But the current squad is almost identical to what it was last season and watching lump ball week in week out isn't going to win the league!
I think it's an improvement on last years but my point is that if I was looking to buy the club it'd only take a few quality players, say a winger, CF and CM to get promoted, building on what we've got. It's not the same situation we had when Donald took over where the squad was complete trash.
My concern as a buyer is there's very few of the squad would be able to kick on into the Championship to keep us afloat up there. I think we were well behind the other promoted clubs and they all struggled and would take another large chunk of money to keep us up. Potentially another 2-3 years of decent investment to keep building on it to challenge for promotion, either that or throw bucketloads so try and get up to the PL in a quick fix. Currently due to so much dismantlement of the infrastructure and things like the academy etc, it'll end in disaster if we try to do it that way, there's just too many things to put right. I can't see any way this won't be a long term expensive project for whoever comes in.
You may be right mate,but it's still going to be way cheaper than buying an existing PL club,particularly one whose ground has limited capacity/development potential.
Yes, without doubt and still a good buy but I'm just questioning the poster saying it was only a couple of players short, it's a much bigger fix than that required.
Sorry mate,I've read your post in its' proper context now. I agree with you,most of our current squad aren't good enough for top half of the Championship,although one or two may surprise us if and when they get lined up alongside better players,and it will need money throwing at it from the off. I also agree that it will be two or three years in the Championship before we're ready to go up again,but I see that as a good thing. We'll need that time to assemble a decent enough squad to compete,and,I've always thought it's better to be in the top half dozen or so in the Championship than rooted at the bottom of the PL.
It's also the academy, we've lost a generation of youth players and we will need to replace them or wait 5+ years for the next lot to come through.
I think we have declined in our playing staff since we were relegated dramatically, this window, we are treading water IMO not gone back..definitely not going forward... I see no great improvement and i'm not looking at Sunderland getting automatic promotion with this squad....But god knows, I hope i'm wrong.
I'm only talking about getting the immediate goal of getting promoted to the championship, obviously to go up again will require more serious investment. Hypothetically if someone were to buy the club and buy three players of Maddison's quality, get promoted and do the same again while working on the academy it'd be a relatively cheap job. We could afford to do a patient rebuild in the championship.
It seems we are up **** creek without a paddle? Or we are poised for a great leap forward? Or we are just treading water... Perhaps a mixture of all three? The necessary first step, to move up the leagues, for me is a change of ownership, preferably to a very rich person/group NOT Rasputin!
While ever Donald is there we'll struggle. What is going on there when he takes millions from FPP, that he claims he doesn't need, but now we can't afford to buy the players we need for promotion ... ... IMO the only way forward is for people with finance to come in, get a progressive manager at the club and push us on. At the moment we have no momentum and look like starting the season with the same forwards we failed with last time.
We're like the old classic car that someone finds neglected in a country barn. Bit of a polish, work on the engine and dress up the interior and it's a great find.
So are FPP of just the one F still really interested? If so, and chancer Donald is taking the pi ss again out of them they must surely react?
Any serious investor will only allow that to happen for so long before they pull the plug on Donald. If he is taking the piss, I cant see it being that long..
Share issues being discussed this week, seems it's happening but not imminent until stuff like that's sorted out, I've still got time for Donald and methven in particular but they just don't seem to get getting their heads around the fact our academy costs more to run than the first team in league one, this is purely because the team shouldn't be in this division, if investment doesn't go into th academy soon we won't have one.
