This is one of my concerns, even though I agree with the slow and sustainable approach. Not sure how that’s reconciled inside my head!
Not for me, Neil and Clarke are both assets who will play in the prem but if the idea is how haven't we been promoted with this squad, it's simple, they aren't good enough yet. In five years some of the players will have changed but we'll still be signing unproven talent same as we are now.
I don’t mean how haven’t we been promoted with this squad. It’s more that we have the basis of an excellent team with Neil, Clarke, Ballard, etc and it feels like a missed chance to build around them to have a decent crack at promotion. Adding another 2 or 3 good, seasoned players might have had us fighting higher up and hitting the playoffs as a contender. As things are, we will probably lose 2 or more of them in the summer. The dilemma is how we could have funded those additions if we are running a tight ship and spending what we earn - which is commendable. That’s how (to me) it feels like a missed opportunity on one hand and running a shrewd operation on the other.
We missed out when Tony Mowbray got us into the playoffs last season. If we’d bought an experienced defensive midfielder and a striker at the start of that season it could’ve been enough to get automatic promotion or get through against Luton Middlesbrough and Coventry vs Leicester, Leeds and Southampton this season.
I really hoped/thought we could have a period of calm when KLD came along and gradually removed the two parasites from the club. It was obviously going to take some time to sort out the mess, rebuild the bombsite of the academy, restore the pride, etc. I was a bit naive tbh. I've never known a time when people were not just willing to attack the club, it's actually become a sport. It's like a competition to find the best 'evidence' of conflict and turmoil at the club. It's an endless litany of stories about snubs, fights, players wanting out and directors baling out. There are endless predictions of how toxic things will be if Clarke goes, if Swansea score, if Jobe starts, etc etc etc and endless speculation about rumours until they become facts ... like club interference in private matters or punch ups at the training ground. I'm convinced some people have become 'crisis addicted' ... ... it's like a TV Soap where there's has to be a murder, a kidnap or an affair.
I'm pretty certain it will be a small but very vocal minority who are shouting the loudest. The old saying, Rome wasn't built in a day is so true for the journey we are on. We have a plan now, which is a first in a long time.
To be fair, it was a director that mentioned the "kidnap". ;-) I do think you're right, that there is an entitlement that people have now where they think that because they're a paying customer they have more rights than the owners! The owner will make mistakes - regardless of him being young as all owners do - for me it's the lack of care and speed in fixing them that makes me question whether the pride is there. We'll see but it saddens me. WRT the noise - some of it will be the entitled, some of it will be WUMs, some Mags on a wind-up and some may even be bots with bad intent. It was so much easier back in the paper, ceefax and club call days :-(
If we had not had the crisis of so many defenders being injured we could easily have won those play offs with the squad we had imo.
