any team ever got promoted after years of a manager steadily building things? It happens within a couple of years of getting the right man, and usually it happens in Year One.
Silly statement thinking the last time WE got promoted was with a manager steadily building things, or before that SBR built and success team after a difficult early period. The greatest success in recent years has been built steadily by Fergie at Man Utd. I wouldnt knock instant promotion but i would rather have long term stability and build success then crash and burn.
This almost feels like a wind-up thread. Yes, over the past 5 seasons we've lost, and not been able to replace, a lot of good talent. And its frustrating to see players that didnt perform/weren't given a chance in an Ipswich shirt succeed elsewhere. But if Chopra scores 40 this season and some premier league club decides he's worth a contract (unlikely, I know!) would you be claiming we shouldn't have sold? Or if Middlesbrough finally get promoted and Leadbitter becomes a premiership player, would you feel bitter that he left (Same with Leeds and Norris)? The comment that really made me chuckle was 'JET scoring for fun', remember he's in league 1, McGoldrick scored for fun in league 1. The squad is far from perfect and we wont get promotion this season, we wont even get close. But I would be very surprised if at any point we were fearing relegation, or Mick suddenly filled the squad with loans to cover gaping holes. The club is far from perfect, problems with Ticket pricing, but it does feel the club is on the mend. The club has a long term youth strategy, we are getting the finances back under control so that in future the club (not ME) can afford to buy the necessary players to build a squad.
Super post Mike. We also have to remember its not about a player. Its about a team. sometimes a talented player will be sacrificed for the greater good. I have called Delaney a terrible footballer millions of times but if your team needs a 'blocker' to complete the jigsaw then I can think of no-one better. If he was the missing part to Crystal Palaces promotion push then fair play but he definately was not what we needed and that shone through in every game I saw him play.
yes Mike I think Hamps is bored!! Particularly after reading his last post. I think we've spent 5 years doing all the wrong things now I think we're doing the right but it's gutting because we were in a pretty good position when ME took over, it's just a shame we didn't chose the right personnel for the job!!
