Anyone complaining today is purely having a moan because that as become the norm. We don't need an FA Cup run. What we need more than anything is a successful transfer window. Get rid of Austin, Green, Fer, Philips, Hoillet and Traore. The last of the high earners and the under achievers (obviously bar green and austin) but I feel we should have tried harder to replace green in the summer and I feel Austin would do the club a disservice by not leaving their month. We have a young, hungry and ambitious manager, when was the last time we could say that. What I hope more than anything is that he gets time to build a team that matches his qualities. I don't give a rats arse what division that's in. Don't get me wrong, I would love us to be competitive in the top division but until we are equipped and ready, like Southampton, Swansea even Leicester I just don't see the point. Have patience, be supportive and realistic. Come on Jimmy
That would be a return to the plan before we failed to shift them in August but I agree with you. In retrospect, there wasn't much point holding firm over their sales values when it immediately came at the expense of the full rebuild we need. Promotion seems gone even if we spunked more money (and I don't think the board will dare flaunt FFP a second time) and we have some points over the relegation strugglers so it would seem a perfect chance to blood younger players with a realistic chance of being able to push on from the Championship next season. Alas, I think TF's message is that going up is too important even if it's a distant long shot.
Agree with soupahoupsa and KooPeeArr. Most of us bought the theory when we kept Charlie, Matty and Fer, that we had a promotion challenging squad. But if we now look back at the depth and quality of our squad, is it of the quality of Boro and Hull, and I give the examples of Perch, Konchesky and all our backups for Charlie (ie JET and Polter), add in Henry and Sandro. Charlie has been out for almost half the season, Matty and Fer have way below expectations, Green has been very average. You will struggle to get promoted with just 4 outstanding players, its out of the question when 3 of those 4 have been average.
The Premier League eats souls and eats itself. I don't care if we ever get back. I'm happier when my team is at ease with itself - whatever division it plays in. Just give me people that play for the joy of it, work their socks off and try to entertain. We can't keep Austin long term, so I hope he moves on now (with my good wishes). Green's existence stops our future goalkeeper (whoever he is) from coming through and I'm not confident in him anyway. Fer doesn't seem to want to be here. JFH needs time to grow into the job and build his own team. I hope he gets that time - even if he then shows us he actually cannot do it. It's not his responsibility to select the best candidate and offer them a job. His job is to do the best he can once appointed. The club needs to stick with its choice and support him. As do we.
I personally had my doubts at the start of the season, but 10 points from the first 5 games gave a false impression that the optimism of keeping Austin, Phillips and Fer was being met with a genuine challenge for the Top Six. What we have seen since then is the team go into a bit of a spiral with Ramsey being removed after TF suddenly decided promotion was the target, Warnock producing a bit of stability and hope followed by JFH coming in and a run of draws followed by three defeats. The constant in all this is TF, he chops and changes, appears and disappears, tweets his bullsh*t and we end up frustrated and angry. The team is just not good enough and no amount of tweaking in this transfer window is going to make much difference. The hierarchy in the club is all wrong, too many people interfering and no clear strategy or ethos. I really fear we are going to end up with a relegation battle we are not prepared for and, whether we stay up or not, we will continue to be also-rans until we have a manager who is solely responsible for the playing side and is allowed to shape the team from 1st team to Youth. Ferdinand's role is already impacting on JFH with his recent comments highly unlikely to help matters. My one big fear is that Charlie will go on deadline day and that will leave us fatally short of firepower in the last 18 games, a long way to go to the finish and plenty of time for us to plummet as Wolves did three years ago...
We don't need a cup run but it wouldn't do any harm. 20 years or so of no cup runs doesn't seem to have done us much good. When was the last time we won an FA cup tie without needing a replay? 1997?
That was the fourth round. We got Wimbledon in the fifth and took about 15000 to Selhurst Park to lose 2-1. No idea who we had in the third from memory.
Get rid of the good players and bring in lots of young hungry (second rate) players, drop a couple of divisions, attendances drop and income dries up. It wasn't that long ago we were in the third tier and it was a rubbish place to be. The whole idea of going off, rebuilding etc is not that straightforward.
I don't think anyone wants to get rid of the good players. Just the ones who are supposed to be good but living off of past glories or a big name.
